Tips for killing spiders for Gossamer

[Det. Dave Starsky]

I need gossamer to make silk for the crossbow I tried fighting spiders in a cave but they are so tough to kill

Any tips on how to ?
I saw an old yt vid from earlier in the year of a guy blocking the spider spitting venom using his shield but i have a shield but it doesnt help.
I dont know how to raise it to block the venom.
Both left and right mouse buttons swing the sword but the shield doesnt help me ???

[NarCiuss]

Run into cave and ignore spiders. Grab gossamer off of the ground and run out. Profit.

[Game On]

Both left and right mouse buttons swing the sword? Reset your keybinds, set your left mouse button to left attack, when you hold it down, it blocks. Try kiting them to a perch and shooting them with a bow. Also, some caves have spider eggs on the walls you can harvest.

[Don't kill me]

I believe crossbows are bugged?
The first shot will fire, the second shot will always make the shooting animation but no bolt will come out.

I always kite spiders as JJdancer suggested. Then use a bow

[Ash the Perpetually Pained]

I had some luck dodging from side to side and shooting with a regular bow and flinthead arrows.

[MudCraw1er]

Go after gray spiders just east of the summoning place as you enter the desert from south. They are much easier to kill at low levels.

[Significantly Wasted]

There are loads of easy spiders near the pirateship, near the Mitra NPC.

[Solomon Hawk]

If you're in SP mode, one thing you can do to mitigate the outrageous damage spiders deal is adjusting how much they do and take vs how much you take and dish out. Not only that, spiders had become insanely tough which doesn't sit right with me anyway because aside from their chitin covered legs, head and carapace, they have a soft body which has to be vulnerable to damage.
After making basic changes (along with changing the spawn rate), I could two-shot most spiders with flinthead arrows in *Skittering Cavern.
Going in that cavern still causes me anxiety even after the changes because I know those creatures can still strip and kill me.
One thing for sure that I discovered is that a crossbow (although powerful) is nearly useless in places like that since they reload so slow compared to a hunting bow. (So trying to use a crossbow will get you killed).

*Skittering Cavern: A cavern full of spiders which has a motherload of gossamer laying around that can be harvested by picking it up. (kill the spiders but don't harvest them).

You'll still need silk for the Hyrkanian and Ancient bows.

[kjbrglt23]

As others have said, go to the region a bit south of the black galleon, up in the cliffs. There are black spiders that die in 2 hits (flawless hyrk bow with iron arrows). East of there is the mitra shrine and deathwhisper ruin, with grey spiders that die with just 1 hit. Target these ones. Use steel pickaxe on the carcasses.

The green spiders are too difficult /time consuming if you're solo. With 2+ people it is somewhat easy to clear out skittering cavern and the other 2 caves near priestkings retreat.

Shield does block the spit but you need to have it up constantly. Makes it hard to fight. We had one blocker with shield who drew the spiders and another guy go in with an axe and hack them up while they were spitting at the shield bearer. Also had 2 archers behind for support. This was extremely effective and we easily cleared these caves.

But solo, go for the easiesr ones. I can get a full stack of silk from taking a walk in the hills near there :-)

[Casual Overload Gaming]

I'm persoanlly a huge fan of building hunting platforms or houses/bases that I can hunt from. Up the right fork of the river that dumps into the starter lake there are a ton of spiders out in the open. There's a small little Mitra shrine there, right across from the Arena (if I remember the name correctly). I steer clear of caves, personally. Build a small structure that you can get up but they can't. I usually accomplish this by placing the first floor a couple feet above ground level, so I can easily hop up without stairs. Then, build a fence around the outside. The fence will keep the spiders from hitting you with poison unless they're above you, and, if you have walls and a door, you can always run inside to heal.

On the note of the shiled: It does work. As someone else mentioned, change your keybind. Set your right mouse to block.

One of the tricks with spiders is to make sure you get them alone. Too often they gang rape you and your're blocking the one in front but taking poison from the one or three behind you. Also, try to back them into a corner; they'll be less effective. I use a simple bow for pulling spiders and for killing them from my house. I'm thinking I might just stay with the simple bow. It works well enough for killing everything and doesn't require silkk to repair. But, I find a pike works well to kill things from the house, too - after you draw them in.

