Varg

"Big puppy!"

- Wolfgang

The Varg, also known as the Warg, is an enemy in "Reign of Giants" DLC. When tracking a Koalefant, there is a chance for the Varg to be tracked down instead. This chance starts at 5% on day one, and gradually increases to 33% chance on day 100. The player is unable to tell which animal will be at the end of the tracks before encountering it. When killed, he drops around 4-6 Monster Meat, and 1-3 Hound's Tooth.

Attack Pattern
The Varg will howl, calling forth two normal Hounds to the battle. In close range, it attacks by biting, with a two hit delay. It moves slowly, but attacks fast and has a large range for its jaws. Vargs are also able to call forth special Hounds (at least 1) to join the fight (Blue hounds and Red Hounds, depending on the season).

Uses
The Varg can effectively be used as a way to spawn hounds if you don't have any nearby Hound Mounds (or all of the Hound Mounds in your world are destroyed). You can trap the Varg in a pen with a gap on 2 of 4 walls forming a square. Run into the pen, making the Varg follow you then put it to sleep. Run out the other side to wall off the exit and you have a trapped Varg. Walk away from the sleeping Varg a fair distance and then hit it with a ranged weapon, like a Boomerang. This way it'll wake up and aggro on you instead of the walls. As long as you don't go too far, the Varg will keep walking against the wall, not attacking them, trying to get to you and will keep spawning Hounds periodically.

Below is the number of hits it takes with each weapon to kill a Varg when playing with characters with a default damage modifier. The Weather Pain is not included due to the random nature of its projectile.

Trivia

 * The Warg is a wolf-like creature from Norse mythology. The term was used to refer to Fenrir and his offspring.
 * In the time since the Norsemen, "Varg" has come to mean "wolf" in Swedish.
 * J. R. R. Tolkien popularized wargs in his fantasy novels set in Middle Earth, like "The Hobbit" and "The Lord Of The Rings".
 * The Varg will always howl to summon Hounds when it can do so. It will even resurrect for a brief moment after death to do it.

Gallery
Варг