I struggle with spider nests... help.

[vinnland]

So, even with good gear, it takes 2-3 hits to kill 1 spider. And in a nest, somethings I have 7-8 run at me.

Killing them is basically waiting for them to re spawn, and even if I rush the rests, it takes too long to break even one. And there are usually 4-6 nests.

So how do ya'll deal with these incredibly creep nests?

Also... is there a payoff for killing nests?

[Never Jhonsen]

Locusts are a pain in the early game  I recommend on leaving them be, and choosing a different direction. They spawn frequently, Locusts drop nothing, and their nests take forever to break whilst dropping pocket change.

Iron plate is what I use to brute force my way in to destroying their nests. They'll still tackle you and push you about, but you should be able to clear an area and still have over 1/2 your health. Also, when fighting off a hoard of them, don't stand in one place, as the dead bodies will pile up and shield the alive ones.

[HalfAxd]

I've had "some" success early game by poling up with dirt from a good distance away and building a shelf over to arms reach of the nest.  The locusts can climb so you may need to back fill behind you to keep them away.  Once close, use your pick to break the nest... they will fall out to the ground while you stay perched near the ceiling on your scaffold. 

Pretty silly but it works for those of us who run around without armor for a lot of the game. 

Enjoy

[LadyWYT]

2 hours ago, vinnland said:

Also... is there a payoff for killing nests?

Aside from the locusts not being able to spawn there anymore, nests can drop things such as rope, coal(I think), metal parts, and sometimes a Jonas part, is my understanding.

 

2 hours ago, vinnland said:

So, even with good gear, it takes 2-3 hits to kill 1 spider. And in a nest, somethings I have 7-8 run at me.

Killing them is basically waiting for them to re spawn, and even if I rush the rests, it takes too long to break even one. And there are usually 4-6 nests.

So how do ya'll deal with these incredibly creep nests?

Blackguard, if armed with a decent weapon, will one-shot locusts--only the sawblades are tough enough to withstand multiple hits--and also be able to break the nests faster thanks to the increased mining speed. If you aren't a Blackguard yourself but are playing multiplayer, it doesn't hurt to befriend the local Blackguard and take them with you to handle the little buggers...although really, having a friend or two helps anyway regardless of class.

Otherwise, I would make sure you're tackling locust nests during periods of low rift activity, just to make sure you're not getting other monsters to dogpile you as well when dealing with them. Picking some of the locusts off at range can help, but the primary danger of locusts is their numbers and fast spawn time. They aren't very durable and don't hit all that hard, but the swarm itself can be troublesome. 

As others have already noted, it helps if you can stay out of the locusts' way while breaking the nest; blocking off the locusts' path or using ladders/nerdpoles will limit their access to you, while allowing you to deal with the nest and the few locusts that get through more easily. Also make sure that you are using a pickaxe to break the nest, as that tool should help you break the nest faster.

[Never Jhonsen]

3 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

[...] and sometimes a Jonas part [...]

That I didn't know  

This would change my opinion from "Pocket change" to a gold mine

[LadyWYT]

1 minute ago, Never Jhonsen said:

That I didn't know  

This would change my opinion from "Pocket change" to a gold mine

Bells and sawblade locusts can drop them too, I think, and I think the drop rates are similar. It's a fairly rare drop, but it can be worth it to hunt stuff like that if you're after Jonas parts in particular. 

[Bruno Willis]

4 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Bells and sawblade locusts can drop them too, I think, and I think the drop rates are similar. It's a fairly rare drop, but it can be worth it to hunt stuff like that if you're after Jonas parts in particular. 

Now that I'm geared up enough to take them on, finding some locust nests feels almost as good as finding ruins. 

[vinnland]

9 hours ago, HalfAxd said:

I've had "some" success early game by poling up with dirt from a good distance away and building a shelf over to arms reach of the nest.  The locusts can climb so you may need to back fill behind you to keep them away.  Once close, use your pick to break the nest... they will fall out to the ground while you stay perched near the ceiling on your scaffold. 

Pretty silly but it works for those of us who run around without armor for a lot of the game. 

Enjoy

Im trying to visualize this but cannot. So you nerd pole up, but spiders climb, so how do you protect your sides?

[vinnland]

1 hour ago, Bruno Willis said:

Now that I'm geared up enough to take them on, finding some locust nests feels almost as good as finding ruins. 

Interesting, this is because of the jones parts? im not far enough to understand why they are useful yet.

[LadyWYT]

3 minutes ago, vinnland said:

Interesting, this is because of the jones parts? im not far enough to understand why they are useful yet.

Jonas parts are used to build some useful late game tech, although how useful they are might be relative to player preference. Examples include a night vision mask, a single-use gizmo that can teleport you home, a gizmo that can teleport you to your last death point, a music player, and a contraption that zaps nearby rifts closed. While that may seem like a lot, late game tech is still very much an undeveloped portion of the game, so the actual use of Jonas parts is currently quite limited. However, given how rare they are, and the high likelihood of them being much more useful in the future, makes them valuable finds when you do run across them.

[Michael Gates]

I go after locust nests with a steel chain body and gambo hat & pants, and they're not much more than an annoyance with that equipped. Bronze spear or steel falx kills 'em in two whacks. As LadyWYT says, the nests drop Jonas parts, I usually get one from ... I'd say 20% of nests? So, about one per nest-complex. They also often guard translocators, which gives you something to do with the metal parts that drop from the nests.

