What determines whether spike balls will implode?

[PHJF]

Sometimes these stupid invulnerable things just die on their own while bouncing around. One just left me a nice piece of chicken while doing so.

[Schein]

I think they vanish after a set value of bounces, or maybe after some rapid bounces. I am not sure which of those it is, but I think it is the first one. On long travel routes they likely will never implode; on short ways u may can duck them out

[THEAETIK]

Mirror damage will kill them and fire traps.

[Schein]

yeah that also works, but that would involve dmg to oneself

[Nani]

It seems as if some spiketors will vanish if certain furniture is destroyed, though I have no idea if that's merely a coincidence or if there really are some spiketors that are connected to breakables. The spikeballs from the chaintors on the other hand are all temporary and will vanish after some time.

[Ionizer]

I've certainly seen non-chaintor spikeballs explode for no reason. I've also seen them blow up hitting a doorway to another room, although that may be coincidence.

[Draconic Creature]

Originally posted by Ionizer:

I've certainly seen non-chaintor spikeballs explode for no reason. I've also seen them blow up hitting a doorway to another room, although that may be coincidence.

I've seen that happen a few times and a constant in that is that it always happens after you can hear it do tons of rapid bounces, which probably drains all it's HP instantly.

[CoolJosh3k .com]

I am pretty sure it is due to a work-around, implemented by the programmer. Due to a bug with the colision detection logic, a an entity may become stuck in a wall. If the entity is a spike ball, it will be killed to prevent much worse things from happening (game freeze or massive fps drop).

[ignis]

They self-destruct after collisions with walls with less than one second delay between.

[CoolJosh3k .com]

Originally posted by ignisru:

They self-destruct after 14 collisions with walls with less than one second delay between.

It is probably incase they get stuck in dwarf holes.

[Zatos]

Interesting.

[jethroSkull]

Ive noticed that, as many people are mentioning, they explode after rapid bounces or when they are stuck. But I've also noticed them just explode in free air in their regular travel path sometimes. As one other person mentioned I've noticed sometimes they pop when you destory furniture, although that may just be a coinsidence

[Kazeto]

They get destroyed if they bounce rapidly enough times—added by the developers specifically so that there wouldn't be situations where a corridor is blocked by a spiked ball and you can't avoid getting hit—or when they are damaged by using refleced damage because they are normal enemies albeit ones that can't be hit by normal attacks.

That being said, it's possible for the spiked balls' collision detection to glitch out when they hit the entrance or spikes, in which case they behave as if stuck in a wall, throw the bounce counter over the roof, and disappear as if on their own. But it's because the game thinks they are bouncing really quickly (due to the aforementioned collision detection weirdness) and removes ... well, kills, them.

[byrnsey24]

This can actually be exploited if you're careful. With Vampirisim/Drain, when the spikeballs poof, you get the health/mana just like you would with a kill.

When fighting chaintor/tex/what have you, make sure you land the killing blow when the spike(s) are in the wall.

Collision detection will implode them and you'll get 2-3 X the rewards for a kill.