Dark Caves

The **Dark Caves** is the first Area of the game.

Although the enemies present in this area are generally easily disposed of, the levels contain many traps (such as boulders or spikes) than can kill the player instantly. Consequently, using a scroll of magic mapping can be useful to know what parts of the area are especially dangerous, but players will still have to pay attention to their surroundings if they want to survive. Wearing boulder and spike protection gear is also strongly recommended if it is available.

## Bosses

### Baby Dragon

The Baby Dragon is one of the bosses of the **Dark Caves**.

It has 65HP.

**Behavior**

Initially sleeping, it will wake up when the player gets close to it. At times, its capability of flying might make the fight harder for melee characters.

**Attacks**

 Spit Fire | The Dragon stands still and spits 3 fireballs in succession.

**Strategy**

Try standing behind an obstacle when the Dragon is spitting fire and getting close to hit it just after it spits the third fireball, but be aware that they can start spitting fire again almost immediately. Fighting it on small map spaces is probably best as that gives you obstacles to hide behind and you can quickly get close to the dragon to attack it.

If you have the chance, try to fight the Dragon in water. The dragon's fireballs cannot hurt you while you are underwater (unless you are using "Death's Acolyte" and are close to the Dragon), so you can attack it without consequence in water. Be aware that the more fire the dragon shoots, the more the water decreases. (Fireballs from Divebombers can still hit you underwater.)

The fireballs do not deal damage when the Hero has +4 fire resistance, rendering the Dragon effectively harmless.

* Dragon sleeping
* Dragon spitting fire

### Goblin King

The Goblin King is one of the bosses of the **Dark Caves**.

It has 65 HP.

**Behavior**

Walks back and forth. Will summon goblins as soon as it notices the player.

**Attacks**

 Summon Goblins | The Goblin summons 2 smaller goblins to its aid. New goblins are summoned momentarily after the previous pair of summoned goblins die. The goblins do not drop any gold.

**Strategy**

It is recommended to fight this boss somewhere where you have a lot of horizontal mobility.

Take out the 2 goblins he summons or trap them in a hole before directly engaging the boss, as they can mess up the fight for you.

The Goblin King's charge attack is his highest damage attack, dealing a whopping 14 damage, enough to kill a player in 4 hits. He will raise his axe and playa sound cue before charging. It can be dodged easily by jumping into the air, onto higher ground, or behind him. The downtime after his charge is a good time to attack.

The Goblin King's grab attack is easily his most dangerous attack if there are any spikes near, as he can throw the player into the spikes. The Goblin King will withdraw his axe before his grab attack. You can avoid it by timing a jump, or jumping to a higher platform. Jumping behind him also works, but if he jumps towards a wall, he will bounce off of the wall and can still grab you. The downtime after this attack gives you a chance to attack. Note that you can't free yourself by freezing the Goblin King if he grabs you. If playing multiplayer, then you can free someone else who has been grabbed by freezing the Goblin King, and the grabbed player will be stunned for a moment after they are freed. Having gear with the Freezing Aura Attribute will also free you.

The Goblin King will lower his axe slightly before he does his jump attack. It is not advised to attack the boss while he is stomping as this will almost guarantee you taking damage. The downtime after this attack is less compared to his other attacks, so if you choose to strike after this attack, be wary of the Goblin King's next move.

Patience is key during this fight, as the Goblin King's attacks do high amounts of damage but have a lot of downtime between them. The goblins he summons can be annoying as well if you decide not to kill them beforehand. If this boss spawns in a pit of spikes, then wait until he destroys all of the spikes before jumping in.

* The Goblin King
* The Goblin King preparing his charge attack

### Rock Worm

The Rock Worm is one of the bosses of the **Dark Caves**

It has 100HP.

**Behavior**

The Worm turns hostile after 3 crawlers are killed or after it takes damage.

**Attacks**

 Poison Spit | The Worm stands still and spits 3 poison projectiles in succession (5 or 8 faster projectiles after reaching certain health thresholds). The projectiles deal damage and poison the player.

