Demonic Spiders: the bane of players everywhere. These are the enemies that will make you scream in fury (or quake in fear) each time you see them. These are the guys which will defeat you over and over again using tactics that just seem unfair at times.
The defining trait of Demonic Spiders is that they are common enemies that seem unfairly powerful, not bosses. These are not dangerous because they distract from something else, they are likely what kills you when you're distracted. They are not dangerous because they push you into hazards, they are already enough of a hazard by themselves.
Demonic Spiders are the enemies that, for lack of a better phrase, have the deck stacked in their favor. They have more Hit Points, they go swifter, they come in swarms, attacking them deals damage to you, etc. Basically, these are the enemies with annoying abilities granted to them by the programmers that make them exponentially more dangerous than any other random enemy, but unlike the Boss in Mook Clothing these are quite common. They're essentially Elite Mooks in the context of gameplay.
Demonic Spiders are usually made up of at least one of the following characteristics:
- Prevent you from acting as they kill you (a big one).
- Frequently employ debilitating Status Effects (e.g. Sleep, Paralyze, or Charm). In most cases, these same effects will either have no effect when used against them, or they won't be nearly as effective (or annoying).
- Deliver lethal or near-lethal attacks that are virtually impossible to dodge.
- Or attacks that ignore accuracy/evasion/defense outright.
- Have a larger melee attack radius than you do when combined with this, making it all but impossible for a melee-oriented character to get close enough to do his job without getting killed horribly.
- Appears suddenly at a very close range, like a Ambushing Enemy.
- Or are almost impossible to see or track at any range.
- Can duplicate itself or summon reinforcements with no apparent limit on how many or how often.
- Require a special type of resources to defeat without extreme skill and concentration and some luck, and that resource is slow to get back. Typically, you'd have use rare precious health/magic replenish kits in case you encounter more demonic spiders, but you'd continue on low health/magic/ammo if there were no more demonic spiders ahead.
- Can take more punishment than a Challenger II tank.
- Move in manners impossible for your character (often with greater speed than you'll ever have).
- Are capable of nullifying your primary methods of attack/defense (often reflecting or absorbing it).
- In action games, may have melee-based attacks (or counter-attacks) that quickly hit you from a fair distance away and then cause them to retreat in an equally swift manner.
- In RPGs with a Class and Level System, have the ability to take your hard-earned levels away from you, particularly when there's no easy way to gain them back after the battle and you have to gain them back the hard way.
Unintentional examples may be a product of poor playtesting; however, intentional examples do exist. Sometimes the intention isn't so much to fight them as avoid them or hope they go away. They may appear during a Stealth-Based Mission to justify the need to sneak around them rather than fighting them. Most enemies in Horror Video Games tend to be Demonic Spiders to some degree.
As usual, Tropes Are Not Bad. If a game doesn't have at least one or two enemies you have any reason to fear, then it may not be challenging enough to be fun.
Can overlap with Goddamned Bats. Particularly if RPG Elements are present, Demonic Spiders can become Goddamned Bats as characters level up. Compare: That One Boss, which are bosses that have these characteristics, Contrast: Boss in Mook Clothing who tend not to be so common, and Ledge Bats who are dangerous for more indirect reasons. Ironically enough, can overlap with Breather Boss as despite being a tough and annoying field enemy, when used as a boss is a cakewalk by boss standards. Not to be confused with Giant Spider, which is more about literal spiders, although both can overlap.
Examples:
- Action-Adventure Games
- Adventure Games
- Fighting Games
- First Person Shooters
- 4X
- Hack and Slash
- Massively Multiplayer Online Games
- Platformers
- Puzzle
- Real-Time Strategy
- Roguelikes
- Role-Playing Games
- Sandbox Games
- Shoot 'em Ups
- Simulation Games
- Survival Horror
- Tabletop Games
- Third-Person Shooters
- Turn-Based Strategy
