Tentacle Pillar Hole

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-07

Overview

tentacle_pillar_hole is a non-player entity functioning as a fixed teleport destination in the Caves. It acts as the "spawn point" for the tentacle pillar boss — when activated by a player or item via teleportation, it triggers the emergence of a physical tentacle pillar prefab. The component coordinates sound playback, state persistence across saves, and special logic for residue creation (e.g., for Charlie-related mechanics). It integrates with teleporter, inventory, trader, playerprox, and roseinspectable components to handle activation, interaction, and boss-spawning behavior.

Usage example

-- The prefab is automatically spawned by the worldgen system.
-- Modders typically do not instantiate this directly.
-- Example of listening for emergence events:
local inst = ...
inst:ListenForEvent("doneteleporting", function(ent, obj)
    if obj:HasTag("player") then
        print("Player has emerged from tentacle pillar hole")
    end
end, inst)

Dependencies & tags

Components used:
playerprox, inspectable, roseinspectable, teleporter, inventory, trader, pointofinterest (client-only), soundemitter, animstate, minimapentity, transform, network
Tags added/checked:
Adds tentacle_pillar, rocky, wet, trader, alltrader
Checks player, wet, debuffed (via skilltreeupdater on doer/residueowner)

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
emergetime	number	GetTime() + TUNING.TENTACLE_PILLAR_ARM_EMERGE_TIME	Timestamp when the tentacle pillar may emerge. Decremented in OnLongUpdate.
emergetask	Task?	nil	Scheduled task to re-arm emergence after teleporting (if condition met). Cancelled on teleport completion.
overtaken	boolean	nil	Not initialized here; used only if the hole was "overtaken" by an active tentacle pillar (rare case).
hiddenglobalicon	Entity?	nil	Hidden global map icon used for tracking wormhole locations (client-side).

Main functions

DoEmerge(inst)

• Description: Spawns the actual tentacle_pillar boss prefab at this hole’s location, removes the hole entity, and wires the new pillar’s teleporter to point back to the original target. If the target is another hole, triggers recursive emergence.
• Parameters: inst (Entity) — the hole entity instance.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: May cause recursion if targetTeleporter.prefab == "tentacle_pillar_hole".

TryEmerge(inst)

• Description: Checks if the emergence timer (emergetime) has passed and no teleport is currently in progress; if so, calls DoEmerge.
• Parameters: inst (Entity).
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: No-op if IsBusy() or IsTargetBusy() is true, or if emergetime has not elapsed.

OnActivate(inst, doer)

• Description: Handler for teleport activation. Awards achievement, mutes player, and plays sound only for non-player doers.
• Parameters:
  inst (Entity) — the hole entity.
  doer (Entity) — the entity teleporting through (player, item, or follower).
• Returns: Nothing.

StartTravelSound(inst, doer)

• Description: Plays the "enter wormhole" sound on the hole and pushes a local wormholetravel event for the doer to sync audio.
• Parameters: inst (Entity), doer (Entity).
• Returns: Nothing.

OnDoneTeleporting(inst, obj)

• Description: Called after teleport completes. Resets emergence timer, plays emerge sound, and schedules a follow-up emergence check. Notifies player of spit event for quirks like Wisecracker.
• Parameters: inst (Entity), obj (Entity? — the teleporting object, may be nil).
• Returns: Nothing.

OnAccept(inst, giver, item)

• Description: Trader callback — drops the accepted item into the hole’s inventory and triggers teleport activation on it.
• Parameters:
  inst (Entity),
  giver (Entity? — rarely used),
  item (Entity) — the tradable item being accepted.
• Returns: Nothing.

OnLongUpdate(inst, dt)

• Description: Decrements emergetime by dt every frame during long updates (used for accurate emergence timing).
• Parameters: inst (Entity), dt (number — delta time in seconds).
• Returns: Nothing.

OnEntityWake(inst)

• Description: Starts looping idle sound (tentapiller_hiddenidle_LP) when the entity becomes active in the world.
• Parameters: inst (Entity).
• Returns: Nothing.

OnEntitySleep(inst)

• Description: Stops looping idle sound when the entity goes to sleep (e.g., far from world center).
• Parameters: inst (Entity).
• Returns: Nothing.

CanResidueBeSpawnedBy(inst, doer)

• Description: Determines whether Charlie’s residue can spawn at this hole’s location (requires winona_charlie_2 skill).
• Parameters: inst (Entity), doer (Entity? — usually the player).
• Returns: boolean — true only if skilltreeupdater exists and winona_charlie_2 is activated.

OnResidueCreated(inst, residueowner, residue)

• Description: Sets the residue’s map action context to WORMHOLE if the skill is active, allowing the residue to appear as a wormhole tracker.
• Parameters: inst (Entity), residueowner (Entity), residue (Entity).
• Returns: Nothing.

CreateHiddenGlobalIcon(inst)

• Description: Spawns a hidden global map icon to track wormhole locations client-side. Sets priority and restriction tags.
• Parameters: inst (Entity).
• Returns: Nothing.

OnSave(inst, data)

• Description: Saves remaining time until emergence (if positive) as a relative timestamp.
• Parameters: inst (Entity), data (table).
• Returns: Nothing.

OnLoad(inst, data)

• Description: Restores emergetime by adding saved delta to current game time.
• Parameters: inst (Entity), data (table? — saved state).
• Returns: Nothing.

OnLoadPostPass(inst)

• Description: Called after world loading completes. If target teleporter is a pillar, triggers its OnLoadPostPass.
• Parameters: inst (Entity).
• Returns: Nothing.

Events & listeners

• Listens to:
  starttravelsound — fires StartTravelSound to play entrance sound and notify doer for audio sync.
  doneteleporting — fires OnDoneTeleporting to finalize teleport and schedule re-emergence.
• Pushes:
  dropitem — via inventory:DropItem.
  wormholetravel — via StartTravelSound on the doer (for local audio).
  wormholespit — delayed event pushed to player after teleport (for quirks like Wisecracker).
  No custom events are pushed directly from this component’s own methods beyond those delegated via component callbacks.