WoW devs to implement ‘Arachnophobia mode,’ transforming War Within’s spider villains

World of Warcraft’s next expansion, The War Within, will bring back a classic race of villains known as the Nerubians. And for players with serious arachnophobia, these spider-like monsters have always been extra imposing.

Thankfully for those players, though, the WoW developers will be introducing an accommodating and friendly fix to make the Nerbuians less spider-like in the next expansion.

With the launch of The War Within, an “arachnophobia mode” will be added to WoW, turning all of the spider-like enemies in the game into crabs. “We just want to be cognizant of the fact that there are a lot of players out there with arachnophobia that still want to enjoy this expansion that has a lot of those themes,” Gabriel Gonzalez, WoW’s lead visual development artist, said in a press conference earlier this week.

An arachnophobia setting has become a trending accessibility feature in the gaming industry, with recent titles like Hogwarts Legacy and Lethal Company both making it optional to see spiders at all. In Hogwarts, spiders are replaced by a floating orb with rollerskates, while Lethal Company simply replaces spiders with a 3D render of the word “spider.”

Arachnophobia affects anywhere between two and six percent of people, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. With how straightforward the arachnophobia setting has been in other games, this change is a welcome feature for those who want to feel more comfortable in the world of Azeroth if their real-world fears have made it difficult to fully enjoy.

Blizzard confirmed the arachnophobia setting will extend well beyond the Nerubians in The War Within, and that all mobs branded as spiders will be transformed when the change is applied. For example, if you encounter a Hunter in the wild using a spider as a pet, they’ll be transformed into a crustacean via this setting, too.

The arachnophobia setting for WoW will likely go live with The War Within prepatch, which will be released several weeks ahead of the expansion. Furthermore, it’s unclear if this accessibility feature will be brought over to WoW Classic.