Spelunky is © 2008, 2009 Derek Yu and Mossmouth, LLC, and is used under the [Spelunky User License v1.1b](https://spelunky.ai/LICENSE.txt). spelunky.ai is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Mossmouth. The game and its assets may not be sold. Music by George Buzinkai and Jonathan Perry; sound effects made in SFXR. From Spelunky Classic 1.1, © 2008, 2009 Derek Yu and Mossmouth, LLC. # Giant Spider From the spelunky.ai wiki: . Verified against the spelunky.ai port [v0.1.8](https://github.com/851-labs/spelunky/releases/tag/v0.1.8) on 27 October 2026. *For the smaller spider, see [Spider](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/spider).* The Giant Spider is a monster of the Mines in Spelunky Classic, one a level at most, that drops from the ceiling, leaps at the player and bites for 2 hearts. ![A huge black spider with red eyes and thick legs](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/media/f4b0b515497311e0/sprites/sGiantSpider/anim%404x.png) | Giant Spider | | | ------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------- | | Health | 10 hit points[^1] | | Damage | 2 hearts[^2] | | Speed | 2.5 pixels per step[^3] | | Behaviour | Drops from the ceiling, leaps at the player, spits webs[^4] | | Objects | `oGiantSpiderHang`, `oGiantSpider` | | Found in | The Mines | | Drops | Big Emerald, Big Sapphire, Big Ruby, Paste | A Giant Spider is two blocks wide, and at most one is made on a level, only in the Mines. It hangs from a ceiling above two webs until the player comes close or hurts it, then leaps at him like a [Spider](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/spider), twice as hard. It has 10 hit points and ignores a hit that comes too soon after another, but a single Bomb kills it, and it leaves treasure: big gems and a Paste. ## Behaviour **Clip: Giant spider drop.** A giant spider hanging from the ceiling drops when the player walks beneath it, leaps at him and bites, taking two hearts. ([video](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/media/f4b0b515497311e0/clips/giant-spider/drop/clip.mp4)) A Giant Spider starts out hanging under a block, with two webs just below it[^5]. It drops when it's hurt at all, when the block it hangs from is gone, or when the player is below it, within 8 pixels of its middle across and within 90 pixels of it[^6]. The clip shows one dropping as the player walks beneath it, leaping onto him and taking two of his four hearts. Once down, it moves as a Spider does, by leaping. It waits 5–20 steps (0.17–0.67 seconds), then jumps up at 2–5 pixels per step and across at 2.5 pixels per step, toward the player[^7][^8]. While he's within 120 pixels, it jumps at him again each time it lands, higher, at 3–6 pixels per step, up, with a 1 in 4 chance each time of stopping to wait instead[^9]. Farther away, it makes a single leap toward him after each wait[^10]. In a tunnel too low for it to stand, where it touches the ceiling and the floor at once, it crawls toward the player at 1 pixel per step, turning at walls, until it has room again[^11][^12]. **Clip: Giant spider web shot.** A giant spider below the player's ledge spits a ball of web, which flies off in an arc and sticks where it lands as a web. ([video](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/media/f4b0b515497311e0/clips/giant-spider/web/clip.mp4)) It also spits webs. A timer of 100–1,000 steps, counted down every step it's on screen, lets it spit once it runs out and the Giant Spider is between leaps; then it starts again[^13]. The ball of web flies 1–3 pixels per step to the left or the right at random, not at the player, in an arc that starts upward[^14][^15]. When it hits a block, an item, water, another web or a monster other