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Difference between revisions of "23a:Giant cave spider"

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(I haven't tested this exact design myself, but based on my alterations to the 40d/0.31 farm it ought to work just fine)
 
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0x34E695 = BB 10 00 00 00 E9 DE B9 EF FF</nowiki>|Binary Patch Enclosed}}
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==Farming Silk==
 +
Various setups have been devised to harvest giant cave spider silk in large quantities. Working silk farms have a few traits in common:
 +
 +
# The spider must be aggressive towards its bait.  Tame spiders are aggressive toward invaders, while wild spiders are aggressive toward tame animals.
 +
# The spider must not be able to reach its bait - if it can, the bait (or spider) will die and no further silk will be generated. Spiders can destroy wooden doors but not stone or metal doors. They cannot pass through forbidden doors or doors that have been "tightly closed".
 +
# Web collection cannot occur in sight of wild animals or invaders; either the spider or its bait will interrupt collection.  Drawbridges work well to block line of sight in either case, as webs will not prevent them from raising.
 +
 +
 +
The following design should work reliably:{{verify}}
 +
{{diagram|spaces=yes|color=#888|\
 +
╔═══════════╗
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║+++++++++++║
 +
║+++++++++++║
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║+++++++++++║
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[#CCC][#888]┼++++++[#080]╥[#080]╞[#080]═[#080]═[#080]╡║
 +
║++++++[#080]║[#F00]╬+[#F00]╬[#CCC][#888]┼╣
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║[#CCC]I+++++[#080]║[#F00]╬[#CCC]g[#F00]╬[#CCC]S║
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║++++++[#080]║[#F00]╬[#F00]╬[#F00]╬[#F00]╬╣
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[#CCC][#888]┼++++++[#080]╨[#080]╞[#080]═[#080]═[#080]╡║
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║+++++++++++║
 +
║+++++++++++║
 +
║+++++++++++║
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╚═══════════╝
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}}
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# Dig out (and optionally smooth) a sufficiently large room (example shown is 11x11), excluding the gray "I" and the tiles containing the red [[fortification]]s. If any of these tiles end up containing ores or gems, you'll need to build the farm in a different location.
 +
# Dig out the gray "I" tile and quickly build a [[support]] in its place to prevent cave-ins.
 +
# Build the 3 green [[bridge]]s, all raising lengthwise to form long walls.
 +
# Construct a [[lever]] somewhere convenient in your fortress and link it to the 3 bridges.
 +
# Build a '''non-wooden''' [[door]] above the gray "S", then mark it as pet-impassable.
 +
# Built a restraint underneath the gray "S", then assign a '''tamed''' giant cave spider to it.
 +
# Once the spider is in place, unassign it from the restraint. If the spider remains inside the chamber, mark the door as Forbidden; if it escapes, try again.
 +
# Build a restraint underneath the gray "g", optionally linking it to a lever somewhere.  Assign a disarmed captured [[goblin]] soldier to the restraint (do '''not''' try to use a thief or a wild animal, as it will almost certainly escape before it reaches the restraint).
 +
# Pull the lever to raise the bridges.
 +
# Build the 2 [[door]]s on the left and link them to the lever, then pull the lever again.
 +
 +
At this point, the spider will begin blasting the goblin with webs, and most of the webs will fly through the fortifications and land on the floor to the left. Once enough webs have accumulated, pull the lever to open the chamber for collection and raise the 3 bridges to prevent the goblin from scaring your weavers away. Once all of the webs have been collected, pull the lever again to reseal the chamber and start the spider webbing again.
  
 
{{gamedata}}
 
{{gamedata}}

Latest revision as of 02:11, 22 June 2025

Giant cave spider

S

Portrait
Biome

Attributes

Building destroyer: Level 1

· No Stun · No Pain · Webs

Tamed Attributes
Pet value 2,500

· Exotic pet · Non-Breeding

Not hunting/war trainable

Age
Adult at: Birth
Max age: 20-30
Butchering returns

(Value multiplier ×10)

Bones None
Chunks 10
Meat 10
Fat 1
Skulls None
Skin Chitin
This article is about an older version of DF.

