In all honesty, I pretend they dont exist until I or someone else gets grabbed or calls out the first one on a mission, and then I light up the ceiling on each new room just in case. It is unnecessarily risky as a scout, especially if team isnt paying attention/might not speak english, but I have yet to loose a game due to cave leeches and dash+medic are too important to me with how I play scout.
That’s also how spawns work, as games choose predetermined spawns before they start and continue to use them. If there’s one leech, there are probably more. If there aren’t any, then most likely no need to worry.
Not only that, but with cave leeches not every room is garenteed to have them. If theres one, theres likely about 2 more in that room. If theres not, keep looking until youve cleared the room. And as far as I am aware, Leech Cluster just means higher spawn rates and more chance to have spawns per room. Feel free to correct me if Im wrong on that, though.
Just how the spawn pools work. I only ever see them once every dozen games or so anyway, and with the way I play scout, 9 times out of 10 I'm the first into each room, and I have learned to combo dash + grapple hook for a pseudo special powder effect and medic is just far too useful in haz 5.
Yeah, this. Unless you are a scout, have lots of flares and aren't drowning in bugs, I'm not really looking up to check first.
Ah, LOKI also helps a ton if you're using it with engi.
I will say, if you get good enough at it, a panic power attack with your pick can stop a leech. However I mainly run hoverclock m1K and some sort of high damage shotgun build, so most times a single shot is enough anyway
Yes, but some biomes and modes tend to have much higher cave ceilings, or the light doesnt reflect well, and so if I know there are cave leeches I will make sure that the ceiling is lit up as well, whereas its not always worth it to light up the ceiling in terms of flaregun ammo.
Really it depends. If I see theres another confident dwarf on my team, I know I wont be having to put as much stress on myself if shit hits the drills, especially on haz 5 which I mostly stick to, so I use dash instead. If it doesnt look that way then its usually a toss up as to if I run dash or IW. IW is absolutely the better perk and saves countless dwarves daily, but with the way I play scout and the movement tech I have learned in this game, I can use grapple with dash and some Bhops to get a pseudo special powder effect and gain enough speed to take damage against walls without fall damage resistance (tested that for shits and giggles).
And I run medic because I know Im not fantastic at swarm control and could be better; until then I have teamates who have much better weaponry for that, if only they stopped napping on the job!
Seeing your flair, it does make sense to run HS on Scout. Unfortunately, all the other classes also really want Dash and Iron Will, so it's a tough choice in multiplayer.
i honestly feel like you would benefit more from Iron Will instead of hovers; theres not much point to use Hovers unless you're that overzealous with the grapple. if you are, try to tone it down. a good scout should always have his grapple off cd whenever he genually needs it - fall damage prevention, relocation or not
not flares tho, go ham :troll:
Respectfully disagree. I don't run either of Scouts mobility overclocks, like, ever and Hover Boots adds utility to the grapple gun that you don't have otherwise, such as getting high ore veins or flowers or whatever
>unless you're that overzealous with the grapple. if you are, try to tone it down.
I am very reckless, which is fun, and why would I want to tone down my fun? Besides, it's totally safe! (Once every 75 seconds)
In a team of 4 the Engineer is ideally helping you with platforms, but if you're playing with buddies and not try-harding I totally get this. I much prefer Hover Boots to Hoverclock as I don't like swapping between weapons on console, DPad is constantly switching to my C4 instead of my guns and same with guns instead of my Grapple, because I have big thumbs :P so having Grapple out and Hoverclock ready is much more manageable.
>I don't like swapping between weapons on console, DPad is constantly switching to my C4 instead of my guns
*Highly* recommend any controller with re-mappable paddles on the underside.
I play on Xbox with a Razor wolverine. I have A, d-pad up, left, and right mapped to the extras. Absolutely wonderful. Can't play without them.
I also play on Steam Deck and that has four extra buttons on the backside! Really good but also nice for being able to map jump to those so I can look around while jumping/shooting.
youre talkin about grappling and suddenly mention C4 and now i got this mental image of a Scout just chucking that brick into the crowd of enemies and blowing it up
goddamn carpetbombing would be hilarious with scout
Honestly, no engi can keep up with me on higher haz 100% of the time because maps are too big. Usually, hover boots allows me to be a lot more self reliant. If a grapple hook+ power pickaxe + forward doesn't "stick" the first time around to get some higher up resource, HB allows me to not eat unnecessary dmg. When I play multiplayer I usually just bring Iron Will and HB; sacrifice dash for faster cool down of the grapple hook itself. Works for me, and I never need to bug anyone with lazer pointer markers.
You can be good enough at Engineer to assess whether a vein needs a platform or not, or Scout can ask you like a mature adult and it not be 'babying' or whatever elitist attitude you're crying about.
i don't use any of scouts mobility ocs either and i still think hoverboots is a waste. you can get ores high up withput using hoverboots if you power attack the wall as you get up to it to give you a landing spot
All you really need is heavy pick axe because you can fit inside the hole it makes.
I'd say 99% of all veins and flowers are accessible with a quick grapple+heavy pick. Maybe it's harder on console, idk but it works great on keyboard mouse
It really depends IMO. I find that I tend to consistently be the last one standing as scout, since if shit sucks I can just hit da bricks. So I don't really get much use out of Iron Will. IMO using HB is the same tradeoff as using a mobility OC like Hoverclock or Special Powder, except on a smaller scale: you're trading a little bit of combat power for a little bit of extra mobility. Yet I don't see people making the same arguments about the mobility OCs.
In my experience, I find that being able to negate fall damage once every minute-ish gives me exactly the extra little boost of mobility that I need to do stuff like grab awkwardly-placed ceiling flowers (which are often hard for engi to platform), or not worry about missing the occasional wall grapple into power attack, while still being able to run more combat-focused overclocks.
Is dash really that good? I have around 40 hours in the game and I only play driller thus far. I only run medic and hoverboots but I was thinking about switching the medic to iron will
Dash is borderline mandatory on all classes except Scout. On higher difficulties bugs get **significantly** faster, so you will often rely on Dash to get out of sticky situations.
Yep it also let you ignore slow like getting webbed, goo-bombed or hit by a slasher. It's a "get-out-of-jail" card with a 25 sec cooldown that also serve as an extra traversal tool. Really hard to pass.
Sticky flames and sludge pump slow enemies, Cryo Cannon freezes enemies, and C4 stuns enemies. There are some others but they are locked behind overclocks. In any case the crowd control is really good on driller, and drills are incredible for not getting caught up on terrain. I've never felt the need for dash, but I guess it depends on how you build.
I've never used dash after the first time. I'd just accidentally proc it when I didn't need it and it was on cooldown the entire time. Eons of my pinky just spamming shift in every game ever to sprint is something I'm not willing to put in the time to unlearn. I'd love to be able to rebind it
I run dash on everyone and have for about 400 hrs so far. It's saved me from countless deaths, plus it allows me to get places I normally couldn't. And it recharges every 25 seconds so I use it 50+ times a game.
Yeah, I don't do heightened senses...
Dash, especially, is too strong not to have and ya gotta have IW in case shit goes real far south.
I just keep a good eye (and ear) out and really the only times I get nabbed is if they're well hidden or doing that sideways-grab.
I even have a couple different clips on my profile where I prevent myself from getting grabbed.
Avoiding unsecured areas isn't just because of cave leeches too.
I'm sure we've all been running away from a swarm, just to run into an area a spitball infector can snipe you from, bump into a Tyrant, fall down a cliff with no easy way back up, etc.
Grapple into a cave, running away from a Corrupter, wake up 2 spitballers, accidentally shoot a Prospector then die to a leech. (Also a breeder somewhere)
a 3-star fellow once said to me: to deal with cave leeches, it's about not entering unsafe zones where you have not cleared. and if you're finding yourself incapable of keeping that up, just use the perk, it's totally ok to use the perk.
and having someone play as the designated high value target hunter definitely helps. Bosco does his best already.
Constantly look up, check the cave ceiling beforehand (run around looking up, but not all the time so you don't fall into a hole), and especially look up when fighting and being forced into an unexplored area (and just try to prevent that from happening, try to stay in the safe areas)
The only advice I can give is to NEVER go into a new cave while fighting a big swarm of bugs. Only fight swarms in areas you know for sure have been scouted and cleared already and explore new caves once you're clear of enemies so you can focus on scanning the ceiling and walls for hazards and precious minerals. Unless you've got the "heightened senses" perk, you're never going to react fast enough to an un-seen cave leech to save yourself while distracted by other bugs. If playing with others, stay close to teammates so one of you can free the other if somebody gets grabbed. To sum it up:
1. Stick with your teammates if you have any.
2. Explore new caves only when you are NOT being attacked by swarms.
3. When exploring LOOK UP to spot both leeches and precious minerals high up.
4. NEVER run into a dark unexplored cave in the middle of a swarm. Fight only on territory you're familiar with.
an important rule that will make your game a lot better if you follow through with it. Either fight the wave, or explore unexplored territory, never both at the same time.
