Enemy field guide

How to handle each pest that has its own tricks. Every tip below is the same text as on that enemy's page, which also has the numbers and sources.

#Aphid

• Aphids arrive while enemy damage is at its lowest: on Normal the damage multiplier is about ×0.22 at the start and ×0.35 at 5:00 (see Enemy scaling), so a touch costs Tibo about 1 HP or less before armor. You can afford to walk through a thin line of them to reach a pickup.
• They have no mass, so any weapon with knockback pushes them the full distance.

#Beetle Brood

• Because the brood hatch next to the Queen, staying at range keeps each new batch at a distance. Area weapons aimed at the Queen can catch the brood as they appear.
• The supply only stops when the Queen dies, so it usually pays to focus her down rather than chase brood that will despawn anyway.

#Blight Spore

• A ring of six spreads out as it travels, so the gaps are widest far from the spore. Its strafing range of about 84 units is close enough that moving in to kill it is often safer than dodging repeated volleys.
• Killing it during the telegraph cancels the volley, so fast single-target weapons do well against it.
• Only one bullet in each ring is aimed at Tibo. A small sideways step beats the aimed bullet; the other five fly off in other directions.

#Bog Slime

• At speed 26 a Bog Slime cannot keep up with a walking Tibo, so it is easy to kite slimes into a clump for area weapons.
• Weapons that kill an Aphid in one hit may need two for a Bog Slime early on, which can slow down clearing in the swamp biomes.

#Bog Toad

• Step sideways during the half-second windup. At Tibo's base speed of 62 that is about 31 units, far more than the 13 units of combined body radius the dash needs to connect.
• After a missed dash the toad ends up at least 30 units past you with 1.6 s before it can charge again. That is a good moment to hit it with short-range weapons.
• In Mash Swamp every tier-3 spawn is a toad, so mid-run waves there arrive as a stream of charges rather than a mixed crowd.

#Bowling Ball

• A charge runs 156 units and starts within 120, so it ends at least 36 units past where Tibo stood. A sideways step during the windup leaves the ball rolling away with its charge on cooldown.
• Heavy mass makes knockback weapons poor at keeping balls away. Damage is a better answer.
• During Strike the balls come from all sides at once. Since the walking speed is only 26, moving steadily in one direction tends to string them out behind Tibo, so their charges come one after another rather than together.

#Bowling Pin

• Pins come mixed with Crumb Ants, which are faster (46) but have only 6 HP. The ants reach Tibo first, and the pins arrive later as a slower second line.
• Knockback weapons push pins less far than the ants beside them, so expect pins to bunch up close to Tibo.

#Cave Grub

• Grubs take about three times as much damage to kill as the Compost Maggots that make up the caves' tier-1 spawns. When the mix shifts towards grubs around 5:00, weapons that were one-shotting maggots may stop keeping up.
• At speed 32 they are about half as fast as Tibo, so walking away while your weapons work is usually safe.

#Compost Maggot

• Maggots are slow and weak, so the early caves are a comfortable place to collect XP. The real step up comes when Cave Grubs, with three times the HP, take over the spawns.

#Crumb Ant

• Ants reach Tibo well before their slower biome partners (Oil Drips and Bowling Pins move at 30). Expect them to arrive first in any early wave.
• With so little HP (about 4 at the start of a Normal run), weapons that fire often or pierce tend to clear ants better than slow, heavy hitters.

#Dumpster Raccoon

• Sidestep during the windup. The dash cannot turn, and it ends at least 30 units past Tibo's old position.
• At the drive-thru the raccoons come mixed with fast Fry Flies (speed 54). Dodging a charge can steer Tibo into the flies, so leave yourself room on the side you step to.

#Field Crow

• Because crows walk at 40, they recover the distance after a missed dive faster than slower chargers do. Their 1.6 s cooldown is the window to hit them.
• A sideways step during the windup is enough to dodge, since the dive cannot turn. Watch for several crows winding up at once from different directions.
• Knockback works well on crows, which resist only 20% of it, and buys time between their dives.

