Shadow Brute
| Shadow Brute | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Monster |
| Location | The Mines |
| Floors | 81-119 |
| HP | 160 |
| Damage | 18 |
| Defence | 2 |
| Speed | 3 |
| XP | 15 |
The Shadow Brute is a void spirit, one of the dark figures that hold the lava floors of the Mines below floor eighty. It has no spell, no projectile and no trick: it walks at the farmer, hits hard on contact, and refuses to be pushed back. That last detail is the whole fight, because the habit of swinging until a monster is knocked out of range fails here and a farmer who keeps swinging simply trades hits. Brutes carry the richest loot table in the Mines, with Void Essence off most kills and metal bars, a Strange Bun and the Rare Disc artefact underneath. One hundred and fifty void spirits of any kind earn the Savage Ring from Gil, and that ring gives a burst of speed every time anything dies.
Behaviour
A Shadow Brute closes the distance and does its damage by touching the farmer. There is nothing to dodge and nothing to interrupt, which makes it one of the simplest monsters in the game to read and one of the least forgiving to fight badly.
Knockback resistance is what changes the maths. Most monsters are thrown back by a solid blow, and that bounce is what lets a farmer stand still and win. A Brute absorbs the hit and keeps walking, so standing still means taking a contact hit for every swing landed. The correct pattern is to attack and then retreat as it closes, over and over, which turns a losing exchange into a winning one at the cost of taking longer.
Range avoids the problem entirely. A slingshot loaded with Explosive Ammo, or a handful of bombs, deals with a Brute without ever letting it reach the farmer, and on crowded lava floors that is often the sensible choice.
Blocking with a sword stops a hit outright and is worth using between swings. Defence gear helps more than attack gear here, since the damage comes in a steady stream of touches rather than in bursts.
Location
Shadow Brutes hold the lava stretch of the Mines, the floors from the eighties down towards the bottom. They share that ground with Shadow Shamans, Metal Heads, Lava Bats, Lava Crabs and Squid Kids, and the mix is what makes the depth dangerous: a Brute is slow enough to walk away from, but not while something faster is in the room.
Those floors are also the richest in the mine, with gold and iron common in the rock and Magma Geodes among them, so most farmers meet Brutes while mining rather than while hunting. Riding the elevator to a floor in the eighties, clearing it and walking back to the entrance resets the layout, which is how both the ore and the essence are gathered in quantity.
Krobus, the shadow person who keeps a shop in the Sewers under Pelican Town, calls the hostile monsters his friends, so these are in a sense his relations. He sells Void Essence over the counter, which means the thing a Brute drops can also simply be bought.
Drops
Void Essence comes off three kills in four, and the Mines offer nothing else in that quantity. One essence goes into every Mega Bomb alongside Solar Essence and Gold Ore, and the Iridium Band wants fifty of them, which is the recipe that keeps farmers on these floors for weeks. The Desert Trader hands over the Void Ghost Pendant for two hundred once Krobus is a close friend, and the Wizard loves receiving a piece as a gift.
Metal bars drop ready-made, which is unusual. Copper, Iron, Gold and even Iridium Bars all appear, at rates falling with their value, and a bar from a monster is a bar that never needed ore, coal or a Furnace. Coal itself drops in small stacks too.
The Strange Bun is the odd one, and it has a specific job. One bun offered at the Dark Shrine of Night Terrors in the Witch's Hut switches night-time monster spawns on the farm on or off, and each switch costs another bun, so a Brute is the renewable supply for anyone who likes changing their mind. It is otherwise cooked from a recipe Shane sends at seven hearts.
The Rare Disc is a Museum artefact and one of the pieces Gunther wants for the Burnt Offering reward. The Monster Compendium can also fall here: reading it grants a permanent chance for any monster to drop double loot, and that stacks with the Burglar's Ring.
Items this monster can drop when it is defeated, with the chance of each.
| Item | Image | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Copper Bar | 
|
4% |
| Dwarf Scroll III | 
|
0.5% |
| Dwarf Scroll IV | 
|
0.1% |
| Gold Bar | 
|
1% |
| Iridium Bar | 
|
0.2% |
| Iron Bar | 
|
2% |
| Prismatic Shard | 
|
0.05% |
| Rare Disc | 
|
0.3% |
| Strange Bun | 
|
4% |
| Void Essence | 
|
75% |
| Void Essence |
|
10% |
| Diamond | 
|
0.05% |
| Prismatic Shard |
|
0.05% |
Notes
The Savage Ring that ends the void spirit bounty gives a short speed boost on every kill, which stacks on top of any other speed buff already running. A second Savage Ring adds nothing, so the sensible pairing is one Savage Ring with something else. Marlon sells a spare once Gil has handed the first over.
Shadow Shamans count towards the same hundred and fifty, and so do Shadow Snipers in the dangerous mine, so the bounty fills from whatever void spirit happens to be in front of the farmer.
Monster Musk doubles how many monsters a floor holds. On lava floors that doubles the bars and the essence as well, and a Brute is slow enough that the extra bodies are manageable for anyone whose weapon is up to the depth.
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 |