How to use Arachnophobia Mode in Icarus Update

     The Week 211 update adds spiders as a new nocturnal enemy type and introduces Arachnophobia Mode as a direct world-level toggle to disable spider spawning entirely. The feature is placed inside the new Custom World Settings menu and impacts enemy population, world difficulty, and resource availability.

 

 

 

Locate the setting

 

     Arachnophobia Mode is available through the Custom World Settings menu. During new Prospect creation, it appears under the Difficulty section and can be toggled before entering the world.

 

     Inside an active Prospect, the same toggle is accessible via Escape → Custom World Settings. Hosts can change it at any time without recreating the world.

 

     Only Hosts in peer-to-peer sessions and Admins on Dedicated Servers can modify this setting. Regular clients cannot access it, preventing unintended changes to global world rules.

 

 

 

Configure your prospect

 

     New Prospects set Arachnophobia Mode to Off by default, meaning spiders spawn normally unless manually disabled.

 

     Existing Prospects created before the update set Arachnophobia Mode to On by default, preventing sudden introduction of new enemies into established bases or long-term worlds.

 

     To enable spiders in older Prospects, the host must manually turn Arachnophobia Mode Off through Custom World Settings. Once toggled, spiders spawn near cave entrances in Forest and Grassland biomes across Olympus, Styx, and Prometheus. The Olympus starter region remains spider-free.

 

 

 

Coordinate your group

 

     Arachnophobia Mode applies globally to the entire session. All players share the same world rules.

 

     On Dedicated Servers, the Admin defines the setting for all connecting players. Server communities may run separate worlds to support both preferences.

 

     Groups should agree on the mode before starting long-term Prospects, since spider presence affects available resources and encounter patterns for everyone.

 

 

Balance comfort and challenge

 

     Disabling spiders removes their poisonous web attacks, movement slow, and night-time cave-area ambushes. This reduces unpredictability during night travel and makes cave-adjacent routes more stable.

 

     However, disabling spiders removes access to Spider Silk, which is required for alternative Rope and Platinum Weave recipes. Spider trophies and bestiary progression are also unavailable.

 

     Without spiders, night-time threat density decreases slightly. This does not break progression but softens late-night environmental pressure in regions where caves act as both shelters and danger zones.

 

     The toggle does not reskin spiders or replace them with neutral creatures; it fully disables their spawning. This ensures consistent mechanics and avoids complications for balancing or resource distribution.

 

     Developers plan to expand Custom World Settings with further options. Arachnophobia Mode serves as a baseline example of how Icarus integrates accessibility and configurability directly into world generation without fragmenting gameplay systems.