#Field Rat

• Outrunning rats takes a long time: at base speed Tibo gains only 12 units per second on them, and less once curse or overtime speeds pests up. Killing them is usually better than trying to kite.
• When a Harvest Mouse dies, its three rats start right on top of where it fell, already close to Tibo if it was killed up close. Killing mice at range gives you time to deal with the rats.

#Frost Flea

• Fleas move at about two-thirds of Tibo's base speed. Walking in a wide circle keeps them trailing behind in a group, where area weapons can hit many at once.

#Fry Fly

• At 54 against Tibo's base 62, Fry Flies are hard to shake off, and in the desert they tend to reach Tibo ahead of the rest of a wave.
• Their low HP makes them a good fit for fast-firing or homing weapons. Knockback is fully effective but only buys a moment, given their speed.

#Garden Slug

• At about a third of Tibo's base speed, slugs pose little threat to a Tibo who keeps moving. The danger is getting boxed in by a slow crowd that takes a long time to clear.
• With Bog Slimes and Ketchup Drops at tier 1, Mash Swamp's early game is slow and tanky: lots of HP to chew through, but little that can catch Tibo.

#Golden Scarab

• Tibo's base speed of 62 beats the scarab's 40, so a straight chase closes the gap by about 22 units per second. When the event fires, head for it at once: 25 s is not much time at 3:00, when the scarab has about 230 HP.
• Weapons that hit many times pay out more gold along the way, because the coin roll happens on every hit.
• Its mass of 0.5 halves knockback, but knockback still pushes it away from Tibo. Heavy-knockback weapons can work against you during the chase.

#Grease Fiend

• Its body is large: the dash connects if its path passes within 14 units of Tibo's centre (radius 9 + Tibo's 6, less 1). Sidestep early and fully during the windup rather than at the last moment.
• Several fiends charging from different sides is the main danger in overtime here. Keep moving so that they come from one direction rather than surrounding Tibo.
• A dash starts within 130 units and runs about 169, so a fiend that misses ends up at least 39 units past Tibo. Use the 1.6 s cooldown to hit it.

#Gull Flock

• The band is sparse. Spread over 280 units, the 24 gulls put on average about 1.5 into the 18-unit lane that hits a standing Tibo, so a Lunch Rush usually costs a hit or two, not 24.
• Moving sideways across the flock's path while it passes sweeps Tibo through more lanes. Standing still, or moving parallel to the flight line, keeps the lane narrow.
• Any area or piercing weapon kills gulls quickly, but they are worth very little XP, so there is no need to chase them.

#Harvest Mouse

• Plan for the rats as part of the kill. Field Rats run at 50, so a mouse killed next to Tibo puts three fast attackers on top of Tibo at once. Killing mice at range gives time to deal with the split.
• Area damage around the spot where a mouse dies hits all three rats while they are still bunched together.

#Hay Bale

• Simply walk out. On Normal the 11 bales start about 97 units apart, centre to centre. A bale touches Tibo within 13 units (8 + 6, less 1), so that leaves a gap of roughly 70 units to pass through. On Nightmare the gaps start at only about 23 units and shrink as the ring closes, so leave early.
• Once Tibo is outside, the bales keep crawling towards the old centre and ignore Tibo. They are only a problem if Tibo walks into them.
• Breaking a bale costs a lot of damage for 3 XP, and they vanish on their own after 22 s, so destroying them is rarely worth it unless one blocks the only way out.

#Ice Imp

• The fan is locked in when the wind-up starts, so moving sideways during and after the wind-up usually takes Tibo out of it. Standing still or running straight towards or away from the imp keeps him in its line of fire.
• Because the imp stops approaching at about 91 units and circles, short-range auras and melee weapons rarely reach it. Targeted or long-range weapons are the better answer.
• Killing an imp during its 0.5 s wind-up removes that volley, so a sudden burst of damage on a nearby imp prevents a hit as well as killing it.

#Ketchup Drop

• At speed 30 it is less than half Tibo's base speed of 62, so it only becomes a problem in numbers. In Ketchup Bog, keep an eye on the burning ketchup puddles (“Puddles of ketchup burn and slow.”) as well.

