Dungeons of Eternity (2023) is chock-full of skeletons, zombies, slimes and yes… spiders. But now developer Othergate has added an ‘Arachnophobia Mode’ that lets you take on the VR hack-n-slash adventure on Quest without fear of eight-legged creepy crawlies.

The recent update is a game of give and take, it seems. On one hand, the new Arachnophobia Mode replaces the spider monsters with a new enemy type—accessible by enabling the mode in Settings > Visuals > Enable ‘Arachnophobia Mode’.

On the other, the studio is also including a new monster to “balance things out”: Kamikaze exploding spiders.

Image courtesy Othergate

The update also comes with a host of new features and bug fixes, according to the patch notes:

  • Tier 3 Epic Chest Improvements. Hint: They can sometimes be dangerous but rewarding!
  • Improved Crossbow head tilt/aiming assist mechanic
  • Upgraded voice chat SDK and improved reliability of voice chat
  • Kick feature allows you to kick the same person repeatedly if they rejoin
  • Increased the AOE damage on bombs again (almost 2X)
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The Arachnophobia Mode release follows the game’s most recent ‘Longsword and Traps’ update in May, which brought two-handed longswords, host of new traps and 25+ new chambers to the game.

The game’s roadmap also maintains we’ll be getting a few things later this year, including new a quest mode, single player DLC, and of course more monsters, bosses and weapons. You can find it on the Horizon Store for Quest, priced at $30.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • VRDeveloper

    This is very "Karen Vibes" from the part of the players, but okay, as long as it doesn't become a requirement for every game to include, I don't see a problem.

    • D-_-RAiL

      I hate Spiders but I also can distinguish between real life and video games. I don't mind options that doesn't change gameplay but eventually it will be all flat and bland for 1 percent without options.

  • Max-Dmg

    Snowflake mode for the Gen Zs.

  • BananaBreadBoy

    As eye-rolly as the recent string of arachnaphobia modes in games might be, from my understanding, arachnophobia gets this kind of attention because it's one of the few irrational fears that are both extremely common AND involve something prevalent in games. By comparison, other fears are either:

    – common in real life, but not common in games (fear of the ocean is limited to certain genres, claustrophobia doesn't even seem possible on a screen, etc.)
    – common in games, but not common in real life (fear of skeletons or giant slimes definitely exists, but not common enough to have a easily recognizable name.)

    Arachnophobia is at that intersection. Spiders are both incredibly common fears AND they're one of the archetypal mobs that shows up in every RPG or fantasy game.

    • Arno van Wingerde

      Hm: fear of heights, fire etc. also exist in games and in reality…

  • Arno van Wingerde

    This seems more like a marketing gag than a real thing for potential customers that cannot play due to arachnophobia… "our spiders are so incredibly real, we allow you to replace them with something else".

  • ichigo

    This comes across as some sort of funding signal for the banks to give them more funding as a company. Or just a nod to game ""journalists"" . It seems to be thing a lot of certain games are doing like including modern preferred-pronouns ze/zir.

    It's just seems to be about getting their investment score to go up in order to "force behaviours (blackrock)" with the game ""journalists"" to say how brave it is.

    With the Banks, Government and Media all aligned together on it.