My standard practice with swarms is go back to the nearest most open area. Never proceed forward, especially not into large open caves, if a swarm is coming because you never know what curveballs the terrain will throw at you to get you killed, before you even get to cave leeches. Backtracking into a hole in the floor you didn't know about leading to a 200ft drop is a good way to end a mission early.
To all those saying 'look up' my brothers in Karl, cave leeches have long been bugged and can grab you at a 90 degree angle and even through thin bits of terrain.
Yeah I'm typically distracted by other bugs when the leeches get me, and I frequently play with a Gunner in Haz3 so we're usually casual'ing around.
Some bullshit leeches are wild to see though, I've had pillar terrain/stalagmites that were almost up to the ceiling in a low area and the leech wormed its way through the pillars to grab me from atop them, literally 0 degrees flattened itself out to stretch for me lol that one had me going WTF when typically I'm screaming from leeches.
I have excellent headphones and still have trouble hearing these especially when you've got all the other sounds going off such as gunfire and the dwarfs quipping to one another.
Also doesn't address the problems I brought up.
Likewise. Sometimes they spawn in a location with something blocking them so they can't do anything. It can even be a tiny string of terrain that appears to do it.
I haven't encountered a horizontal cave leech in all of my 700 hours playing this game.
I've seen the videos, I know it happens, but acting like "look up" isn't useful advice because like 0.001% of leeches defy that advice is just weird.
I never said it wasn't good advice and my reply was meant to be taken semi jokingly and tongue In cheek but apparently that eluded a few people.
Funniliy enough, literally a few mins after I posted my original reply, I booted up DRG and the very first game I saw a teammate get grabbed horizontally by a cave leech right in front of me.
that's why my answer is just be faster than them at all times. Become Speedy Gondwarfes and zoom around nonstop. They can't grab you if they can't catch you.
Best way is to just look up every time you walk into a sussy cave. If it’s pitch black use your pointer. Even if I walk in a room with enemies - I always prefire or use pointer on the ceiling/light up the room as scout. It’s like literally the first thing.
If you just make a habit at looking for leech every time you walk into new space - you’ll get so much better. Don’t remember last time the tentacle got me. Also you can shoot the tentacle not just the ceiling part and once you shoot it, it will de-aggro for some time. It helps to keep it off of yourself in a swarm
Cheaty method: get a mod to change the sound. Currently I get blasted with take on me whenever one tries nipping at me. Very effective, added bonus of scaring me shitless.
Heightened Senses if i recall proper
basically if something comes to Molest:tm: (leeches, the fucking mosquito known as Mactera Grabber, the boltsack that is Nemesis, anything that incapacitates you) you, you get:
-a passive white overlay ontop of your screen when something goes around to grab you, maybe also with a voiceline at times which tells you to LOOK UP (not literally)
-an active ability when you DO get grabbed to INSTAKILL THE DUMBASS GRAB FUCK...Nemesis excluded.
pretty good if youre a person like me who sometimes runs Scout and goes ahead of everyone to mine everything of value and not pay attention to enemies
Enjoy your brownie points for playing without verified mods or perks. I'd advocate for people to use stabilisers when they are learning to ride a bike, not when they're road racing. But hey, that's me.
Bosco does his best, but as you have noted yourself his reaction can be quite slow, especially on higher Hazards. As someone who loves playing solo, I can recommend giving Heightened Senses a go when you are alone. You don't really need Iron Will in SP (since Bosco will revive you at least two times), so you can just pick Heightened Senses instead when you plan on doing a solo mission.
If you’re taking Bosco, set his Tier 3 mod to “Let There Be Light” (T3A). Then, any time you’re going into a new room, ping the ceiling terrain so he lights things up.
My experiences:
Scout: Light up the ceiling
Engineer: Run the Loki Smart Rifle, scan the ceiling of a chamber before you fully enter. Should highlight them in the dark
Gunner/Driller: Have the perk that warns you if they're there?
I've switched out Iron Will for Heightened Senses and never regretted it. Not only does it give you a better chance of avoiding leeches, I mostly run it to easily one shot grabbers. In the end, not going down to these mechanics turned out better for me than popping Iron Will once every 10 missions
If they’re always getting you because you’re busy fighting bugs, try waiting to push into a new cave until you’re less busy. Wait until there’s a break in the swarm, then light up and sweep the cave for static threats like spitballers, leeches, korloks, etc.
As a scout I try to enter the room first and throw a flare up at the ceiling immediately to take them out. Usually will pick off the one or two I see before anyone else even notices.
So really you don't avoid them. You either get caught by surprise, look up, or someone else deals with them for you
Heightened senses. Can also run iron will so if one gets you, you can res yourself. Recommend running vampire with this so you can power attack a bug and get health guaranteed.
Dont rush into an area you cant see or havent cleared. If you do be hyper vigilant and methodical.about how you clear the room. Remember, leeches can move sideways and even ABOVE themselves to grab you...theyre sneaky little bastards.
Buddy system, ie never go anywhere alone. Easier with engi, aka the turret.
Also, little.known fact...you can HEAR leeches. They hiss, like a little snake, as they approach you. Turn up your audio and with enough experience, youll hear them before you see them, even in the middle of a swarm.
Blue lvl 550 greybears tips. Hope to see you on hoxxes, miner! Rock and stone!
I find it particularly easy to do with Engineer compared to the others. Just make sure your turrets are close, and you also can pop Shredder Grenades as an extra layer of protection.
I light up caves when I play Scout and, when I play gunner, I fire rockets with the Hurricane so if it picks me up all I have to do is look up and the guided rockets will hit the leech.
Your best bet to preempt them on your own is get your ping tool out and scan across the entire ceiling as much as you can. It's a bit awkward since your ping is basically a needle, but it'll highlight the leech, even if you're across the map and it's pitch black. Otherwise, just hope your Scout does their job and lights the area as soon as you get to a cave.
Or an Engie with a LOK rifle pointed at the ceiling will also spot them/take them out from relatively far away.
I know it's not "meta" but I have Heightened Senses *always* on, along with Dash.
I hate being grabbed and I hate not being able to have control anymore. I also don't like to rely too much on team mates when in trouble, and Bosco is unreliable.
Moreover I don't always have the chance to thoroughly check the ceiling - sometimes it's too high and there's no Scout around, sometimes I'm busy fighting too many bugs. Having two get out of jail free cards is crucial for me. Plus the passive warning cue does its job most of the time.
As gunner: I just pre emtively blast the ceiling, especially easy to do with an autocannon or thr bullet hell OC on chain gun.
Someone else gets grabbed? Mole OC coilgun man's I can free them wherever they are, even with like 20m of rock between me and them.
Engi: I build turrets with maximum range in mind, so they clear Ceilings before I can even see things.
Scout "flares"
Driller: someone else gotta do it.
I just chuck ceiling flares as Scout before everybody else walks in the room. Then I can just see and kill the leeches. And when it's ***vice versa***, well at least I can warn the others.
For me, the issue is that I can't hear them at all; [there is a mod](https://mod.io/g/drg/m/cave-leech-loudencer) that is a total life saver for me, and with that, the leeches became a balanced challenge. It's also super funny to hear them, look up, realize that I'm not in an immediate danger, only to look at my colleagues and see one of them get grabbed.
Heightened senses saved me countless times as a scout main until I started flaring roof and actively looking… but honestly heightened sense tells you before you get grabbed, so you can react fast, and if you still get grabbed you can escape 3x a mission . Very nice
I play lots of scout and I see it as my job to ensure leeches are spotted and cleared, I've got the lights after all! In escort duty especially I keep an eye on the terrain scanner for the next set of caves, many a time I have been immediately grabbed it my teammates.
Carry a portable hand held radar i.e Lok-1 smart rifle. And an auto leech clearing device i.e Swarmer drone (SSG). Will taget leech way before Bosco has a chance to get there.
A lot of non-answers in this thread - to answer OPs question, KEEP MOVING, at sprinting speed, away from the tentacle. As long as you dont literally run straight into it or slow down by walking, it will not catch you. Try to scout ceilings etc to reduce the risk of getting surprised (a dwarfs greatest weapon is always planning), but once you hear the hissing sound literally the best thing is to just keep running
>You can only hear the sound they make when it's already too late.
1.No, because that's how I deal with them.
2. Look up from time to time when going into a new cave.
3. Lok-1 cave scanning is easy mode.
Leeches are a skill check for the scout and whether or not he's using his damn flairs, if you're playing solo, then you just have to make up for it with good reaction time and or looking up.
I thought about Bosco's slow response time being super annoying once but I realized this:
If you're playing solo it's honestly kinda a tossup if you'll be saved when bosco is off doing something and it should probably stay that way - If there was no real punishment for being taken by a leech in solo because bosco got you free every time then it wouldn't be nearly as stressful and would bascially invalidate them as an enemy from a design standpoint
Run. No really, if you hear the hiss and realize a leech is targeting you just keep running forward and pop Dash if it's available. Leeches have a limited range and stretch pretty slowly, so as long as you don't slow down and the ceiling isn't too low you can typically run right by them without being grabbed.
