Second Floor

Right when the show started, the timer finally ran out. The world rumbled, and the ground under my feet shook. The shaking lasted but a second. I stopped and gazed at the number on the television screen. It flashed, going from just over two million to 1,292,526.^[4]

The Second Floor is the final tutorial level. Similar to the First Floor above it, the Second Floor is a sprawling, grid-like network of passages and tunnels split into unconnected sections; this means that (for example) crawlers originating in China cannot interact with crawlers from the USA inside the Dungeon.^[5]

Crawlers who descended from the First Floor with six (6) hours or less to level collapse could immediately begin exploring the Second Floor, although crawlers who gained early popularity on Dungeon Crawler World: Earth or other programming may have been removed from the Dungeon for several hours to appear on Syndicate shows.^[6]

Effective immediately after Cascadia's introductory announcement, anyone with tunnel access can view crawlers (but not Game Guides) freely and crawlers' Ratings begin to populate.^[7][8] Crawlers who receive high ratings or multiple interview requests may now be enrolled in the Borant Corporation "Crawler Assisted Outreach Program" and receive a low-ranking PR agent.^[9]

With both the Bloom and the Valtay pressuring Borant Corporation to end the crawl early and collect the proceeds, the level is only open for the legal minimum of six (6) days.^[9] Mordecai notes that this is the first time in his many years of service that a Second Floor has been open for less than the maximum of ten (10) days.^[8]

Introductory Announcement

The fourth episode of Dungeon Crawler World: Earth premiers just as the First Floor collapses and the countdown timer begins ticking on the Second Floor. Cascadia's announcement follows the episode, meaning it takes place approximately seven hours after the Second Floor opened to crawlers. The announcement mostly details Borant Corporation's desperate cash-grab for Sponsors, but includes an important warning against urinating in the halls.^[7]

Hello crawlers.

Welcome to the second floor. Congratulations to all of you. We have just under 1.3 million crawlers still in the game. That number is slightly lower than our projections, so we are speeding up the second floor timer to the minimum legally allowed by the rules. You have six days to find a staircase down. Once again, we urge you all to wait until the last possible moment to descend.

As soon as this announcement ends, you will find that follows and favorites will be turned on for our viewers. The numbers will populate slowly on your interface, so don’t be too disappointed if you don’t see anything just yet.

We have improved how patronage works this season. This is a major change, so please pay attention.

All crawlers are now limited to three patrons, and all three spots will be up for auction for one day immediately upon the induction of the fourth floor, then fifth, then sixth floors respectively. Your benefactors may so choose to transfer their patronage to other parties at their own discretion starting on the seventh floor.

All patronage spots will become available at a bid of one credit, meaning this season virtually all living crawlers will have patrons.

But, be warned. Any bids the patron pays above the standard patronage fee will be reflected in loot box discounts for that patron. Any funds below the fee will be reflected in additional costs to that patron for loot boxes. In other words, the more your patron pays for you, the more and higher-quality Benefactor Boxes you may receive. The higher your social numbers, the better your chances at receiving the best loot. Your tutorial guide should have more details and will help you if you have any additional questions.

Finally, we must say we are disappointed in the disrespect we are being shown regarding the bathrooms. As of this moment, if any human-born crawler intentionally urinates or defecates anywhere outside a designated bathroom area, they will be immediately and swiftly penalized in the form of a Rage Elemental plucked from the thirteenth floor. This elemental will kill them and everyone in their party before they can get their pants back up.

That’s it for tonight. Have fun out there, and remember to kill, kill, kill!^[10]

Layout

Like the First Floor, the Second Floor is a network of wide thoroughfares and twisty curving tunnels organized in a giant grid, although the main arteries are narrower than they were on the previous floor.^[11][12]

The floor is cracked, uneven white concrete, and the halls are littered with sharp little rocks and splinters of pavement.^[11][12] The walls are made of magical cinderblock that cracks on impact but never breaks, and some walls are coated in orange-tinted green lichen.^[11]

Restrooms

Restrooms (with one complimentary roll of toilet paper) appear roughly every 0.25 mile (0.4 km). The doorways came from commercial buildings around the world and still bear men/women symbols or handwritten signs; however, the mismatched doors are portals that always open to the same bathroom stall assigned to the crawler.^[13] Now that Syndicate citizens can access the cameras, toilet stalls are the only places where crawlers are shielded from watchful eyes.

