Goldgut: the worm that eats your veins.

What it is

Goldgut is a giant armoured worm banded with gold. Its body is twelve rings long and it bores through the rock of the deep mines, eating every block of ore, gold and gem it touches. If a vein of gold has vanished and left an empty tunnel, Goldgut has been past. The Codex hint for it reads "Veins of ore that vanish in the night".

It is based on the real "devil worm", a nematode found living 1.3 km down a gold mine.

Where and when it comes

• Underground only. It can come to anyone who is well down in the mines, at least twenty metres below the surface and not flying. It rises out of solid rock about 38 metres from you.
• Rarely. Out in the world a legend turns up only a small share of the times it could. Where one was first met becomes its lair, and there it comes every time it can. See Lairs and how legends come back.
• After one is slain, another cannot come for about twelve minutes.

Stats

Thing	Value
Health	650
Hears you	46 m, or 72 m while you are digging
Gives up	110 m
Bite (open maw)	22 damage and a knock-back
Body slam (rings sweeping through you)	10 damage and a knock-back
Signature: Gold Gorge	A red mark on the floor under you, 3.2 m across, 14 damage, 1.2 seconds of warning, about every 9 seconds
Wait before another comes	About 12 minutes

You have 100 health, so a bite takes a fifth of it.

How the fight works

1. Lurking. It wanders the rock near where it rose. When you come within its hearing it turns on you. Digging carries further than walking, so a miner is heard from 72 metres.
2. Hunting. It grinds toward you through the rock, stopping a few metres short, and the rock rumbles now and then as it nears.
3. Striking. From about nine metres it lunges out of the wall, maw first, in a blast of rubble. If its open maw reaches you it bites; if its rings sweep through you at speed they slam you instead. Each strike can hurt you once.
4. Retreating. It pulls back into the stone and waits three to six seconds before the next lunge.

Where to hit it

Only the parts that are out of the rock can be hurt. Inside solid stone it takes nothing.

• Open maw: double damage.
• Head: normal damage.
• Body rings: 60 per cent damage. The tunnel it leaves behind is open air, so the rings lying in its own tunnel can be struck.

Hit it as it comes out of the wall, when the maw is wide.

Bait it with gold

Gold, gems or ore lying on the floor draw it from up to 34 metres away. It swims out to eat the pile, then gorges for about six seconds, chewing with its maw working. While it gorges it is careless: every blow does half as much again. Throw a handful of gold down in a big dug-out chamber, stand back, and strike it while it feeds.

Tips

• Keep moving. The rumble tells you it is close; step sideways just as the wall bursts.
• Watch the red Gold Gorge mark on the floor and leave it before it fills.
• Dig a wide chamber before the fight, so there is open air for it to strike into and room to dodge.
• Move your own ore out of the nearby rock, or it will eat that too.

As its health falls the signature attack comes quicker and harder. See How legend fights work.

What it drops

Drop	Amount
Gold pieces	6 to 10
Gems (diamond, ruby, sapphire or emerald)	2 to 4 pieces, one gem each
Everything it ate	Up to 24 blocks of the ore it swallowed, as the blocks they were
Trophy	Goldgut Molar

Be near when Goldgut falls and its trophy counts in your Collection. Trophies are explained on How legend fights work.

← Back to the wiki · Last updated 25 October 2026. Mantlenaut is in alpha, so things change.