Yeti King

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

The Yeti King lives in the Yeti lair, a special level of the Ice Caves, in a room with an ice ceiling and four Yetis. It is twice a Yeti's size and walks back and forth across its room, turning to face the player when he's behind it. When he's in front of it, it stops and yells, which brings blocks of ice down from the ceiling. It can't be stunned or picked up, and with 30 hit points, a Bomb is the one thing that kills it in one go.

The Yeti King walks at 1 pixel per step (30 per second) the way it faces, and turns around at a wall, or when the player is behind it at the height of its feet. Turning takes a moment, during which it stands still, and after a turn it won't turn toward the player again for 30 steps (1 second) ^{[5] [6]}.

When the player is anywhere in front of it, within 32 pixels of its middle's height, it stops and yells, at most once every 100 steps (3.33 seconds) ^{[7] [8]}. For part of the yell, each step, every block of ice within 96 pixels of it that isn't right above it (more than 16 pixels to either side of its middle) has a 1 in 60 chance of coming loose as a block that falls, and every block of thin ice in the level wears thinner ^[9]. After the yell it stands for 30 steps, then walks on ^[10]. The clip shows the Yeti King yelling at the player across its room, and three blocks of the ceiling coming loose and falling.

The Yeti King only acts while it's on screen or just off it ^[11].

When the player touches the Yeti King without landing on it, and isn't invincible, he loses 2 hearts, is knocked away from it (and upward, if he's above it), and blinks, invincible, for 30 steps (1 second) ^[12]. That's on the game's own levels only: in a custom level, the touch knocks him back and costs nothing ^{[13] [14] [15]}.

The Yeti King is never stunned, so no hit stops it, and most hits have no pause between them:

The Whip's crack does nothing to the Yeti King, as it doesn't puncture, but the wind-up behind the player's back hurts it through the code most monsters share, with no pause between hits ^{[27] [28] [15]}. A thrown item hurts it every step it's inside it, and pushes it along at a third of its own speed, so the two move together: the clip shows a Rock taking 9 of its hit points ^{[29] [30]}.

When its hit points run out, the Yeti King bursts into blood and four bones and leaves 4 things, flung about, each Spike Shoes with a 1 in 12 chance, otherwise a Big Sapphire or a Rope Pile at even odds; the Spike Shoes and Rope Piles are free ^[31]. The clip shows a Bomb dropped at its feet while it yells killing it, and the Big Sapphires and the Rope Pile it leaves. A Yeti King killed counts toward the player's kills, and the screen between levels draws a Yeti King icon for it ^{[32] [33]}. It leaves no body, can't be picked up, and, never stunned, can't be sacrificed to Kali ^{[34] [35]}.

The Yeti King is made only in the Yeti lair. An Ice Caves level that is neither the Moai's nor an alien craft has a 1 in 6 chance of being a Yeti lair, from the level after the Moai's on ^{[36] [37] [15]}. In a lair, until the Yeti King has been placed, each room the level's path crosses sideways (or, 1 time in 4, a side room off it) is its room with a 1 in 10 chance; in the second row of rooms, a 1 in 3 roll comes first, in the third a 1 in 2 roll, and in the bottom row it's certain ^{[38] [39]}. So a lair has at most one. Its room has a ceiling of ice, some blocks left out at random, above the Yeti King and four Yetis ^[40].

In custom levels, it's the level editor's tile Y ^[41].

• A Bomb kills the Yeti King at once; while it yells it stands still, which is the time to place one.
• Its yell is only set off by the player in front of it, so approaching from behind avoids the falling ice, but it turns to face a player behind it at its feet.
• The Whip hurts it only with the wind-up, behind the player's back, so it's best swung with his back to the Yeti King (facing it, the wind-up only reaches it from inside it).
• A thrown Rock does more than a Whip swing, as long as it stays inside the Yeti King.

• Its kill is added to the player's lifetime tally even in a custom level, which no other Ice Caves monster's is, while its damage to the player is skipped there ^{[32] [42] [15]}.

• Its touch event begins with a comment copied from the code most monsters share, which it replaces:

  // jumped on - oCaveman, oManTrap replaces this script with its own