Insanity Creatures



Hallucinations are hostile Mobs that begin to attack player upon reaching 30 sanity points or lower. They will spawn once the player's sanity levels are below 60, and become gradually more visible as the player's sanity level drops further.

While neutral, they can be attacked by holding Ctrl and clicking, and will not obey physics. If hit, they will disappear in a puff of smoke, and reappear somewhere in the close proximity of the player. Up to three will spawn around the player, and begin to attack. