Killer bee

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Version 0.26: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

For a list of all arthropods, see list of arthropods.

killer bee yKiller bee.png
HP 10-22
HD 3
XP 62
Speed 20
AC 2
EV 18
Will 10
Attack1 10 (sting: poison)


Resistances None
Vulnerabilities Poison
Habitat Land
Intelligence Animal
Uses Uses nothing
Holiness Natural
Size Tiny
Type killer bee, killer bee
Flags Flying
No skeleton
A giant bee, bearing a deadly barb which can sting repeatedly.

Useful Info

Killer bees are poisonous flying insects that live up to their name. They're twice as fast as most characters, attack in swarms, and can quickly inject fatal amounts of poison in lightly-armoured characters. They are found in the middle-Dungeon, the Lair, and anywhere else where their hive vaults occur.

Tips & Tricks

  • Be extremely wary of encountering out of depth swarms of them, as it is almost certain death for a character to come across them on D:2 or D:3. If possible, close doors with C to keep them from reaching you.
  • Never believe that there's just one bee on the floor. They always travel with friends.
  • With poison resistance and decent AC, they're nuisances. With only poison resistance, they can be a handful if they surround you. Without either, taking them on in melee is often suicide.
  • Poison attacks work wonders here. Mephitic Cloud will make a tightly-clumped swarm slaughter itself, while a weapon of venom will make short work of them; however, with the bees' 18 EV, you will need to have decent accuracy with said weapon. Ignite Poison and Poisonous Cloud are good for quickly clearing out any large bee rooms you might find later on.
  • Bees have relatively low willpower, so wands of charming can be effective in turning some of them onto your side.
  • When things go badly, don't forget about your potions of curing.
  • A potion of lignification can give lightly-armoured characters some much-needed AC and poison resistance, greatly reducing the threat of a pack of bees.
  • Since bees are mindless, Conjure Flame also works well against them. Drop a cloud behind yourself in a corridor and the bees will happily roast themselves, though their high speed means you'll either have to start the fire when you first see them, or deliberately set yourself on fire to keep them from smothering the embers.