Well worth the trouble, once it's just "trouble" instead of "AAAA NO HALP *crunch rip tear* "

[Echo Weaver]

I don't have tons of experience with locust nests. I last one I took out had two nests. I stayed on the edge of their aggro range and killed them in ones and twos. Then I could run in and smash the nests before they respawned. This is not the standard strategy?

[Michael Gates]

You're getting smaller nests than I usually do-- I keep seeing this one five-room complex with a nest or two in each room. You still take the same approach with it, though!

[Thorfinn]

13 hours ago, vinnland said:

So you nerd pole up, but spiders climb, so how do you protect your sides?

At a guess, remove the pole below you. Alternatively you could pole up and build a walkway, then remove the walkway behind you as you build.

Mostly, I don't bother. The cave beyond them is randomly generated. You might as well go somewhere else that is also randomly generated that's not going to consume durability from your stuff.

[Veronica Hohenheim]

On 9/25/2025 at 4:12 PM, Never Jhonsen said:

Locusts are a pain in the early game  I recommend on leaving them be, and choosing a different direction. They spawn frequently, Locusts drop nothing, and their nests take forever to break whilst dropping pocket change.

Iron plate is what I use to brute force my way in to destroying their nests. They'll still tackle you and push you about, but you should be able to clear an area and still have over 1/2 your health. Also, when fighting off a hoard of them, don't stand in one place, as the dead bodies will pile up and shield the alive ones.

how do u have all those links under ur every post.It looks embeded rather then u copy paste each time.How did u do it ?

[Never Jhonsen]

4 minutes ago, Veronica Hohenheim said:

how do u have all those links under ur every post.

that is my forum signature

You can edit it in your settings. Click on your name in the top right corner, hit "Profile", find "Account Settings" near the top right corner on your profile banner, and then navigate to "Signature" on the left menu. You can also click HERE to get to that same screen

Edited September 26, 2025 by Never Jhonsen
cnahged "our name" to "your name"

[Veronica Hohenheim]

9 minutes ago, Never Jhonsen said:

that is my forum signature

You can edit it in your settings. Click on your name in the top right corner, hit "Profile", find "Account Settings" near the top right corner on your profile banner, and then navigate to "Signature" on the left menu. You can also click HERE to get to that same screen

I see.I have no use for it but it looks cool.

[Veronica Hohenheim]

10 minutes ago, Never Jhonsen said:

that is my forum signature

You can edit it in your settings. Click on your name in the top right corner, hit "Profile", find "Account Settings" near the top right corner on your profile banner, and then navigate to "Signature" on the left menu. You can also click HERE to get to that same screen

what abt the attachment limit ? Does it ever grow ? Do I need to keep deleting stuff to add photos to my posts ?

[Never Jhonsen]

4 minutes ago, Veronica Hohenheim said:

what abt the attachment limit ? Does it ever grow ? Do I need to keep deleting stuff to add photos to my posts ?

I don't know if it grows, and I haven't reached the limit yet to need to start deleting attachments.

[LadyWYT]

4 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

I don't have tons of experience with locust nests. I last one I took out had two nests. I stayed on the edge of their aggro range and killed them in ones and twos. Then I could run in and smash the nests before they respawned. This is not the standard strategy?

I think it's part of the standard strategies. The main strength of locusts is their numbers; they aren't very strong individually but can quickly overwhelm a player just by swarming.

 

30 minutes ago, Veronica Hohenheim said:

what abt the attachment limit ? Does it ever grow ? Do I need to keep deleting stuff to add photos to my posts ?

The attachment limit does not grow, to my knowledge, so you will need to check it occasionally and clean out older pictures. How often you need to do this depends on how often you post pictures, and what size those files are.

[Echo Weaver]

49 minutes ago, Never Jhonsen said:

that is my forum signature

You have a forum signature? I don't see it. Is there some setting I need to be able to see forum sigs? 

[LadyWYT]

3 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

You have a forum signature? I don't see it. Is there some setting I need to be able to see forum sigs? 

Yeah--if you go into Account Settings and the Signature tab, there's a toggle that determines whether or not you can see other users' signatures.

[Echo Weaver]

8 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Yeah--if you go into Account Settings and the Signature tab, there's a toggle that determines whether or not you can see other users' signatures.

Huh. It looks like folks who don't know about sigs could see them. I wonder why it was turned off for me. 

@Never Jhonsen seems to be one of the few with a sig. I don't really have anything to put in one... except maybe a link to my stuff on ModDB. That's a thought. (Holy threadjack, Batman!) Most of my online presence is for a different game 

Edited September 26, 2025 by Echo Weaver

[Never Jhonsen]

51 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

You have a forum signature? I don't see it. Is there some setting I need to be able to see forum sigs? 

This is not the first time a new user has asked me about it

I think it used to be disabled by default, but then got changed to be enabled by default; I've seen a lotta older people say it's not there, but newer people see them. I'm also pretty sure I had to enable it myself

[HalfAxd]

4 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

At a guess, remove the pole below you. Alternatively you could pole up and build a walkway, then remove the walkway behind you as you build.

 

Very much this...  essentially I'm building my own floor and boxing myself in...  (building a room)  It also helps deal with bowtorn that might be around.  Again, I do this when I'm not wearing armor, which is much of the early game for me.

On a similar note...  I wall off sections of caves that I've explored so I'm not visited by spawns from the abyss, while exploring other branches of the cave.