Spiral Knights - FAQ for Spike Event

FAQ for Spike Event

14 replies [Last post]

Thu, 08/20/2026 - 13:46

Jayzio

Spent a decent amount of time on the preview event interacting with the Spike event and seeing some common questions being asked about it so I figured I'd make a post since I'm still at work and can't play.

What are spikes?
-New event that buffs monsters when they pick it up. Gives them increased HP, movement/atk speed and damage (I think damage was adjusted, correct me if I'm wrong)

Is this a permanent thing?
No. Looks like this event will run till the end of August.

Where to find spikes?
-Event is only CONSTRUCT type levels in the arcade at this time. Spikes do not spawn in any missions. There's different types of spike rarity based on the stratum you are in. You will need each type to craft to new diskguns from 2*-5*.
Depth 0-4 = Minute
Depth 5 -8 = Tiny
Depth 9-13 = Small
Depth 14-17 = Medium
Depth 18-22 = Large
Depth 23-28 = Huge

Additionally, spikes do drop from Starlight Cradle (sleep slime level) and deconstruction zones (credit to Bopp for pointing this out)

What can you do with spikes?
-There's a vendor in the Haven arcade where you can exchange it for forge crystals. There's also the new craftable diskgun that requires a lot of spikes to make.

Where are the new diskgun recipes?
-Basil. Recipes are double the price of normal recipes

How do spikes spawn?
-Spikes have a chance of spawning when enemies spawn in arcade. They will not spawn overtime when fighting enemies.

Does difficulty affect spike spawn rate?
-It does not.

Can only one person pick up spikes in a party?
-No spikes are shared across the party. If one person picks it up, everyone gets it.

How strong are spiked monsters?
-Monsters can stack up to 4 spikes, each giving more and more stats and heals them. Enemies can pick up additional spikes after the 4 stacks which will fire off a mortar attack similar to the gremlin mortars (you cannot pick up mortared shot spikes).

How is the new diskgun and how does it compare to mixer/orbit?
-It's a very strong weapon that does more damage than mixer/orbit on their neutral enemies due to its enhanced attacks where it does more damage on return hits (I think this is mandolin exclusive only but it might apply to other diskguns). It'll outperform mixer/orbit against gremlins and beasts due to being normal, but mixer and orbit will still better against elemental weakness monsters. Also has a chance to stun.

Tips for dealing with spike mobs.
-Poison is very good as it stops their healing when they pick up spikes.
-I'd prioritize trying to pick up spikes first before monsters can (they aggro pretty hard to them) and kill big threat enemies (healing gremlins, mecha knights, thwackers) since spikes make them way more difficult to deal with.

If you have any other questions just post here and I'll try to update or if others want to chime in that'd be appreciated.

Thu, 08/20/2026 - 14:17

Jayzio

Total Spikes and Materials needed to craft the disk gun 2*-5*

x1000 Huge Mysterious Spikes (Stratum 6)
x3500 Large Mysterious Spikes (Stratum 5)
x1700 Medium Mysterious Spikes (Stratum 4)
x700 Small Mysterious Spikes (Stratum 3)
x300 Tiny Mysterious Spikes (Stratum 2)
x30 Blue Shard
x20 Light Shard
x5 Brimstone
x4 Fuel Canister
x3 Volt Oil
x2 Meteor Mote
x4 Scrap Metal
x3 Power Cell
x2 Unstable Core
x1 Heavy Gear
x3 Spark Plug
x2 Gremlin Gizmo
x1 Force Dynamo
x2 Iron Gear
x2 Bronze Bolt
x1 Sun Silver
80,000cr (recipes) + 9,100cr (recipe crafting cost) = 89,100cr

Thu, 08/20/2026 - 16:31

Werewolfkirby

Adding here

One of the big things I wanna add here is probably how many floors it will take, I did try and get a average amount a normal player would get per floor but it is a bit volatile with certain levels but I figured 30 Spikes per floor would be a good ground so with that this is possibly the closest estimate if your able to get around 30 consistently.

1000 Huge Spikes = 34 Stratum 6 floors minimum

3500 Large Spikes = 117 Stratum 5 floors minimum

1700 Medium Spikes = 57 Stratum 4 floors minimum

700 Small Spikes = 24 Stratum 3 Floors minimum

300 Tiny Spikes = 10 Stratum 2 Floors minimum

Thu, 08/20/2026 - 19:15

Pdtopgun

Thanks a lot for this! I just ran into them in a Compound level and other than the basic enemy mechanics I had no idea how they worked or what they were used for.

Fri, 08/21/2026 - 12:29

Batabii

30 Spikes per floor would be a good ground

THIRTY? I did multiple floors and got 10-15 each

Fri, 08/21/2026 - 12:46

Bopp

also Starlight Cradle

Spikes also appear in Starlight Cradle (sleep slime) levels.

Fri, 08/21/2026 - 13:34

Jayzio

good catch Bopp

Ah thanks for catching that Bopp, i had skipped over those and deconstruction zones I'll update the main one.

