False Magma Cap
| False Magma Cap | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Monster |
| Location | Volcano Dungeon |
| Floors | All |
| HP | 290 |
| Damage | 15 |
| Defence | 3 |
| Speed | 3 |
| XP | 14 |
The False Magma Cap is a trap dressed as a snack. It sits perfectly still among the Magma Caps growing through the Volcano Dungeon, looks exactly like them, and waits for a farmer to walk over to pick it. Then it lunges. Two hundred and ninety health and three points of defence make it a real fight rather than a scare, and unlike the crabs it imitates, it can be hurt even while it is pretending to be scenery. Almost every kill leaves a Magma Cap, which the Island Trader swaps for Pineapple Seeds, and half of them leave Cinder Shards, the currency the Forge runs on.
Behaviour
A False Magma Cap holds its disguise until the farmer comes close, then moves and attacks in the manner of a Rock Crab or a Lava Crab. The ambush is the whole of its danger: a farmer with a full inventory, a watering can out and lava on three sides does not want to be surprised.
There is a reliable test. Hovering the cursor over a real Magma Cap shows the small green cross that marks anything forageable, and a False Magma Cap shows nothing. Checking from a few tiles away costs a second and removes the surprise entirely.
The useful difference from the crabs is that the disguise offers no protection. A shelled Rock Crab shrugs off every blow until a pickaxe knocks it loose, while this mushroom takes damage from the first swing, so the opening hit can land before it has even moved. A heavy weapon suits the follow-up, since three points of defence blunt quick, light attacks.
Location
False Magma Caps appear on any floor of the Volcano Dungeon, the ten-floor cave inside the volcano at the north end of Ginger Island. They are at their thickest on the mushroom floors, where the ground is carpeted with Magma Caps and the false ones hide in plain sight among them.
The dungeon resets each morning, so the mushrooms and their imitators return daily. Lava has to be cooled with a watering can to make a path, and ladders do not appear on every floor, which makes a careless fight on a deep floor expensive: collapsing in the volcano costs gold and leaves the farmer waking on the beach.
Drops
A Magma Cap comes off nearly every kill. The mushroom has a better use than the shipping bin, because the Island Trader hands over one Pineapple Seed for each one, and Pineapples keep fruiting on Ginger Island once planted. Harvey, Leah, Linus and Maru all like receiving it, which makes a pocketful of caps a convenient round of gifts.
Cinder Shards are the other half of the list, with a good chance of one and a smaller chance of a second. Everything at the Forge is paid for in shards: twenty to combine two rings, twenty with a Prismatic Shard for an enchantment, and ten to twenty alongside a gem for each weapon forge. A dungeon run that kills mushrooms on the way up is a dungeon run that pays for the upgrade waiting at the top.
Once a save has passed the bottom of the Mines, these monsters also carry the universal faint chance of a Diamond or a Prismatic Shard, which is worth remembering on a floor being cleared anyway.
Items this monster can drop when it is defeated, with the chance of each.
| Item | Image | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Cinder Shard | 
|
50% |
| Cinder Shard |
|
20% |
| Magma Cap | 
|
99% |
| Diamond | 
|
0.05% |
| Prismatic Shard | 
|
0.05% |
Notes
Magma Caps can also be foraged honestly throughout the dungeon, so a mushroom floor is both a harvest and a minefield. Picking from a distance with the cursor test turns the gamble into a routine.
The volcano's monsters all have deep health pools, and this one sits in the middle of the pack alongside the Hot Head and the Magma Sprite. Food that raises defence and a weapon forged a couple of times make the difference between clearing a mushroom floor and retreating from it.
Killing monsters in the volcano has its own reward. Up to five Golden Walnuts come from slain enemies inside the dungeon, so the mushrooms that ambush a farmer on the way up are also part of the island's walnut count.
