FAQ

A free, turn-based, pixel-art dungeon crawler that runs in your browser. You descend 18 floors of a murderous underground game show, find the stairs before the timer runs out, loot what you can, collect achievements and try not to die. Die once and the whole run starts over.

No. Level Crawl is inspired by, and pays homage to, the wonderful Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman, but it has no affiliation with the books, the author, the publishers or any official adaptation, and none of them endorse it. It uses its own characters, names and story. If you haven't read the series yet, go read it. It's great.

One person. Level Crawl is a purely fan-made hobby project by James Schay, a fan of the series. See the credits for the art, fonts and tools that made it possible.

Yes. It's free to play in your browser, with no ads, no purchases and no account.

Not for little kids. Level Crawl has swearing, crude jokes and cartoon violence, and the host has no filter. Teens and up should be fine; the App Store rates it 13+.

Yes. It's built to play on phones, tablets and computers in any modern browser. You can also add it to your home screen so it opens full screen and works offline: on Android, tap "Install on this device" on the title screen; on iPhone, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. The Daily Dungeon leaderboard needs an internet connection.

Yes. In Settings, open the Streaming tab, type your channel name and tick Streamer mode. Once your stream is live, chat votes with !1, !2 or !3 on a twist for every floor, on shrines and on crates, and can send you a potion or a monster now and then. No login or bot needed. See the For Streamers page for everything it does.

Yes, once you've won the show. After your first win, a Hard Mode switch appears on the Pick Your Delver screen. Monsters are tougher, Fan Favorites show up more often, shops charge more and healing is scarce. It has four achievements of its own.

Yes. Plug in or pair an Xbox, PlayStation or other standard controller and press any button. Move with the D-pad or left stick. A (✕) waits or confirms, B (○) cancels, X (□) attacks and Y (△) uses your ability. The shoulder buttons open the map and info, View (Share) opens your bag, the triggers zoom, and Menu (Options) opens settings. Menus work with the D-pad too. The Map button opens a full-screen map with a cursor, and the right stick points a look cursor at anything on screen. To pick a different layout or change single buttons, open Settings and pick Controller buttons.

Yes. Pick Play with friends on the title screen. Up to 8 players share one dungeon in real time, racing a floor clock: 10 minutes on floor 1, 30 seconds less on each floor after that, and never under 5 minutes. Join any open lobby, start a public one, or start a private one and send the code or link to your friends. Friends can join a run already in progress; they drop straight onto the floor the party is on. The host can also switch the lobby to Endless Abyss, a bottomless run with the same rules as the solo Abyss, or to PvP (free for all, or Team A against Team B), where the last side standing wins. It works on the site and in the phone apps. There are no accounts; you just pick a name. If you get disconnected or close the tab, open Level Crawl in the same browser and tap Rejoin your party; an empty run waits, frozen, for up to a day.

A side show, separate from the main 18-floor run. Once a day everyone gets the same single floor and the same starting gear. Kill the Headliner, reach the stairs, and post your score to that day's leaderboard. Your first finished attempt each day is the one that counts; after that you can replay it just for fun. A new dungeon starts, and the leaderboard is wiped, every day at midnight UTC (5 PM Pacific during daylight saving time). Each day's winner is kept in the list of past champions.

Your current run, stats and achievements are saved in your own browser on your own device. They aren't uploaded anywhere, so they won't follow you to another device, and clearing your browser's site data wipes them. See the privacy policy.

Not yet. Level Crawl is in alpha and in active development, so expect new floors, bosses, items and the occasional bug as it grows. That's why the version number starts with a 0 (like Alpha 0.22); version 1.0 is saved for the full launch. The patch notes list every update.

Use the contact form or email levelcrawl@gmail.com. Bug reports are most useful with the floor you were on, what you did and what device and browser you were using.

Yes, go for it, monetized or not. A link back to levelcrawl.com is appreciated.

The tiles and sprites are Kenney's 1-Bit Pack, released into the public domain (CC0) by Kenney. The full list is on the credits page.

Please email levelcrawl@gmail.com or use the contact form and choose "Copyright or legal". Reasonable requests will be handled promptly. See the legal page for details.