Home. Shamogu.

Last update: 2026-03-22 (WORK IN PROGRESS).

This manual contains very similar content to the in-game help but in html form, for convenience. It also contains bonus sections with lists of comestibles, menhirs, runes, spirits and monsters. This manual will be updated occasionally, but the in-game help is of course the one that reflects the current state of the game the best.

This document is a practical manual. For information about the game’s design, see the “design ramblings” article instead.

1 Introduction

Shamogu is a coffee-break roguelike game with a focus on tactical movement and careful timing of totemic spirit invocation and comestible consumption. Visibility and noise stealth mechanics also play an important role.

“All life in your mountain is being corrupted. Beasts are losing their mind and becoming aggressive. These disturbing events started to happen after a dungeon portal suddenly appeared at the top of the mountain. As the guardian, you decide to explore that dungeon in order to find and destroy the source of corruption… You hope luck will be on your side!”

2 Keybindings

Shamogu features simple and ergonomic controls. The following table summarizes most default keybindings:

3 Combat

This section explains how various combat-related features work, including attack patterns and on-hit effects.

3.1 Turn-based system

Shamogu is a turn-based game. Each actor acts once per turn: the player acts first, then the monsters do. Monsters act one after another in a non-predictable order, but except during some animations, you’ll only see the final state and often feel they acted all at once.

3.2 Combat Damage

Combat damage is affected by attack (A) and defense (D). Maximum damage is the minimum of attack A and 3. Higher values of A increase chances of higher damage when attacking, while higher values of D decrease that chance when defending. Zero damage represents a miss.

Players under the Focus status effect and four-headed hydras perform four damage-rolls per attack, doing four times as much damage.

Special effects like Berserk or Dig may then increase effective total attack damage by one, bypassing defense and any maximum damage caps.

3.3 Current Direction

In the status bar, an arrow shows you the direction of your last movement or attack. That direction is used in various contexts by some effects and abilities, like when eating firebreath pepper, sprinting or jumping. The current direction is a player-specific feature.

3.4 Attack Patterns

In Shamogu, both the player and the monsters may use one of several attack patterns.

Plain attacks are the simplest kind of attack performed by some monsters. Such monsters attack when they are adjacent to you or when they perform a frontal charge from an adjacent position.

Four-directional attacks affect all four adjacent foes. When charging, it affects foes adjacent to the new position. That means walking laterally does not save you from the charge of an adjacent monster with four-directional attacks! When fighting more than one foe at once, Four-Headed Hydra players’ attack attribute is increased by the number of foes.

Rampaging attacks allow to charge from as far as you can see. When charging, there is a bonus of 1 to attack, except against lignified foes that resist forced movement.

Pushing attacks push foes one tile away, unbalancing them. When there’s another foe just behind, you perform an extra attack on them instead. Rampaging boars, as well as Rampaging Boar spirit players, perform pushing when charging from beyond a 2-tile range, and distances beyond a 4-tile range result in double Imbalance duration. Earth dragons and players with Dig may push with melee attacks, too.

Ranged attacks are performed without moving from as far as you can see.

Catching attacks are ranged attacks that catch foes on successful hits and move them next to you, unbalancing them. When catching a foe from afar, there is a bonus of 1 to attack. Catching from beyond a 4-tile range results in double Imbalance duration.

Recoil is an extra attack effect for wind fox monsters, as well as Wind Fox spirit players. After an attack from within a 4-tile range, they may move backwards one tile when ranged, or two cells with extra wind noise when in melee.

Space-distorting attacks are ranged attacks that swap positions on successful hits, but result in normal movement on misses. Any foes adjacent to the landing hit position are blinked away. Note that such attacks reverse your current direction. They also swap any clouds, but not the terrain.

Dragging attacks are melee attacks that drag foes backwards, unbalancing them. They’re performed by dragging alligators and Spinning Crocodile players.

Sneak attacks are a two-phased attack pattern. When ranged, it works as a rampaging attack. In melee, a plain attack is followed by quick 2-tile retreat. Sneak attacks are performed by sneaky megabats and Vampiric Bat players.

Note: crocodile’s dragging and bat’s retreat don’t happen when poisoned nor when they would move you onto dangerous visible fire, unless you’re already on Fire or would be protected by Foggy-Skin. The boar’s pushing charge and wind fox’s recoil don’t have any safety rules, but because recoil is a form of involuntary movement, it is at least unaffected by poison. Melee pushing with Dig is restricted by poison when it requires player movement, but unbalancing and piercing effects still happen when pushing a monster against a wall or another monster.

3.5 On-hit effects

Various monsters have attacks that may inflict status effects after a successful hit on the player.

In some cases, the effect is guaranteed on hit, like when a fire llama spits at the player from afar, or when a blinking butterfly makes you blink.

When the description says “may”, it means there is only a chance of inflicting the status on hit. In most cases, the chance scales simply with damage, with higher damage corresponding to higher chances. As a special case, phoenixes’ burning chance is reduced by imbalance, too, due to the difficulty of rebalancing with their large wings. Also, the dazing effect of cat’s space-distorting attacks scales with distance instead: lower chance and longer duration at long distances.