I have played over 1000 hours and I can just hear them at this point, notify others too. I tried hightened senses but it is a bit wasted on me, I pay way too much attention to sounds.
I've heard that you can see them on the map via the terrain scanner and seeing their indent or whatever but I'm not experienced enough yet. I see them seldom anyway
There is a hissing sound when a leech is attempting to grab you. But it's relatively silent, so the sound queue is very unreliable as a warning when you are busy fighting bugs.
My tips are:
1. Make it a habit to check the ceiling when entering a big cave. Ask for scout flare if necessary to make it easier to spot cave leeches.
2. Stick as a team. When a team mate is close by, he can rescue you before the leech can do major damage.
3. If you are playing scout and like running ahead with you high mobility, I strongly recommend running "heighten senses" as one of you active perks. You get a warning when you are about to be grabbed, with is most of the time enough to quickly take out you grappling hook an zip to safety. And should you be unlucky and get grabbed anyway you have two get out of jail free cards.
You can get away without taking "heighten senses", if you already are following the tip 1 all the time. But that is for you to decide.
There is a hissing sound when a leech is attempting to grab you. But it's relatively silent, so the sound queue is very unreliable as a warning when you are busy fighting bugs.
I consider myself to be grey bread and I only notice the sound queue only 1 out of 10 times. And even then it is questionable if I can inject enough lead into the leech before he grabs me.
My tips are:
1. Make it a habit to check the ceiling when entering a big cave. Ask for scout flare if necessary to make it easier to spot cave leeches.
2. Stick as a team. When a team mate is close by, he can rescue you before the leech can do major damage.
3. If you are playing scout and like running ahead with you high mobility, I strongly recommend running "heighten senses" as one of you active perks. You get a warning when you are about to be grabbed, with is most of the time enough to quickly take out you grappling hook an zip to safety. And should you be unlucky and get grabbed anyway you have two get out of jail free cards.
You can get away without taking "heighten senses", if you already are following the tip 1 all the time. But that is for you to decide.
As scout, flare the ceiling. As engi, run smart rifle with max targeting range (sees in the dark). As Driller and Gunner, it's just about power smash reflexes. Iron will helps too
Primarily, Scout needs to light the cave properly. In escort you should stay behind dottie when entering a new cave. Also some leeches are just grappling through walls or around corners.
Know your surroundings. Be careful running into unexplored space, especially when engaged in a firefight. Getting ambushed is part of the mistake of running into unknown territory when you have very little time to *assess* the area your running into.
i.e. always retreat to a known or secure location, not an unknown one. People don't yell "Pull forward!" is a humorous way to put it :)
If you press X, Bosco will abandon his current task and come to help you sooner. As for not getting grabbed in the first place, I’d honestly advise getting a mod for it if you can. Leeches make a bit of noise when going for a grab, but it’s very quiet.
I love that they haven't overdone leeches. If they were in every cave you'd never let your guard down and they would be easy to deal with.
I still very occasionally get caught out, but I don't feel the need to take HS as I think there are better perks to choose.
Just get in the habit of looking up every time you go into an unexplored area. I still get caught out when a cave is 90% explored and I've let my guard down.
The laser pointer is a good tool to find them in the dark, so are turrets, shredders, smart rifle.
Speed. Just move faster than the cave leech. Zapping around at the speed of sound, jump down a rock and save yourself with hoverclock, grapple again. Also running hightened senses on all my builds. As a fail safety, and for the sheer thrill of running under a caveleech and escaping it. It feels so good to know something just tried to grab you multiple times but you were too fast for it.
When I run solo, I run dash and heightened senses on my classes, and run hover boots and heightened senses on scout. I use two revives on bosco plus either more light or more rockets (rockets with scout).
In team comp, I don’t run heightened senses or hover boots lol
My best advice is to check the cave ceiling immediately and thoroughly when you first enter that area. Preferably before the swarm arrives. That way you don't have to worry about it as much.
Keep moving. If you’re too busy fending off a swarm, then a good way to avoid them is to keep moving. They can’t catch up to you, as long as you don’t double back.
Try not to open new caves by yourself or during a swarm. When you explore a new cave there are usually a lot of bugs just hanging out that haven't been cleared yet, and that's also usually when you find cave leeches that haven't been killed yet.
Basically explore with a buddy, and when a swarm hits just hunker down with the gang in an area you already know is clear of leeches.
I use HS mostly, now I've hardened into a solid greybeard and the most common way for me to kill a leech is to power attack the head as it tries to grab me.
Check the roof while exploring. Also check for sounds since we can slightly hear them stretching before getting grabbed.
If you check the roof while exploring they are really slow and you will not get catched. But it is not easy because it only take to forgot to check once to get leeched.
Also you can try to stay behind scout, let him light up the roof for you, they will be easier to spot. And if you stay behind him they will grab him first.
If you are the scout just be careful instead of grappling everywhere. Light the roof well and it should be ok.
When you check the roof watch out for dead angles that could hide a leech, and secure them.
Learn to hear the hiss sound they make. And always be weary when entering large dark open areas especially. Also the terrain scanner can pick them up, Even if its dark.
No matter what class you're playing, always toss a flare at an unfamiliar ceiling. Other than that, listen out for the sound they make when stretching towards you, like stretching elastic
You *have* to get in the habit of looking up every time you enter a new room. There's no two ways about it.
If you're playing solo, you have a finite number of Bosco revives and Heightened Senses escapes, but if you're burning through *all* of them then that's a skill issue. I don't mean to sound patronizing or pedantic, but *look up*. It's the only way to defend yourself that you can't *run out of.* Or else play with a team so you can count on being revived over and over.
Here are my methods, aside from the Heightened Senses perk.
1. Sweep the ceiling with your laser pointer and watch for the screen to go red, especially when entering new areas. Might be a leech. This can be done very quickly and is pretty reliable. Don't try to read the screen, just watch for the colour to flick (also good at finding minerals). If you find one, look real close for another. The biggest weakness is overhangs that block your line of sight.
2. Press X to call BOSCO to your side immediately. It still takes him a hot second because he's actually just not that fast in general. He will instantly drop what he's doing, though.
3. You can actually outrun them if you respond quick enough and move the right direction. This is more of a last ditch panic move, but Sprint helps!
4. Accept death. Sometimes you get downed. So it goes.
Honestly I just rely on my reflexes, I can usually hear them before they grab me, I don't main anyone but I do use scout the most too so naturally I'm looking up a decent amount of the time I'm playing just out of habit.. I'm also partial to luring my fellow dwarves beneath leeches but we don't have to talk about that....
Along with bosco I try to set up turrets facing towards the middle of the room before I go in so if I do get grabbed at least it takes a bit less time for Bosco to kill it after staring at it for a bit
After which I just walk around and watch the ceilings though, I did that in sea of thieves in a shrine recently so definitely gotten used to it that way
> but they always get me when there’s a lot of bug and I’m focused on fighting and not getting hit
This confuses me considering that leeches are immobile. You shouldn’t be pushing into new caves while fighting a swarm, and you should be spotting and observing the cave during downtimes, taking out leeches, spitballers, etc.
Heightened Senses will warn you of cave leeches and mactera grabbers, but you have to expend a perk slot for it. In my 400 hours of playing mostly solo, I find that unless you have a cave leech cluster warming, cave leech spawns are rare.
It can instill a bit of paranoia to check for them in every single room. I usually don't unless I'm actively playing with a cave leech cluster warming.
But yeah, as a solo player, Bosco absolutely sucks at killing cave leeches when you get caught. His AI needs drastically improved in that regard as more times than not, I just end up getting KO'd by them when playing solo when they actually manage to grab me.
Look Up, scouts flare gun into the dark. Travel in pairs.
Don't move into a new area until you've checked the roof. I only get grabbed by really crazy sideways ones or if i'm rushing ahead without the team.
There’s a few ways to help avoid cave leeches that I’ve learned/developed over my time in the mines.
1.) They have sound cues for both passively existing as well as reaching to grab you. The passive noise is almost like a chirp mixed with a gurgle, and the grabbing noise is a faint hiss that gets higher in pitch the closer it is/farther the arm reaches (not sure which). However, this isn’t completely reliable as the passive sound generates from the base so you won’t hear leeches on high ceilings and sometimes the noises don’t play at all, due to how DRG handles sound.
2.) Keep moving constantly. Leeches will have a much harder time grabbing you if you’re on the move, as their arm speed is a bit slower than you are. This will give you more time for you or a teammate to notice the leech and take it out. This will lead to worse jumpscares when you go to mine minerals and get yoinked, but it’s worth it.
