Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dungeon Born | 2016 | Dakota Krout | Buy |
| 2 | Dungeon Madness | 2017 | Dakota Krout | Buy |
| 3 | Dungeon Calamity | 2017 | Dakota Krout | Buy |
| 4 | Dungeon Desolation | 2018 | Dakota Krout | Buy |
| 5 | Dungeon Eternium | 2019 | Dakota Krout | Buy |
| 6 | Essence | 2019 | Dakota Krout | Buy |
Dungeon Born (2016) introduced Cal — a human consciousness reincarnated as a dungeon core — and the fundamental premise of the series: a dungeon that thinks, plans, and grows, competing with other dungeons and interacting with the human world above through the adventurers who come to fight its creatures and claim its treasures.
The series ran to six books through 2019, with Essence closing out the main arc. Krout’s background in programming shows in how carefully he constructs the dungeon’s systems — the rules governing how Cal grows, what monsters he can create, and how experience flows through the dungeon are internally consistent throughout. The series was successful enough to spawn multiple spin-offs, including the long-running Artorian’s Archives.