All Monsters
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
| Name | Image | Location | HP | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armored Bug | 
|
Skull Cavern | 1 | 8 |
| Armored Bug (dangerous) | 
|
Skull Cavern | 250 | 20-27 |
| Bats | 
|
The Mines & Skull Cavern | 24, 36, 80, 300,; 268, 277 | 06, 07, 15, 30, 13, 14 |
| Blue Squid | 
|
The Dangerous Mines | 310 | 18 |
| Bug | 
|
The Mines | 1 | 8 |
| Bug (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 250 | 15-16 |
| Carbon Ghost | 
|
Skull Cavern; The Dangerous Mines | 190 | 25 |
| Cave Fly | 
|
The Mines | 22 | 6 |
| Cave Fly (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 266 | 13-15 |
| Duggy | 
|
The Mines | 40 | 6 |
| Duggy (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 280 | 8 |
| Dust Sprite | 
|
The Mines | 40 | 6 |
| Dust Sprite (dangerous) | 
|
The Mines | 280 | 13-15 |
| Dwarvish Sentry | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 300 | 18 |
| False Magma Cap | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 290 | 15 |
| Ghost | 
|
The Mines | 96 | 10 |
| Grub | 
|
The Mines | 20 | 4 |
| Grub (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 265 | 12-13 |
| Haunted Skull | 
|
Quarry Mine; The Mines random dungeon floors | 160 | 15 |
| Haunted Skull (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 310 | 19-26 |
| Hot Head | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 215 | 18 |
| Iridium Crab | 
|
Skull Cavern | 240 | 15 |
| Iridium Golem | 
|
Wilderness Farm | 430 | 15 |
| Lava Crab | 
|
The Mines | 120 | 15 |
| Lava Crab (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 340 | 19-26 |
| Lava Lurk | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 220 | 15 |
| Magma Duggy | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 380 | 16 |
| Magma Sparker | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 310 | 15 |
| Magma Sprite | 
|
Volcano Dungeon | 220 | 15 |
| Metal Head | 
|
The Mines | 40 | 15 |
| Metal Head (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 280 | 19-26 |
| Mummy | 
|
Skull Cavern | 260 | 30 |
| Mummy (dangerous) | 
|
Skull Cavern | 445 | 38-55 |
| Mutant Fly | 
|
Mutant Bug Lair, Skull Cavern | 66 | 12 |
| Mutant Grub | 
|
Mutant Bug Lair | 100 | 12 |
| Pepper Rex | 
|
Skull Cavern | 300 | 15 |
| Putrid Ghost | 
|
The Dangerous Mines | 500 | 25 |
| Rock Crab | 
|
The Mines | 30 | 5 |
| Rock Crab (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 272 | 13 |
| Royal Serpent | 
|
Skull Cavern | 150 + (50 × tail segments) | 32-48 |
| Serpent | 
|
Skull Cavern | 150 | 23 |
| Shadow Brute | 
|
The Mines | 160 | 18 |
| Shadow Brute (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 370 | 22-32 |
| Shadow Shaman | 
|
The Mines | 80 | 17 |
| Shadow Shaman (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 310 | 21-30 |
| Shadow Sniper | 
|
The Mines | 300 | 18 |
| Skeleton | 
|
The Mines | 140 | 10 |
| Skeleton (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines, Quarry Mine | 655 | 16-18 |
| Skeleton Mage | 
|
Dangerous Mines, Quarry Mine | 355 | 20-25 |
| Slimes | 
|
The Mines, Skull Cavern, Quarry Mine, Secret Woods, Tiger Slime Grove, and Volcano Dungeon | Varies | Varies |
| Spider | 
|
The Mines (Shrine ON) | 200 | 15 |
| Squid Kid | 
|
The Mines | 1 | 18 |
| Squid Kid (dangerous) | 
|
The Dangerous Mines; Skull Cavern | 250 | 22-32 |
| Stick Bug | 
|
The Dangerous Mines | 700 | 20 |
| Stone Golem | 
|
The Mines | 45 | 5 |
| Stone Golem (dangerous) | 
|
Dangerous Mines | 283 | 13 |
| Truffle Crab | 
|
The Farm | 30 | 5 |
| Wilderness Golem | 
|
The Farm | 30 | 5 |