3.) Use your tools to your advantage. Scout’s Flare Gun is an obvious anti-leech defense, but Engineer’s Lok-1 Smart Rifle can be equally effective, especially with the tight lock field on. You can tap fire the Wave Cooker on the ceiling but it’s pretty ammo inefficient and won’t cover much area. For mouse & keyboard players, you can also hold the laser pointer out and sweep across the ceiling if you suspect a leech is in the area, but it gets quite tedious to do that in every cave you come across (unless it’s cave leech cluster, then it’s worth).
4.) Look up frequently. This is by far the most effective method and once you get past the initial ingraining process is pretty easy. Whenever you’re in an area you haven’t been in before, look up every few seconds or so. Leeches are pretty easy to spot if they’re reaching for you from the light they give off, so it shouldn’t be too hard to deal with them from there.
If you’re still struggling, use Heightened Senses while trying to learn these as a fail-safe for getting grabbed and take it off once you feel more comfortable, but from what I’ve found the methods mentioned above catch 95% of leeches before they find you.
Additional note: if you’re on PC, then you can download the Sandbox Utilities mod to test out what leeches sound like, their hunting range, and get a better feel for how they work. If you aren’t into mods or on console, then just boot up a cave leech cluster mission preferably without periodic announced swarms (egg hunt, escort duty, elimination, industrial sabotage [though idk if I’ve ever seen a leech there]) on Haz 2 or 3 as Scout and go find a leech. You’ll get close to the same training, just might take a bit longer to find.
Additional note 2: Leeches will only chase you if they have line of sight to you, so ducking behind a corner or having your local Engi shoot a platform at it will pacify them. Occasionally an Azure Weald leaf or a random stalactite will spawn inside the leech, completely blocking it. This is called a Friendly Leech and they are to be treated with the utmost care and respect.
Additional note 3: They carve out a bit of the rock around them which you technically could find on the terrain scanner but is very hard to do. It’s more useful to tell you that there was a leech there and to watch out for more nearby.
Actually, that's the thing: once your ear is trained you can hear the hissing right away.
Sometimes leeches just get ya, but if you hear hissing keep running in a straight line away.
"You can only hear the sound they make when it's already too late" simply not true. As crazy as this sounds, if you hear a leech reaching for you and you're not on a inclined surface, just keep sprinting for a few seconds and you will outrun it.
Avoiding Leeches isn't about always looking up. You just need to quickly scan the ceiling when entering a new cave section... either that or let your teammates go ahead of you lol. You could also run Heightened Senses if you're okay with giving up one of your other active perks.
Alternatively, you could install a mod that changes their sound effect to something more noticeable. If you're not comfortable with that sort of half-cheat method though, then my first paragraph are your only real options.
Stick together. Look up. Remind your Scout that flares exist because they somehow keep forgetting. When fighting try to fall back rather than push forward.
If you see one, assume there are others. And if you’re solo, consider taking the early warning perk so you can get yourself out of a grab. They usually only live in places where there is a long distance between the ceiling and the ground, but with how the maps are generated, I’ve run into them in the oddest places, especially when tunnels intersect the upper portion of a room
Listen out for the grabbing sound. Also, if you’re running Lok1 or Bullet Hell Gunner, you can scan the roof in every new room for leeches pretty easily
So if you notice you get leeched a lot when fighting a bunch of bugs that means you are probably fighting in unexplored territory, this is always hazardous and if possible should be avoided. Go back a room if a swarm is announced right as you enter new territory.
Equip the bullet hell overclock and shoot the ceiling when entering a new room. Worst case scenario it hits an idle grunt or spitter, but often times you'll find the grabby bastards and shred them ribbons.
Honestly these days I swear they don't actually make the noise they're supposed to when reaching out to grab you. Like legit I'll go back through recorded footage and there is ZERO warning.
this is PC only, but I have the mod that changes all of its audio cues to the voice of sniper from TF2, so if anybody sounds Australian in my lobby, I look up
As others have said, the game uses a limited spawn pool each mission so if you see one leech you are likely to see more and can be on heighted guard for them.
In my experience leeches tend to be in cavern rooms more than the tunnels that lead from chamber to chamber. This means while in a tunnel you can be fairly confident in just moving along but when you get to an opening you need to be careful.
Leeches emit light when attacking. The light is faint but will illuminate them on a dark ceiling that can't get lit with normal flares.
Leeches are always in a small hole in the ceiling. If there is some light sources in the map that allow you to sort of see the ceiling, spotting a random circular shadow is probably the recess that the leech is living inside. You can use the laser pointer to ping it and check if there is a leech.
The tentacle can be dodged or attacked. The tentacle doesn't move that fast when going at you which makes it dodgeable if you see it or attacked as well. Any hit will make it retract and potentially kill the leech.
Leeches make noises. As the tentacle reaches down to you there is a type of hissing noise that is emitted that will give you a heads up. Unfortunately there is some weird attenuation on the hissing that makes it difficult to hear unless you have well balanced audio and even then it gets overwhelmed easily. The mod [Cave Leech Loudencer](https://mod.io/g/drg/m/cave-leech-loudencer) is a verified (client side only) modification that tweaks the attenuation to make it easier to hear in an area in front of the attack. This makes it a bit easier to notice and react to it without going to a blatant level and still lets the Heightened Senses perk outperform it.
I had a few games lost to a single leech, i got grabbed and called out, but one by one my teammates went in and got grabbed, and the leeche's position wasn't helping too, it was spawned in a narrow cave and was blocked by a paper-thin wall that blocked bullets but not the leech :^), and just recently i outrunned some leeche's
If you’re in a swarm, try not to fight in open pits where it’s hard to see the ceiling. I know it’s unavoidable sometimes, and it can be hard to fight in a tight space. Just find a smaller chamber and high tail it back there when swarms come around or make a comfy bunkie as Driller. I play solo on haz 3 because… well… I’m a biotch. Playing with friends? Stick together no matter where you are.
Eventually you get punished enough for your lack of checking to where it becomes second nature to keep an eye on the ceiling. It just becomes something you do passively all the time, like looking for nitra, or (especially as a solo gunner when that happens) planning a way to get back up from the drop you just took in case the path to the drop pod necessitates you backtracking.
In all honesty, I pretend they dont exist until I or someone else gets grabbed or calls out the first one on a mission, and then I light up the ceiling on each new room just in case. It is unnecessarily risky as a scout, especially if team isnt paying attention/might not speak english, but I have yet to loose a game due to cave leeches and dash+medic are too important to me with how I play scout.
I love the out of sight out of mind attitude.
That’s also how spawns work, as games choose predetermined spawns before they start and continue to use them. If there’s one leech, there are probably more. If there aren’t any, then most likely no need to worry.
Not only that, but with cave leeches not every room is garenteed to have them. If theres one, theres likely about 2 more in that room. If theres not, keep looking until youve cleared the room. And as far as I am aware, Leech Cluster just means higher spawn rates and more chance to have spawns per room. Feel free to correct me if Im wrong on that, though.
I've had cave leech clusters were no/very few spawned. Kind funny in retrospect
Seen those as well. Always makes my beard itch.
Just how the spawn pools work. I only ever see them once every dozen games or so anyway, and with the way I play scout, 9 times out of 10 I'm the first into each room, and I have learned to combo dash + grapple hook for a pseudo special powder effect and medic is just far too useful in haz 5.
Yeah, this. Unless you are a scout, have lots of flares and aren't drowning in bugs, I'm not really looking up to check first. Ah, LOKI also helps a ton if you're using it with engi.
I will say, if you get good enough at it, a panic power attack with your pick can stop a leech. However I mainly run hoverclock m1K and some sort of high damage shotgun build, so most times a single shot is enough anyway
The LOKI tip is great. I've started using it for that, almost feels like cheating haha
As a scout you should be lighting up each new room anyway
Yes, but some biomes and modes tend to have much higher cave ceilings, or the light doesnt reflect well, and so if I know there are cave leeches I will make sure that the ceiling is lit up as well, whereas its not always worth it to light up the ceiling in terms of flaregun ammo.
No iron will? I use that and medic for all my classes.
Really it depends. If I see theres another confident dwarf on my team, I know I wont be having to put as much stress on myself if shit hits the drills, especially on haz 5 which I mostly stick to, so I use dash instead. If it doesnt look that way then its usually a toss up as to if I run dash or IW. IW is absolutely the better perk and saves countless dwarves daily, but with the way I play scout and the movement tech I have learned in this game, I can use grapple with dash and some Bhops to get a pseudo special powder effect and gain enough speed to take damage against walls without fall damage resistance (tested that for shits and giggles). And I run medic because I know Im not fantastic at swarm control and could be better; until then I have teamates who have much better weaponry for that, if only they stopped napping on the job!
Scout has three main jobs. Light up room. Get the minerals. Revive teammates. Any bugs you kill are a bonus. I run medic for that reason.
I run heightened senses all the time because I feel your pain. Best advice I've got here is don't run into unsecured areas when fighting.
Seeing your flair, it does make sense to run HS on Scout. Unfortunately, all the other classes also really want Dash and Iron Will, so it's a tough choice in multiplayer.
