Necromancers are dark arts masters found in Temple of Anubis, who studied the Book of the Dead in order to puppeteer the dead for his own needs.
Behavior[]
Necromancers do not attempt to attack the player directly, and can only damage the player themselves for 1 damage via contact damage.
When the player gets near, Necromancers will instead summon red Skeletons near the player to attack them with. These Skeletons act identical to normal ones, with the only differences being their coloration and eventual automatic death after enough elapsed time. This attack is much like that of Anubis II's in Spelunky HD, albeit much less intense as they may only summon a single Skeleton at a time.
Necromancers may summon red Skeletons near the player regardless of whether they're on the main side of the level or a sub area. Necromancers typically hide inside sub-areas of Temple of Anubis and summon red Skeletons with impunity on players in or out of the sub-area.
A Necromancer summoning a red Skeleton in a sub-area.
Necromancers also have the bonus effect of being able to resurrect dead corpses so that they may attack the player for him. This includes every enemy that leaves a corpse, such as Sorceresses and Witch Doctors.
Necromancers live up to their name and do their job effectively; if a Necromancer resurrects a dead Hired Hand, NPC, or player in co-op, they will become a pawn for the Necromancer and fight the player. A Fire Frog that is primed and about to explode can be resurrected by a Necromancer, preventing their detonation.
A Hired Hand succumbing to Poison, then being resurrected by a Necromancer to attack the player.
Killing a Necromancer will always have it leave behind a single ruby. Unfortunately, enemies that they resurrect (including other Necromancers) will not drop the item(s) they once dropped when initially killed, such as a Leprechaun's Four-leaf Clover or a Shopkeeper's five coins.
Necromancers are worth twice as much as normal enemies at an Altar, worth 4 favor when sacrificed live and 2 favor when offering the corpse of one.
Strategy[]
- The Necromancer's resurrecting abilities may actually be beneficial in some cases; Necromancers may resurrect Pets for the player to take to the exit, bring back Mounts from the dead (although no longer tamed), or revive dead entities beside an Altar for a player to get more favor out of them.
- As Necromancers can resurrect entities through sub-areas, a corpse may be placed near the Sun Challenge in the Sunken City, so that one of the many Necromancers the challenge summons with its many Spawners will resurrect it. This can be especially useful if the player imported a Qilin into the Sunken City, as killing it and allowing a Necromancer to resurrect it will bring the Qilin's HP back to 4.
- Although having a Sun Challenge Necromancer resurrect the Eggplant Child will cause it to become hostile, they will still be able to open the door to the Eggplant World if they are stunned and placed on the Mother Statue. This can potentially be used to save a player's Eggplant World run if the Eggplant Child is killed on 7-1, by stunning the now hostile child with rope, thrown bombs, or other means.
- If not attempting to use the Necromancer's abilities for their own needs, a player should destroy any corpses close to a Necromancer whenever possible. This can be done by crushing them, sacrificing them to an Altar, or destroying the body with a Machete or Excalibur.
- Necromancers themselves are a negligible threat to the player; although their 4 HP allows them to survive a single stomp from a player wearing Spike Shoes, they cannot do much harm to the player and can be easily dispatched of.