Hedge Broodmother (2024)

Spoiler! This article contains potential story spoilers for Grounded.

Spider! This article contains spider imagery that some may find disturbing.

• Max

• Pete

• Willow

• Hoops

  See Also

  ARK Fjordur: All Artifact LocationsMini Boss Locations in ARK Fjordur - ProGameTalkArk Fjordur: How to Get to Vanaheim, Asgard, and Jotunheim RealmsARK Fjordur - Solo Beyla World Boss Guide - Item Level Gaming

	"Enjoy your hamburger, broodmom! I hope you choke on it!"
	-Max

	"Enjoy your hamburger, broodmom! I hope you choke on it!"
	-Max

	"I am seriously regretting my life decisions right now!"
	-Pete

	"I am seriously regretting my life decisions right now!"
	-Pete

	"I thought I loved all spiders. I'm reconsidering my position!"
	-Willow

	"I thought I loved all spiders. I'm reconsidering my position!"
	-Willow

See Also

ARK Fjordur: How to Find and Defeat the Dragon Boss

	"That's one bad motherspider!"
	-Hoops

	"That's one bad motherspider!"
	-Hoops

The Hedge Broodmother is a boss Creature found deep in the Hedge, which is meant to be fought sometime after the Black Anthill Lab. Her lair may be found by going up a branch into a large burrow that is next to the Flingman Flying Disc. Once the fight is triggered, players cannot leave or enter her lair until all players inside are dead, or the Broodmother is defeated. She can be summoned by using the Broodmother BLT on the opened egg sacs within her lair.

The Hedge Broodmother has an extremely powerful infected variant summoned in another lair in the Haze after sealing the weed killer, called the Infected Broodmother.

Boss Fight[]

Phase 1[]

The Hedge Broodmother's fight starts as soon as she descends from the ceiling and touches the ground, the Broodmother cannot be damaged while descending from the ceiling. In this phase, she can perform all her attacks, being a basic bite, a modified version of the Orb Weaver's 3-hit combo, and a modified version of the Wolf Spider's lunge.

Phase 2[]

At 75% health, the Broodmother will gain the ability to do 3 more attacks, a modified version of the Wolf Spider's 5-hit combo and a modified version of a Wolf Spider's forward lunge. She will scream after entering this phase, spawning about 7 Spiderlings will from the ceiling. The scream cannot be stopped or reduced when it happens, and stuns the player. The scream gives them an effect that makes the players attack lower. All of the Broodmother's attacks can also inflict Poison in this phase. She will also gain a "dodge" move in this phase in which the Broodmother hisses and jumps backwards, dealing minor damage and inflicting -Exhaustion Recovery.

Phase 3[]

At 50% health, the Broodmother's resistance increases, nearly halfing all damage taken. The main change, however, she now will spawn 4 Spiderling and two Orb Weaver Jrs.

Phase 4[]

At about 25% health, the minions are also changed, now no longer spawning Spiderling and spawning 4 Orb Weaver Jrs.

Advanced Loot Table[]

This is a more advanced covering of the loot-table of Hedge Broodmother. Each item has an independent chance and count, in which the chance is the chance it can drop and the count is the amount of items that have that chance. If a count larger than 2 is in one section, then each item has an independent chance from one another (EX: Instead of getting say 1-2 of a resource, you can get 1 with a 70% chance and another with an additional 70% chance). In terms of Stealing, it can take one item from every section of the loot table, so even if a item count is say 5, the player will only steal one from that section.

Creature Loot Tables also tend to have large amounts of 1% items, which is intended to make stealing more rare items harder, as the player is more likely to steal the large amounts of 1% items than a singular 50% item.

Note: For consistency sake, all duplicate categories have a multiplier next to them, but function as unique loot types when say using Stealing.

Item	Count	Chance	Additional Info
Broodmother Chunk	3			100%	-
Broodmother Chunk	1	20%	-
Broodmother Chunk	1	40%	-
Broodmother Chunk x12	1	1%	-
Broodmother Chunk x4	1	0%	Only Obtainable From Stealing
Broodmother Fang	2	100%	Not Stealable
Broodmother Fang x2	1	1%	Not Stealable
Broodmother Trinket	1	1%	-
Broodmother Venom	1	100%	Not Stealable
Broodmother Venom x3	1	1%	Not Stealable
Web Fiber	25	75%	-
Web Fiber x2	1	1%	-

Strategy[]

The Broodmother is a very difficult boss to defeat and will likely require many attempts to kill her, but there are some strategies that can make the fight easier.

• Use Attack and Stamina Smoothies such as the Liquid Rage or Boost Juice and combat-based meals like Spider Slider, Funguspacho, or Omelant.
• Use Healbasa, Grumble's Granola Bars, or beefy smoothies for quick healing.
  • Ensure you do not accidentally heal the Broodmother or her minions with the Healbasa.
• Take advantage of AOE weapons such as Splatbursts or Gas Arrows to take out her minions.
  • Minions will die automatically alongside the Broodmother when she is defeated.
• Use the maxed-out Mithridatism mutation for 75% resistance to Poison, as well as weapon class mutations for extra combat effects.
  • Recommended mutations to put in other slots would be Coup de Grass for critical hits, Buff Lungs for extra stamina, or Meat Shield for extra health.
• Use the Spicy Coaltana, Spicy Staff, or stack Splatbursts to deal quick and hefty damage.
  • The best possible weapon to take out the Broodmother is a Spicy Coaltana because the Broodmother is weak to slashing damage and spicy damage.
  • If a player has a Spicy Staff, this should be used throughout the entire fight, unless there are teammates around and Friendly Fire hasn't been disabled (Either via Custom Game Mode or the difficulty being Mild).
• Spears and bows are inefficient when used against the Broodmother considering her resistance to stabbing damage.
  • These weapons are, however, somewhat effective against her minions when taking their comparatively low health into account.
  • Bows can still be a somewhat viable source of damage by taking advantage of critical hits and/or elemental arrows.
  • This can be combined with ranged weapons to continue to dish out damage while minimizing risk of being attacked directly.
• Bring some friends if possible. Her health will scale to the amount of players in the battle, but being able to revive one another is very beneficial.
  • Reviving during the fight can prove very difficult; the best opportunities are when the Broodmother is performing her jump attacks or when very far away.
  • Equipping Reliable Friend before a revive can greatly increase the odds of it being successful.

Trivia[]

• Prior to the Shroom & Doom update, the Broodmother was just an embiggened Wolf Spider with a different blob design in arachnophobia mode.
  • With the Shroom & Doom update, the Broodmother’s design was completely overhauled, now resembling a Spiny (Demon) Orb-Weaver.
• The "demonic" reference from the Broodmother's loot and derived equipment stems from her design being based off the Spiny Orb-Weaver, also known as the Demon Orb-Weaver.
• Also prior to the Shroom and Doom update, the Broodmother was located at the Flingman Flying Disc.
• Given that she's an orb-weaver, is said to be the "queen of spiders", and spawns both Spiderlings and Orb Weaver Jrs during her battle, it's likely that she is also the mother of the Orb Weavers.

Gallery[]