Crystal Worm Mother

Last updated: Exalt Version 2.0.3.0 (Sep 2021)
Crystal Worm Mother

The Crystal Worm Mother is the boss of the Fungal Cavern, who also drops the entrance to the Crystal Cavern. Instead of being one enemy, she is a massive segmented boss composed of numerous body parts.

The Realm Eye says:
The crystal worms emerged from the depths of the mines after the mushroom tribes abruptly went feral.
Presumably designed as guardians of the Crystal Entity, the Crystal Worm Mother in particular is the last line of defense on the path to the deepest chamber.
Her segmented body was specifically built to ensnare and overwhelm invaders, but like all gemstones, it can be chipped away with determination and precision.

Contents

Stats

Location: Fungal Cavern

Parts

Crystal Worm Mother Tail
Crystal Worm Mother Tail
Base HP: 12,000 (Boss Adaptive Scaling Boss Adaptive HP Scaling)
DEF: 0
EXP: 195

Immune to Stasis
Immune to Stun
Immune to Paralyze
Counts towards Beast Kills
Crystal Worm Mother Body
Crystal Worm Mother Body
Base HP: 5,250 [4000 if cracked] (Boss Adaptive Scaling Boss Adaptive HP Scaling)
DEF: 40 [20 if cracked]
EXP: 0

Immune to Stasis
Immune to Stun
Immune to Paralyze
Counts towards Beast Kills
Crystal Worm Mother Head
Crystal Worm Mother Head
Base HP: 67,500 (Boss Adaptive Scaling Boss Adaptive HP Scaling)
DEF: 40
EXP: 70,000

Quest Monster
Immune to Paralyze
Immune to Stun (when vulnerable)
Counts towards God Kills
Counts towards Beast Kills

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Combat

Attacks

Aesthetics
Damage
Condition effects
Speed (tiles/sec)
Range (tiles)
Comments
White Shard Bolt
150
6
30
From Head
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
Passes cover Shots pass through obstacles
White Shard Bolt
150
7
28
From Head
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
Passes cover Shots pass through obstacles
Yellow Shard Bolt
160
8
25.6
From Head
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
Passes cover Shots pass through obstacles
Shots Boomerang
Faces Direction
Red Shard Bolt
150
3
12
From Head
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
Passes cover Shots pass through obstacles
Armor Piercing Ignores defense of target
Red Shard Bolt
150
4
16
From Head
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
Passes cover Shots pass through obstacles
Armor Piercing Ignores defense of target
Red Shard Bolt
150
5
20
From Head
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
Passes cover Shots pass through obstacles
Armor Piercing Ignores defense of target
Crystal Bolt
150
7
14
From Body
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
Passes cover Shots pass through obstacles
Crystal Bolt
150
5
10
From Body
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
Passes cover Shots pass through obstacles
Crystal Bolt
200
Word Bubble Quiet for 8s
5
10
From Body
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
Passes cover Shots pass through obstacles
Purple Shard Bolt
80
Word Bubble Quiet for 4s
10
26
From Body Explosion
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
Passes cover Shots pass through obstacles
Purple Shard Bolt
200
2.4
3.6
From Tail
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
Passes cover Shots pass through obstacles
Red Bomb
125
From Head
Radius: 4
Throw Time: 2s
Red AoE
150
From Tail
Radius: 3

Behavior

The Crystal Worm Mother is found in a massive circular room that is initially blocked off by unbreakable blocks. In order to access the boss, players must find and break 25 of the Cavern Crystals scattered throughout the Fungal Cavern in order to power up the drill present outside of the boss room. Once the drill is fully powered up, it will drill through the wall - revealing six groups of mushroom enemies in the process - and open the way to the boss.

The boss is composed of 1 tail segment, 15 body segments, and 1 head segment. It initially circles the perimeter of the room clockwise until a player enters, upon which it will engage them in combat. It goes through numerous phases based off of remaining HP, and damaging Crystallised Water will flood the edges of the arena as the boss loses health, limiting the space available for movement. In addition, the boss will move with increasing speed as its body is destroyed.

Most of the time, its body segments are the only things vulnerable. The vulnerabilities of its other parts depend on how many of its body segments are alive.

If no players are within follow range of its head when the head is chasing players in its vulnerable phases, the Worm Mother will become completely stationary.

Phase 1

The Crystal Worm Mother slowly follows the nearest player, firing wide spreads of light blue crystal shots. Its body segments rapidly fire smaller crystal bolts at nearby players. Its tail will be leaving behind a trail of slow but extremely damaging purple crystal shots while detonating red explosions on itself - it will do this for the entirety of the fight.

During this phase, the majority of the worm is invulnerable. Several of its body segments will visually appear cracked - these are “weak points”, which are vulnerable and have slightly reduced HP and DEF (only 4,500 base compared to the normal 5,250 and 20 compared to the normal 40). Whenever a body segment is destroyed, it will explode into a ring of purple shards that inflict Word Bubble Quiet.

When the first weak point is destroyed, a small amount of Crystallised Water appears at the edges. Once the second is destroyed, more Crystallised Water appears and the weak points become invulnerable (the rest of the body stays invulnerable) while the boss’ head becomes vulnerable. Crystallised Water is similar to lava, except it deals a much higher 80 damage.

Phase 2

When the head reaches 80% HP, the boss picks up speed and starts circling the perimeter of the room. The body segments start firing radial bursts of crystal bolts while the head fires single crystal shards towards the center of the room.