#Lint Bunny

• It is frail, so its threat is numbers rather than any single bunny. In the Laundromat it can pay to sweep them up for the extra gold.

#Little Grey

• It is frail; its threat is numbers. When Tibo first enters a Crop Circle, the Lost Saucer event also starts, and the saucer is worth chasing before it escapes.

#Lost Saucer

• Many fast hits beat a few big ones, because each hit rolls separately for its 2-gold coin.
• Chase it at once: it starts only 40 units away, and while Tibo stays close it can only manage speed 40 against his 62.
• Knockback can push it further away; weapons without knockback keep it in reach.

#Maggot

• Maggots pay almost nothing, so they are best treated as an obstacle rather than an XP source. Staying away from the Titan when the ring of circles appears keeps Tibo from being surrounded the moment they hatch.
• At speed 50 they are close to Tibo's 62, so they are hard to shake off, but they all expire 40 s after hatching.

#Mole

• It is easy to outwalk, and the danger is getting boxed in by a slow wall of them. Keep moving and don't rely on knockback to hold them off.

#Mud Golem

• Its base speed of 28 is far below Tibo's 62. Standard's late-game curve does not add overtime speed growth, but curse, elite bonuses and terrain can still change the chase (see Enemy scaling).
• Knockback barely moves it; damage per second matters more than crowd control here.

#Oil Drip

• At speed 30 it is less than half Tibo's base speed of 62. The faster Crumb Ants (speed 46) next to it tend to reach Tibo first.

#Parking Lot Gull

• Its speed means it catches up with a retreating Tibo sooner than other tier-1 pests, but at 7 HP it is the easiest of them to kill.

#Potato Beetle

• On its own it is not dangerous. With more than twice the HP of the tier-1 pests, it is where weak early weapons first start to need two or more hits per kill.

#Reset Zombie

• At speed 21 it is about a third of Tibo's base speed, so it only catches Tibo when he is boxed in. In a normal run, the faster Field Crows beside it tend to reach Tibo first.

#Sand Crab

• The dash direction is fixed at the start of the wind-up, so stepping sideways during the 0.5 s pause makes it miss.
• The dash carries it about 117 units, past where Tibo stood. Afterwards it has a 1.6 s cooldown and is just a slow walker, a good moment to finish it.

#Sizzle Imp

• Killing it before it gets within 18 units is the cleanest answer: 30 HP is low, and you keep the XP.
• Once the fuse is lit, walking straight away is usually enough. Tibo's base speed is 62, so in 0.6 s he covers about 37 units while the imp creeps forward at about 10 units per second. A dash (48 units) also clears the blast.
• Standing still in a crowd is risky here: several imps can light their fuses together and the blasts stack.

#Snow Mold

• Weapons that hit an area or pierce clean up the pieces well, because they appear together right where the mold died.
• Expect each mold to come back as two smaller pests; killing one right next to Tibo puts the pieces in contact range.

#Sock Pile

• Each pile turns into three more pests, so killing piles at a distance gives the bunnies time to be caught by area weapons before they reach Tibo.

#Spittlebug

• Move across the pair's path and leave room for the orbit around it; the bubbles no longer stay on a single straight line.
• At 18 HP it rarely needs special attention; the shots matter mostly when several bugs fire at once.

#Sprout Mite

• With 8 base HP (about 5 at the start of a Normal run, after the ×0.65 pest HP multiplier), most weapons kill it in one or two hits. Its threat is numbers: the opening wave rows pick tier 1 for 8 of every 9 spawns.

#Fry Fly Swarm

• The band is about 240 units wide and every fly holds its course, so moving across its path, not away from it, gets Tibo out fastest.
• If Tibo is caught inside it, the flies only touch him as they pass. At speed 100 they are gone within seconds.

#Tomato Leech

• It has the same HP and damage as the Potato Beetle and is slightly faster. Nothing about it needs special handling; watch the bog's burning puddles while dodging it.

#Wireworm Larva

• Treat it like the Potato Beetle beside it. Peel Forest's brambles also hurt Tibo (“Thorny brambles scratch.”), so watch where kiting takes him.