Ghost
| Ghost | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Monster |
| Location | The Mines |
| Floors | 51-79 |
| HP | 96 |
| Damage | 10 |
| Defence | 3 |
| Speed | 4 |
| XP | 15 |
The Ghost is the first monster in the Mines that cannot be shut out. It drifts in from the moment the floor loads, passes through rock, ore and the black emptiness beyond the walkable floor, and heads straight for the farmer. It is slower than a Bat, which makes it readable, and it takes enormous knockback, which makes it comic: one good swing sends it sailing across the cave. Solar Essence falls from almost every kill, so the frozen floors double as the cheapest supply of it in the game, and a Ghostfish now and then saves a fishing trip to an underground lake.
Behaviour
A Ghost floats in a direct line and keeps coming. Rocks do not stop it, and neither does the gap at the edge of the floor, so hiding behind scenery achieves nothing. The approach is slow enough to time, which is the whole secret: standing still and swinging just before it arrives lands the hit first and cancels its attack.
Landing a hit on the farmer makes it teleport. It vanishes, reappears elsewhere on the floor and begins the same slow drift again, which is why chasing a wounded Ghost wastes the afternoon. Walking towards it between swings is the faster approach, since the knockback from each blow throws it several tiles away.
Weapon choice is unusually clear-cut. A slow weapon that hits hard suits a target that comes to the farmer and then stops, while a dagger's rapid taps mostly chase an enemy already in the air. The dagger does have one answer: its special attack pins a monster in place and hits it repeatedly, which removes the teleport problem entirely. A blade carrying Crusader deals half again as much damage to ghosts, and the Dark Sword's Vampiric healing turns a long fight into a top-up.
Location
Ghosts haunt the lower half of the frozen section of the Mines, on floors fifty one to seventy nine, with Dust Sprites, Frost Bats and Frost Jellies for company, and Skeletons joining in the castle floors from seventy one. Floors fifty one to fifty nine are noticeably darker than the ice above them, which is where a glowing white shape drifting through a wall makes the strongest impression.
The family reaches further than that. The Carbon Ghost keeps to the mummy floors of the Skull Cavern and the shadowed dangerous floors in the thirties, while the Putrid Ghost prowls the dangerous frozen floors. All three fly through stone and blink away after a hit, so the timing learned here works on every one of them.
Drops
Solar Essence comes off nineteen kills in twenty, and it is genuinely useful rather than filler. It is an option for the Adventurer's Bundle in the Boiler Room, it goes into the Glowstone Ring and the Iridium Band, Krobus buys and sells it daily, and the Wizard is the one villager who loves receiving it.
Gold Ore arrives in small handfuls on one kill in five, which is a welcome find twenty floors above the gold nodes that normally supply it. Refined Quartz drops at a similar rate and saves both a furnace cycle and the coal it would burn.
A Ghostfish turns up on about one kill in twelve. It is needed for the Specialty Fish Bundle in the Fish Tank and is otherwise caught only on floors twenty and sixty, so a Ghost can finish a bundle that a rod has refused to. Ectoplasm joins the list while the Wizard's A Curious Substance order is running, and a single piece handed over completes it.
Items this monster can drop when it is defeated, with the chance of each.
| Item | Image | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Dwarf Scroll II | 
|
0.5% |
| Dwarf Scroll IV | 
|
0.1% |
| Ghostfish | 
|
8% |
| Refined Quartz | 
|
8% |
| Solar Essence | 
|
95% |
| Solar Essence |
|
10% |
| Ectoplasm | 
|
9.5% |
| Diamond | 
|
0.05% |
| Prismatic Shard | 
|
0.05% |
Notes
The Mines are kinder to a prepared farmer here than the health bars suggest. Ghosts hit only on contact, so defence from Space Boots or a Crabshell Ring blunts most of what they do, and a Vampire Ring earned from two hundred Bat kills returns health with every ghost that falls.
A Burglar's Ring doubles the rolls on the drop list, which turns a frozen run into a sack of Solar Essence and Gold Ore rather than a handful.
Ghosts are also the reason to carry a slow, heavy weapon on the way down even when the rest of the floor suits something fast. A Claymore from Marlon's counter swings slowly but lands hard enough to end one in a blow or two, which is the difference between crossing a floor and being herded around it.
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 |