The duration of detrimental statuses can be refreshed by further hits, but not that of positive ones like Berserk or Lignification. Besides, further on-hit applications on the player are only half as likely until after the expiration turn, thanks to the benevolent intervention of your spirit ancestors. That player-specific protection is extended for an extra turn for Daze, Fire and Imbalance.

4 Stealth

In Shamogu, stealth plays an important role. There are two main mechanisms that determine monster behavior and mindstate changes: presence in the field of view and noise.

4.1 Monster mindstate

Monsters can be wandering, guarding or hunting. Guarding monsters walk around some vault location, often protecting a totem or portal. Wandering monsters take longer trips, possibly to any place in the map but with some bias toward nearby interesting places. Hunting monsters usually travel to the last location they saw you at; when they lose track of you, they become wandering or guarding again and briefly search around the nearby area before going back to their usual behavior.

When in view, wandering and guarding monsters normally spend a turn noticing the player and switching to hunting behavior. There are some exceptions to this rule. For example, Dazzling Zebra players are instantly noticeable. Also, when hungry rats smell you from afar or sneaky megabats hear you, they immediately start hunting you even if they’re still out of view. Moreover, any monster may perform by chance an ambushing charge from out-of-view, like behind some rubble, attacking and becoming hunting at once.

4.2 Noise

Combat and some other actions produce noise, as shown with onomatopoeias in the game logs. Some noises can be heard from a few tiles away only, while others may reach farther, up to two times the view range in the worst case. Possible noises include a gentle “Smash!”, a more serious “ROAR!” or “CRACK!”, a problematic “POP-BOOM!”, or an even more alarming “RING-RING!”. Beware that monsters will investigate the source of those noises.

Shamogu also shows visually the sound made by monsters out of view: footsteps, light footsteps, creep noise, flapping of wings, and heavy footsteps. Note that monsters cannot hear your footsteps or, at the very least, they don’t care about such small noises!

Players and monsters with the “good hearing” trait may hear sounds farther than usual. Players with “bad hearing” cannot hear creep noises nor flapping of wings well, but they hear others sounds normally.

5 Items

Comestibles are found in every level. When the player is over them, pressing the Interact Key(e) allows to pick them. When your inventory is full, you’ll have to select a comestible to leave on the ground. Opening the Inventory(i) allows to eat an equipped comestible or any comestible on the ground.

Totems are found once per level. By pressing the Interact Key(e), their spirit may either be chosen as a new secondary spirit or used to upgrade one of your existing spirits. Opening the Inventory(i) allows then to use your chosen spirits. Beware that monsters that see you choosing a spirit will go berserk!

Menhirs are found in every level. Pressing the Interact Key(e) will activate them.

Portals are found once per level. Pressing the Interact Key(e) will make you reach the next map level. When doing so, spirit charges and HP are restored. Occasionally, you’ll come across an extra malfunctioning portal whose activation will frighten nearby monsters.

Runes are static traps found in every level. They are triggered when the player or a monster steps on them. Wandering monsters avoid them, but hunting ones do not.

Note: there are lists of the various kinds of comestibles, menhirs, runes and spirits in later appendix sections.

6 Statuses

This section explains in detail how the various status effects work, as well as the color conventions.

6.1 Colors

In the status bar and descriptions, positive status effects are shown as Blue and negative ones are Orange. They last for a certain number of turns, shown between parens. Statuses end at the end of your turn, before monsters act, so you have to sometimes be careful before expiration. On the last turn, good statuses show as Cyan if they are normally relevant during your turn and the monsters’, Violet if they have an effect on your turn only, and Grey if they don’t have an effect during your turn.

On the map, monster color may change depending on active status effects. By default, status-free wandering monsters are Orange and hunting monsters are Red. Magenta indicates a positive status. Yellow indicates both positive and negative statuses. Green indicates a negative status. Cyan indicates two or more negative statuses.

6.2 List of statuses

Berserk (Ber). Gives +2 Attack and +1 effective damage. Provides temporary HP bonus. Protects from Fear. Followed by Poison on expiration for 5 turns. HP never falls below 1 after losing bonus HP. Duration and HP bonus may be renewed by eating a berserking flower.

Clarity (Cla). Protects from Confusion, Daze, and Berserk. Makes you sense nearby monsters (2× view range). Player-only effect obtainable by eating clarity leaves. May be removed by eating a berserking flower for half the Berserk duration.

Confusion (Con). Using spirit abilities will hurt you for 1 damage. Doubles duration of new Imbalance, Daze and Fear effects. Confused monsters will attack other monsters too when adjacent. Some monsters may even hurt or affect themselves when performing special actions like digging, spitting fire, barking, or pushing.

Daze (Daz). Forbids all actions except waiting or eating until you’re hurt or it expires. Players with “daze resistance” can still invoke spirits; status shows as Daz* for them.

Dig (Dig). Allows walking into walls. Gives +1 effective damage when charging and guarantees pushing hits (even in melee).

Disorient (Dis). Makes any hunting monsters in view move in the opposite direction with respect to your current direction. Monsters may mistakenly attack any monster on the way while doing so. Disoriented monsters do not perform four-directional charges. Player-only effect obtainable with the Dazzling Zebra spirit.

Fear (Fea). Forbids attacking and walking toward foes. Monsters will flee when facing you. Ambushing charges against unseen foes can still happen. At the end of a turn, a cornered and afraid actor with no possible escape will become berserk. When lignified and afraid, getting hit makes you berserk, too.