than a Giant Spider, or after 20–100 steps, it turns into a web where it is[^16][^17][^18]. A web holds items and most monsters still and slows the player down[^19][^20][^21]; one made this way fades out over about 550 steps (18 seconds)[^22]. The clip shows a web ball arcing away from the player on his ledge and landing on the floor as a web. A Giant Spider only acts while it's on screen[^23]. ## Damage When the player touches a dropped Giant Spider without stomping it, he loses 2 hearts, is knocked away from it (and upward, if he's above it), and blinks, invincible, for 30 steps (1 second)[^24]. While it still hangs, touching it costs 1 heart instead, through the touch code most monsters share[^25]. ## Defeating A Giant Spider has 10 hit points[^1], and for 10 steps after each hit from a whip or a thrown item, it ignores the next one; it ignores them for its first 10 steps after dropping too[^26][^27]: | Way | Damage | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----- | | Whip or Machete | 1, at most once every 10 steps | [^28] | | Stomp (landing on it) | 1, plus 1 for every 16 steps of falling; three times that with Spike Shoes | [^29] | | A thrown item moving faster than 2 pixels per step, such as a Rock | 1, at most once every 10 steps | [^30] | | A Shotgun or Pistol bullet | 4 hit points | [^31] | | A Bomb's explosion | 30 hit points | [^32] | | Ending up inside solid ground | Kills it | [^33] | Still hanging, it takes a whip's or a Machete's full damage, through the code most monsters share, and drops[^34]. Its step event doesn't run the one most monsters share, so Spikes, Lava, Spear Traps and water don't affect it[^35]. **Clip: Giant spider bombed.** The player places a bomb beside a giant spider hanging from the ceiling and runs back. The explosion kills it, and it leaves a paste and a big sapphire. ([video](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/media/f4b0b515497311e0/clips/giant-spider/bomb/clip.mp4)) When it dies, hanging or not, it leaves 1–3 big gems, each a Big Emerald, Big Sapphire or Big Ruby at random, and a Paste that costs nothing[^36][^37]. The clip shows a Bomb placed beside a hanging Giant Spider killing it; the Paste and the Big Sapphire it leaves stick in its web[^19][^38]. Giant Spiders killed count toward the player's kills, and the screen between levels draws a Giant Spider icon for each[^39]. ## Locations Level generation makes Giant Spiders only in the Mines. Each Mines level has a 1 in 6 chance of being allowed one[^40]. On such a level, each block with open space two blocks wide and two deep below it (with no water there and no monster right under it), outside the starting room and shops and above the level's bottom 64 pixels, has a 1 in 40 chance of a Giant Spider hanging from it, rolled before anything else that hangs there, until one is made[^41]. In custom levels, it's the level editor's tile `S`[^42]. ## Tips - A Giant Spider drops as soon as anything hurts it, so a whip hit or a thrown item brings it down. - Whipping it faster than once every 10 steps does nothing; a Bomb does three times its health in one explosion. - Its webs aren't aimed: a ball goes left or right at random. ## Trivia - Its code names a drowned state, and an alarm whose only line, commented out, would show a drowning sprite; nothing ever enters that state[^43][^44]. - Its touch event begins with a comment copied from the one most monsters share, which names other monsters: ```gml objects/oGiantSpider/collision_oCharacter.gml:1-2 // jumped on - oCaveman, oManTrap replaces this script with its own if (abs(other.x-(x+16)) > 16) ``` `objects/oGiantSpider/collision_oCharacter.gml:1-2`, from `spelunky.gmk`, Spelunky Classic 1.1's source, © 2008, 2009 Derek Yu and Mossmouth, LLC ([Spelunky User License v1.1b](https://spelunky.ai/LICENSE.txt)). ## FAQ ### How much damage does a Giant Spider do in Spelunky Classic? 