- For the DROD RPG monster, see Spider (RPG).
Spider | |
A dungeon spider searching for prey |
|
Monster ID | 12 |
Layer | Monsters |
Movement | Normal beelining |
First appears | Webfoot DROD |
Is required | Yes |
Is brain visible | No |
Spiders are an uncommon monster encountered in relatively few dungeons. Their most prevalent feature is their invisibility.
Description[]
If anything could be said to be the evidence of a malevolent mind at work in the dungeons, it would be spiders. Spiders appeared twenty or so years ago almost out of nowhere (figuratively and literally). Spiders are, surprisingly, not a creation of the Rooted Empire. Instead, they evolved on their own, developing a system of camouflage to survive in the deep spaces beneath the Eighth's surface.
Originally, dungeon spiders didn't have the traditional dark colors of the more normal spiders found aboveground, but instead a strange shade of blue that happened to match the colors of a popular style of floor tiling. This rendered spiders utterly undetectable on that kind of flooring, visible only when their blood-red eyes blinked. Smitemasters, excavators, and building crews complained mightily about this problem, and even dungeon owners themselves were concerned they might be killed suddenly while touring their dungeon.
The Dungeon Architect's Association officially recalled the use of that particular room style just a few years later. That should have been the end for spiders, since they're none too bright and can be spotted a mile off on every other type of floor. However, it's been observed that dungeon spiders have, somehow, learned to change their skin color at will, letting them blend into any environment. Scholars believe this is no mere lucky mutation.
Spiders are very uncommon in Empire-controlled dungeons, since they seem curiously immune to the Empire's standard methods of influencing monsters. While spiders will happily eat a citizen, they would rather eat an abovegrounder first when given the choice.[1]
Dungeon spiders are not known to be venomous. Nevertheless, their large and powerful chelicerae are more than capable of tearing into an adult human, so delvers must be just as cautious around spiders as they would around any other monster.
Behavior[]
Target[]
- Spiders target the player (if not stealthed), decoys, temporal clones, stalwarts, and soldiers.
- Spiders prioritize the closest target first using Manhattan distance. In the case of a tie, spiders prefer the target with the latest movement order.
- Decoys are always prioritized last as long as there is another target within five tiles of the spider.
Movement[]
- Spiders are terrestrial creatures, and cannot swim, fly, or move into solid objects or other creatures.
- Spiders can wade through shallow water.
- Spiders use normal beelining movement.
- Brained spiders use normal pathfinding.
- Spiders can walk over potions, horns, scrolls, fuses, and tokens. Spiders can step on a tunnel if they're attacking their target.
Vulnerabilities[]
- Spiders are vulnerable to sharp weapons, floor spikes, hot tiles, active fire traps, explosions, puffs, and being eaten by adders.
- Spiders will die when pushed or dropped into pits and water.
Other[]
- Spiders are invisible unless they move or unless the player is within two tiles of their location.
- All spiders are revealed when the player steps on a vision token, or activates puzzle mode.
- The lore states that spiders cannot be controlled and enjoy the taste of citizens, but in-game, spiders never target citizens, engineers, or any other non-player humans of the Empire.
Trivia[]
Originally, spiders were a single color that could only blend in on the Palace room style. When Palace was removed from the list of rooms styles in DROD 2.0, spiders were modified to be able to become invisible in all environments. They remained identical to roaches until 4.0 when shallow water was introduced.
According to Erik Hermansen, the developer of Webfoot DROD, he added spiders for the sake of more monster variety.[2] Interestingly, because spiders were simply a recolor of tar babies, it was impossible to have both a tar baby and a spider in the same room.[3] This was changed in 1.5 when spiders became their own type of monster.