Fire (Fir). Remaining in place or moving into a cloud of fire will burn you for 1 damage. When first catching Fire, you also get burned once immediately. Players with “fire resistance” from the upgraded Fire Salamander don’t take that extra immediate damage.

Focus (Foc). Attack frontally with all four heads. Cancels Sprint. Player-only effect obtainable with the Four-Headed Hydra spirit.

Foggy-Skin (Fog). Exudes fog on the sides and behind. Protects from Fire and Lignification. Player-only effect obtainable by eating a foggy-skin onion. May be removed by eating a lignification fruit for half the Lignification duration.

Gardener (Gar). Grows foliage in a 2-tile radius each turn. Player-only effect obtainable with the Gardening Lion spirit.

Gluttony (Glu). Unless you eat before expiration, you’ll eat a random comestible without taking a turn. If there is no food, you’ll become confused for 6 turns. Player-only effect obtainable with the Gluttonous Bear spirit.

Imbalance (Imb). Halves attack. When also confused, gives +2 Defense. Sprinting or jumping while imbalanced may sometimes lead to a dazing fall.

Lignification (Lig). Gives +2 Defense. Caps incoming attack damage at 1. Provides temporary HP bonus. Protects from Poison and Imbalance. Delays burning. Prevents movement. Followed by Imbalance for you and any adjacent actors on expiration for 5 turns. The player’s HP never falls below 3 after losing bonus HP. Monsters’ HP floor is only 1, like for Berserk. Duration and HP bonus may be renewed by eating a lignification fruit. Cancels Sprint. Actors with “woody legs” aren’t rooted, so they lack delayed burning protection but can move while lignified at the cost of reducing the duration by an extra turn; status shows as Lig* for them, and there is no Imbalance on expiration, because no root withdrawing happens.

Poison (Poi). Walking will hurt you for 1 damage. Stinky toxins are exuded on expiration, confusing other creatures for 4 turns. Watch out for confusion if any monsters survive poisoning!

Shadow (Sha). Harmonic shadows make non-hunting monsters not notice you unless you attack them. You can move instantly through translucent walls. It makes combat silent and hits make hunting monsters lose track of you. Note that hitting a wandering monster will make it hunt you as usual. Player-only effect obtainable with the Gawalt Monkey spirit.

Sprint (Spr). You can move to a visible destination three times as fast on the current direction and twice as fast laterally. You can jump over foes, unbalancing them. Canceled by waiting. Disables normal attack. Player-only effect obtainable with the Sprinting Gazelle spirit.

Time Stop (Tim). Time is frozen for everyone but you until expiration. Status effects affecting you will still progress. Player-only effect obtainable with the Temporal Cat spirit.

Vampirism (Vam). Guarantees successful melee bite that restores HP for the amount of damage you deal. Gives +3 Attack. Player-only effect obtainable with the Vampiric Bat spirit.

7 Mods

In Shamogu, the classic game remains intentionally simple. Experimented or adventurous players probably want to enable mods that provide extra content and challenges.

7.1 Expansions

There are two significant expansions:

Corrupted Dungeon

The orb’s influence has scattered twisted surprises through the dungeon. Some might even be good!

Recommended for experienced players that want more unpredictability and variability.

Advanced Spirits

Enables extra advanced secondary spirits: Dazzling Zebra, Gardening Lion, Gawalt Monkey, Gluttonous Bear, Runic Chicken, Staring Owl, Stomping Elephant.

Advanced secondaries always have strong points but also serious and quirky drawbacks.

Beware that regular spirits are rarer early on than advanced ones!

7.2 Small mods

There is currently only one mod in this category:

Gluttony Rework

Makes the Gluttonous Bear eat in pairs through a choice-of-two menu, without relying on a Gluttony status.

The Advanced Spirits mod should be enabled too for this mod to take effect.

Recommended for players that don’t like the default Bear with a Gluttony status.

7.3 Challenges

Various challenge mod are available:

Small Inventory

Inventory can only hold 3 comestibles. Choose them with care!

No Recharges

Spirit ability charges are doubled but don’t recharge when going to the next map level. Use them wisely!

Healing Combat

Healing happens through combat. When a monster dies, you may heal for 1 HP, with higher chance at low HP. However, comestibles don’t provide healing anymore, except for ambrosia berries still healing 2 HP.

Vampiric Bat players start with an extra “vampirism” charge and get another one at map level 5, instead of healing on monster death. Less frequent healing but better tactical control over it!

8 Tips

8.1 General tips

Shamogu is a turn-based game: take your time when in perilous situations!

Always check your inventory to see if some spirit ability or comestible can help in your situation. The sooner is often the better!

Wasting spirit charges and comestibles is bad, but dying without using them is worse!

Most items and abilities have several effects and can be used for several purposes. For example, barking or freezing time may be useful both when attacking and fleeing, but freezing time can also help wait for some problematic status effect to end.

8.2 Combat tips

Try to always get the first hit against monsters. In particular, avoid moving yourself in front of ranged or rampaging monsters. Zigzag if necessary. Don’t forget that even plain melee monsters can charge frontally from one tile away!