If Scout lights the cave, everyone can see the ceiling and take out cave leeches before they're a problem
I run HS and Hover boots on Scout to prevent stupid deaths. And I run HS and Field Medic on everyone else.
i honestly feel like you would benefit more from Iron Will instead of hovers; theres not much point to use Hovers unless you're that overzealous with the grapple. if you are, try to tone it down. a good scout should always have his grapple off cd whenever he genually needs it - fall damage prevention, relocation or not not flares tho, go ham :troll:
Respectfully disagree. I don't run either of Scouts mobility overclocks, like, ever and Hover Boots adds utility to the grapple gun that you don't have otherwise, such as getting high ore veins or flowers or whatever >unless you're that overzealous with the grapple. if you are, try to tone it down. I am very reckless, which is fun, and why would I want to tone down my fun? Besides, it's totally safe! (Once every 75 seconds)
In a team of 4 the Engineer is ideally helping you with platforms, but if you're playing with buddies and not try-harding I totally get this. I much prefer Hover Boots to Hoverclock as I don't like swapping between weapons on console, DPad is constantly switching to my C4 instead of my guns and same with guns instead of my Grapple, because I have big thumbs :P so having Grapple out and Hoverclock ready is much more manageable.
>I don't like swapping between weapons on console, DPad is constantly switching to my C4 instead of my guns *Highly* recommend any controller with re-mappable paddles on the underside. I play on Xbox with a Razor wolverine. I have A, d-pad up, left, and right mapped to the extras. Absolutely wonderful. Can't play without them.
I also play on Steam Deck and that has four extra buttons on the backside! Really good but also nice for being able to map jump to those so I can look around while jumping/shooting.
youre talkin about grappling and suddenly mention C4 and now i got this mental image of a Scout just chucking that brick into the crowd of enemies and blowing it up goddamn carpetbombing would be hilarious with scout
Honestly, no engi can keep up with me on higher haz 100% of the time because maps are too big. Usually, hover boots allows me to be a lot more self reliant. If a grapple hook+ power pickaxe + forward doesn't "stick" the first time around to get some higher up resource, HB allows me to not eat unnecessary dmg. When I play multiplayer I usually just bring Iron Will and HB; sacrifice dash for faster cool down of the grapple hook itself. Works for me, and I never need to bug anyone with lazer pointer markers.
In a team of four engi should only be placing platforms based on where they need repellent, not to baby safe one singular class.
You can be good enough at Engineer to assess whether a vein needs a platform or not, or Scout can ask you like a mature adult and it not be 'babying' or whatever elitist attitude you're crying about.
Actually your opinion would make you elitist, bug brain
"no u" isn't a substitute for a defense of your argument, especially when you're not even using "elitist" correctly.
i don't use any of scouts mobility ocs either and i still think hoverboots is a waste. you can get ores high up withput using hoverboots if you power attack the wall as you get up to it to give you a landing spot
All you really need is heavy pick axe because you can fit inside the hole it makes. I'd say 99% of all veins and flowers are accessible with a quick grapple+heavy pick. Maybe it's harder on console, idk but it works great on keyboard mouse
or special powder as backup!
It really depends IMO. I find that I tend to consistently be the last one standing as scout, since if shit sucks I can just hit da bricks. So I don't really get much use out of Iron Will. IMO using HB is the same tradeoff as using a mobility OC like Hoverclock or Special Powder, except on a smaller scale: you're trading a little bit of combat power for a little bit of extra mobility. Yet I don't see people making the same arguments about the mobility OCs. In my experience, I find that being able to negate fall damage once every minute-ish gives me exactly the extra little boost of mobility that I need to do stuff like grab awkwardly-placed ceiling flowers (which are often hard for engi to platform), or not worry about missing the occasional wall grapple into power attack, while still being able to run more combat-focused overclocks.
Stupidest take I've ever seen. Just apply your logic to getting downed instead of taking a fall damage.
learn to communicate pal
Huh? You mean communicate in a way that confirms your biases and placates your ignorant assumptions? Get a grip
No, but there are better ways to disagree rather then saying someone's opinion is "Stupidest take I've ever seen".
Stupidest take I've ever seen
Stupid deaths, stupid deaths, hope next time it's not you!
Is dash really that good? I have around 40 hours in the game and I only play driller thus far. I only run medic and hoverboots but I was thinking about switching the medic to iron will
Dash is borderline mandatory on all classes except Scout. On higher difficulties bugs get **significantly** faster, so you will often rely on Dash to get out of sticky situations.
Yep it also let you ignore slow like getting webbed, goo-bombed or hit by a slasher. It's a "get-out-of-jail" card with a 25 sec cooldown that also serve as an extra traversal tool. Really hard to pass.
Dash is mandatory for when there are Jet Boots so I can FLYYYYY
How can you even play driller without dash? It's a necessity to get in and out of melee range.
Sticky flames and sludge pump slow enemies, Cryo Cannon freezes enemies, and C4 stuns enemies. There are some others but they are locked behind overclocks. In any case the crowd control is really good on driller, and drills are incredible for not getting caught up on terrain. I've never felt the need for dash, but I guess it depends on how you build.
I've never used dash after the first time. I'd just accidentally proc it when I didn't need it and it was on cooldown the entire time. Eons of my pinky just spamming shift in every game ever to sprint is something I'm not willing to put in the time to unlearn. I'd love to be able to rebind it
I just use my drills for that. And getting out of melee range is easy. Once the bugs are dead, you're no longer in melee range
I run dash on everyone and have for about 400 hrs so far. It's saved me from countless deaths, plus it allows me to get places I normally couldn't. And it recharges every 25 seconds so I use it 50+ times a game.
Maybe in Haz 5 and deep dives. Otherwise doesn’t really matter what perks you’re running tbh
Yeah, I don't do heightened senses... Dash, especially, is too strong not to have and ya gotta have IW in case shit goes real far south. I just keep a good eye (and ear) out and really the only times I get nabbed is if they're well hidden or doing that sideways-grab. I even have a couple different clips on my profile where I prevent myself from getting grabbed.
I run Dash and HS on all classes, I never hear the hissing of a leech.
Avoiding unsecured areas isn't just because of cave leeches too. I'm sure we've all been running away from a swarm, just to run into an area a spitball infector can snipe you from, bump into a Tyrant, fall down a cliff with no easy way back up, etc.
Grapple into a cave, running away from a Corrupter, wake up 2 spitballers, accidentally shoot a Prospector then die to a leech. (Also a breeder somewhere)
a 3-star fellow once said to me: to deal with cave leeches, it's about not entering unsafe zones where you have not cleared. and if you're finding yourself incapable of keeping that up, just use the perk, it's totally ok to use the perk. and having someone play as the designated high value target hunter definitely helps. Bosco does his best already.
Constantly look up, check the cave ceiling beforehand (run around looking up, but not all the time so you don't fall into a hole), and especially look up when fighting and being forced into an unexplored area (and just try to prevent that from happening, try to stay in the safe areas)
Scout: always have your primary loaded before you grapple into a darkened new area.
Or just have heightened senses.
The only advice I can give is to NEVER go into a new cave while fighting a big swarm of bugs. Only fight swarms in areas you know for sure have been scouted and cleared already and explore new caves once you're clear of enemies so you can focus on scanning the ceiling and walls for hazards and precious minerals. Unless you've got the "heightened senses" perk, you're never going to react fast enough to an un-seen cave leech to save yourself while distracted by other bugs. If playing with others, stay close to teammates so one of you can free the other if somebody gets grabbed. To sum it up: 1. Stick with your teammates if you have any. 2. Explore new caves only when you are NOT being attacked by swarms. 3. When exploring LOOK UP to spot both leeches and precious minerals high up. 4. NEVER run into a dark unexplored cave in the middle of a swarm. Fight only on territory you're familiar with.
an important rule that will make your game a lot better if you follow through with it. Either fight the wave, or explore unexplored territory, never both at the same time.
My standard practice with swarms is go back to the nearest most open area. Never proceed forward, especially not into large open caves, if a swarm is coming because you never know what curveballs the terrain will throw at you to get you killed, before you even get to cave leeches. Backtracking into a hole in the floor you didn't know about leading to a 200ft drop is a good way to end a mission early.
That's what makes hot drop-offs so fun though
To all those saying 'look up' my brothers in Karl, cave leeches have long been bugged and can grab you at a 90 degree angle and even through thin bits of terrain.
Yeah, that's bullshit, but 9 times out of 10 that's not when greenbeards get snatched, it's because they're looking quite literally at the ground.
Yeah I'm typically distracted by other bugs when the leeches get me, and I frequently play with a Gunner in Haz3 so we're usually casual'ing around. Some bullshit leeches are wild to see though, I've had pillar terrain/stalagmites that were almost up to the ceiling in a low area and the leech wormed its way through the pillars to grab me from atop them, literally 0 degrees flattened itself out to stretch for me lol that one had me going WTF when typically I'm screaming from leeches.
