Cave Leech
| “ | The Cave Leech is the reason for the long-running informational campaign across all DRG Space Rigs "Look Out, Look Up". It is an immobile, tentacled sack of grease found suspended from secluded ceilings within particularly dark caves, just waiting for anything meaty and unaware to walk past and become an unsuspecting snack. As Ranger Garfax says, says, and says again: "LOOK OUT. LOOK UP." |
| — Miner's Manual Description |
Cave Leeches are stationary enemies that spawn in ceilings. They appear as a wide, pink fleshy half-sphere attached to a small crevice in the ceiling, with three small sharp-clawed tentacles for tearing captured prey apart, and one larger central clawed tentacle meant for reaching down and gripping potential prey. The central tentacle has a small bioluminescent bulb in the middle that is visible when reaching down to grab a Dwarf. It also makes a quiet hissing sound that gets louder as it gets close, though it is still quiet enough to be easily missed. They generate with the cave while loading a mission, and do not respawn once killed. They generally spawn at a low rate, but their spawn rate is greatly increased by the Cave Leech Cluster Mutator.
When a cave leech finds & targets a dwarf, it will initially whisper a sound indicate that it has started reaching for that dwarf, but this sound is very quiet and is hard to hear when not paying attention. When the central tentacle are close to the targeted dwarf, the hissing sound will gets louder the closer it is to the dwarf. The bioluminescent bulb can be spotted in the dark when dealing with a reaching leech.
Pressing the [SHOUT] key ("X" by default) to shout for help will help your teammates find where you are, or will call Bosco to you.
Combat
Health and Armor
| Effective
Health Scaling |
Hazard Level | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal Mission | DD | EDD | |||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 5 | 5.5 | ||||
| Player Count |  to 
|
70 | 100 | 110 | 120 | 120 | 110 | 110 | 120 | 120 | 120 | ||
Attacks
- When a dwarf enters a Cave Leech's range, the central tentacle will extend towards the target at a moderate pace. The attack can be stalled by attacking the claw or the base of the leech. The claw will emit a distinct sound when close to the player. If the claw feels/touches a dwarf, it will pick them up and quickly lift them towards the ceiling. After the claw is fully retracted, the cave leech will begin to use its smaller tentacles to deal short bursts of heavy damage. Unlike a Mactera Grabber, Cave Leeches will not release their target until either the Cave Leech is killed or their target is downed. Once killed, the Cave Leech will lower the Dwarf back down to a certain point, often negating all fall damage. However, if a very elevated Cave Leech grabs a Dwarf, it's possible for the Dwarf to take significant fall damage, or even outright go down, due to the height at which they were dropped from once the Cave Leech is killed.
| DoT | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damage per Tick | Hazard Level | ||||||||||||
| Normal Mission | DD | EDD | |||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 5 | 5.5 | ||||
| Player Count |
|
5 | 7 | 12 | 20 | 28 | 12 | 15 | 23 | 28 | 30 | ||
|
5 | 8 | 13 | 21.5 | 30 | 13 | 16 | 24.5 | 30 | 32 | |||
|
5 | 9 | 14 | 23 | 32 | 14 | 17 | 26 | 32 | 34 | |||
|
|
5 | 10 | 15 | 25 | 34 | 15 | 18 | 28 | 34 | 36 | |||
| Details | |||||||||||||
| Damage Type | Typeless | ||||||||||||
| Interval | 1 s | ||||||||||||
Gallery
Cave Leech's early appearance
Trivia
- Cave Leeches resemble Barnacles from the Half-Life game series. The Cave Leech's internal name also used to be "Barnacle".
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