If you do build hunting platforms to keep you safe, make them at least 4x4, preferrably bigger. Rhinos and elephants have longer reaches.

How does one post a picture here? You have to host it elsewhere and link it?

[cattibria]

Originally posted by Calean:

I'm persoanlly a huge fan of building hunting platforms or houses/bases that I can hunt from. Up the right fork of the river that dumps into the starter lake there are a ton of spiders out in the open. There's a small little Mitra shrine there, right across from the Arena (if I remember the name correctly). I steer clear of caves, personally. Build a small structure that you can get up but they can't. I usually accomplish this by placing the first floor a couple feet above ground level, so I can easily hop up without stairs. Then, build a fence around the outside. The fence will keep the spiders from hitting you with poison unless they're above you, and, if you have walls and a door, you can always run inside to heal.

On the note of the shiled: It does work. As someone else mentioned, change your keybind. Set your right mouse to block.

One of the tricks with spiders is to make sure you get them alone. Too often they gang rape you and your're blocking the one in front but taking poison from the one or three behind you. Also, try to back them into a corner; they'll be less effective. I use a simple bow for pulling spiders and for killing them from my house. I'm thinking I might just stay with the simple bow. It works well enough for killing everything and doesn't require silkk to repair. But, I find a pike works well to kill things from the house, too - after you draw them in.

If you do build hunting platforms to keep you safe, make them at least 4x4, preferrably bigger. Rhinos and elephants have longer reaches.

How does one post a picture here? You have to host it elsewhere and link it?

Hit F12 to screen shot it through Steam. Go to your content and upload the screen on the screen shots tab. Refresh the screen shots to see it. Right click and copy the link. Paste it to your comments.

[Casual Overload Gaming]

Thanks, Steitsch!

[haevlyn]

The black spiders near the pirate ship have really low hit points. There are approximately 15-20 spiders in a fairly easy to farm spot on about a 15 minute respawn time. With a starmetal hatchet i can easily get 80-120 gossamer from them.

Ancient Bow - 0 Accuracy - 2 snake arrows and they die
Hyrkanian Bow - 0 Accuracy - 3 snake arrows and they die
Hunting Bow - 0 Accuracy - i think it was 5 arrows so slightly trickier.

Shields are a serious faff and i've never had a problem killing these spiders, starting from about level 17 when i reach the area to set up my base.

[Barnes]

Originally posted by Chris:

The black spiders near the pirate ship have really low hit points. There are approximately 15-20 spiders in a fairly easy to farm spot on about a 15 minute respawn time. With a starmetal hatchet i can easily get 80-120 gossamer from them.

Ancient Bow - 0 Accuracy - 2 snake arrows and they die
Hyrkanian Bow - 0 Accuracy - 3 snake arrows and they die
Hunting Bow - 0 Accuracy - i think it was 5 arrows so slightly trickier.

Shields are a serious faff and i've never had a problem killing these spiders, starting from about level 17 when i reach the area to set up my base.

+1

The great benefit is the sooner you get to this area the sooner you get Mitra. I also suggest the pike of any flavor, on the off-chance you run out of arrows in multi-aggro.

[AGx-07_162]

I have one tip for killing just about everything in the game right now, save for the largest of creatures like Rhinos, Mammoths, Elephants, and the like:

Grab enough stone and wood to build a single piece of foundation, stand on it, and swing down (easier in 1st person view). Every small mob in the game can't hit you and those that probably should be able to (like Exiles wielding 2H weapons, just can't for some reason). If you can build one outside the cave, you can most likely lure the spiders out and do this to them. Some enemies follow you a lot longer than others, even among the same type, so I don't know if the deepest spiders will follow you all the way out of the cave but you can try this.

As for a legit method, heavy armor and a good sword works for me. I just run right up to them and start swinging. They will always try to back away. I'm agreeing with an above poster, once you get them in a corner, they seem less effective. They don't spit as much and don't swing a lot either. This is probably an AI bug but it'll work for the time being. Dont dodge unless you're outnumbered. Just tank them and swing.

[forcecomdr]

1: find a spider cave
2: Just outside build a small area with fence borders and an elevated section with fences on top
3: run into cave and agro spiders, drag them out, jump over the fence and go up top
4: kill them without being hit (fence is low enough to shoot over but blocks their poison shots)
5: profit!

Just keep it small and public so anyone can use it.