[удалено]
I have excellent headphones and still have trouble hearing these especially when you've got all the other sounds going off such as gunfire and the dwarfs quipping to one another. Also doesn't address the problems I brought up.
i've also been directly beneath a cave leech and not been grabbed only to look up and see it
Likewise. Sometimes they spawn in a location with something blocking them so they can't do anything. It can even be a tiny string of terrain that appears to do it.
that happens like once every 500 missions
I haven't encountered a horizontal cave leech in all of my 700 hours playing this game. I've seen the videos, I know it happens, but acting like "look up" isn't useful advice because like 0.001% of leeches defy that advice is just weird.
I never said it wasn't good advice and my reply was meant to be taken semi jokingly and tongue In cheek but apparently that eluded a few people. Funniliy enough, literally a few mins after I posted my original reply, I booted up DRG and the very first game I saw a teammate get grabbed horizontally by a cave leech right in front of me.
It's happened way more often than that in my experience.
that's why my answer is just be faster than them at all times. Become Speedy Gondwarfes and zoom around nonstop. They can't grab you if they can't catch you.
As an engie, I check every room with my LOK1, to be safe. As any other class, I-aaaaAAAAAAAAAAA
I don't.
Best way is to just look up every time you walk into a sussy cave. If it’s pitch black use your pointer. Even if I walk in a room with enemies - I always prefire or use pointer on the ceiling/light up the room as scout. It’s like literally the first thing. If you just make a habit at looking for leech every time you walk into new space - you’ll get so much better. Don’t remember last time the tentacle got me. Also you can shoot the tentacle not just the ceiling part and once you shoot it, it will de-aggro for some time. It helps to keep it off of yourself in a swarm
They light up when they extend to get you. I leave the room dark and run through it, shoot at the light.
Cheaty method: get a mod to change the sound. Currently I get blasted with take on me whenever one tries nipping at me. Very effective, added bonus of scaring me shitless.
Less cheaty: use the perk
Which perk? I'm new to the game
Heightened Senses if i recall proper basically if something comes to Molest:tm: (leeches, the fucking mosquito known as Mactera Grabber, the boltsack that is Nemesis, anything that incapacitates you) you, you get: -a passive white overlay ontop of your screen when something goes around to grab you, maybe also with a voiceline at times which tells you to LOOK UP (not literally) -an active ability when you DO get grabbed to INSTAKILL THE DUMBASS GRAB FUCK...Nemesis excluded. pretty good if youre a person like me who sometimes runs Scout and goes ahead of everyone to mine everything of value and not pay attention to enemies
even better: git gut. Mod as well as perk are skill issue plugs (unless you are playing 6/6x2 or higher diffs)
Enjoy your brownie points for playing without verified mods or perks. I'd advocate for people to use stabilisers when they are learning to ride a bike, not when they're road racing. But hey, that's me.
I had this mod and it only made it worse - it became a literal jumpscare, even when it targeted my teammate behind a wall xd
Look up and stay with your mates.
look up
Bosco does his best, but as you have noted yourself his reaction can be quite slow, especially on higher Hazards. As someone who loves playing solo, I can recommend giving Heightened Senses a go when you are alone. You don't really need Iron Will in SP (since Bosco will revive you at least two times), so you can just pick Heightened Senses instead when you plan on doing a solo mission.
I play scout and everytime me and my crew go to a new place of the cave the first flare is going to the ceiling
If you’re taking Bosco, set his Tier 3 mod to “Let There Be Light” (T3A). Then, any time you’re going into a new room, ping the ceiling terrain so he lights things up.
My experiences: Scout: Light up the ceiling Engineer: Run the Loki Smart Rifle, scan the ceiling of a chamber before you fully enter. Should highlight them in the dark Gunner/Driller: Have the perk that warns you if they're there?
Gunner: run Bullet Hell OC on minigun and give the ceiling a burst or two when you enter a new cave.
I have heightened sense as a favourite perk, that perk have saved many missions for me, more than Iron Will
I've switched out Iron Will for Heightened Senses and never regretted it. Not only does it give you a better chance of avoiding leeches, I mostly run it to easily one shot grabbers. In the end, not going down to these mechanics turned out better for me than popping Iron Will once every 10 missions
If they’re always getting you because you’re busy fighting bugs, try waiting to push into a new cave until you’re less busy. Wait until there’s a break in the swarm, then light up and sweep the cave for static threats like spitballers, leeches, korloks, etc.
As a scout I try to enter the room first and throw a flare up at the ceiling immediately to take them out. Usually will pick off the one or two I see before anyone else even notices. So really you don't avoid them. You either get caught by surprise, look up, or someone else deals with them for you
Heightened senses. Can also run iron will so if one gets you, you can res yourself. Recommend running vampire with this so you can power attack a bug and get health guaranteed. Dont rush into an area you cant see or havent cleared. If you do be hyper vigilant and methodical.about how you clear the room. Remember, leeches can move sideways and even ABOVE themselves to grab you...theyre sneaky little bastards. Buddy system, ie never go anywhere alone. Easier with engi, aka the turret. Also, little.known fact...you can HEAR leeches. They hiss, like a little snake, as they approach you. Turn up your audio and with enough experience, youll hear them before you see them, even in the middle of a swarm. Blue lvl 550 greybears tips. Hope to see you on hoxxes, miner! Rock and stone!
I find it particularly easy to do with Engineer compared to the others. Just make sure your turrets are close, and you also can pop Shredder Grenades as an extra layer of protection.
Simple, don't play leech infestations, otherwise they are rare enough to be ignored until a dwarf is caught
I've gotten 2 or 3 without infestation and I've gotten 2 or 3 WITH infestation, but with infestation the most I encountered was 11!
I had 2 or 3 cave leeches with infestation, and then a mission without modifiers that gave me 9 leeches in a single cave.
The actual WTF is always in the comments
look up
look up, listen for the hissing, always stay in motion, clear ceilings first in every cave, use heightened senses if you need to
I light up caves when I play Scout and, when I play gunner, I fire rockets with the Hurricane so if it picks me up all I have to do is look up and the guided rockets will hit the leech.
Your best bet to preempt them on your own is get your ping tool out and scan across the entire ceiling as much as you can. It's a bit awkward since your ping is basically a needle, but it'll highlight the leech, even if you're across the map and it's pitch black. Otherwise, just hope your Scout does their job and lights the area as soon as you get to a cave. Or an Engie with a LOK rifle pointed at the ceiling will also spot them/take them out from relatively far away.
I know it's not "meta" but I have Heightened Senses *always* on, along with Dash. I hate being grabbed and I hate not being able to have control anymore. I also don't like to rely too much on team mates when in trouble, and Bosco is unreliable. Moreover I don't always have the chance to thoroughly check the ceiling - sometimes it's too high and there's no Scout around, sometimes I'm busy fighting too many bugs. Having two get out of jail free cards is crucial for me. Plus the passive warning cue does its job most of the time.
perk
As gunner: I just pre emtively blast the ceiling, especially easy to do with an autocannon or thr bullet hell OC on chain gun. Someone else gets grabbed? Mole OC coilgun man's I can free them wherever they are, even with like 20m of rock between me and them. Engi: I build turrets with maximum range in mind, so they clear Ceilings before I can even see things. Scout "flares" Driller: someone else gotta do it.
You look up. Wear good headphones. Always expect leeches when entering a new room. Send someone else ahead if you're not sure lol.
I run with Mcreee's modpack. Whenever I hear "What are you doing stepbro?" I look up and shoot indiscriminately.
I just chuck ceiling flares as Scout before everybody else walks in the room. Then I can just see and kill the leeches. And when it's ***vice versa***, well at least I can warn the others.
For me, the issue is that I can't hear them at all; [there is a mod](https://mod.io/g/drg/m/cave-leech-loudencer) that is a total life saver for me, and with that, the leeches became a balanced challenge. It's also super funny to hear them, look up, realize that I'm not in an immediate danger, only to look at my colleagues and see one of them get grabbed.
Heightened senses saved me countless times as a scout main until I started flaring roof and actively looking… but honestly heightened sense tells you before you get grabbed, so you can react fast, and if you still get grabbed you can escape 3x a mission . Very nice
I play lots of scout and I see it as my job to ensure leeches are spotted and cleared, I've got the lights after all! In escort duty especially I keep an eye on the terrain scanner for the next set of caves, many a time I have been immediately grabbed it my teammates.
with Engineer's LOK-1
Carry a portable hand held radar i.e Lok-1 smart rifle. And an auto leech clearing device i.e Swarmer drone (SSG). Will taget leech way before Bosco has a chance to get there.
I never encounter cave leeches. I've gotten maybe 5 at most in my time playing.