Try to learn the characteristics of each kind of monster. You can examine monsters to see their attack, defense and special traits.

Remember that monsters with N attack can only hit for the minimum of N and 3 damage at most, except for burning phoenixes and ranged fire llamas that may burn you, and four-headed hydras that perform four damage-rolls per attack.

Some ranged monsters, like fire llamas or lashing frogs, are more dangerous ranged than in melee. You may sometimes want to force melee even if you’re ranged too!

Various monsters have special attacks. For example, acid mounds ignore defense, and venomous vipers may poison you.

8.3 Stealth tips

Killing all the monsters does not provide any benefit. So, once you have enough food items and don’t need more totems or already found one, you can skip exploring the rest of the map and go through a portal to the next level. Also, missing a totem or two is acceptable.

Monsters usually give up quickly their search once they don’t see you: use foliage and rubble to lose them. Beware of rats that hunt you by smell, though.

Watch out for footstep noise: while going through dense foliage, it can be very helpful to avoid unwanted encounters.

8.4 Configuration tips

If you often get surprised by Fire or Poison and get hurt by mistake, you may want to enable extra warnings in the configuration options. Those warnings also stop you when Berserk or Lignification is about to expire.

8.5 Wizard mode

While the recommended way to discover the game is to progressively improve your skills by analyzing and enjoying your previous deaths, frustrated casual players should consider enabling Wizard Mode(W) before giving up. Without further enabling extra cheats, it works as a kind of “adventure mode” that simply resurrects you each time you die. Resurrections are recorded in the game’s timeline, so you can check later how many lives you spent and try to do better next time until you can win in the default permadeath mode.

8.6 Challenge tips

If, on the contrary, you find Shamogu too easy, you’re encouraged to try the various expansion and challenge mods accessible after pressing TAB or SPACE in the classic new game menu!

9 Comestibles

The following comestibles exist:

ambrosia berries

Restores +8 HP. Leaves you either confused or afraid for 6 or 4 turns respectively.

berserking flower

Makes you Berserk for 8 turns.

clarity leaves

Gives Clarity for 5 turns. Restores +4 HP.

firebreath pepper

Makes you breathe a confusing fire beam in the current direction inflicting Confusion for 2 turns and Fire for 3 turns. Burns foliage, producing fire clouds lasting 6-12 turns. Makes walls explode. Restores +2 HP.

foggy-skin onion

Gives Foggy-Skin for 10 turns. Restores +3 HP.

lignification fruit

Lignifies you for 10 turns.

teleport mushroom

Teleports you away and makes you sense any totemic spirit. Leaves you either dazed or imbalanced for 4 or 5 turns respectively. Restores +2 HP when lignified instead.

10 Menhirs

The following menhirs exist:

earth menhir

Emits a noisy echoing sound that disintegrates nearby walls and reveals the frontier formed by map walls adjacent to interior ones.

fire menhir

Makes many fire clouds appear within 8 tiles of distance, each one lasting 6-12 turns. Reveals foliage partially.

poison menhir

Makes many poisonous clouds appear within 8 tiles of distance. Reveals translucent walls.

warping menhir

Teleports away monsters within 8 tiles of distance. Reveals location of any portals. The dungeon might sense you and send a wraith to investigate: the deeper you are, the more likely.

Note: each map can contain at most only one menhir of each kind, except in some special thematic levels featured in the Corrupted Dungeon expansion.

11 Runic traps

The following runic traps exist:

berserk rune

Applies Berserk status for 5 turns when stepped on, unless already berserk. Magenta.

fire rune

Inflicts Confusion for 3 turns and spawns a fire cloud lasting 6-12 turns when stepped on. Red.

lignification rune

Applies Lignification status for 7 turns when stepped on, unless already lignified. Orange.

poison rune

Spawns a poison cloud lasting 7-11 turns when stepped on. Green.

warp rune

Teleports away any actor that steps on it. Violet.

Note: each rune has a different color in the game, so that they are easy to tell apart from each other at a glance. Their colors don’t conflict with comestibles and menhirs, so that one can tell whether a tile is safe even if there’s a cloud on top.

12 Spirits

This section describes all the available primary and secondary spirits. In all cases, the format is:

Spirit Name (ability name, before-after upgrade charges)

Traits: any bonuses and traits of the non-upgraded form.

Upgrade: any bonuses and traits of the upgrade.

12.1 Primary spirits

The primary spirit is chosen through the new game menu. Note that Crocodile and Bat are only available in the advanced new game menu (accessible via TAB). The full list of available primary spirits is given as follows in order of appearance in the new game menu.

Four-headed Hydra (focus, 2-3 charges)

Ability: Focus for 3 turns. Instant.

Traits: four-directional attack, attack bonus per extra foe.

Upgrade: +3 HP.

Rampaging Boar (dig, 2-3 charges)

Ability: Dig for 5 turns. Instant.

Traits: rampaging charge, charging pushes and unbalances foes.

Upgrade: +1 Attack.

Jumping Frog (jump, 3-4 charges)

Ability: jump in the current direction to the furthest free position in view. You will attack any monsters on the path with +1 attack and daze them for 4 turns.

Traits: ranged catching attack that unbalances foes.

Upgrade: +1 Defense.