These eight-legged beasts are not your ordinary harmless cave spider (those were just treats for your cat). Giant cave spiders are bigger than horses and will make treats of cats, other dwarf pets and the average careless adventurer.

Unlike most monsters in the world, giant spiders rely on more than just brute force. Using sticky web projectiles, paralyzing venom and powerful jaws, the giant cave spider has multiple methods of incapacitating its prey before going in for the kill. They do not feel pain or fear and cannot be stopped unless killed. For this reason, it's suggested that you engage them at a distance, bring plenty of drunks to distract it in adventure mode or simply try to overwhelm it with a high number of attackers. Cases of non-legendary adventurers fighting giant cave spiders at close combat and winning the fight without sustaining major injuries have been reported, but it seems to be very rare.

Giant cave spiders in Fortress mode behave differently from other chasm creatures - once they emerge, they lay a set of hidden webs and remain in place until an unwary creature stumbles into the web. When a dwarf comes into contact with a giant cave spider web, it becomes stuck and unable to move (effectively paralyzed) for a given amount of time, after the duration of which it becomes unstuck and is free to move again, assuming it doesn't get eaten.

If you manage to collect a giant cave spider's webbing and use it to produce silk, the resulting thread is worth ten times the value of cave spider silk, making it far more valuable than any other in the game.

Due to a bug, hidden webs placed by giant cave spiders may be placed on the wrong Z-level, causing them to not appear at all. The following patch for version 0.23.130.23a fixes this:


Farming Silk[edit]

Various setups have been devised to harvest giant cave spider silk in large quantities. Working silk farms have a few traits in common:

  1. The spider must be aggressive towards its bait. Tame spiders are aggressive toward invaders, while wild spiders are aggressive toward tame animals.
  2. The spider must not be able to reach its bait - if it can, the bait (or spider) will die and no further silk will be generated. Spiders can destroy wooden doors but not stone or metal doors. They cannot pass through forbidden doors or doors that have been "tightly closed".
  3. Web collection cannot occur in sight of wild animals or invaders; either the spider or its bait will interrupt collection. Drawbridges work well to block line of sight in either case, as webs will not prevent them from raising.


The following design should work reliably:[Verify]

+ + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + +
+ + + + + + +
I + + + + + g S
+ + + + + +
+ + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + +
  1. Dig out (and optionally smooth) a sufficiently large room (example shown is 11x11), excluding the gray "I" and the tiles containing the red fortifications. If any of these tiles end up containing ores or gems, you'll need to build the farm in a different location.
  2. Dig out the gray "I" tile and quickly build a support in its place to prevent cave-ins.
  3. Build the 3 green bridges, all raising lengthwise to form long walls.
  4. Construct a lever somewhere convenient in your fortress and link it to the 3 bridges.
  5. Build a non-wooden door above the gray "S", then mark it as pet-impassable.
  6. Built a restraint underneath the gray "S", then assign a tamed giant cave spider to it.
  7. Once the spider is in place, unassign it from the restraint. If the spider remains inside the chamber, mark the door as Forbidden; if it escapes, try again.
  8. Build a restraint underneath the gray "g", optionally linking it to a lever somewhere. Assign a disarmed captured goblin soldier to the restraint (do not try to use a thief or a wild animal, as it will almost certainly escape before it reaches the restraint).
  9. Pull the lever to raise the bridges.
  10. Build the 2 doors on the left and link them to the lever, then pull the lever again.

At this point, the spider will begin blasting the goblin with webs, and most of the webs will fly through the fortifications and land on the floor to the left. Once enough webs have accumulated, pull the lever to open the chamber for collection and raise the 3 bridges to prevent the goblin from scaring your weavers away. Once all of the webs have been collected, pull the lever again to reseal the chamber and start the spider webbing again.

[show]
Races
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Animals
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Humanoids
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Rating 23a:Giant cave spider