Swarm of flies

Swarm of flies
Location
Spawns in	3 to 4 (Sewers) 6 to 9 (Prison)
Walk speed	1 tile per turn
Defense
Health	80 HP
Dodge	5
Armor	0
Resistant to	Nothing
Immune to	Nothing
On damage	Nothing special
Attack
Range	Melee
Accuracy	12
Damage	1 to 4 (2.5 ±0.87)
Attack delay	1 turn per attack
On hit	Nothing special
Death
Max level (inclusive)	10 for XP 12 for drop
Experience	1 XP
Drops	Potion of Healing (1/(generation×5))

The Swarm of flies is a standard enemy that can be found in Sewers and Prison.

Description

	Swarm of flies
	The deadly swarm of flies buzzes angrily. Every non-magical attack will split it into two smaller but equally dangerous swarms.

Behavior

If a swarm is successfully hit with a regular weapon, if it then has at least 2 HP left, and if there is at least one free tile out of the 4 neighboring tiles, then it will split in half, each half evenly sharing the remaining HP (in case of odd HP, the original swarm will keep the extra indivisible HP). This could be very dangerous as the number of swarms could grow fast (but each swarm will have low HP). The swarms will try and surround the Hero/ine, hitting him/her from each side.

Special notes

They are flying enemies, so they can move over chasms and traps, without triggering them.

Drop detail

The generation parameter used in drop probability is calculated this way:

• The newly spawned swarm has generation 1,
• A swarm created by successfully hitting a swarm of generation N will have generation N+1.

Tips

• You can use Flies to farm Potions of Healing.
  This is an essential strategy to get enough potions to win the game. Think of every Fly as a valuable opportunity to get potions; and don't waste it by exterminating them without using a Farming strategy.
  Even if you are not very strong and the Flies are dangerous to you, you may still want to try farming instead of exterminating them.
  You may get enough Potions to make up for the damage you take, and without farming potions, you don't stand much of a chance to win anyway.
  • Each time you hit a Fly without exterminating it, it will split, if there is an empty space cardinally next to it (up, down, left and right, not diagonally). You want the Flies to split only up to its 3rd, or 4th, generation fly. Any further and your chances of getting a Potion of Healing plummets.
  • Unequip all weapons, so you can hit the Flies, doing minimal damage, and spawn more swarms.
    Make sure there is an empty space next to your target.
  • Always hit either the most-recently-hit or most-recently-spawned Fly that has an open space next to it, as these Flies have the lowest HP.
    This will let you exterminate the weakest Flies first, and keeps the number of Flies down, while not limiting the number of potions.
  • If you have Plate or Scale armor, you could simply stand in a large room and let the Flies surround you. Strong armor will make them do little or no damage.
    Even if your Strength is below the requirement for your armor, that won't matter if you don't move.
    However, the armor will get Degraded very quickly when being attacked by a large group of Flies, even if they are doing 0 damage to you.
  • To limit the number of Flies that can hit you and reduce armor Degradation, fight them in hallways.
    When you hit a Fly, the next Fly will spawn behind it. Back up a step, and the closer Fly will move toward you, but the ones behind it won't move (or will try to circle around another hallway), so you can hit the closer Fly again, and another will spawn behind it again.
    If you keep backing up to create a space behind the closest Fly, you can spawn large numbers of Flies but only one can attack you at a time.
  • Do not try farming Flies once the Hero/ine has exceeded level 12, since the Flies will no longer drop any potions.
  • Don't level up too much before fighting Goo. The lower experience level you are when you get to depth 6, the more time you can farm Flies before reaching level 13.
  • Although Flies can fly over chasms and traps, they will not spawn over them.
    Fighting Flies on a bridge, or in a room with many traps, will limit the "open spaces" they can spawn in.
  • To have a higher monster encounter, it is recommended that you go back and forth between an area where there's a lot of rooms.
  • Farming on depth 7 is recommended since the Flies have the highest chance to spawn in this depth. (Refer to the Dungeon stage page for the enemies' spawn chances.) However, if you want to keep farming when you hit level 12, you may want to go back to depth 6 because Gnoll Shamans have a much reduced spawn rate there, and they will be the only enemies giving you experience at that point.
• If you just want to exterminate the Flies quickly, try to approach them in a corridor, or behind a door.
  By doing this, the new Flies will spawn behind the first one and won’t be able to hit you.
  • Fire and poison are useful for exterminating Flies, since the new swarms spawn with the Burning or Poisoned debuffs, and the fire/poison damage doesn't cause splitting.
    Use a Blazing or Venomous weapon, Potions of Liquid Flame, a Wand of Firebolt, or Incendiary Darts.
  • Grim weapons can exterminate the Flies in one hit without splitting.
  • Magic attacks will not cause splitting.

History

Update	Change
0.4.1	Changed: Levitating enemies cannot be Rooted
1.7.0	Changed: Levitating enemies cannot fall into chasms anymore