Wind Fox (pushing gale, 2-4 charges)

Ability: hurt foes in the four cardinal directions for 1 damage when ranged and 1-2 in melee. Pushes foes away and unbalances them for 5 turns. Dissipates clouds except foliage fires that propagate instead.

Traits: ranged attack with recoil.

Temporal Cat (stop time, 1-2 charges)

Ability: Time Stop for 5 turns. Instant.

Traits: ranged space-distorting silent attack that may daze foes.

Spinning Crocodile (tail slap, 3-4 charges)

Ability: perform a tail-slap attack with +1 effective damage on any adjacent foes while turning around, unbalancing them for 4 turns.

Traits: +1 Attack, unbalancing dragging attack, slow rotation (cannot turn and attack, needs turn to reverse direction).

Upgrade: +1 Defense.

Vampiric Bat (vampirism, 1-2 charges)

Vampirism for 2 turns. Instant.

Traits: sneaky attack pattern, confusing charge.

12.2 Secondary spirits

Secondary spirits reside in totems and are found once on most map levels.

The secondary spirits available in the classic game are as follows:

Barking Hound (bark, 2-4 charges)

Ability: frighten all monsters within 8 tiles of distance for 4 turns.

Traits: +1 Attack, good hearing.

Upgrade: Fear resistance (half duration).

Fire Salamander (fire retreat, 2-3 charges)

Ability: walk backwards up to two tiles while leaving a fire cloud lasting 6-12 turns.

Traits: +1 Attack, bad hearing.

Upgrade: Fire resistance (delayed burning).

Sprinting Gazelle (sprint, 2-3 charges)

Ability: Sprint for 6 turns. Instant.

Traits: +1 Defense, movement leaves dust behind.

Upgrade: Imbalance resistance (half duration).

Stinking Skunk (noxious smell, 2-3 charges)

Ability: confuse monsters within 8 tiles of distance for 5 turns.

Traits: +1 Attack, smells food from afar.

Upgrade: Confusion resistance (half duration).

Thunder Porcupine (lightning, 2-3 charges)

Ability: inflict 1-3 damage on any chain of monsters adjacent to you. Damage decreases with distance. Affected monsters are dazed for 4 turns. Hurts you too for 1 HP.

Traits: +1 Attack, spines may daze attacking foes in melee.

Upgrade: Daze resistance (can invoke spirits while dazed).

Venomous Viper (poison cloud, 2-3 charges)

Ability: spit poisonous clouds on the sides and in front of you up to two free tiles away, lasting 7-11 turns.

Traits: +1 Defense, venomous melee attack.

Upgrade: Poison resistance (half duration).

Walking Tree (lignify, 2-3 charges)

Ability: lignify monsters in view for 6 turns.

Traits: +2 Defense, Fire vulnerability (longer duration).

Upgrade: woody legs (can move while lignified).

Extra secondary spirits from the Advanced Spirits expansion:

Dazzling Zebra (disorient, 1-3 charges)

Ability: Disorient for 6 turns. Instant.

Traits: +1 Defense, dazzling (redirect attacks just behind you, easily noticed).

Note: the Zebra’s “dazzling” trait means that any attack directed at you will be redirected to any monster just on your other side. It hence encourages weird positioning tactics. Also, with the Zebra, monsters notice you instantly, without losing a turn, so beware of sudden ranged attacks during exploration.

Gardening Lion (garden, 1-3 charges)

Ability: Gardener for 7 turns. Instant.

Traits: +1 Attack, scary roar on first sight.

Note: the Lion’s roaring happens on first sight, but detecting a monster first beyond view with Clarity will prevent the roaring. Fear duration is 4-5, with 4 being more likely a short distances, because monsters get over their Fear more quickly when the danger is close.

Gawalt Monkey (shadows, 1-4 charges)

Ability: Shadow for 8 more turns. Instant.

Traits: wall-jumping movement and attack, weakened hits, menhir sensing and hiding.

Note: the Gawalt’s weakens by 1 damage any hits doing more than 2 base damage and two thirds of the hits doing 2 base damage. Accuracy is preserved. Also, when the Gawalt is on a menhir tile, wandering monsters don’t notice you, but hunting monsters still see you.

Gluttonous Bear (snack, 1-3 charges)

Ability: you teleport to the nearest comestible, if any, and eat it. It doesn’t trigger Gluttony.

Traits: +3 HP, gluttony (needs to eat in pairs).

Note: by default, eating triggers Gluttony for 7 turns, giving some time to savour the first comestible. With the Gluttony Rework mod, you choose instead two comestibles on the same turn.

Runic Chicken (lay rune, 2-5 charges)

Ability: lay a random runic trap on current floor tile.

Traits: +1 Defense, senses and doesn’t trigger runes, cackles loudly on sighting a portal or totem, confusion vulnerability (longer duration).

Note: the Chicken not triggering traps is as simple as it sounds, but given how wandering monsters avoid traps, it has subtle stealth implications.

Staring Owl (death stare, 1-3 charges)

Ability: kill first visible foe in front. Gives you Fear for 4 turns as backlash.

Traits: +1 Attack, nocturnal (reduced view range), flies over foliage.

Stomping Elephant (stomp, 1-3 charges)

Ability: destroy walls in a 2-tile radius. Makes you Berserk for 4 turns.