2 hearts per bite, twice a [Spider](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/spider)'s. A bite also knocks the player back and makes him invincible for 30 steps (1 second). ### How do you kill a Giant Spider in Spelunky Classic? It has 10 hit points. A Whip or a thrown item takes 1 at most once every 10 steps, so it takes ten hits; a Bomb's explosion (30 hit points) kills it at once, and three bullets do. ### What does a Giant Spider drop in Spelunky Classic? 1–3 big gems, each a Big Emerald, Big Sapphire or Big Ruby at random, and a free Paste. ### Where do you find the Giant Spider in Spelunky Classic? Only in the Mines, and only on some levels: each Mines level has a 1 in 6 chance of being allowed one, and never has more than one. It hangs from a ceiling with two webs below it. ### Does the Giant Spider shoot webs in Spelunky Classic? Yes. Every 100–1,000 steps, it spits a ball of web in an arc to its left or right, which sticks where it lands as a web. The balls aren't aimed at the player. ## See also - **Damaged by:** Whip, Machete, Stomping[^29], Throwing[^30], Shotgun[^31], Pistol[^31], Bomb[^32] ## References [^1]: `objects/oGiantSpiderHang/create.gml:11` [^2]: `objects/oGiantSpider/collision_oCharacter.gml:30` [^3]: `objects/oGiantSpider/step.gml:102` [^4]: `objects/oGiantSpider/step.gml:62-117` [^5]: `objects/oGiantSpiderHang/create.gml:26-27` [^6]: `objects/oGiantSpiderHang/step.gml:35-40` [^7]: `objects/oGiantSpider/step.gml:66-72` [^8]: `objects/oGiantSpider/alarm_0.gml:1-18` [^9]: `objects/oGiantSpider/step.gml:93-111` [^10]: `objects/oGiantSpider/step.gml:113-117` [^11]: `objects/oGiantSpider/step.gml:53-60` [^12]: `objects/oGiantSpider/step.gml:73-79` [^13]: `objects/oGiantSpider/step.gml:64-88` [^14]: `objects/oWebBall/create.gml:3-6` [^15]: `objects/oWebBall/step.gml:1-4` [^16]: `objects/oWebBall/step.gml:7-11` [^17]: `objects/oWebBall/collision_oSolid.gml:1-3` [^18]: `objects/oWebBall/other_animation_end.gml:1-6` [^19]: `objects/oWeb/collision_oItem.gml:1-5` [^20]: `objects/oWeb/collision_oEnemy.gml:1-5` [^21]: `scripts/characterStepEvent.gml:743-748` [^22]: `objects/oWeb/step.gml:1-3` [^23]: `objects/oGiantSpider/step.gml:1-3` [^24]: `objects/oGiantSpider/collision_oCharacter.gml:15-34` [^25]: `objects/oEnemy/collision_oCharacter.gml:14-25` [^26]: `objects/oGiantSpider/create.gml:16` [^27]: `objects/oGiantSpider/step.gml:9` [^28]: `objects/oGiantSpider/collision_oWhip.gml:1-7` [^29]: `objects/oGiantSpider/collision_oCharacter.gml:6-14` [^30]: `objects/oItem/step.gml:300-309` [^31]: `objects/oBullet/collision_oEnemy.gml:16` [^32]: `objects/oExplosion/collision_oEnemy.gml:14` [^33]: `objects/oGiantSpider/step.gml:11-14` [^34]: `objects/oEnemy/collision_oWhip.gml:1` [^35]: `objects/oEnemy/step.gml:34-128` [^36]: `objects/oGiantSpider/step.gml:16-40` [^37]: `objects/oGiantSpiderHang/step.gml:9-34` [^38]: `objects/oWeb/collision_oTreasure.gml:1-2` [^39]: `objects/oTransition/alarm_0.gml:233-237` [^40]: `scripts/scrEntityGen.gml:32-34` [^41]: `scripts/scrEntityGen.gml:45-60` [^42]: `scripts/scrCreateTileObj.gml:139-142` [^43]: `objects/oGiantSpider/create.gml:24` [^44]: `objects/oGiantSpider/alarm_1.gml:1` ### Source code - `objects/oGiantSpiderHang/create.gml` - `objects/oGiantSpiderHang/step.gml` - `objects/oGiantSpider/create.gml` - `objects/oGiantSpider/step.gml` - `objects/oGiantSpider/alarm_0.gml` - `objects/oGiantSpider/collision_oCharacter.gml` - `objects/oGiantSpider/collision_oWhip.gml` - `objects/oWebBall/create.gml` - `objects/oWebBall/step.gml` - `objects/oWeb/step.gml` - `scripts/scrEntityGen.gml`