Yeti

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

Level generation puts Yetis on the ground all over the Ice Caves. A Yeti wanders like a Caveman but never charges, and what it does to the player depends on the ceiling: in the open it picks him up and throws him, and under a ceiling one block above it, it bites. With 5 hit points, it survives most hits, which stun it, and the Whip can't hurt it at all.

A Yeti sets off walking in a random direction as soon as it's made, turning around at walls ^{[5] [6]}. Its code sets its speed to 1.5 pixels per step, but it covers 4 pixels every 3 steps (40 per second), as a Caveman does: friction takes 0.1 off before it moves, and the game moves it in whole pixels ^{[7] [8] [9]}. It stops to stand for 20–50 steps (0.67–1.67 seconds), with a 1 in 100 chance each step and when it reaches the edge of a ledge, then sets off again in a random direction ^[10]. Standing beside a wall, it hops ^[11].

Every 6 steps while it stands or walks, a Yeti sends an invisible sight check ahead of it, as a Caveman does ^{[12] [13]}. When one reaches the player, it sets off the Cavemen and Hawkmen within 100 pixels of him, but not Yetis: a Yeti never charges at the player ^[14].

A Yeti only acts while it's on screen or just off it ^{[15] [16]}.

When the player touches a Yeti that isn't stunned, without landing on it, and isn't invincible, the Yeti grabs him, unless there's a block right above it. It stops, turns toward him, and throws him back over its head at 6 pixels per step sideways and 6 pixels per step upward, stunned, and he drops whatever he's holding ^[4]. The throw itself costs nothing, but the first wall or floor he hits while stunned costs him 1 heart, or a fall long enough to hurt him on its own does instead ^{[17] [18]}. The clip shows a Yeti throwing the player, who loses a heart where he lands.

With a block right above it, a Yeti can't lift the player, and the touch costs him 1 heart instead, knocks him away and makes him invincible for 30 steps (1 second) ^[19]. The clip shows it in a tunnel one block high. A stunned or dead Yeti does nothing to him.

Most hits stun a Yeti as well as hurting it: it's knocked back and lies on the ground for 200 steps (6.67 seconds), counted down while it's on the ground or carried, and then gets up if it has hit points left, slipping out of the player's hands if he's holding it ^[20]. The clip shows a stomp stunning a Yeti, which gets up about eight seconds later and walks on. A stomp, a thrown item and a stunned monster thrown at it can't hurt a Yeti that's already stunned:

The Whip's crack and its wind-up only push a Yeti back: they hurt it only when the hit punctures, which a Machete's and a Mattock's do and the Whip's doesn't ^{[33] [34] [35]}.

When its hit points run out, a Yeti dies and leaves its body, which can be picked up and thrown ^{[36] [37]}. Yetis killed count toward the player's kills, and the screen between levels draws a Yeti icon for each ^{[38] [39]}. One that Spikes, Lava or a Spear Trap killed doesn't count ^{[40] [41] [42]}.

A stunned or dead Yeti left lying still on Kali's altar for 20 steps is sacrificed to her, adding 4 to her favour if it's stunned and half that if it's dead, unless her favour is already −8 or less ^[43].

• The Ice Caves. Level generation gives each block with open space above it, outside the shops and more than 64 pixels from the entrance, with no monster or Spikes already on it, a 1 in 20 chance of a Yeti standing on it, once the roll for a spring trap there has failed ^[44].
• The Yeti lair. The room that holds the Yeti King has four Yetis beside it ^{[45] [46]}, and the lair's blocks get the rolls above too.
• Custom levels, as the level editor's tile y ^[47].

• In the open, touching a Yeti costs no heart until the player lands; a long fall after the throw costs the fall's damage instead.
• A player a Yeti throws drops anything he carries, a Golden Idol included.
• Only a block right above a Yeti makes it bite, so in a tunnel one block high it hurts on contact like most monsters.
• The Whip can't hurt a Yeti; a stomp stuns it for 6.67 seconds, long enough to carry it to Kali's altar.

• The Yeti has a charging state, at 3 pixels per step, but its own sight checks never set it off ^[48]. The only code that does is a Piranha biting a swimming Yeti ^{[49] [50]}.
• Its sight check records which Yeti sent it, and nothing ever reads it ^[51].
• The Ice Caves' room script can place a Yeti on a tile Y, but none of its rooms has one ^{[52] [50]}.