Traits: +1 Attack, +1 Defense, rat phobia, difficult rotation when facing a wall, unnoticed in dead-ends, immune to berserk after-effects.

Note: when the Elephant is in a dead-end, wandering monsters don’t notice you, but hunting monsters still see you.

13 Monsters

In this section, we go into details about the various kinds of monsters that exist in the game. This section may feel slightly spoilery at times, as it sometimes suggests some tactics against specific monsters. Those are intuitive and easy to guess from the information that is available in-game, but you may prefer thinking about ways of handling the monsters as you see them for the first time while playing.

Regular monsters are divided into early, mid and late game ones. Guardians and special wandering monsters are rarer, typically appearing once per game.

13.1 Early game monsters

Early game monsters are found most commonly in the early game, though some still appear later on and remain occasionally dangerous in unfavorable circumstances. There are four early game monsters: berserking spider, confusing eye, hungry rat, and thunder porcupine.

berserking spider (HP:3 A:2 D:1) (s)

Spiders have silent footsteps, which may lead to ambushes in map levels with lots of foliage. Their berserking hits can be both helpful and problematic for the player depending on circumstances: they make one-on-one encounters very survivable despite the spider’s relative robustness for an early monster, but the Poison after-effect can both be dangerous and eventually useful thanks to the confusing smell from expelled toxins.

confusing eye (HP:2 A:2 D:0) (e)

The most frail early monster, but also the only ranged one, hence not too easy to avoid and potentially dangerous for early ranged players. It is immune to Confusion, and its hits may confuse you. The confusing effect is not really harmful by itself, but it may surprise the player in unfavorable circumstances. Eyes make light footstep noises when walking.

hungry rat (HP:3 A:2 D:0) (r)

Rats can be tricky due to how they start hunting the player by smell, which makes them quite difficult to avoid despite being melee monsters. They only smell you before taking a new trip, so they may ignore you while in the middle of a wandering trip, but they’re difficult to avoid once they start hunting you. Also beware of hungry rats becoming berserk when they see you eating a comestible: an easy thing to forget that can be dangerous even in mid and late game. Rats make light footstep noises when walking.

thunder porcupine (HP:3 A:2 D:0) (p)

Porcupines are the easiest ones to avoid among the early ones, due to a melee attack pattern (unlike confusing eye), normal footsteps (unlike spiders), and no special tracking skills (unlike rats). However, they are immune to Daze, and their dazing spines may daze you when you hit them. The dazing can become problematic when you are in a hurry and cannot melee confrontation. Porcupines make light footstep noises when walking.

An interesting design aspect worth noting is that all the early monsters can still be relevant in some ways even in the late game. While relatively frail, they all have 2 attack, like many mid game monsters, and their special traits remain possibly dangerous.

13.2 Mid game monsters

Mid game monsters appear most commonly in the mid and late games, but a few will always also appear in the early game. There are ten mid game monsters: acid mound, barking hound, blinking butterfly, exploding nadre, fire llama, lashing frog, rampaging boar, temporal cat, venomous viper, and wind fox.

acid mound (HP:5 A:2 D:0) (a)

They are quite healthy, immune to Imbalance and feature a defense-ignoring attack. That makes them on average one of the most damaging monsters in melee, despite having only 2 attack. They are particularly dangerous for melee players that usually rely on Imbalance to debilitate foes. Note that Lignification is still a useful protection against acid mounds, as the 1-damage cap is respected, even though the defense bonus will be ignored. They make a creep noise when moving.

barking hound (HP:4 A:3 D:0) (h)

Hounds have good hearing and are immune to Fear. They bark frighteningly at the player on sight. They can be particularly problematic when they come into view while you’re already fighting some other monsters. While not particularly sturdy, they have relatively high attack. Both Berserk and Lignification (by getting hit and feeling cornered) can be used to handle the Fear when confrontation is unavoidable.

blinking butterfly (HP:2 A:2 D:3) (b)

Butterflies are immune to Imbalance and, as flying monsters, to Lignification. They feature blinking hits, which combined with their high defense, can make them annoying to handle. Lignification can be used to prevent the blinking. Their low health makes them vulnerable to defense-ignoring sources of damage, like poison or fire.

exploding nadre (HP:1 A:2 D:3) (n)

Nadres are the most frail monsters in the game, but they make up for that with their high defense and a fire explosion on death. Melee players will have a difficult time avoiding damage when fighting nadres, unless they eat a foggy-skin onion or use more indirect means of attack like poison. While usually relatively harmless for a ranged player, even those are sometimes at risk of missing and getting caught in the explosion, due to the nadre’s high defense and scales. And the explosion’s noise can attract other nearby monsters.

fire llama (HP:4 A:2 D:0) (l)

Fire llamas spit fire when performing ranged attacks. That makes them the most dreadful monster for a lignified player. Relatively weak in melee, they can however be difficult to handle for ranged players, in particular for those with a recoil or retreat attack pattern in melee, as safe handling requires fighting with a wall behind to ensure the fight remains a melee one.

lashing frog (HP:4 A:2 D:1) (F)

Quite sturdy, frogs feature a ranged catching attack pattern that will unbalance the player. They are hence quite dangerous at range and still relatively sturdy in melee. Lignification can be used to prevent their catching attack.

