Tomb Lord

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

Tomb Lords live in the Temple, at most one to a level, and in the City of Gold. Two blocks tall, slow and with 20 hit points, a Tomb Lord is a mini-boss: the danger is its flies, a stream of them that it spits at a player level with it, each costing him 2 hearts, and they hit him again and again with no pause. On level 13, the first of the Temple, killing it gives the Sceptre.

A Tomb Lord walks at 1 pixel per step (30 per second), turning around at walls. When the player is behind it, low enough to be within 16 pixels of its feet, it turns around to face him, at most once every 30 steps ^{[6] [7]}. It acts only while it's on screen or just off it ^[8]. Nothing stuns it: anything that stuns other monsters just leaves it walking ^[9].

When the player is in front of it, at any distance, and within 32 pixels of its middle in height, a Tomb Lord stops, opens its mouth, and spits a stream of flies at him, one every step for about a third of a second ^{[10] [11]}. The flies fly the way it faces at 3–5 pixels per step, drifting a little up or down, until they hit something: a wall or block puffs one out ^{[12] [13] [14]}. After a swarm it rests for 30 steps, and can't spit again for 100 steps (3.33 seconds) ^{[15] [16]}. The clip shows the player whipping a Tomb Lord from the floor it stands on, which does it no harm, and two of its flies killing him ^[17].

A fly has no regard for the 30 steps of invincibility that follow a hit, so each one in a swarm that reaches the player takes 2 hearts more: in the clip, the first two take his 4 hearts 8 steps apart, well inside the 30 steps of invincibility the first one gives him ^[17]. Its flies hurt other monsters too, 2 hit points and a short stun each, and damsels, but never a Tomb Lord ^{[20] [21]}.

A Tomb Lord has 20 hit points, and nothing stuns it. The Whip only hurts it from above the middle of its body, and at most once every 10 steps ^[22]. A player standing on its floor can't reach that high: a whip swung in front of him there does nothing, as the first clip on this page shows, but from a step one block up it takes a hit point ^[23]. The whip's wind-up behind the player's back is another matter: the Tomb Lord takes it through the code most monsters share, which has neither the height limit nor the pause, so it takes a hit point every step it touches, about 3 a swing ^[24]. The clip shows the player with his back to a Tomb Lord, the wind-up taking 3 ^[25].

When it dies, it bursts into blood and four bones, and on level 13 it leaves the Sceptre where it fell ^[37]. The clip shows a bomb on the ledge above a Tomb Lord killing it with one blast, on level 13: it leaves its bones and the Sceptre ^[38]. Tomb Lords killed count toward the player's kills, and the screen between levels draws one for each ^{[39] [40]}. One that Spikes, Lava or a Spear Trap killed doesn't count, though it still leaves the Sceptre: one that walks into lava on level 13 drops it into the lava ^{[41] [42]}.

• The Temple. On level 13, the Temple's first, level generation always tries to place a Tomb Lord; on levels 14 and 15, it does with a 1 in 4 chance ^[43]. It goes on a block with two blocks of open space above it, outside the starting room: a 1 in 40 chance for each such block, until one is placed, so a level has one at most ^[44].
• The City of Gold. Two of the room layouts only the City of Gold uses have a Tomb Lord in them ^{[5] [45]}.
• Custom levels, as the level editor's tile T ^[46].

• A Tomb Lord only spits at a player level with it and in front of it: above or below it, or behind it, the player is safe from the flies.
• From its own floor, whip it with the player's back to it: the wind-up takes about 3 a swing, where a forward swing does nothing.
• One Bomb kills it. On level 13, that's the quickest way to the Sceptre.
• Its flies don't pause between hits, so at full health two flies are enough to kill the player.

• A Smash Trap that slides into a Tomb Lord stops as if it had hit a wall ^[47].

• When a fly hits a monster, the code knocks a heavy one back less, then knocks it back the full amount anyway: the lines after the if replace what it set ^[48].

      if (other.heavy)
      {
          other.xVel = xVel*0.5;
          other.yVel = -2;
      }
      else
      {
          other.xVel = xVel;
          other.yVel = -4;
      }
      other.xVel = xVel;
      other.yVel = -4;