Spider's Nest

Version 0.25: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

The crumbling, web-choked caverns of the Spider Nest are packed with poisonous arthropods and assorted creepy-crawlies. A dungeon features only one of the Spider Nest and Snake Pit branches. The entrance to this branch can be found between levels 2 and 4 of the Lair of Beasts. This branch is 4 levels deep. This branch contains the gossamer rune of Zot.

The Spider's Nest branch is a crumbling 4-floor branch filled with all manner of poisonous arachnids and insects. Adventurers willing to brave it are rewarded with the gossamer rune of Zot on its lowest floor. Stairs to the Spider's Nest can be found somewhere on Lair:2-4, assuming your game doesn't generate the Snake Pit instead.

Layout

The Spider's Nest's floor plan is generally very chaotic and haphazard; with the exception of a few vaults and the large area in which the rune lies, you will mostly be exploring narrow tunnels choked with rock or larger caverns with no real sense of order. Choke points are uncommon, and the swift monsters found here will often have opportunities to surround you. No matter where you go, you will constantly be running into web traps and pools of shallow water, slowing your exploration and making combat much riskier.

Useful Info

Melee characters shouldn't even think about venturing in without poison resistance; most of the enemies here move quickly and have poisonous bites or stings, and unless you're extremely cautious you'll always be attracting the attention of multiple opponents at once. If you insist on entering anyway, expect to use a lot of potions of curing. Also, you may wish to limit your use of Tab to automate combat, as your character will not take web traps into consideration when charging into combat. That being said, with solid physical defenses (30+ AC and double-digits EV or a nice shield should be sufficient) and poison resistance, very little here (besides Emperor Scorpions, Entropy Weavers and dangerous Uniques) will be able to really challenge you.

Do not underestimate the final vault on Spider's Nest:4 - a moth of wrath can turn a possy of jumping spiders, wolf spiders and emperor scorpions into a really nasty surprise extremely quickly.

Although stealthy characters will have a fairly easy time sneaking up on individual spiders, the sheer number of opponents you'll be sneaking around makes it very difficult to maintain secrecy for long. Expect to engage in some actual combat before you finish up here.

Ranged fighters and casters have a fairly easy time of things, as most spiders are fragile, resistance-free, and can be safely taken out from a distance. As almost everything here is vulnerable to poison and contains poison, spells like Poisonous Vapours and especially Olgreb's Toxic Radiance will clear the Nest with ease. Mephitic Cloud will also be effective, but expect the noise to awaken many off-screen opponents. Be aware that most enemies in the Spider's Nest hit about as hard as yaks and tend to be quite fast -- lightly armored characters should pick their fights carefully.

The biggest threats you can expect to encounter are emperor scorpions (very high damage output and durability), packs of wolf spiders (somewhat less powerful but capable of appearing in swarms), ghost moths (invisible predators with far too many unpleasant abilities), and orb spiders (ranged snipers that blast you with Orbs of Destruction while fleeing melee combat). More than ever, avoid drawing crowds and prioritize disabling the most dangerous opponents first; it's very difficult to prevent enemies from surrounding you here. It might be slow, but allowing opponents to come to you instead of charging in to meet them will greatly reduce your chance of getting swarmed. Also be aware that many powerful uniques can generate here, potentially complicating an otherwise-straightforward branch.

Almost everything found in the Spider's Nest has lousy magic resistance, so bringing a scroll of fear or two may save you from otherwise unmanageable hordes. The same is true for a wand of paralysis or a wand of enslavement - even without any Evocations training, you have about a 50-50 chance to affect Tarantellas & co, opening up nice combo options like this one: Your tarantella bites the emperor scorpion. The emperor scorpion appears confused.

Because most of the monsters in the Nest leave inedible corpses, bringing your own food supply is a good idea. Of course, if you are a ghoul you can simply feast on the endless tide of spiders. On the other hand, vampires (before 0.25) can easily run out of blood here.

Useful Traits

• Strong physical defenses
• Poison resistance
• See invisible

Monsters

s Wolf spider	s Redback	s Tarantella	s Jumping spider	s Orb spider
s Scorpion	s Emperor scorpion	s Demonic crawler
w Torpor snail	B Entropy weaver	B Giant cockroach	w Worm
y Hornet	y Spark wasp	y Moth of wrath	y Ghost moth

Uniques

i Agnes	S Aizul	H Arachne	H Asterion
R Azrael	d Bai Suzhen	@ Donald	@ Frances
g Jorgrun	@ Josephine	@ Kirke	@ Louise
R Mara	@ Nikola	8 Roxanne	@ Rupert

History

• Prior to 0.19, boulder beetles and wasps inhabited the Spider's Nest.
• In 0.17, Spider's Nest is shortened to 4 floors. Goliath beetles, Boring beetles and Giant mites are obsolete, Entropy weavers and Torpor snails are new inhabitants.
• Prior to 0.11, the Spider's Nest was a simple 1-floor sub-branch with similar monsters and some treasure (occasionally including ambrosia), but no rune.