rampaging boar (HP:4 A:3 D:0) (B)

Boars feature a rampaging pushing charge that can be quite dangerous from afar, potentially highly damaging and leading to Imbalance. Lignification is a way to prevent the rampaging and pushing effects. Also, when hunting, boars can dig and destroy walls quite noisily. Sometimes, that behavior can be used against them, by making them walk into poison-containing translucent walls.

temporal cat (HP:4 A:2 D:0) (c)

Cats feature a very weird space-distorting attack that may daze you on hit. Lignification can be used to fully neutralize that attack pattern, while Clarity can be used to prevent the dazing effect. While usually problematic, taking a hit from a far away cat can sometimes be useful to quickly move to a better position. Cats make light footstep noises when walking.

venomous viper (HP:4 A:2 D:1) (v)

Vipers are relatively sturdy and feature a venomous melee bite. Their scales also help them resist ranged attacks, hence being less easy to kill from afar compared to other melee monsters like acid mounds or barking hounds. They make a creep noise when moving.

wind fox (HP:4 A:2 D:0) (f)

Featuring a ranged attack with recoil, wind foxes can be quite annoying for Hydra and Crocodile players unless they manage a positioning that prevents the recoil. Note that melee recoil is noisy, so possibly problematic even for players with rampaging or catching attack patterns. Wind foxes make light footstep noises when walking.

Unlike with early monsters, the melee/ranged balance is different among mid game ones: five of them have some form of ranged attack, whether purely ranged, rampaging or catching. That means that in mid and late game, with the high number of mid game monsters, there are many monsters that are difficult to avoid or to safely kill from a distance.

13.3 Late game monsters

Late game monsters appear mostly in the late game, but some appear during the mid game, and a lone one may wander around as early as in map level 3. There are four late game monsters: burning phoenix, earth dragon, four-headed hydra and walking tree.

burning phoenix (HP:5 A:2 D:1) (P)

The most difficult monster to avoid among late game ones, due to its rampaging attack pattern and less noisy movement (flying instead of heavy steps). The rampaging charge and the burning hits make it quite dangerous, specially against ranged or lignified players. It’s also worth noting that phoenix is immune to Fire and, as a flying monster, to Lignification, so it can be particularly dangerous in combination with a walking mushroom. The phoenix is normally the weakest late monster in melee, due to its modest attack and defense. Its damage depends strongly on burning, which can be prevented thanks to a foggy-skin onion, and can otherwise often be managed well enough by performing a “fire dance”. The Imbalance vulnerability of phoenixes is also quite helpful for players with unbalancing attack patterns, as it reduces the chances of burning hits.

earth dragon (HP:5 A:4 D:2) (D)

With both high attack and high defense, an earth dragon is a tough melee opponent. Its hits may push and unbalance in melee, often requiring the player to perform an “imbalance dance” to stall for time and avoid an unfavorable fight. The Fear immunity means fear-based tactics won’t work. While often easier to handle for ranged players, the high defense and the scales mean it has a decent chance of reaching you. Like boars, earth dragons can dig and destroy walls while hunting, hence making translucent wall poison-tactics appealing, too.

four-headed hydra (HP:6 A:2 D:0) (H)

The most damaging monster in melee: with four damage-rolls per attack, an hydra can sometimes hit for tremendous damage. The four-directional charge is dangerous, because it prevents lateral evasion tactics. That also means, for example, that the Viper’s venomous bite isn’t very helpful against an hydra, as you cannot safely perform an evasive lateral dance. However, despite the high health, the low defense means that an hydra is much less robust than an earth dragon or a walking tree, and while scales make them somewhat resistant against ranged attacks, fully ranged players have usually an easy time safely killing hydras from afar. When in melee, the most reliable and safe tactic to take on a hydra is Lignification. Otherwise, hydras have no immunities whatsoever, so various tactics can help wound or avoid them, including poison, fire and fear-based ones.

walking tree (HP:5 A:2 D:2) (T)

The most resilient monster in the game, due to being permanently lignified with “woody legs”. As a result, a tree has various immunities and resists any kind of forced movement, which means some attack patterns like catching, space-distorting or dragging ones are neutralized, and so are pushing and teleport effects, too. That makes walking trees somehow difficult to avoid sometimes, despite being melee monsters. Their hits may lignify you and are quite likely to immobilize the player for a while. On the positive side, trees have low attack and getting lignified can be helpful, because their hits still respect Lignification’s damage cap, despite ignoring the defense bonus. Also, the Fire vulnerability makes firebreath pepper quite effective against them. Berserk is also good, as the +1 effective damage bypasses Lignification’s damage cap.

Unlike mid game monsters, which have a perfect balance of ranged and melee attack patterns, late game monsters are mostly pure melee ones, except for phoenixes, and their heavy steps help notice and avoid them. However, there are a lot of monsters in the late game, so avoiding melee monsters is not always that easy, in particular sturdy ones that resist Fear or forced movement, so the threat of heavy steps can often become real.