**Strategy**

The best bet is to wait until the Worm stops spitting poison, as it will stand still for a few seconds before burrowing again.
If you freeze the Worm's head (via Spells, Freezing Aura, or Freezing weapons), it will stop spitting poison until the next time it resurfaces.
The Worm takes increased damage to its head and greatly reduced damage to its body.

It can only move so far into open space from any wall, floor, or other terrain. Therefore, if the player is distanced far enough from an open space before the worm is close enough to begin firing its poison, the worm will recede and move back into the surface area to come from another angle. If the player has such an environment, they can avoid prompting the poison attacks altogether by getting far enough from the Worm that it is forced to recede, leaving an opening for players to attack its body as it leaves, and repeating until it dies.

* The Worm
* The Worm spitting poison

### Rainbow Slime

The Rainbow Slime is the boss of the Slime Cave.

It has 100HP.

#### Behavior

It will chase a player similar to a regular green slime, however it is much faster.

#### Attacks

Its attacks are very similar to a green slime, except it will turn into a spiky ball much more often. Unlike green slimes, Rainbow Slimes can hurt you from below if they jump up at you.

#### Strategy

Rainbow Slimes only take one point of damage from spike traps. Try to use ranged attacks seeing as Rainbow Slimes deal 15-20 damage on contact, easily killing players in the first area.

## Traps

### Spikes

 Touching this trap from above deals instant death to the player or creature, with some exceptions.

**Countermeasures**

Simply walking through spikes causes no harm whatsoever.

Spike Protection gear will permanently destroy wooden spikes when the player would otherwise be impaled on them.

The Featherfall status effect will let you fall through spikes harmlessly unless you are pressing Down to fall faster. It can be obtained from drinking a Potion of Featherfall, wearing Featherfall gear, or holding on to a Chicken.

Slowly sliding down walls using the Rogue's Acrobatics skill or Climb Walls gear will let you fall through spikes harmlessly.

Climbing down a ledge and into Spikes, a strategy commonly employed in Spelunky.

**Bad ideas**

Some things *do not* offer spike protection, even though it seems like they might:

* The Wildling's Bear Stomp ability.

**Special interactions**

The Goblin King destroys spikes as if he wore Spike Protection gear. Other bosses (except for the Rainbow Slime) are entirely immune. Fox Thieves are also immune.

### Arrow Traps

*Pictured: A loaded arrow trap above, and a deactivated arrow trap below.*

Found in **The Caves** and The Forest. When an object moves within an Arrow Traps range (about six blocks right or left of the trap), it launches a single arrow and deactivates. The arrow is not affected by gravity, deals about 12 damage and applies significant knockback.

**Countermeasures**

It is possible to trigger an arrow trap using nearly any physical entity in the game, including creatures, dropped items, boulders, projectiles, coins, props, etc. Blood, wooden splinters and other cosmetic effects do not count.

Reflects Projectiles gear can protect the player from arrow traps.

### Boulder Traps

Found in **The Caves** and The Forest. This trap consists of a grey pressure plate on the ground and a hidden boulder on the ceiling straight above, held by green vines. Touching the pressure plate drops the boulder. A falling boulder deals instant death to any creature underneath, with some exceptions.

Boulders can be pushed off ledges to crush other creatures, or used as platforms. In some rooms, this occasionally necessary to reach a chest.

**Countermeasures**

Pressure plates can be triggered by creatures, dropped items and props, but *not* coins or projectiles.

With good reflexes, the player can jump before being hit by the falling boulder. Instead of instant death, the boulder will deal about 33 damage and break.

Boulder Protection gear can protect the player from falling boulders, causing them to only deal 1 damage.

Light Feet gear lets the player walk across pressure plates without triggering them.

**Special interactions**

Bosses only take 20 damage from falling boulders. A golem will take about 20 damage and break the boulder.