Monk Took Book Spider Guide: The Webs in the Stacks

Is the spider confirmed?

Yes — by the same grade of evidence as the rat: the official Steam achievement list includes Kill a spider, with text describing it as “lurking among the tomes.” Both confirmed vermin carry their own kill achievement, which tells you the game expects you to hunt them actively rather than just survive them.

Where do spiders appear?

The achievement’s own wording — among the tomes — is the best answer currently available: deep in the stacks, in and around the collection you spent the day arranging. Night footage from early long plays shows webs spun in the library’s darker reaches, turning your careful shelving into an obstacle course. Precise spawn rules — which chambers, which nights, what attracts them — are unverified and land here when tested.

What about arachnophobia mode?

A genuinely thoughtful official touch: Monk Took Book ships a dedicated arachnophobia mode, listed in the store page’s feature set. If spiders are a hard no for you or someone you play with, the game officially accommodates that — no modding required. It is one of several accessibility options covered in our difficulty settings guide, alongside granular enemy reduction and book-rate controls.

How do you fight it?

The confirmed night toolkit is a dagger, a crossbow and a holy cross — the official description’s three tools, which our night defense guide breaks down in detail. Early players report clearing spiders with the same close-quarters work that handles rats; whether the crossbow’s reach matters for web removal at distance is unverified.

One confirmed surprise: there is more than one spider. The achievement list includes Kill a jumping spider (68.0% of players) alongside Kill a spider (79.1%) — a second, sprightlier kind. The honest gaps: spider health relative to the rat, whether webs have gameplay effects beyond obstruction, how the two spider kinds differ, and spawn frequency. All observed-so-far, none confirmed — this page updates as testing fills them in.

How does the spider differ from the rat?

The official texts draw the line: the rat is “intent on consuming the collection”, an active eater — our rat guide covers it. The spider lurks, which reads as an ambush-and-obstruct threat rather than an eating one. In practice, early players treat both the same way — night threats to clear on sight — but their damage models may differ, and that difference is exactly what the bestiary work-in-progress in our enemies guide is tracking.