Webber skill tree branch idea: Spider Training

[blacknight7890]

Had an idea for a potential branch in Webber's future skill tree, Spider Training! this helps make Webber more interesting to play and solves the issue of having 50 spiders lag out everyone.

 

• Spider Grooming: "He's spoiling these spiders." - W

To everyone else, every breed of spider looks and acts the same as their respective kin, but not to Webber. They see the individual personalities and quirks of every spider they care for. With the proper training and love, Webber can bring out those traits and amplify their individual abilities. 

Webber can craft a Spider Grooming Station, when a spider is placed on it Webber can groom them. The spider will become a "Favored spider", slightly changing their visuals, adding a small tag, and giving the spider a random name. A Webber can only have a set number of favored spiders linked to them at a time. The station keeps track of Webber's favored spiders and shows their stats, spiders can be reverted from the station as well. Webber can also click on a favored spider directly to view their information.

Favored spiders require additional care, like regular feeding and grooming, but boast improved stats and capabilities based on their "Nature". In addition, they will not eat any dropped meat.

When a spider is initially tamed, Webber now has additional dialogue in their examination quote. He will now also say what "Nature" the spider has. Each tamed spider has only one Nature that is only apparent when tamed. If the tamed spider is then brought to a Grooming station and becomes favored, then their Nature will activate fully and apply its buffs.

The following are the various "Natures" a spider can have and their stats:

Spoiler

Friendly: "This one is very Friendly"
Requires less care to maintain. +Sanity aura

Timid: "Aw, they look really Timid"
Attempts to maintain distance from their target.

Clever: "Our friend looks pretty Clever"
Attempts to kite attacks. +Speed

Excited: "They look really Excited"
++Speed +Slowdown Resist

Silly: "Ha ha! Our friend is so Silly" 
Draws aggro +health

Tough: "This spider looks pretty Tough"
++Health, +Damage Resist

Mean: "Oh they seem pretty Mean"
Pushes past other spiders, +Damage

Vicious: "Careful, this one seems Vicious" 
Requires more care to maintain, ++Damage 

 

• Friendship Charms: "USELESS TRINKET." - W

This skill has multiple levels to it. Webber can craft several "Charms" that they can give to their favored spiders, giving a variety of effects. Charms can only be equipped from a Spider Grooming Station. Each spider can only wear one charm at a time.

The charms are as follows:

Spoiler

Hearty Shells: A charm made of sea shells, buffs health, helmets worn by the spider last 10x longer.

Fast Feathers: A charm made of feathers, buffs speed, spider can dodge attacks by jumping backwards when hit.

Sharp Necklace: A charm made of hound teeth, buffs damage, spider has a chance to attack twice.

Mystic Jewels: A charm made of gems, replaces the spiders main attack for a ranged magic attack.

Pretty Petals: A charm made of flowers, gives the spider a sanity aura.

Glow Band: A charm made of Glow Berries, Emits a tiny amount of light, can give the spider a Light Bulb to make them emit more light for a limited time.

Silk Pack: A charm made of Silk, the spider now has a small inventory and will pick up loose items off the floor. Can be accessed by clicking on the spider.

 

• Friends Forever: "Seems their attachment won't let them pass on." - M

When a favored spider dies, instead of dying and dropping their equipment they will instead turn into a small spider ghost. Webber can now craft a Silk Heart using silk and health. they can only be used on spider ghosts and will respawn the spider with all its equipment and stats, though at low health and hunger. Spider ghosts can be dismissed at a grooming station, causing the ghost to despawn, dropping any held equipment.

 

• Skilled Spiders: "Our friends are so talented!" - Webber

Favored spiders can now gain experience by participating in combat, improving all of their stats. Depending on their Nature, they will gain more stats in their boosted attributes. Accrued exp is maintained between revives and switcherdoodle uses. Exp has a hard cap.

 

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In addition to basic stats, Webber can also order his spiders to use special techniques and maneuvers. 

