The Death Pit of Shem

The situation

Bob Goblin stole one (1) sandwich. The sentence for this, in Shem, is the pit. He lands in a cavern lit from the inside, full of things that glow and bite, and at the bottom of every level hangs the Plancktopus — one enormous eye and a great many arms.

Cut off every arm at once and the eye opens. Take too long and the arms you already cut simply grow back. The first fight has three arms. Every level after that adds another.

Controls

← → / A D

Run.

Space / ↑ / W

Jump. Hold for height, let go early to hop.

Z / X / J

Stab with the dagger.

Land on anything

Jump on a creature and you squash it and bounce, no dagger needed.

↓ + Z in the air

Down-stab. The same idea with the blade out — hits twice as hard, and is the fastest way across a room.

↓ on a shelf

Drop through it.

P · M

Pause · mute.

← →

Run. Hold them down.

Jump

Hold for height, tap for a hop.

Landing on things

Jumping onto a creature squashes it and bounces you, no button needed.

Stab

Attack. Hold ↓ and stab in mid-air to down-stab, which hits harder.

↓

Drop through a mushroom shelf.

Fighting the Plancktopus

An arm that is winding up glows red and will hurt you. An arm that has already struck goes cold and blue for about two seconds — that is the only time it is both harmless and low enough to reach. So bait a slam, get out of the way, and chop the arm on the floor before it pulls back up.

The pips along the bottom of the screen are the arms: filled means alive, and the timer tells you how long until the first severed one returns. Sever the last arm and the body sinks, the eye opens, and you have five seconds to put a dagger in it.

What you can pick up

Keen Edge

Re-forges the dagger: longer reach and double damage, which takes an arm off in two hits instead of three. Lasts until you die.

Shield

One use only. Absorbs the next hit completely, then shatters. You are wearing it when there is a bubble around Bob.

Extra Bob

A gold heart, and genuinely rare. Most runs turn up one every few levels.

Glimmer · Heart

Points · one heart back.

A few of each are hidden in the caverns. The rest come off things you kill, at odds low enough that finding one still feels like luck.

Staying alive

Four hearts, three Bobs. Glowing ink costs a heart and throws you back out, so it is a mistake rather than a death. Bounce shrooms launch you further than a jump. Dying in the arena restarts the fight, not the whole level — but it does cost you the Keen Edge.