Safe Rooms

Safe Rooms appear every few miles, and are visible on the minimap from afar. Some safe rooms are full-service dining areas staffed by Bopcas, but smaller unstaffed safe rooms may have no food at all.^[14][11] All Safe Rooms have limited capacity public sleeping areas (typically in the form of dusty cots) or private rooms, which are free to use or rent on this floor.^[14] Similar to the first floor, safe rooms seem to have been lifted from the Earth's surface and may take the form of a French storm shelter, etc.^[11]

Beginning on this floor, safe rooms also include a mailbox. If a crawler is not subscribed to the Dungeon Book of the Floor Club or similar organization and attempts to open the mailbox, they receive the error: Why would someone send you mail?^[11]

As of the 4 day 17 hour mark, any crawlers inside a safe room one (1) hour before level collapse will be teleported outside of the safe room. This measure was implemented due to the number of crawlers who chose to remain, party, and die in First Floor safe rooms. The countdown screen inside safe rooms now shows, Time to Safe Room Closure.^[15]

Read More: Safe Rooms

Stairwells

Unlike on the First Floor, all 37,500 stairwells were created and opened when the Second Floor opened.^[6] Stairwells are installed inside all Borough Boss and City Boss chambers, but the remaining stairwells were "randomly distributed" across the level.^[16]

If a crawler descends the stairs with more than six (6) hours to level collapse, they will be held in stasis until the collapse. If a crawler descends with six hours or less remaining on the countdown timer, they will have a head start on the Third Floor and the race/class selection process.^[16]

Tutorial Guild Halls

Tutorial Guild Halls liberally populate the first and second floors. Crawlers must complete the Tutorial to receive access to the full Heads-Up Display (HUD) and Crawler Menus, including Inventory and Loot Boxes. After completing the Tutorial, the guildmaster is designated as that crawler's Game Guide, and the crawler will automatically portal to that Game Guide's room every time they enter a Tutorial Guild Hall.

Read More: Crawler Mechanics • Heads-Up Display (HUD) • Tutorial

Mobs & Bosses

Where the First Floor was populated by a variety of odd mobs and self-contained stories seemingly pulled from a writing team's reject pile, some Second Floor mobs and bosses represent overarching stories and game set-up. Most notably, the Rev-Up storyline lays groundwork for the Fourth Floor's overarching theme and is repeated in at least three separate locations.^[8][15][17] There are no quests on the Second Floor, so these stories must be relatively shallow or unfold naturally.

Mobs

Brindle Grubs are the "janitor mob" of this level, and level up by consuming corpses. One to 15 Brindle Grubs are spawned every time a corpse is created until the population reaches the maximum of 5,000 Grubs per quadrant. Destroying corpses does not prevent the Grubs from spawning and, if there are no corpses to consume, hoards of the generally harmless Grubs will swarm the nearest crawlers en masse, chasing them out of otherwise secured neighborhoods.^[3] When Grubs are sufficiently leveled, they transform into pupae for a set amount of time before emerging as Brindled Vespas.

Bosses

Dungeon Bosses can now exit their rooms. The first time a crawler experiences this, they receive the Wait, Bosses Can Leave Their Rooms? Achievement.^[18]

Loot

The first two floors are designed to load crawlers up with a variety of loot so that they can experiment with possible builds. By the time a crawler arrives on the Third Floor, they should have a good idea of what class and race will work for them.^[19]

On the second floor, low-tier Loot Boxes commonly contain torches and bandages. Mobs drop skins, organs, and other items that can be used in crafting later. Beginning on this level, mobs also drop small numbers of gold coins.^[5]

See Also: Looting Mechanics • Loot Boxes

Floor Timeline & Patch Notes

Approximate times are given in Pacific Standard Time (PST), or UTC-8. See here for starting time calculation.

Behind the Scenes

At the Bloom's insistence, and despite resistance within the company, Borant Corporation is actively accelerating the crawl by speeding up the timeframe, introducing "bugs," and overpowering certain mobs such as Satan's Lil' Hedgehogs. By the time the Second Floor opens, the Crawl Council has put Borant on notice. If Borant receives too many violations, they could lose all the proceeds they would otherwise gain at the end of the crawl.^[9]

To cut costs, Borant removed protections for employees on the First and Second Floors. The Second Floor's first morning update, which is distributed to Dungeon Admins and select NPCs such as Game Guides, describes twelve (12) Site Prep workers who were swallowed whole, and a human employee who was "splattered" after urinating in the Dungeon.^[9]

There are only three (3) Location Managers assigned to the level, including Damien, which may or may not correspond to the number of Krakaren Clone (Second Floor)s on the floor.^[8][15]

References