During this phase, the head is invulnerable but every body segment can be harmed. When a body segment is killed, all of the others except its weak points will become invulnerable for about one second and heal to full HP again. Once two more body segments have been downed, the head becomes vulnerable again and the boss will slowly follow players, the head shooting spreads of crystal shards while the body segments fire multi-drecional crystal bolts. More Crystallized Water will surround the arena.

Phase 3

When the head reaches 60% HP, the Crystal Worm Mother becomes fully invulnerable and starts circling again. The Crystal Worm Father spawns in the center of the room and becomes the new target. The Worm Father attacks with a dense, omnidirectional storm of slow crystal shards, with additional aimed spreads of dark shards fired when below half health. Because the shots are so slow, they fill up the room and force you to maneuver around them. The Worm Mother will fire pairs of shard bullets towards the center while circling, but her body segments will not fire while the Worm Father is alive.

The boss cannot be harmed until the Worm Father is defeated. Once it has been brought to critical health, the Worm Father retreats into the ground, signified with more Crystallized Water closing in on the arena. The Worm Mother will not attack for several seconds after the Father is defeated.

After this, the Worm Mother repeats Phase 2, except its head now fires two shard bullets at once during its invulnerable state. Four body segments must be killed to make the head vulnerable again.

Phase 4

When the head reaches 40% HP, the boss becomes invulnerable and circles the room again while firing 3-round spreads of shard bullets, while the Crystal Worm Child appears in the center of the platform. The Worm Child is a segmented enemy that follows players, its head firing spreads of light blue shards and its body firing multi-directional crystal bolts. When all of its body segments have been destroyed, the Worm Child’s head becomes vulnerable, attacking with a spiralling barrage of yellow shards that rotate clockwise and return back to their positions.

Once the Crystal Worm Child’s head has been destroyed, the Worm Mother will repeat Phase 2 after a brief period of not attacking, but now fires three shard bullets at once in its invulnerable state. 4 segments must be destroyed before the head becomes vulnerable again.

Phase 5

When the head reaches 20% HP, the head becomes invulnerable as the Worm Mother gains a massive speed boost and continues circling the platform (which has gotten much smaller since the start of the fight), but now switches out the light blue shards with single yellow shards that return to it after being fired. Unlike the other shards, these are shot towards the nearest player. The remaining three body segments fire with massively increased frequency. Once the last body segments have been destroyed, the boss moves on to the next phase.

Phase 6

The tail segment becomes vulnerable and the head intangible as it slows down. After a brief delay, the head starts following players, lobbing Red Bombs at players while firing massive 3-way shotgun bursts of armor-piercing red shards. The tail must be destroyed to advance the fight.

Phase 7

With only its head segment left, the Crystal Worm Mother becomes vulnerable after a brief period of not attacking. It continues chasing players and retains the shotguns of red shards from the last phase, but adds in a wide, aimed, rapid-fire shotgun of light blue shards in addition to its red shards and bombs.

This phase lasts until the Crystal Worm Mother’s demise, upon which it drops its loot and a portal to the Crystal Cavern appears at the edge of the north side of the platform.

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Drops

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Tips and Strategies

In general, keep an eye out for sudden phase changes, as they can suddenly kill players very easily if they’re not paying attention. While fighting it solo or in small organized groups, keep in mind that the head stops moving if there are no players close to it. This makes breaking the cracked segments much safer. While it is moving around the center of the arena, stay in front of the head to avoid its shots. While its head is vulnerable, make sure you are not caught between the boss and the edge of the arena and damage it quickly, as taking too long or trying to run can get you in a worse situation.

The Worm Child with its head alone can easily send inexperienced players to the nexus. Dodging the spiralling barrage can be intimidating, but all one has to do is move with the bullets, staying in the holes moving clockwise. As long as you move with the shots, you should not get hit. The hole is small, so you may feel a bit claustrophobic. DO NOT STOP MOVING CLOCKWISE EVEN THOUGH THE BULLETS HAVE PASSED YOU, because when they circle back, you are required to keep moving clockwise as if you never stopped, to dodge the bullets on their way back.

It is highly recommended to keep the boss in a Slowed state for as much of the fight as possible. Limiting its mobility will allow players to keep up with its movement and avoid getting forced into unfavorable positions. This is especially important during its later phases, as not only will it get faster the lower its HP is, but near the end of the fight it will gain a massive speed boost that can easily overwhelm players if its movement is not impeded. Keep in mind that slowing the head will slow the entire boss.

The Crystal Worm Mother’s final phase is the most difficult one due to the extreme number of hard hitting projectiles. Since the red shots are relatively slow and the head only shoots its main shots in front of it, move around the red shots while rotating around the arena. Try to stay as far away as possible, and avoid getting trapped between the boss and the edge of the arena. If you get pinned to the wall, you will most likely die.

Piercing weapons are highly effective against this boss, since they can pass through invincible segments like the head and damage the body without any problems. However, if you’re a class that relies heavily on their ability, be careful whenever you destroy a body segment, as they will explode into a ring of Quiet shots.

Oddly enough, the Crystal Worm Mother’s head is not normally immune to Stun or Stasis (it is, however, Stun immune during its vulnerable phases), allowing Knights to shut down its firepower when it’s moving around the arena and Mystics to put it out of commission during the Worm Father and Worm Child phases, since it is much harder for Knights to stun during these. Also worth noting is that like slowing it, stunning the head will effectively stun the entire body, making Stuns even more valuable.

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