Spider

Spider

Type	Monster
Location	The Mines (Shrine ON)
Floors	51-69
HP	200
Damage	15
Defence	2
Speed	3
XP	15

The Spider is the monster that turns the cobwebbed middle of the Mines into a genuine emergency. It only exists while the mine is in its dangerous state, it arrives on the webbed floors in the fifties and sixties, and it never arrives alone: ten on a floor is normal and an infested floor can hold twice that. Each one carries two hundred health and hits for fifteen, which on its own is manageable, but a spider is untouchable while it is in the air and it ignores knockback, so the usual rhythm of hit, shove, hit falls apart. The payoff is Void Essence off three kills in four, which is exactly what the Mega Bomb and Iridium Band recipes eat, plus bars of every metal and the Rare Disc for the Museum.

Behaviour

A spider does not walk towards the farmer, it jumps. The leap crosses rock and debris without slowing, and for the whole time it is airborne no weapon touches it. Swings therefore have to be saved for the moment it lands, which is an awkward discipline when a dozen of them are leaping in from different sides.

Knockback is the other missing piece. Most monsters are pushed back by a hit and that push is what keeps a crowd off the farmer. Spiders are not, so they stay exactly where they are and keep hitting. The standard answer is a hammer or club, because the ground slam from its special attack strikes everything standing around the farmer at once and a cluster that cannot be shoved away is the ideal target for it. The Infinity Gavel does the job hardest, and a Bug Killer enchantment forged onto it, bought at the Forge in the Volcano Dungeon with a Prismatic Shard and twenty Cinder Shards, raises the damage further.

Sustain is the alternative. A Vampiric enchantment heals a slice of health on every kill, and against a swarm those kills come fast enough to outpace the incoming damage, so swinging without pause works better than retreating. Defence food helps for the same reason, since every point of defence takes a point off each hit and the hits here are many and small.

Two things on these floors make the fight worse. Cobwebs cover the ground and slow movement through them, which removes the option of simply walking away. Putrid Ghosts share the same stretch, and their spell blocks healing from food and drink for a couple of minutes, so a swarm that would normally be survivable with a few meals becomes lethal. Carrying Ginger answers that, because eating one clears the effect. A Staircase placed on the floor is the honest escape route when a swarm is already surrounding the farmer.

Location

Spiders appear in the Mines between floors fifty one and sixty nine, and only while the cave is dangerous. That state comes from Mr. Qi's Danger In The Deep order, taken from the board in Qi's Walnut Room on Ginger Island, which needs a hundred Golden Walnuts to reach. While that order runs the elevator is switched off and the whole descent has to be walked or staircased.

Finishing the order unlocks the Shrine of Challenge on floor one hundred and twenty, and from then on the shrine works as a switch that flips the mine between its two states overnight. Farmers keep it on for Radioactive Nodes, which means the spider floors sit squarely across the route to Radioactive Ore. Stick Bugs disguised as firewood and Dust Sprites fill out the same floors, and anyone pushing through learns to clear the spiders before touching anything that looks like loot.

Drops

Void Essence is the reason to fight rather than run. Three spiders in four hand one over, and a lucky kill gives a second. The Mega Bomb recipe takes one per bomb, so a spider floor funds the explosives for a Skull Cavern dive. The Iridium Band takes fifty of them alongside fifty Solar Essence, and that ring is the single best accessory in the game for a mining run. One is also an option for the Adventurer's Bundle in the Boiler Room, the Wizard mails a quest in Winter asking for one, and combining one with Cloth at a Sewing Machine produces the Arcane Shirt. The Wizard is the one villager who loves receiving it.

The metal is a quiet bonus. Copper, Iron, Gold and Iridium Bars all appear on the list, already smelted, which saves the Furnace and the coal. Coal itself turns up as well, in small stacks.

Two rarer items are worth watching for. The Rare Disc is an artifact and belongs in the Museum. The Strange Bun is the item the Dark Shrine of Night Terrors in the Witch's Hut accepts, and handing one over switches monster spawns on for any farm layout, so a spider indirectly decides whether golems and slimes visit the fields at night. Dwarf Scroll III appears occasionally for the Museum set, and far down a save the universal Diamond and Prismatic Shard rolls apply too.

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%
Iron Bar		2%
Iridium Bar		0.2%
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

Spiders reward preparation rather than skill. A farmer who arrives with a hammer, defence food, a stack of Staircases and a few Ginger roots walks through them; one who arrives with a sword and a healing stack does not.

The best moment to meet them is on the way back up. After floor one hundred and twenty has been reached once, the elevator works in the dangerous mine as well, so the webbed floors can be visited directly and left the moment the Void Essence pile is big enough.

Combat experience is generous here, simply because of the numbers. A single infested spider floor teaches more than a long walk through the quiet stretches above it.

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