 

• Team-up Takedown: "Sic 'em!" - Webber

The Webby Whistle gains a radial dial, allowing them to select various additional actions gained through skills. The first additional action is called "Gang Up", Webber selects an enemy causing favored spiders to jump onto the target and latch on. They will continuously bite into the enemy, dealing constant damage. They cannot be hit or targeted by the enemy while latched on. Will usually cause the enemy to panic, but the spiders will jump off after a period of time. The number of spiders that can latch onto a target is determined by their size, from a minimum of one (catcoons, moles, spiders), to a maximum of ten (bosses, tree guardians, spider queens). Tiny creatures like rabbits and birds take a hit of damage, but cannot be latched onto. If a spider cannot otherwise latch onto an enemy, they will deal damage.

 

• Silk Volley: "Web 'em up!" - Webber

A new action is added called "Silk Trap". When selected Webber can select an area, causing favored spiders to shoot a volley of silk at the selected spot which covers the ground in temporary webs. It acts like the webs around a spider den, slowing down non spider creatures. In addition, if a creature is hit by them directly then they will be stuck in the webs for a moment, completely halting their movement. If a tiny creature such as a rabbit or a bird is struck, they will be stuck for the full duration and can be picked up by Webber as if in a trap. 

 

• Jumping Spiders: "Quick! Over here!" - Webber

A new action is added called "Hop Out". When selected, Webber can select an area which causes all favored spiders to halt their actions and leap towards the specified spot. Good for quickly moving spiders out of the way of a big attack, or to reposition them to a more advantageous spot.

 

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And uh, that's all I can think of at the moment. I know that technically there's nothing here that stops a player from having a few good spiders surrounded by 50 bad spiders, but I feel that something like this would be a good direction to help with the lag issue that Webbers cause with their spider army. Having an elite squad instead of a disposable army. I didn't give any specific numbers here so try and figure that out yourselves.

I am also pairing this idea with another idea I drew a while ago with the Travel Den. 

I think if they could hold the max amount of favored spiders you can have at a time, then it would help to easily bring your squad wherever you wanted.

Anyway thanks for reading and tell me what you think in the comments!

[blacknight7890]

Honestly if I could just have one thing from my whole post, it would be the "order spiders to jump onto and bite someone" maneuver. It would help so much with dealing with faster enemies, and also to help with the fact that only so many spiders can actually hit your target at a time. Mostly due to them being out of range because all the other spiders are in their way.

[Bumber64]

4 hours ago, blacknight7890 said:

"order spiders to jump onto and bite someone" maneuver

A.K.A., Pikmin maneuver.

[Loremorn]

Honestly, I love the idea of spiders having different “natures.” Stuff like +DEF nurses, timid spitters, or boosted ATK depending on the boss would add a ton of depth.

And giving Webber actual spider-control abilities for tatic porpuse would be amazing. It’d help separate him from Wurt army of strong beings that just tank and attack and lean harder into his whole “spider kid” identity.

Personally, I’ve always imagined Webber as more of a strategist/general. When you use the right combos, his spider army becomes terrifying—but if you mess up, AoE bosses wipe them instantly and you suffer for it. That risk–reward feels perfect for him.

To really seal that general vibe, I’d love if Webber could tame/ride a Spider Queen. Kinda like beefalo (if beefalo can atack faster with a player riding him, a Spider Queen could be faster, receive ability to jump or shoot webs). That would be peak Webber fantasy.

[blacknight7890]

3 hours ago, Loremorn said:

Personally, I’ve always imagined Webber as more of a strategist/general. When you use the right combos, his spider army becomes terrifying—but if you mess up, AoE bosses wipe them instantly and you suffer for it. That risk–reward feels perfect for him.

Yah I always thought of him like Olimar in Pikmin, but he just doesnt have the means to control the spiders to a good enough level yet. Any boss with an AoE can just wipe out your whole swarm. But, if you can get them to leap out of the way, or onto the boss itself, then they won't be sitting ducks.

 

On 11/22/2025 at 1:10 AM, Bumber64 said:

A.K.A., Pikmin maneuver.

Absolutely, I always saw Webber as more of an Olimar type character. He just severely lacks the control that pikmin have.

[Cassielu]

I think spending a lot of effort on individual spider is contrary to the original gameplay of Webber building a spider army.

[blacknight7890]

15 hours ago, Cassielu said:

I think spending a lot of effort on individual spider is contrary to the original gameplay of Webber building a spider army.

its to help save the server from the lag of said spider army, or at least try.

[Dr.Webber]

Interesting ideas though it probably wouldn’t serve its intended purpose

it would also be nice if the spider hearts could also be used on Webber’s ghost