Squid Kid

Squid Kid

Type	Monster
Location	The Mines
Floors	91-119 [1]
HP	1
Damage	18
Defence	2
Speed	3
XP	15

The Squid Kid has one point of health, and it is still one of the most hated things in the Mines. It floats over rock on the lava floors near the bottom, which means walls and boulders are no obstacle to it and often a wall of obstacles to the farmer, and from behind that cover it lobs fireballs that bounce off the stone and come back from unexpected angles. Anything at all kills it in a single hit, so the whole fight is the problem of reaching it, and a Slingshot solves that from across the room. The reward is one of the better drop lists on these floors: Solar Essence off three kills in four, Squid Ink for cooking and tailoring, a Gold Bar now and then, and plain Bombs and Mega Bombs that pay for the next Skull Cavern trip.

Behaviour

A Squid Kid drifts rather than walks. It moves in sudden jerks with pauses in between, and it hovers above rocks and rubble, so the usual trick of putting a boulder between the farmer and the monster does nothing. Closing the distance means mining through whatever stands in the way while something is already shooting.

The fireballs are the whole threat. Each one leaves the squid, travels in a straight line, and ricochets off walls instead of breaking on them, so a shot that missed can arrive from behind a moment later. In narrow corridors a single volley can bounce twice. A fireball can be destroyed by swinging a weapon into it at the right moment, which is satisfying and unreliable, and the sword's block is no help: it stops monsters and it does not stop fireballs.

Against all that, the kill itself is trivial. One point of health means any weapon in the game, including the rustiest starting sword, removes a Squid Kid in a single swing. The hard part is reaching it in one piece. A Slingshot loaded with anything at all does the job from well outside fireball range, and on a floor holding several squids that is the difference between a clean sweep and a slow retreat. Rushing in also works, because a squid that is being hit never gets a shot away.

Location

Squid Kids live in the deepest stretch of the Mines, on the lava floors from the nineties down towards floor one hundred and twenty. They share that ground with Shadow Brutes, Shadow Shamans, Metal Heads, Lava Bats and Red Sludges, which is the hardest mix in the mine, and the squids are the ones most likely to land damage while the farmer is busy with something else.

The elevator makes them farmable. It stops every five floors, so a farmer who wants Solar Essence or Squid Ink can ride straight down to the nineties, clear what is on the floor, and take the next elevator rather than walking the whole mine. Leaving and returning regenerates the floor, which is the usual way to run the same depth repeatedly.

Drops

Solar Essence comes off roughly three kills in four. Krobus sells it in the Sewers at eighty gold apiece with a limit of ten a day, so a squid floor both beats his price and ignores his cap, and the Iridium Band alone swallows fifty of them. A Sunfish pond is the other alternative and produces far more slowly.

Squid Ink is the drop with character. Roughly one kill in five gives one, and it goes into two of the better dishes in the game. Cooking it with Flounder and a Midnight Carp makes Seafoam Pudding, which needs a high Fishing level to learn and gives a large fishing bonus. Cooking it with Wheat Flour and a Tomato makes Squid Ink Ravioli, which needs a high Combat level and grants immunity to debuffs for a few minutes, a genuinely useful thing to eat before a dangerous descent. Combining one with Cloth at a Sewing Machine produces the Midnight Dog Jacket. Elliott loves receiving it, and one has to be shipped once for the Shipping Collection. In the remixed Community Center it is asked for by the Fish Farmer's Bundle in the Pantry.

The explosives are the quiet reason to clear a floor. A Bomb falls from one kill in ten and a Mega Bomb from one in twenty, and both are exactly what a Skull Cavern dive runs out of first. A Gold Bar appears at the same rate as the Mega Bomb, already smelted. Dwarf Scroll III turns up occasionally for the Museum set, and deep into a save the universal Diamond and Prismatic Shard rolls apply as well.

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

Item	Image	Chance
Bomb		10%
Dwarf Scroll III		0.5%
Dwarf Scroll IV		0.1%
Gold Bar		5%
Mega Bomb		5%
Solar Essence		75%
Squid Ink		20%
Diamond		0.05%
Prismatic Shard		0.05%

Notes

The single point of health makes the Squid Kid the best argument in the game for carrying a Slingshot. It sits in the ammunition slot doing nothing for most of a run and then clears a squid floor without the farmer taking a hit.

Squid Ink has a second source that costs no fighting at all. A Fish Pond stocked with Squid produces it instead of Roe, and Midnight Squid ponds sometimes give two at a time. For a farmer who only wants the Shipping Collection entry or a gift for Elliott, the pond is the calmer route.

During the Desert Festival, if Elliott is one of the villagers running a stall, he sells Squid Ink for Calico Eggs, which is worth remembering for anyone who has not yet reached the squid 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