Electric bug

The electric bugs are a group of monsters that appear in SLASH'EM, SpliceHack, SlashTHEM, and Hack'EM.

Description

The electric bugs are:

• x spark bug
• x arc bug
• x lightning bug

All electric bugs are a part of the xan or other mythical/fantastic insect monster class. They possess the same bite attacks as grid bugs, but since they are higher than level 0, the shock damage dealt can destroy rings and wands. In SpliceHack, electric bugs are restricted to orthogonal movement like grid bugs.

Strategy

The electric bugs can be quite dangerous to early characters - early sources of shock resistance are highly uncommon, and even MC3 is not guaranteed protection against shock damage, especially in SpliceHack and Hack'EM. In addition to avoiding losing valuable items to shock damage, wands that explode from shock in SLASH'EM and its variants have the same effect as breaking wands, making them far more likely to be detrimental or even lethal - this especially applies for early game characters.

Acquiring a sack or oilskin sack is generally higher priority as a result - when encountering a group of electric bugs without a safe bag, it may be worth dropping any wands you do not plan to use, as well as any loose rings, unless you know you can eliminate them before they close in.

Encyclopedia entry

All three electric bugs share the same encyclopedia entry:

"What was that?" cried Buck, rubbing his numb and tingling arm.
"Nature's revenge for bug zappers," replied his companion.