Serpent

Serpent

Type	Monster
Location	Skull Cavern
Floors	All
HP	150
Damage	23
Speed	2
XP	20

The Serpent is the Skull Cavern's constant companion, a long flying snake that circles the farmer and keeps circling until it is dead or the floor is left behind. It is quick, it hits for a large share of an unarmoured health bar, and it is common enough to arrive three at a time. Most of what farmers learn about desert diving is really learned from Serpents: swing early, keep moving, do not let them stack. Killing two hundred and fifty of them, or of the Royal Serpents that stand in for them during Mr. Qi's invasion, earns the Napalm Ring from Gil, and that ring makes every monster the farmer kills afterwards explode.

Behaviour

A Serpent flies, so terrain does not slow it down, and it moves faster than the farmer can walk. The pattern is a wide loop: it comes in, clips the farmer, swings away, and comes back round. On an open floor several of them orbiting at once is what a bad dive looks like.

Timing is the one real skill. A Serpent's hitbox is larger than the sprite that is drawn, which means the thing connects before it looks as though it should. Swinging early is correct, and swinging on sight of the body rather than the head is correct. Even a fast blade will trade hits with one if the swing comes late, so a Galaxy Sword is no protection against bad timing.

The audible cue helps more than the visual one. A Serpent announces itself with a sound as it starts a pass, and reacting to that rather than to the sprite gives the extra fraction of a second the fight needs.

Running is a legitimate answer. Serpents do not guard anything and the cavern floors have ladders and holes everywhere, so dropping through a hole costs a little health and leaves the whole orbit behind. For a farmer diving for iridium rather than kills, that is usually the right call.

Location

Serpents fill the Skull Cavern beyond the Calico Desert, on every kind of floor rather than in a particular stretch, so there is no depth at which they stop. The cavern has no elevator, which means each visit starts from the first floor, and a Serpent is often the first thing a dive meets.

They also come to the farm. On the Wilderness map monsters appear outdoors after dark as a matter of course, and Serpents are among the ones that show up once the farmer's combat skill is high. Any other farm can be made to do the same by offering a Strange Bun at the Dark Shrine of Night Terrors in the Witch's Hut, or by enabling monsters in the advanced options at the start of a save. Fighting them at home is a convenience rather than a strategy, since a Serpent that appears among the crops is one the farmer did not choose to meet.

Marlon posts a Monster Hunt during the Desert Festival asking for ten Serpents, and the festival lets anyone into the cavern whether or not they hold the Skull Key. The pay is in Calico Eggs, which the festival's own stalls take.

Drops

Void Essence comes off almost every Serpent, and frequently more than one. It is half of the Mega Bomb recipe alongside Solar Essence, and the Iridium Band wants fifty of it, which is the single largest essence demand in the game. The Desert Trader will also hand over the Void Ghost Pendant for two hundred Void Essence, once Krobus counts the farmer as a close friend. One essence satisfies an option of the Adventurer's Bundle in the Boiler Room, and the Wizard loves receiving one, so a desert run can be turned into friendship with him.

Bombs drop on roughly one kill in seven, which is a neat arrangement: the monster that slows a dive down pays for the explosive that speeds it up. A Spicy Eel appears a little less often, and it is the dish divers want most, since it raises luck and speed together for the rest of the run.

The Rabbit's Foot is the rare one, and the Serpent is the one monster that carries it. It normally comes from a well-kept rabbit in a Coop, which takes a building and months of petting, so a lucky desert drop skips a great deal of work. Every villager in town loves receiving one except Penny, who hates it. One fills the Enchanter's Bundle on the Bulletin Board, one solves the puzzle in Secret Note 20, and simply having one in the bag prevents an unpleasant turn in the group ten-heart event.

Red Cabbage Seeds and a Prismatic Shard appear on much longer odds.

Items this monster can drop when it is defeated, with the chance of each.

Item	Image	Chance
Bomb		15%
Prismatic Shard		0.1%
Rabbit's Foot		0.8%
Spicy Eel		6%
Void Essence		99%
Void Essence		15%
Diamond		0.05%
Prismatic Shard		0.05%

Notes

The Napalm Ring that ends this bounty makes slain monsters burst like small bombs, clearing rock and forageables around them without hurting the farmer. On a Skull Cavern floor that is close to free mining, since every kill breaks the stone around it. It is harmless on the farm and inside the Slime Hutch, where it only damages monsters.

Two Napalm Rings worn together set off two explosions at once, which doubles the damage dealt to anything standing nearby.

The ring has one blind spot worth knowing before relying on it. A Mummy knocked down while the ring is worn is not killed by the ring, and the explosions from Serpents dying nearby are too small to catch a fallen Mummy reliably, so bombs still have to be placed by hand on tomb floors.

All Monsters

Every entry in this group, with its key details.

Name	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