Putrid Ghost
| Putrid Ghost | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Monster |
| Location | The Dangerous Mines |
| Floors | 51-69 |
| HP | 500 |
| Damage | 25 |
| Defence | 3 |
| Speed | 4 |
| XP | 25 |
The Putrid Ghost is the nastiest thing the Shrine of Challenge puts in the frozen floors of the Mines, and the reason is not its health or its damage but its spell. A hit from the green fireball it throws leaves the farmer Nauseated, and a Nauseated farmer cannot eat or drink for two whole minutes. Underground, where health comes out of a backpack rather than out of time, that is close to a death sentence. The ghost drifts through solid rock, charges without warning, and leaves an Omni Geode behind on almost every kill, which makes it the richest geode source in the game for anyone willing to run those floors.
Behaviour
A Putrid Ghost floats rather than walks, and walls mean nothing to it. It comes on slowly for a while, then breaks into a fast charge, and the change of pace is what catches people. Contact during the charge hurts, and green fireballs come out while it closes.
The spell is the real fight. Nauseated blocks every healing item for two minutes, so a farmer who takes a hit and keeps swinging has no way to recover from the next mistake. Eating a Ginger or drinking a Ginger Ale clears it immediately, which is why a stack of Ginger is standard kit on dangerous floors. Better still, a Basilisk Paw keeps the debuff off entirely, and a Fairy Box heals steadily through combat even while the spell is active, because its fairy is not a consumable.
Killing one is easier than surviving one. Ghosts are thrown back several tiles by a solid hit, so walking forward into the knockback keeps the farmer in range and speeds the kill up. Standing still and swinging just before it arrives works as well, and when it charges the answer is to run and turn sharply, which sends the fireballs past.
Two shortcuts exist for a well-equipped farmer. A weapon carrying the Crusader enchantment is the recommended blade for these floors. For a slingshot user with the Desperado profession, a special attack from an Iridium Needle or a Dragontooth Shiv forged with Aquamarines has a good chance of ending a Putrid Ghost in one shot.
Location
Putrid Ghosts appear in the Mines on the frozen floors in the fifties and sixties, and only while the Mines are in their dangerous state. That state comes from one of two places: accepting Mr. Qi's Danger In The Deep order, which flips the whole mine and resets the elevator, or flipping the Shrine of Challenge on floor one hundred and twenty afterwards, which switches the mine over by the following morning.
Those floors are where the ordinary Ghost normally drifts, so the dangerous version occupies exactly the stretch farmers already know. That familiarity is a trap: a floor that used to be a coal run with a few easy ghosts becomes a floor where one bad hit removes the ability to heal.
Riding the elevator to a floor in the fifties, clearing it and returning to the entrance resets the layout, which is how geodes are gathered in volume. Spiders and Stick Bugs hold nearby dangerous floors, so the run either stops here or gets harder.
Drops
The Omni Geode is why anyone fights a Putrid Ghost at all. Almost every kill leaves one, a rate the Carbon Ghost shares and nothing else underground matches: ordinary rocks in the deeper Mines give geodes now and then, and panning turns one up sometimes, while a cleared dangerous floor gives a stack.
Omni Geodes are worth opening rather than selling. Clint cracks one open at the Blacksmith, and a Geode Crusher on the farm does the same job at home. What comes out covers a wide spread of minerals along with artefacts, ores and basic resources, so a farmer short of Museum donations can fill gaps faster here than by swinging a pickaxe. The Desert Trader also takes Omni Geodes in exchange for a long list of goods, which makes them a currency as much as a loot drop.
Ectoplasm is the other drop, and it only exists while the Wizard's A Curious Substance order is running. One piece handed to him finishes the order, and any extras vanish once it closes.
A Diamond or a Prismatic Shard appears on the rarest rolls.
Items this monster can drop when it is defeated, with the chance of each.
| Item | Image | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Omni Geode | 
|
99% |
| Ectoplasm | 
|
9.5% |
| Diamond | 
|
0.05% |
| Prismatic Shard | 
|
0.05% |
Notes
Putrid Ghosts sit outside the Adventurer's Guild bounty list, so nothing is banked towards a reward by killing them. They are fought for geodes, for Ectoplasm while the order is live, or because they are standing between the farmer and the ladder.
A Curious Substance is the order most farmers meet these ghosts through. Ectoplasm drops from the ordinary Ghost and the Carbon Ghost as well, so the order can be finished on gentler ground if the dangerous floors are too much.
Monster Musk doubles how many monsters wait on a floor, which is the fastest way to turn a dangerous frozen floor into a geode haul. It also doubles the number of fireballs in the air, so the Basilisk Paw and the Ginger matter twice as much under 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 |