Sceptre

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

This page describes a secret.

Only the Tomb Lord of level 13 has one, and no shop sells it. Held, it fires psychic waves that turn toward the nearest monster and pass through rock, hurting what they touch on every step, so a single wave can kill a monster out of the player's sight. On level 14 it's one of the keys to the City of Gold.

The Sceptre is picked up like any item, crouching over it and pressing the attack key. While it's held, the attack key fires it, on the ground, in the air, hanging or climbing, without knocking the player back; crouching, the key puts it down in front of him instead ^[4]. It isn't thrown. A shot makes a psychic wave 12 pixels in front of the player, with three sparks that fall away, and starts a wait of 20 steps before the next ^[5].

The wave goes straight ahead at 6 pixels a step for its first 5 steps. After that, every step, it turns toward the middle of the monster nearest it, wherever it is, and moves 2 pixels that way ^[1]. It has no collision with blocks, so it goes through rock, and it lasts as long as its animation, 100 steps, unless it leaves the room ^{[6] [7] [8]}. In the clip, the player fires left on level 14 and runs after his wave. A Hawkman leaps at him, and the wave, which has turned toward it, takes 3 of its 4 hit points on the step it touches it and 3 more on the next, and it dies ^[9].

The Sceptre goes with the player through a level's exit if he's holding it, and is in his hands on the next level ^{[10] [11]}. He drops it when he's stunned, or when he teeters too long at a ledge's edge ^{[12] [13] [14]}.

A wave isn't used up by a monster, so it goes on hurting it, 3 hit points a step, for as long as they touch, and then goes on to the next nearest ^[15].

The Sceptre comes only from a Tomb Lord killed on level 13, the first level of the Temple, which drops it with its bones ^{[18] [14]}. A Tomb Lord that walks into lava drops it into the lava ^[19]. No shop sells it, and the level editor has no tile for it.

• The gold door. Held against the gold door on level 14 with the Hedjet worn, it opens the way to the City of Gold, and the Sceptre is used up; without the Hedjet, the door shows "THE SCEPTRE FITS... BUT NOTHING IS HAPPENING!" ^[20].
• Lava. It sinks slowly in lava like any item, but lava, which burns up any other item that sinks into it, spares the Sceptre ^[21].

• A wave turns toward the nearest monster wherever it is and goes through rock, so it can reach one the player can't see.
• Its waves don't hurt the Alien Boss, so the Sceptre is no use against it.

• Its shop message is "I SHOULDN'T BE SELLING THIS!", which no shop ever shows: none stocks it ^{[22] [19]}.
• Its wave's code picks a random sideways push, rand(0,2)-rand(1,2), and then sets it to -1 on the next line, so every monster it hits is flung left ^{[23] [19]}.
• Hitting a Damsel, the wave sets a state meant for her on itself instead, and then is gone, so she keeps her own ^{[24] [19]}.