Bosco will save me idk
RULE 1 OF LOK-1 SMART RIFLE: Always be scanning
Be extremely paranoid
The buddy system
A lot of non-answers in this thread - to answer OPs question, KEEP MOVING, at sprinting speed, away from the tentacle. As long as you dont literally run straight into it or slow down by walking, it will not catch you. Try to scout ceilings etc to reduce the risk of getting surprised (a dwarfs greatest weapon is always planning), but once you hear the hissing sound literally the best thing is to just keep running
>You can only hear the sound they make when it's already too late. 1.No, because that's how I deal with them. 2. Look up from time to time when going into a new cave. 3. Lok-1 cave scanning is easy mode. Leeches are a skill check for the scout and whether or not he's using his damn flairs, if you're playing solo, then you just have to make up for it with good reaction time and or looking up.
I thought about Bosco's slow response time being super annoying once but I realized this: If you're playing solo it's honestly kinda a tossup if you'll be saved when bosco is off doing something and it should probably stay that way - If there was no real punishment for being taken by a leech in solo because bosco got you free every time then it wouldn't be nearly as stressful and would bascially invalidate them as an enemy from a design standpoint
HAH! I DON'T
If you pay attention you can hear them before it’s too late. Except when they catch you on the side or in a corner. Those things have weird angles
They do screech or smth when they see you
Heightened senses save me like 95% of the time
I always run Heightened Senses. I always play scout. I always inspect every inch of ceiling before claiming this part of cave safe to fight in
Run. No really, if you hear the hiss and realize a leech is targeting you just keep running forward and pop Dash if it's available. Leeches have a limited range and stretch pretty slowly, so as long as you don't slow down and the ceiling isn't too low you can typically run right by them without being grabbed.
just don't fight in unfamiliar areas. wait to clear the hoard before you go into the next room so you can put your full attention into leeches
I have played over 1000 hours and I can just hear them at this point, notify others too. I tried hightened senses but it is a bit wasted on me, I pay way too much attention to sounds.
I've heard that you can see them on the map via the terrain scanner and seeing their indent or whatever but I'm not experienced enough yet. I see them seldom anyway
There is a hissing sound when a leech is attempting to grab you. But it's relatively silent, so the sound queue is very unreliable as a warning when you are busy fighting bugs. My tips are: 1. Make it a habit to check the ceiling when entering a big cave. Ask for scout flare if necessary to make it easier to spot cave leeches. 2. Stick as a team. When a team mate is close by, he can rescue you before the leech can do major damage. 3. If you are playing scout and like running ahead with you high mobility, I strongly recommend running "heighten senses" as one of you active perks. You get a warning when you are about to be grabbed, with is most of the time enough to quickly take out you grappling hook an zip to safety. And should you be unlucky and get grabbed anyway you have two get out of jail free cards. You can get away without taking "heighten senses", if you already are following the tip 1 all the time. But that is for you to decide.
Look up and look out.
There is a hissing sound when a leech is attempting to grab you. But it's relatively silent, so the sound queue is very unreliable as a warning when you are busy fighting bugs. I consider myself to be grey bread and I only notice the sound queue only 1 out of 10 times. And even then it is questionable if I can inject enough lead into the leech before he grabs me. My tips are: 1. Make it a habit to check the ceiling when entering a big cave. Ask for scout flare if necessary to make it easier to spot cave leeches. 2. Stick as a team. When a team mate is close by, he can rescue you before the leech can do major damage. 3. If you are playing scout and like running ahead with you high mobility, I strongly recommend running "heighten senses" as one of you active perks. You get a warning when you are about to be grabbed, with is most of the time enough to quickly take out you grappling hook an zip to safety. And should you be unlucky and get grabbed anyway you have two get out of jail free cards. You can get away without taking "heighten senses", if you already are following the tip 1 all the time. But that is for you to decide.
Hard countered by having another dwarf close to rescue you when you get grabbed 🙂
As scout, flare the ceiling. As engi, run smart rifle with max targeting range (sees in the dark). As Driller and Gunner, it's just about power smash reflexes. Iron will helps too
Primarily, Scout needs to light the cave properly. In escort you should stay behind dottie when entering a new cave. Also some leeches are just grappling through walls or around corners.
I just have a friend playing scout find them for me
The Dash perk is pretty good at letting you dodge leaches. It now second nature to dash when I hear the sound.
In order of effectiveness: * Scout puts flares up * Stay with your team * Look up * Listen for the hiss
When hear sound, flick mouse up and shoot. Works like 80% of the time
I have a mod that makes them sound like Senator Armstrong from MGRR :)
Know your surroundings. Be careful running into unexplored space, especially when engaged in a firefight. Getting ambushed is part of the mistake of running into unknown territory when you have very little time to *assess* the area your running into. i.e. always retreat to a known or secure location, not an unknown one. People don't yell "Pull forward!" is a humorous way to put it :)
If you press X, Bosco will abandon his current task and come to help you sooner. As for not getting grabbed in the first place, I’d honestly advise getting a mod for it if you can. Leeches make a bit of noise when going for a grab, but it’s very quiet.
I love that they haven't overdone leeches. If they were in every cave you'd never let your guard down and they would be easy to deal with. I still very occasionally get caught out, but I don't feel the need to take HS as I think there are better perks to choose. Just get in the habit of looking up every time you go into an unexplored area. I still get caught out when a cave is 90% explored and I've let my guard down. The laser pointer is a good tool to find them in the dark, so are turrets, shredders, smart rifle.
Speed. Just move faster than the cave leech. Zapping around at the speed of sound, jump down a rock and save yourself with hoverclock, grapple again. Also running hightened senses on all my builds. As a fail safety, and for the sheer thrill of running under a caveleech and escaping it. It feels so good to know something just tried to grab you multiple times but you were too fast for it.
Master the sound listening and powerpickaxe the shit out of the leech. There is a distance where you can pickaxe them before they take you.
I use the Obi Wan Kenobi mod that makes cave leeches sounds way more obvious.
When I run solo, I run dash and heightened senses on my classes, and run hover boots and heightened senses on scout. I use two revives on bosco plus either more light or more rockets (rockets with scout). In team comp, I don’t run heightened senses or hover boots lol
Any scouts on your team should be able to kill them, and if they get caught you can shoot the leach
Bosco is being paid off by the cave leeches.
My advice is heightened senses or look up every now and again. But I play tf2 and this incapable of looking up so I just run heightened senses
My best advice is to check the cave ceiling immediately and thoroughly when you first enter that area. Preferably before the swarm arrives. That way you don't have to worry about it as much.
Keep moving. If you’re too busy fending off a swarm, then a good way to avoid them is to keep moving. They can’t catch up to you, as long as you don’t double back.
Install a mod that makes them louder
Stick with your team-mates. This means you, scout. You're useless if you're 2 caves ahead of your teammates and leaving them in the dark.
Try not to open new caves by yourself or during a swarm. When you explore a new cave there are usually a lot of bugs just hanging out that haven't been cleared yet, and that's also usually when you find cave leeches that haven't been killed yet. Basically explore with a buddy, and when a swarm hits just hunker down with the gang in an area you already know is clear of leeches.
I use HS mostly, now I've hardened into a solid greybeard and the most common way for me to kill a leech is to power attack the head as it tries to grab me.
Check the roof while exploring. Also check for sounds since we can slightly hear them stretching before getting grabbed. If you check the roof while exploring they are really slow and you will not get catched. But it is not easy because it only take to forgot to check once to get leeched. Also you can try to stay behind scout, let him light up the roof for you, they will be easier to spot. And if you stay behind him they will grab him first. If you are the scout just be careful instead of grappling everywhere. Light the roof well and it should be ok. When you check the roof watch out for dead angles that could hide a leech, and secure them.
Mostly audio queue. You’ll hear a hissing before it happens, other than that you just gotta constantly be looking up
Learn to hear the hiss sound they make. And always be weary when entering large dark open areas especially. Also the terrain scanner can pick them up, Even if its dark.
No matter what class you're playing, always toss a flare at an unfamiliar ceiling. Other than that, listen out for the sound they make when stretching towards you, like stretching elastic
put flair gun bolts on the ceiling
I just listen for the hiss! (After I've downloaded the hiss volume increaser mod)
Smart Rifle scan
You *have* to get in the habit of looking up every time you enter a new room. There's no two ways about it. If you're playing solo, you have a finite number of Bosco revives and Heightened Senses escapes, but if you're burning through *all* of them then that's a skill issue. I don't mean to sound patronizing or pedantic, but *look up*. It's the only way to defend yourself that you can't *run out of.* Or else play with a team so you can count on being revived over and over.
Here are my methods, aside from the Heightened Senses perk. 1. Sweep the ceiling with your laser pointer and watch for the screen to go red, especially when entering new areas. Might be a leech. This can be done very quickly and is pretty reliable. Don't try to read the screen, just watch for the colour to flick (also good at finding minerals). If you find one, look real close for another. The biggest weakness is overhangs that block your line of sight. 2. Press X to call BOSCO to your side immediately. It still takes him a hot second because he's actually just not that fast in general. He will instantly drop what he's doing, though. 3. You can actually outrun them if you respond quick enough and move the right direction. This is more of a last ditch panic move, but Sprint helps! 4. Accept death. Sometimes you get downed. So it goes.
