Fire Frog

Verified against the spelunky.ai port v0.1.10 on 27 October 2026.

Fire Frogs are rare: level generation puts one on a block in the Jungle a quarter as often as a Frog. A Fire Frog moves exactly as a Frog does, leaping at the player once he's within 64 pixels, and it dies to one hit, but whatever kills it leaves its burning body behind, which explodes 4 seconds later. On a dark level, a Fire Frog lights the ground around it.

A Fire Frog's step event is a Frog's line for line, with only its sprites and what happens when it dies changed ^{[5] [6]}. It sits still until the player is within 64 pixels of it, then croaks and jumps at him, up at 2–4 pixels per step and across at 3 pixels per step (90 per second), and after each landing it rests for 10–40 steps (0.33–1.33 seconds) before it jumps again ^[7]. The Frog's page describes the jumps in full.

A Fire Frog that ends up in water turns into an ordinary Frog, in the same state it was in: the code most monsters share replaces it with one as soon as its middle is in water ^[8]. The clip shows a Fire Frog leaping at the player across a pool, falling in and coming out a Frog.

On a dark level, the game lights a circle of 32 pixels around each Fire Frog, as it does around a lit trap or a torch ^[9]. A Fire Frog only acts while it's on screen or just off it ^[10].

When the player touches a Fire Frog without stomping it, he loses 1 heart, is knocked away from it, and blinks, invincible, for 30 steps (1 second), as with most monsters ^[11]. Touching it doesn't burn him.

Its body is what's dangerous. Whatever kills a Fire Frog leaves a burning body where it was, which falls and bounces like a thrown item and explodes 120 steps (4 seconds) later ^{[4] [12] [13]}. The explosion is a Bomb's: it destroys the blocks around it, hurts the monsters near it, and takes 10 of the player's hearts if he's caught in it ^[14].

The clip shows the player whipping a Fire Frog as it leaps at him and backing away from its burning body, which explodes four seconds later and blows a hole in the floor.

A Fire Frog has 1 hit point, so any damage kills it, and every way of killing it leaves the exploding body ^[4]:

Only two things get rid of a Fire Frog without an explosion: water, which turns it into a Frog, and lava over its head, which removes it outright ^{[24] [25]}.

Fire Frogs killed count toward the player's kills, and the screen between levels draws a Fire Frog icon for each ^{[26] [27]}. One that Spikes, Lava or a Spear Trap killed doesn't count ^{[28] [29] [30]}.

Level generation makes Fire Frogs only in the Jungle, on top of blocks with open space above them, outside the starting room and shops, and not on a graveyard level ^[31]:

• On land, a 1 in 120 chance for each such block, once the rolls for a Mantrap and a Caveman have failed ^[32].
• Under water, where the block has water above it, the same 1 in 120 chance ^[33]. A Fire Frog made there is in water, so it turns into an ordinary Frog once it's near the screen ^[8].

Fire Frogs also come from:

• Olmec's yellow balls, which turn into a Bat, Spider, Snake, Frog or Fire Frog when they hit the ground ^[34].
• Custom levels, as the level editor's tile F ^[35].

• A Fire Frog's body explodes 4 seconds after any death, so killing one with the Whip or a stomp leaves the player beside a bomb.
• Killing one from a distance, with a thrown item or a bullet, keeps the explosion away from the player.
• A Fire Frog lured into water becomes a Frog, which leaves no explosion when it dies.

• The game has a second, older fire frog's body, oFireFrogArmed, with the same name and sprite but no fuse, which nothing in the game ever creates ^[36].
• The code most monsters share checks for a Fire Frog by its name to turn it into a Frog in water; no other monster has a check like it ^[37].