Sun, 08/23/2026 - 15:29

Pdtopgun

For people in the know, are spikes supposed to be guaranteed for Construct levels/strata at the moment, or is it random chance? A friend and I were running T3 of the Sapphire King gate earlier, the tier that was clearly deliberately set up to be a farming spot for the event. We got the expected spikes across stratum 5, but as soon as we crossed over to stratum 6 they stopped. In addition Basil didn't sell the recipes for the 4 and 5-star variants of the gun. It struck us as weird, but I don't know if that's how the event is expected to work.

Sun, 08/23/2026 - 17:40

Picothea

To the above,

Would this happen to be just before the servers restarted? I heard spikes were disabled as an emergency measure at this time.
So far, it seems to me that spike are always guaranteed to trigger in the eligible arcade floors.

Sun, 08/23/2026 - 17:43

Pdtopgun

@Picothea: Yeah, we started our run right when we got the 90-minute warning for the server restart. That'd make sense.

Sun, 08/23/2026 - 22:41

#10

Jenovasforumchar

additional info

On top of Sleep Slime levels and Construct levels, Spikes also appear in the various Axes of Evil themes (the floating grassy island one with Gremlins and Constructs).

It should also be mentioned, that any monster that picked up spikes will also drop those spikes onto the ground in a cluster, allowing any other monster nearby to pick up those spikes and instantly getting buffed with the same number of spikes that the monster you just killed did carry. Strategy is needed here.

Also, please note, that after a monster reached the maximum number of spikes and starts shooting these as motar missles, those spikes will get lost. Don't allow monsters to pick up too many at once!

Oh and lastly, while this event is not a permanent one, Chronos mentioned that grey Haven ,,intents" it to be a recurring one. So it might become an event like Kataclysm, Apocrae and the likes.
https://forums.spiralknights.com/de/node/125585#comment-1078742

And while it is actually a construct level, the Roarmulus Twins boss fight depth will not has the has Spikes. (But the 2 floors before the Roarmulus Boss has spikes though, giving that mission a new spin.)

It should also be mentioned, that there is no chance in Spikes appearing. If a floor *can* have Spikes, then it *will* has Spikes. This means that a construction themed Compound level will always has Spikes and a Jelly themed Clockwork Tunnel will never has Spikes.

Cheers and happy farming =^.^=

Mon, 08/24/2026 - 04:48

#11

Zosu

Trivia

Howlitzer heads can carry a spike out of reach: https://imgur.com/a/BpCLT0M
When they die spiked, they fly around with it, so you may want to let them hit you rather than losing the spike. You can also shoot them or throw stuff at them, to stop them within reach, but it's not easy.

Mewkats are not interested in spikes: https://imgur.com/a/PPfquxa

Tue, 08/25/2026 - 05:12

#12

Torygigi

Thank you, very useful

Thank you, very useful information

Sun, 10/04/2026 - 00:36

#13

Nitronicx

More facts!

I did some quick experiments during this run of the event (slime spikes) and want to share some findings.

The spikes buff monster's max HP by 75 %, 20 %, 10 % and 5 % (rounded to integer) of their current max HP on 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th spike, respectively. Using "current max HP" means that 100 HP monster buffed with 1 spike to 175 HP will get buffed to 210 HP (175 × 0.20 = +35 HP) on grabbing 2nd spike.

Some monsters' HP scales more sharply: 100 %, 30 %, 20 % and 5 % respectively for each spike. I can confirm this scaling for these monsters so far: Gremlin Knockers, Mecha Knights, Lichen Colony, Giant Lichen Colony.

The HP buff that monsters get seems to be equal to the displayed amount of HP they heal. The heal can be converted to damage with poison. Spikes are like landmines for poisoned monsters!

You can over-spike enemies (thanks to Pdtopgun for bringing it up). They don't have to launch the 5th spike immediately. If they don't, they will try launching it later during the fight. They will drop those additional spikes on death as usual if they still have them. They also get buffs from those spikes. I'm certain that attack is buffed, HP probably as well because of the heal numbers (5 % buff for all subsequent spikes), and for speed I can't tell. I don't know what happens to HP when a spike is launched out and the buff is lost.

Damage of a thrown spike depends on the depth of the monster it had spawned from. Some monsters are "pulled from a lower depth" (e.g. tier 3 Alpha Wolvers in tier 2 Wolver Den) and those can spawn more powerful spikes. This doesn't affect spikes' star rating (you can't get a tier 3 Large Mysterious Spike in tier 2).

Starlight Cradle, Concrete Jungle, Aurora Isles, Treasure Vault and Royal Jelly Palace (except boss floor) count for "slime areas" for the event. Possibly also Scarlet Fortress, but I haven't seen one yet.

Information from other places:

People on Haven discord server found the spike spawn chances. It's 78 % on Elite, 65 % on Advanced and 52 % on Normal difficulty. It was 75 % previously.

There's a new NPC Sybil in Emberlight with some dialogue.

Treasure Mimic boss is bugged and runs around the level when there are spikes.

9/24/2026: Original post.
10/4/2026: There exists sharper HP scaling. Clarified that depth-pulling doesn't affect spike's star rating.

Sun, 10/04/2026 - 07:44

#14

Bopp

great, thanks

That's great detail. I didn't know a ton of it. Thanks.

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FAQ for Spike Event