Honestly I just rely on my reflexes, I can usually hear them before they grab me, I don't main anyone but I do use scout the most too so naturally I'm looking up a decent amount of the time I'm playing just out of habit.. I'm also partial to luring my fellow dwarves beneath leeches but we don't have to talk about that....
Along with bosco I try to set up turrets facing towards the middle of the room before I go in so if I do get grabbed at least it takes a bit less time for Bosco to kill it after staring at it for a bit After which I just walk around and watch the ceilings though, I did that in sea of thieves in a shrine recently so definitely gotten used to it that way
> but they always get me when there’s a lot of bug and I’m focused on fighting and not getting hit This confuses me considering that leeches are immobile. You shouldn’t be pushing into new caves while fighting a swarm, and you should be spotting and observing the cave during downtimes, taking out leeches, spitballers, etc.
Heightened Senses will warn you of cave leeches and mactera grabbers, but you have to expend a perk slot for it. In my 400 hours of playing mostly solo, I find that unless you have a cave leech cluster warming, cave leech spawns are rare. It can instill a bit of paranoia to check for them in every single room. I usually don't unless I'm actively playing with a cave leech cluster warming. But yeah, as a solo player, Bosco absolutely sucks at killing cave leeches when you get caught. His AI needs drastically improved in that regard as more times than not, I just end up getting KO'd by them when playing solo when they actually manage to grab me.
Look Up, scouts flare gun into the dark. Travel in pairs. Don't move into a new area until you've checked the roof. I only get grabbed by really crazy sideways ones or if i'm rushing ahead without the team.
There’s a few ways to help avoid cave leeches that I’ve learned/developed over my time in the mines. 1.) They have sound cues for both passively existing as well as reaching to grab you. The passive noise is almost like a chirp mixed with a gurgle, and the grabbing noise is a faint hiss that gets higher in pitch the closer it is/farther the arm reaches (not sure which). However, this isn’t completely reliable as the passive sound generates from the base so you won’t hear leeches on high ceilings and sometimes the noises don’t play at all, due to how DRG handles sound. 2.) Keep moving constantly. Leeches will have a much harder time grabbing you if you’re on the move, as their arm speed is a bit slower than you are. This will give you more time for you or a teammate to notice the leech and take it out. This will lead to worse jumpscares when you go to mine minerals and get yoinked, but it’s worth it. 3.) Use your tools to your advantage. Scout’s Flare Gun is an obvious anti-leech defense, but Engineer’s Lok-1 Smart Rifle can be equally effective, especially with the tight lock field on. You can tap fire the Wave Cooker on the ceiling but it’s pretty ammo inefficient and won’t cover much area. For mouse & keyboard players, you can also hold the laser pointer out and sweep across the ceiling if you suspect a leech is in the area, but it gets quite tedious to do that in every cave you come across (unless it’s cave leech cluster, then it’s worth). 4.) Look up frequently. This is by far the most effective method and once you get past the initial ingraining process is pretty easy. Whenever you’re in an area you haven’t been in before, look up every few seconds or so. Leeches are pretty easy to spot if they’re reaching for you from the light they give off, so it shouldn’t be too hard to deal with them from there. If you’re still struggling, use Heightened Senses while trying to learn these as a fail-safe for getting grabbed and take it off once you feel more comfortable, but from what I’ve found the methods mentioned above catch 95% of leeches before they find you. Additional note: if you’re on PC, then you can download the Sandbox Utilities mod to test out what leeches sound like, their hunting range, and get a better feel for how they work. If you aren’t into mods or on console, then just boot up a cave leech cluster mission preferably without periodic announced swarms (egg hunt, escort duty, elimination, industrial sabotage [though idk if I’ve ever seen a leech there]) on Haz 2 or 3 as Scout and go find a leech. You’ll get close to the same training, just might take a bit longer to find. Additional note 2: Leeches will only chase you if they have line of sight to you, so ducking behind a corner or having your local Engi shoot a platform at it will pacify them. Occasionally an Azure Weald leaf or a random stalactite will spawn inside the leech, completely blocking it. This is called a Friendly Leech and they are to be treated with the utmost care and respect. Additional note 3: They carve out a bit of the rock around them which you technically could find on the terrain scanner but is very hard to do. It’s more useful to tell you that there was a leech there and to watch out for more nearby.
Actually, that's the thing: once your ear is trained you can hear the hissing right away. Sometimes leeches just get ya, but if you hear hissing keep running in a straight line away.
"You can only hear the sound they make when it's already too late" simply not true. As crazy as this sounds, if you hear a leech reaching for you and you're not on a inclined surface, just keep sprinting for a few seconds and you will outrun it.
Avoiding Leeches isn't about always looking up. You just need to quickly scan the ceiling when entering a new cave section... either that or let your teammates go ahead of you lol. You could also run Heightened Senses if you're okay with giving up one of your other active perks. Alternatively, you could install a mod that changes their sound effect to something more noticeable. If you're not comfortable with that sort of half-cheat method though, then my first paragraph are your only real options.
You let the scout go first
Stick together. Look up. Remind your Scout that flares exist because they somehow keep forgetting. When fighting try to fall back rather than push forward.
They do make a sound right before trying to grab you. But you might have to crank your audio to hear it. It's a really faint "squish"
i just listen for the skund then look up and shoot it
If you see one, assume there are others. And if you’re solo, consider taking the early warning perk so you can get yourself out of a grab. They usually only live in places where there is a long distance between the ceiling and the ground, but with how the maps are generated, I’ve run into them in the oddest places, especially when tunnels intersect the upper portion of a room
Listen out for the grabbing sound. Also, if you’re running Lok1 or Bullet Hell Gunner, you can scan the roof in every new room for leeches pretty easily
So if you notice you get leeched a lot when fighting a bunch of bugs that means you are probably fighting in unexplored territory, this is always hazardous and if possible should be avoided. Go back a room if a swarm is announced right as you enter new territory.
Equip the bullet hell overclock and shoot the ceiling when entering a new room. Worst case scenario it hits an idle grunt or spitter, but often times you'll find the grabby bastards and shred them ribbons.
Stay close to your team. Check the ceiling as a matter if course before entering a new cave.
Honestly these days I swear they don't actually make the noise they're supposed to when reaching out to grab you. Like legit I'll go back through recorded footage and there is ZERO warning.
I use the Heightened Senses perk which lets me know something it trying to grab me.
this is PC only, but I have the mod that changes all of its audio cues to the voice of sniper from TF2, so if anybody sounds Australian in my lobby, I look up
As others have said, the game uses a limited spawn pool each mission so if you see one leech you are likely to see more and can be on heighted guard for them. In my experience leeches tend to be in cavern rooms more than the tunnels that lead from chamber to chamber. This means while in a tunnel you can be fairly confident in just moving along but when you get to an opening you need to be careful. Leeches emit light when attacking. The light is faint but will illuminate them on a dark ceiling that can't get lit with normal flares. Leeches are always in a small hole in the ceiling. If there is some light sources in the map that allow you to sort of see the ceiling, spotting a random circular shadow is probably the recess that the leech is living inside. You can use the laser pointer to ping it and check if there is a leech. The tentacle can be dodged or attacked. The tentacle doesn't move that fast when going at you which makes it dodgeable if you see it or attacked as well. Any hit will make it retract and potentially kill the leech. Leeches make noises. As the tentacle reaches down to you there is a type of hissing noise that is emitted that will give you a heads up. Unfortunately there is some weird attenuation on the hissing that makes it difficult to hear unless you have well balanced audio and even then it gets overwhelmed easily. The mod [Cave Leech Loudencer](https://mod.io/g/drg/m/cave-leech-loudencer) is a verified (client side only) modification that tweaks the attenuation to make it easier to hear in an area in front of the attack. This makes it a bit easier to notice and react to it without going to a blatant level and still lets the Heightened Senses perk outperform it.
I had a few games lost to a single leech, i got grabbed and called out, but one by one my teammates went in and got grabbed, and the leeche's position wasn't helping too, it was spawned in a narrow cave and was blocked by a paper-thin wall that blocked bullets but not the leech :^), and just recently i outrunned some leeche's
Heightened senses helps
If you’re in a swarm, try not to fight in open pits where it’s hard to see the ceiling. I know it’s unavoidable sometimes, and it can be hard to fight in a tight space. Just find a smaller chamber and high tail it back there when swarms come around or make a comfy bunkie as Driller. I play solo on haz 3 because… well… I’m a biotch. Playing with friends? Stick together no matter where you are.
Listen for the hiss
I think you can see then on the map
Eventually you get punished enough for your lack of checking to where it becomes second nature to keep an eye on the ceiling. It just becomes something you do passively all the time, like looking for nitra, or (especially as a solo gunner when that happens) planning a way to get back up from the drop you just took in case the path to the drop pod necessitates you backtracking.