Ninth Floor

This article contains unmarked spoilers for Book 7.

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Note: This page is a WIP. Please don't mind the construction.

Crawlers don’t get involved in winning or losing faction wars. They ride out the ninth floor like it’s a tornado passing by overhead. They keep their heads down, and they pray it doesn’t sweep them away.-- Mordecai^[1]

System Message

Due to the complexity of rules and history around the the Faction Wars (game), a large amount of content has been moved to the page Faction Wars (game).

The Ninth Floor Faction Wars are a Dungeon Crawler World tradition: Syndicate corporations and governments sponsor nine teams, which then battle each other to the in-game "death" for control of Larracos and a large cash prize.^[4][5] As the “non-Dungeon-generated combatants” (read: tourists) duel each other, crawlers are conscripted against their will into the various forces and killed en masse. Full crawler extinction is common on the Ninth Floor.^[4]

Overview

Syndicate corporations, governments, and individuals may purchase one of nine faction spots for approximately 150 million credits, or "enough money to buy your own planet."^[6] The leader of a faction is the Warlord, and alien citizens who participate in the game are called "non-Dungeon-generated-combatants" or "tourists."^[7]

System Message: A portion of this section has been moved to the page Faction Wars (game) due to a large amount of content.

Factions

Dungeon Crawler World: Earth is shaping up differently from previous seasons.

The Dreadnoughts were originally going to be part of the faction wars but withdrew after their army was obliterated when Carl opened the Gate of the Feral Gods into the level and flooded the floor. The Burrowers tried to replace them but pulled out at the last minute when the System AI learnt that they 'd been throwing infant AI's into a star, they were replaced by the Princess Posse.

After the System AI started going primal all factions except the Skull Empire, the Prism Kingdom Clan, and the Princess Posse attempted to abandon Faction Wars but their request was refused.

Factions (Current Season, Final List)

Spot	Faction	Warlord(s)	Race
1	The Skull Empire	Crown Prince Stalwart	Orcs
2	Operatic Collective	Hortense Leadership Unit	Slimes
3	Princess Posse	Carl and Donut	various
4	Blood Sultanate	Vinata	Nagas
5	Prism Kingdom	Empress D'Nadia	Saccathians
6	The Dream	Epitome Tagg	Elves
7	Lemig Sortion	Commander Stockade	various
8	Madness	Architect Houston	Viceroys
9	Reavers	Warlord Fangs	Cyborgs
10	Team Retribution	Ferdinand and Juicebox	NPCs

Introductory Announcement

Hello, Crawlers!

Welcome, welcome to the ninth floor! Only current crawlers can hear this message. There’s a separate announcement going out to all the other individual teams and those ungrateful NPC upstarts, plus we’ll have a wide message go out to all the participants once the festivities begin!

First off, I must say wow. A whole lot of you have made it this far, and I can’t tell you enough how excited people are to see how all this is going to play out.

This is Faction Wars. I’m sure by now you’ve heard how this works. Because of some recent developments, a few things have changed, so please pay attention. It’s still pretty straightforward and simple, but I am required to tell you what’s going on, no matter what I think. But hey, someone told me you guys have an expression that’s quite appropriate in this situation. “The show must go on.”

Anyway, there are ten teams total. Nine attacking teams and one defending team, the NPCs, who have decided to call themselves Team Retribution. They are headquartered in Larracos. Everyone else is spread out like a pie with Larracos in the center.

The basic goal of Faction Wars is simple. Capture the castle in the center. Normally, you crawlers don’t really need to know much about this stuff. This floor is no different than the Hunting Grounds or the Over City. Once the ceasefire ends, you are teleported out of the city if you haven’t left already. You just need to survive. You can join in on the action if you like. Each of the factions will have recruiters throughout town, and you can freely enlist in any army you would like during the ceasefire, assuming they’ll have you. Volunteers are oftentimes treated with respect and given plenty of equipment and loot and are considered valuable members of the team. Sometimes, well-regarded volunteers will find themselves remembered and rewarded with employment after their time in the dungeon is complete, should they survive. You might want to keep that in mind.

If you don’t want to join in on the fun, that’s okay, too. You’re more than welcome to attempt to flee out into the woods beyond the plains of Larracos. I should warn you. Each team is quite adept at finding and hunting down wayward crawlers, and they have the ability to compel you to join their army as conscripts.

Either way, the battles will commence in sixty hours. At this point, only members of Team Retribution, unaffiliated NPCs, and allies of Team Retribution will be allowed to stay within the city. All the other teams will be kicked out. The battles will begin. This next part is a change, so pay attention.

The city will remain inaccessible until four teams remain. When four teams remain, the final phase, “The Peeling of Larracos” will commence.

Once this final phase begins, the defending team will win if they hold for a full week. Any attacking team needs to hold the throne room only for six hours to win Faction Wars. If the defending team regains the room, they’ll still need to wait the full week.

Only individual teams, not alliances, will be allowed to take the throne room. Any team who controls the throne room will have access to the city defense system. If the throne room changes hands to an attacking team, there will be a half-hour grace period.

Attacking teams will be eliminated if the warlord or warlords are killed, or if the throne room of their primary base is taken and held for a period of six hours. Soldiers of an eliminated team are traditionally given the option to join the new team or be slaughtered.

There are 293 stairwell chambers seeded throughout. The stairwells, however, will not open until Faction Wars is either won, or there are 30 hours left to floor collapse, whichever happens first.

That’s it for now. More rules will be clarified later, should it be necessary. I would say enjoy Larracos while you can, but you guys already trashed the place before you even got here. Also, if you find yourselves bored, the playing field’s size was greatly expanded recently, and new mobs have been seeded in the outer reaches of the forests. So there’s plenty of training to be had.

Now get out there and kill, kill, kill.

Layout

Although the Dungeon generally takes the shape of an inverted triangle, with each level substantially smaller than the previous floor, the Ninth Floor is always larger than the Eighth Floor because it must accommodate the Nine Factions.^[8] For Dungeon Crawler World: Earth an Action Item proposed by the System AI and approved by 68% audience vote has expanded the playing field even further "to compensate for the increased number of combatants."^[9]

Settlements

Larracos is the sprawling Capital City of the Ninth Floor.^[10]

Important Events

• Upon Entry to the Floor:
• Ceasefire:
• Peeling of Larracos:
• Stairwell: Stairwells will not open until either Faction Wars (game) is won, or there are 30 hours left on the level. ^[11]

Mobs, Bosses, & Elites

There is usually "an organized military presence" on the ninth floor.^[12]

Mobs

TBD

Bosses

TBD

Elites

Elites will be present on the Ninth Floor. Notably, the Ninth Floor is home to several running stories that have spanned multiple seasons.^[13]

References