13.4 Special monsters

Shamogu features various kinds of guardians and special wandering monsters, often unique but sometimes acting as a pair, too. This section may feel spoilery if you haven’t played the game yet, as some of those monsters only appear in the late game, so you probably don’t want to read it at first. Not that it reveals anything really important, though, as Shamogu is a short and very replayable roguelike featuring high levels of clarity, hence playable without spoilers of any kind.

blazing golem (HP:4 A:2 D:3) (G)

Golems usually appear as a pair of mid game portal guardians, though they may occasionally guard a random vault instead, including in the classic game without the Corrupted Dungeon mod. They have the most immunities of any monster in the game: Fire, Poison, Fear and Confusion don’t work against them. Like nadres, they have high defense and explode on death, but they also have average health, making them very resilient. While it’s possible to fight them even in melee, stealth is usually the most convenient approach, as their heavy footsteps makes them easy to notice and avoid.

chaos megabat (HP:4 A:2 D:2) (m)

Experimental (development branch). The chaos megabat appears in most games as an early totem or portal guardian. It has good hearing, like hounds, and is immune to Lignification, like other flying monsters. Also, when hearing noise at the player’s position, it starts hunting immediately even when out-of-view. The megabat features a sneaky attack pattern, like Vampiric Bat players. However, instead of a vampiric bite, it has a chaos bite, which inflicts random effects. Those effects are not completely random and tend to be fun but survivable and often helpful instead of harmful. You can for example get Lignification, Berserk, or Confusion+Imbalance, as well as more rarely various effects that would usually be impossible, like Gardening or Time Stop. While relatively harmless for a guardian in practice, the chaos megabat is difficult to avoid and quite evasive.

crazy druid (HP:4 A:3 D:1) (C)

The crazy druid usually appears as a mid game totem guardian. It features a non-dazing space-distorting attack, relatively high attack, as well as hits that may burn and make Berserk. While it only has modest defense, the high ranged offensive potential demands carefulness. In particular, Berserk leads to Poison, so sometimes there’s a risk of getting a deadly Fire+Poison combination.

dragging alligator (HP:4 A:3 D:1) (A)

Experimental (development branch). Alligators usually appear as a pair of mid game portal guardians in place of the golems. They may occasionally guard a random vault, too. Alligators make up for lower defense than golems with their dragging attack pattern and higher attack. Their scales still protect them somewhat from ranged attacks, and while they don’t have any immunities, they’re special in being partially resistant to Fire and Fear, like upgraded Salamander and Hound players. Unlike golems, alligators feature normal footsteps and are hence not as easy to notice from far away.

fearsome lich (HP:5 A:2 D:2) (L)

Together with the undead knight, the fearsome lich appears as an orb guardian. It features a ranged attack pattern and its hits ignore defense. As an undead, it is immune to Poison and its hits may inflict Fear. Also, the lich is magically immune to Confusion. All of that, combined with high health and defense, makes them into quite fearsome foes indeed. Interestingly, liches are fearsome but not immune to Fear, because they are still afraid of death, as cowardly beings who pursue immortality.

noisy imp (HP:4 A:2 D:2) (I)

The noisy imp is a special mid or late game wandering monster that appears once in most runs. Unlike other monsters, the imp avoids fights unless cornered, as if permanently under Fear, and instead performs music for the player in a very noisy way.

mad octopode (HP:5 A:3 D:2) (O)

The mad octopode is a late game portal guardian. Featuring an unbalancing ranged catching attack pattern, a venomous bite, as well as high health, attack, and defense, and immunity to Imbalance, the mad octopode is a tough opponent, despite working as a lone guardian. It makes a creep noise when moving.

totem wasp (HP:2 A:2 D:1) (w)

As their name suggests, totem wasps appear as pair of totem guardians, usually around the early-mid game. Unlike the crazy druid, totem wasps may guard an empty totem. They feature a rampaging attack and a venomous bite. Also, like all flying monsters, they are immune to Lignification. While frail enough, the rampaging makes them difficult to avoid, and their venomous attack may poison the player sometimes.

undead knight (HP:4 A:3 D:3) (K)

Together with the fearsome lich, the undead knight appears as an orb guardian. It features a four-directional cleaving attack pattern, like hydras, as well as high attack and defense. As an undead, it is immune to Poison and its hits may inflict Fear. The Fear is particularly dangerous combined with its four-directional attacks. Also, it wears a helmet that provides immunity to Daze. Interestingly, undead knights are fearsome but not immune to Fear, because they are still afraid of death, as cowardly beings who pursue immortality.

walking mushroom (HP:5 A:2 D:1) (M)

A walking mushroom appears wandering in the mid or late game in most runs. Healthy and immune both to Confusion and Lignification, the walking mushroom is a relatively sturdy monster that is mostly remembered for how it releases lignifying spores on sight. Its hits may confuse the player, which combined with Imbalance as a Lignification after-effect, can sometimes naturally lead to the “drunken-style” defensive bonus. Like trees, walking mushrooms are vulnerable to Fire.

warping wraith (HP:3 A:2 D:3) (W)

A warping wraith may appear when the player activates a warping menhir, with higher chances at higher map levels. It will go investigate the menhir and then come back to guard the portal. Their hits may teleport you anywhere on the map, like a teleport mushroom would, and can only be neutralized by Lignification. While usually very annoying, the teleporting can occasionally come handy for escape. Immune to Poison and Lignification, wraiths also have high defense, so killing one in melee before it teleports you is not easy. They feature silent movement, like spiders.