Runescape Dungeoneering: Night Spider and Shadow Silk Hood Hunting

Searching for the Elusive Shadow Silk Hood

 After that last big mess, I'm not setting any hard and fast goals.  Just going to do whatever sounds fun, or maybe work toward something for a little while, then something else.  Currently working on Dungeoneering.  Putting some time into getting a Shadow Silk Hood, and alternating by doing prestige runs.  Right now my deepest dungeon level is 39, so I've got a long way to go.

Read a lot about the Shadow Silk Hood, and it seems like a pretty cool thing to have.  Especially now that I can mine Promethium and smith at level 99.  I've been hunting for about a week.  Seen 6 Night Spiders.  No hood.  Averaging 1 Night Spider a day.  No big deal.  If it gets too boring, I'll move on to something else.  But it would be nice to have one...

There's not much in the way of guides for finding Night Spiders, or getting Shadow Silk Hoods.  Apparently Night Spiders are fairly rare, extremely random, and just not that easy to predict.

Close-up of the Night Spider

Best general Night Spider hunting advice I've seen (at least to match my playstyle) is to Solo, or Duo with a good friend, on the Abandoned Floors (30-35, the deeper the better).  Set size to medium, complexity 6.  Guide Mode on.  Don't waste time eating, just buy the tool pack, and run through the dungeon as fast as you can.  Only fight when you have to for clearing a door.  Don't waste time on over-complex puzzle rooms.  When you' ve worked the dungeon as much as you can, exit without doing the boss, and go right back in at the same floor. 

Just to go into a little detail on Night Spider Hunting:

• - Solo or Duo.  I prefer to solo, but Monique Runescapes too, so I could see dragging her into my spider hunt.
• - Abandoned Floors (30-35).  These are known to be the most common floors Night Spiders appear on.  That's not to say you'll see very many... After a week, I've seen 6 total.  But your  best odds of seeing one will be f30-35.  I choose f35, and just keep going back to it.
• - Medium Size.  The larger the better.  Since I'm soloing, medium is my largest size dungeon.  It's not because you'll see more spiders per room, but that spiders appear most often in the offshoot, dead-end, side rooms.  You have more of those rooms in a bigger dungeon, so you get a better chance to see a Night Spider.
• - Complexity 6:  It's accepted common lore that you see more spiders on complexity 6 than on the easier ones.  It may be fact, or just rumor, but if it can improve my odds a bit, I'm there!
• - Guide Mode On:  Face it, you're not here for experience.  So turning on Guide Mode won't really hurt anything.  But it does offer an easier route to explore, making it that much faster to clear a floor and begin the next.
• - To begin with, buy the tool pack, make sure you've got a few Cosmic runes to teleport with, and go.  No food, no eating.  This is all about speed.  If you get killed, your group gatestone will be dropped where you died, and you'll be fresh and new in the starting room.  Dive through the portal, pick up your rock, and resume fighting.  This is faster than picking up and eating food, and renews your prayer too.
• - Don't fight unless you have to.  Only clear a room if you have to to open the guardian door.  Turn Auto Retaliate OFF, so you won't constantly be dragged into fights while you're opening doors.
• - Don't waste time.  If a puzzle room is too time consuming, skip it.  Once you're explored all the dungeon you can reasonably get to, exit the dungeon.  No boss fight, just leave.  Come right back to the same floor, and do it all again.

This technique is wasted time for exp.  You'll get nearly none.  I thought it was actually none, but last night as soon as I left the dungeon from my last trip, I leveled up.  Took me by surprise!

Some people claim a SSH drop is quick and easy if you follow the general hunting advice.  Others claim you can be over 100 Dungeoneering and still have never seen a Shadow Silk Hood drop.  I've seen people estimate a Hood drop of 1 for every 15 Night Spiders, and others say it's closer to 1 Hood for every 50 Night Spiders.  Even saw one person claiming it's based on your actual kill count, and you can't share a kill with someone else.

Truth is, it's just random.  If you're lucky, you'll get a Shadow Silk Hood reasonably quick and easy.  If not, it could be a long and frustrating trial.  You could get that "Banging my head on the wall" feeling pretty easily.

So, what the heck... I'll try for a while.  Maybe do some other things at times.  If I get really tired of it I'll give up for a while and just Dungeoneer with what I've got.  Either way, it's a game, and I'm having fun.  No more stupid 99 no-lifing.  Except maybe for my fishing... I'm 96, it wouldn't take much to finish it...