The Essential Dungeon Crawler Carl Floor Guide

Published Nov 7, 2026, 9:00 AM EST

Nicholas Becher is a gaming journalist with an MFA in Creative Writing from FAU. With extensive experience playing video games, he covers all forms of gaming content at Screen Rant, from breaking news to the latest fan theories. Most-played games range from Clair Obscur to Civ to Elden Ring to Halo 2 and beyond. 

Whether you're new to the series or on your umpteenth re-read, keeping track of exactly which floors are covered in each Dungeon Crawler Carl book isn't as straightforward as one might think. Matt Dinniman could've made things really easy on his readers by simply keeping Carl and Donut on one floor per book, but much like Carl himself, the author doesn't like to do anything the easy way.

As such, it's nice to have a good reference point for how the books line up with Carl and Donut's progress through the World Dungeon, as well as a general look at what's on each floor. This Floor Guide will include a relatively spoiler-free look at which floors are covered in each book, what each floor looks like, and roughly what level both Carl and Donut are at when they hit each floor.

I've included a spoiler-heavy section at the very bottom for DCC veterans, which includes specific details about each floor and even a few details about what we know about Book 9. Don't read past the spoiler warning if you haven't finished the books!

How Dungeon Floors Work In Dungeon Crawler Carl

While the floor system mechanics will be clear for anyone who has read the entire series, a little refresher never hurts. Naturally, Carl and Donut enter the World Dungeon on the first floor and learn about the basic rules of the Crawl, including how to gain experience, level up, collect loot, and navigate the many dangers lurking around every corner.

The first two floors essentially serve as tutorials, while the third introduces more substantial character customization, including race and class selections. From there, each successive floor brings its own unique setting, enemies, and challenges for the remaining crawlers to overcome.

The World Dungeon consists of 18 floors in total, each generally becoming smaller and more dangerous as crawlers descend. Every floor operates on a strict countdown, and anyone who fails to reach a stairwell before time runs out is killed when the floor collapses. The number of available stairwells is also cut roughly in half with each new floor, making survival increasingly difficult. Crawlers cannot return to previous floors, meaning the only way forward is down, with the ultimate objective being to survive all 18 floors of the dungeon.

Which Dungeon Crawler Carl Books Cover Each Floor

No matter where you're at in the series, this part can be a little tricky if you're trying to remember or explain which floors are covered in each book. Because certain books cover multiple floors, it's not a 1-to-1 ratio, which also explains why the later books are so massive compared to Books 1 and 2. Here's a simple breakdown of what floors are covered in each book:

Book #	Title	Floors
Book 1	Dungeon Crawler Carl	Floors 1–2
Book 2	Carl's Doomsday Scenario	Floor 3
Book 3	The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook	Floor 4
Book 4	The Gate of the Feral Gods	Floor 5
Book 5	The Butcher's Masquerade	Floor 6
Book 6	The Eye of the Bedlam Bride	Floors 7–8
Book 7	This Inevitable Ruin	Floor 9
Book 8	A Parade of Horribles	Floors 10–11

As you can see, Books 1, 6, and 8 all span multiple floors, and Dinniman's reasoning behind this becomes a bit more evident when you actually read the books. More specific details about each floor and regarding the upcoming Book 9 can be found in the final sections below.

!!! WARNING CRAWLERS: THE FOLLOWING SECTION CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL SERIES !!!

Every Dungeon Crawler Carl Floor, Explained

With 18 floors making up the World Dungeon, Dungeon Crawler Carl has no shortage of unique environments and bizarre challenges. Some floors are designed around puzzles, others pit crawlers against one another, and a few completely upend the established rules. Below is a breakdown of every floor featured in the books so far, including the upcoming ninth installment, The Beautiful Place, along with what we know about the deeper floors.

Book #	Book Title	Floor Title	Overview
1	Dungeon Crawler Carl	Floors 1–2: Tutorial Floors	The opening floors introduce crawlers to combat, leveling, loot boxes, safe rooms, and the dungeon's basic survival mechanics. Both consist primarily of underground tunnels and chambers filled with low-level albeit dangerous enemies.
2	Carl's Doomsday Scenario	Floor 3: The Over City	A medieval-style fantasy floor built among the ruins of a modern city. Crawlers choose their races and classes while navigating settlements, completing quests, and interacting with NPCs.
3	The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook	Floor 4: The Iron Tangle	An enormous, interconnected railway system featuring confusing routes, moving trains, and dangerous stations. Crawlers have to navigate the network and reach the exit stairwells before time runs out.
4	The Gate of the Feral Gods	Floor 5: The Bubbles	Crawlers are separated into self-contained worlds called bubbles, each divided into four distinct quadrants. Every quadrant contains a castle that must be conquered before the bubble's stairwells become accessible.
5	The Butcher's Masquerade	Floor 6: The Hunting Grounds	Floor 6 is a sprawling jungle environment where wealthy alien Hunters enter the dungeon to kill crawlers for sport.
6	The Eye of the Bedlam Bride	Floor 7: The Great Race	Floor 7 is designed as an elaborate racing maze based on a popular in-universe fairy tale, but Prepotente destroys it almost immediately, allowing the surviving crawlers to skip the floor altogether.
		Floor 8: The Ghosts of Earth	Floor 8 is a recreation of locations from Earth before the Collapse, populated by ghost-like figures that aren't really there. Carl describes it as "being in a dream" of sorts. Combat revolves around T'Ghee, a card-based system that allows crawlers to capture powerful creatures and summon them into battle.
7	This Inevitable Ruin	Floor 9: Faction Wars	A massive battlefield centered around the city of Larracos, where powerful alien factions compete for control. Carl and Donut turn the tables on the traditional competition by leading their own faction against the participating armies.
8	A Parade of Horribles	Floor 10: Don't Come in Last	Floor 10 is a deadly racing tournament featuring seven heats, upgradeable vehicles, and the threat of elimination if you finish last.
		Floor 11: A Parade of Horribles	Floor 11 has the remaining crawlers construct elaborate parade floats before marching toward a deadly arena confrontation involving Scolopendra.
9	The Beautiful Place (working title)	Floor 12: The Halls of Ascendency	Home to the Celestial Ascendency, an elaborate competition in which the galaxy's wealthiest and most powerful figures battle for supremacy through sponsored gods. The outcome of the Ascendency is expected to play a major role in determining the dungeon's ultimate fate.
—	Not expected to be explored individually	Floors 13–18: The Deeper Dungeon	Much about the remaining floors is still unknown, including the themes of Floors 13 and 14. However, Floor 15 is Sheol, a demonic realm; Floor 16 is the Agony of Mirrors; Floor 17 is the Backstage Death Maze; and Floor 18 is traditionally home to Scolopendra's Lair and the exclusive Scolopendra Club. Whether Carl and Donut will ever visit these deeper floors remains uncertain.

Looking ahead, Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 9, currently titled The Beautiful Place, is expected to take Carl and Donut through the long-awaited Celestial Ascendency on Floor 12, where the stakes are higher than ever. While the World Dungeon technically extends all the way to Floor 18, it's looking increasingly unlikely that we'll see the remaining floors explored individually, especially with Matt Dinniman confirming that the series' conclusion will focus on the Ascendency and unfold across two final books.

For fans eager to get an early look at what's coming, Dinniman has already shared several preview chapters on his Patreon, including the Prologue, Chapters 1–5, and an Interlude. There's still no official release date for Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 9, but the final stretch of Carl and Donut's journey is already shaping up to be quite the spectacle.

Dungeon Crawler Carl