Mutant Bug Lair
| Mutant Bug Lair | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Location |
The Mutant Bug Lair is a swamp hidden off the north-west corner of The Sewers, and nothing opens it except asking Krobus for help. It exists because of the Dark Talisman quest: the Wizard wants his Magic Ink recovered from his ex-wife's house, the way there is blocked, and the talisman that clears the block is sitting in a chest at the far end of this cave. Getting to it means walking through a room full of Mutant Grubs and Mutant Flies that keep spawning for as long as anyone is inside. The lair stays open afterwards, which matters for one reason above all others: its green water is the only place in the valley where a Slimejack will bite.
Area
The entrance is a passage in the north-west of The Sewers that stays sealed until Krobus is asked about the Dark Talisman during the quest. Reaching the Sewers at all takes the Rusty Key, which Gunther posts out once sixty items are sitting in the Museum, so the lair is firmly late-game territory.
Inside it looks like a swamp. Weeds and plants grow thickly, there is standing green water to fish in, and the whole place has the overgrown look of somewhere nothing has cleaned in years. The game treats it as underground despite the greenery, so forage and artifact spots never appear and a hoe can stay at home.
The chest holding the talisman is at the far end. The cave is short, so walking north until the room runs out is all the navigation it needs. Taking the talisman back to the Railroad and placing it on the obstruction there opens the path onward, and that in turn starts the business with the goblin outside the Witch's Hut.
Fishing
This is the only water that holds Slimejack, which puts the lair on the list for anyone finishing the fish collection or filling the last slots in a bundle. Carp also bite here, along with Green Algae and White Algae, and the list does not change with the season, so there is no right time of year to come.
What does change things is the bugs. Mutant Flies keep appearing for as long as a farmer is standing in the cave, and they will interrupt a cast as readily as a fight. The usual answer is to fish from the tiles immediately inside the entrance, before anything has been woken up, which keeps the water in reach and the swarm at a distance. Clearing the room first works too, but the spawning does not stop, so it buys minutes rather than peace.
Notes
The monsters are worth taking seriously on a first visit. Mutant Grubs and Mutant Flies are tougher versions of the cave insects from the Mines, they come in numbers, and there is no elevator or shortcut back out, so a weapon and some food belong in the bag before the passage is opened.
The lair can be revisited as often as a farmer likes once the talisman has been collected, and the weeds are the reason to bother. They grow thickly and spread again while nobody is there, so a scythe swung through the cave is one of the better ways to bring home Fiber in quantity. For anyone short of Fiber for a crafting recipe or a bundle, a single pass through the lair beats hunting weeds across the open map.
All Locations
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