Stone Golem

Stone Golem

Type	Monster
Location	The Mines
Floors	31-39
HP	45
Damage	5
Defence	5
Speed	2
XP	5

The Stone Golem is the monster of the grey floors, the stretch in the thirties where the Mines turn from brown earth to bare rock and the ore starts coming thick. It is a slab of that same rock with two glowing eyes, which is the whole problem: against a stone wall a golem is nearly invisible until the eyes move. It has no ranged attack and no clever phase, it simply wanders and hurts whatever it walks into, and a sword settles it quickly. What makes it worth killing is the rubble it leaves: Stone on nine kills in ten, plus Iron Ore, Quartz, Coal and the first of the four Dwarf Scrolls. Three relatives share its shape, the dangerous golem of the same floors and the Wilderness and Iridium Golems that rise out of farm soil at night.

Behaviour

A golem comes up out of the ground rather than walking onto the floor. Once it is standing it drifts about without any obvious plan, drifting towards the farmer more by accident than by design, and all of its damage comes from contact. Nothing is thrown and nothing is cast.

The camouflage does the work the monster cannot. Golem bodies are the same dull grey as the floors they live on, so one standing still beside a rock face reads as part of the scenery, and farmers mining a node often take the first hit from something they never saw. The glowing eyes are the tell, and on a dark floor they are the only tell.

The fight itself is short. Golems move slowly, slowly enough that walking away is always an option, and a sword's wide swing reaches them before the collision does. Their defence is high enough to blunt a weak blade a little, so the Mines' own weapons are a better choice than the starting sword by this depth, but nothing here demands bombs or a special attack.

Several golems rising at once is the only real danger, and it happens on the floors where the game has marked the level as infested. In that case knockback is the answer: strike one, let the hit shove it back, and step sideways rather than standing between two of them.

Location

Stone Golems hold the Mines from floor thirty one to floor thirty nine. The rock there is noticeably greyer than the floors above, and ore nodes are more common, so the stretch is worth working slowly rather than running through. Bats and Bugs share the same depth, which means a golem fight often starts while something is already circling overhead.

The elevator makes them easy to find. It stops at floor thirty and again at thirty five, so a farmer who needs Stone or Quartz in a hurry can drop straight into golem country, strip a few floors and leave. Walking back to the entrance regenerates every floor, so the same ten-floor band can be cleared repeatedly in one day.

Drops

Stone is the headline, and it falls from almost every golem. That matters more than it sounds, because Stone is the bulk material of the game: paths and walls eat it, the Slime Hutch needs five hundred of it, and a Staircase costs ninety nine, which is the single most useful thing a Skull Cavern diver can carry. A golem floor is one of the few places where Stone arrives without any pickaxe work at all.

Iron Ore comes off one kill in ten and goes straight into a Furnace for Iron Bars, which is exactly what the tool upgrades at the Blacksmith are waiting for at this stage of a save. Quartz appears at the same rate and smelts into Refined Quartz, the ingredient the Slime Hutch, the Crystalarium and much of the lighting in the game depend on. Quartz is also a liked gift for the Dwarf living a few floors above, which is the cheapest way to buy his goodwill. Coal rounds out the pile and saves a trip to the Charcoal Kiln.

The collectible is Dwarf Scroll I, which drops rarely. It belongs in the Museum, and donating all four scrolls earns the Dwarvish Translation Guide from Gunther, which makes the Dwarf's speech intelligible and also translates the headstone riddle in the graveyard that points towards the Galaxy Sword. Outside the Museum, Dwarf Scroll I works as a red dye at the pots in Haley and Emily's house and raises the capacity of a Ghostfish pond. Dwarf Scroll IV turns up occasionally too.

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

Item	Image	Chance
Coal		10%
Dwarf Scroll I		0.5%
Dwarf Scroll IV		0.1%
Iron Ore		10%
Quartz		10%
Stone		90%
Diamond		0.05%
Prismatic Shard		0.05%

Notes

Golems are the clearest example of how the Mines teach by scenery. The floors in the thirties look empty and grey, and a farmer who learns to read the eyes there is much better prepared for the Rock Crabs and Stick Bugs that use the same trick later.

For Stone specifically, a golem sweep competes with simple mining. Breaking rock gives more Stone per minute, but it costs tool energy, while golems cost health instead, so the choice depends on whatever is in shorter supply that day.

Flipping the Shrine of Challenge turns every golem on these floors into its dangerous form, which keeps the same drop table behind a vastly larger health pool. For anyone who only wants Stone, Quartz and Iron Ore, the ordinary mine is the better place to be.

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