Spike Shoes

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

Wearing them, the player's stomps, landing on a monster from above, take three times the hit points they would, which kills most monsters in one stomp. They turn landing on a Mantrap into a stomp, and hold him still on ice. They don't make Spikes safe. Clothing Shops, Rare Shops and the Dice House offer them, and Crates, blocks, Kali and the Yeti King give them away. They're worn from the moment they're picked up or paid for until the game ends.

Picking up a free pair, paying for one or carrying one out of a shop puts it on: the message "YOU GOT SPIKE SHOES!" shows, the pair disappears, and an icon of it joins the row under the hearts ^{[3] [4]}. They stay on until a new game starts, which clears them ^{[5] [6]}.

A stomp normally takes 1 hit point, plus 1 for every 16 steps the player has been falling; in Spike Shoes, three times that, 3 plus 3 for every 16 steps, and most monsters bleed ^[7]. That's the rule most monsters share, and the Caveman, Giant Spider, Hawkman, Mantrap, Tomb Lord, Alien Boss and Vampire, which have stomp code of their own, follow it too ^{[8] [9]}. The Yeti, the Yeti King and the Shopkeeper count the fall differently, 3 for each 16 steps of falling or part of 16 ^{[10] [11] [12]}: after exactly 16 steps, 3 rather than 6, and a stomp landed on the way up, before the player has fallen a step, takes nothing at all, in Spike Shoes or not ^{[13] [14]}. A Caveman takes a stomp only when it isn't stunned already, and the stomp stuns it ^[15]. The clip shows one that has just got up from being stunned, with 2 of its 3 hit points left, killed by one stomp in Spike Shoes: its health goes to -1 ^[16].

A Mantrap can't be stomped without them, unless it's busy eating something else: landing on it is touching it, and it eats the player. In Spike Shoes, landing on it is a stomp like any other ^[17]. The clip shows the player walking off a ledge in them onto a Mantrap: the one stomp takes all its 3 hit points, and he bounces off unhurt ^[18].

On ice, the player normally slides, his speed across fading only slowly, unless he's crouching. In Spike Shoes, ice holds him as any ground does ^[19].

A shop stocks a pair only if the level hasn't got one already, even for a player who wears a pair ^{[27] [13]}, and it adds 10% of the base price for each level past the second ^[28]. Shops are made from level 2 on ^[29], and level 16, Olmec's Lair, has none:

The Dice House puts its prize up from the same set of rare items, and a roll of seven gives it away and puts up another ^{[30] [31]}. Every block of rock away from the level's edges that isn't gold and holds no gem has a 1 in 1200 chance of hiding an item, one of nineteen at random ^{[32] [24]}. Kali's first gift, when the player's favour with her reaches 8 at one of her altars, is one of eight pieces of equipment the player hasn't got, the Spike Shoes among them ^[33]. In custom levels, they're the level editor's tile V ^[34].

Carrying a pair out of a shop without paying angers the Shopkeeper, as with any ware, and whether it goes on at once depends on whether the player or the pair leaves the shop first: running out of a shop whose door is on the left, the pair crosses first and stays in his hands, unworn, until he puts it down and picks it up again ^{[13] [35]}. The stomp clip starts there.

• Spikes kill the player who falls onto them in Spike Shoes as in any others: the code that kills him on them never checks for the shoes ^[36].
• Stomping on a monster bounces the player up and resets his fall, as without the shoes, so a long drop onto a monster is a stronger stomp, not a fall that hurts ^[37].

• From a short drop, a stomp in them takes 3 hit points: one stomp kills a Caveman or a Mantrap, which take three without them.
• Landing on a Mantrap without them gets the player eaten, unless it's already eating, so a Mantrap is only worth stomping in them.
• A stomp stuns a Caveman, and a stunned Caveman can't be stomped again, so in ordinary shoes a stomped Caveman gets up before the next stomp counts; in Spike Shoes, the first stomp kills it.

• On level 2, a shop calls them "SPIKE SHOES FOR $4000." ^[38] Past level 2, the message is rebuilt with the new price from the item's name ^[39], and as they have no shop name of their own it reads "A SPIKE SHOES FOR $4400." on level 3 ^[13], and "A SPIKE SHOES FOR $5200." on level 5 ^[40].