The fight is decided by the Widowling, not by your weapon
Everyone asks what gun to bring. The numbers say the fight is decided by a much smaller target.
Per the wiki, when the Black Widow kills a Black Widowling she “will heal 30 health every second for 10 seconds and their attack speed is increased by 50% for 10 seconds.”
Do that arithmetic against her 3,000 HP:
| Effect of one eaten Widowling | Value |
|---|---|
| Healing | 30 HP/s × 10 s = 300 HP |
| Share of her health bar | 10% |
| Attack speed buff | +50% for 10 s |
And she creates the Widowling herself — “They can also fire a web projectile identical to the Orb Weavers, except that it spawns a singular Black Widowling. Right after this attack, the Black Widow will attempt to eat any Black Widowlings nearby.”
So every web shot is a two-part problem: kill the spawn before she eats it, or hand back 300 HP and eat a 50% attack speed buff. The wiki’s own strategy section says the same: “it is key for the player to take out the widowling before the Black Widow has a chance to eat it.”
Stats
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Health | 3,000 |
| Defense | 10 |
| Damage resistance | 25% |
| Stun threshold | 120 |
| Stun cooldown | 15 s |
| Aggression | Angry (Tier 3) — hostile on sight |
Attack damage: Charged Lunge 150 · Bite 110 · Web Attack 100 · 3-Combo Bite 80 · 5-Combo Bite 75
Note the shape of that list: the lunge, not the bite, is the one that kills you, and the multi-hit combos hit softer per swing but land repeatedly. She also “get[s] faster as their health decreases” — the fight accelerates exactly when you are closest to winning.
Elemental choice is not close
| Element | Effect |
|---|---|
| Sour | +25% damage ✅ |
| Fresh | −50% ❌ |
| Salty | −50% ❌ |
| Spicy | −50% ❌ |
| Poison | −90% ❌ |
The wiki calls her “perhaps one of, if not the most, deadly non-boss spider the player can fight,” and explains why: “Her high resistance to nearly all augments, other than sour.”
The practical rule: a Fresh, Salty or Spicy weapon is worse than no element at all — you are losing 50% of your damage by bringing it. The wiki’s recommended picks are an Acid Edge or a Toenail Scimitar upgraded down the sour path. Check the tools database for which of yours can still be re-path.
What she does to you
Three separate things stack:
- Venom on all attacks — “a variant of Poison that ignores Mithridatism and deals damage over time.” Your poison resistance does not help.
- Poison on all attacks while Venom is active.
- Stacking Poison — “a special form of Poison that stacks with every attack, applying more instances of itself every time the player gets struck.”
All her attacks deal Generic damage, so armour class matters more than elemental defence here.
Where to find her
| Location | Note |
|---|---|
| Cave near the south-east corner of the shed deck | — |
| Cave under the Toolbox, Upper Grasslands | — |
| Front-left corner of the Brawny Boy Bin | 2 in Woah! Mode |
| Under a pile of stones, south-most point of Moldorc Highlands | — |
| Spider cave at the bottom of the Undershed Sinkhole | Does not respawn |
They “spawn in cramped silk dens”, are “never seen wandering outside of them”, and “also never sleep”. That makes them unusual among Grounded creatures: you can plan around a fixed den rather than stumbling into a patrol, but you cannot wait for one to sleep.
Loot
| Normal drop | Rare drop | |
|---|---|---|
| Black Widow Fang | 0–2 | 1–2 |
| Spider Chunk | 0–1 | 1–7 |
| Super Spider Venom | 0–1 | 0–4 |
The short version
- Bring a sour weapon — nothing else is even neutral.
- Treat every web projectile as a priority target: kill the Widowling before she eats it.
- Expect her to speed up below half health; the Charged Lunge (150) is the hit to block.
- Do not rely on poison resistance — Venom ignores Mithridatism.
- Farm the respawning dens; the Undershed Sinkhole one does not come back.
More creature numbers are in the creatures database, and the combat guide covers blocking and stun thresholds in general.
Respawn and New Game+ spawns
The five fixed dens are not all equal for farming:
| Den | Respawn |
|---|---|
| Default respawn (most dens) | 7 in-game days |
| Brawny Boy Bin | 3 in-game days (and holds 2 in Woah! Mode) |
| Undershed Sinkhole | Does not respawn |
In New Game+ she also appears at the Central Grasslands, Oak Hill, Plank Cliff Cave and Sandbox, with the NG+2 pass adding Wolf Spider caves (under Plank Cliff, near the oak roots, and in the Sandbox). The armor guide covers the sour mutation path that makes the fight winnable, and the mutations guide lists every augment’s damage modifier so you can see exactly why a non-sour weapon is a downgrade.
For farming, the Brawny Boy Bin is the standout den: it respawns in 3 days and holds two Widows in Woah! Mode, so it is the only spot worth camping for repeat kills. The Undershed Sinkhole one is a one-time loot pin, not a farm.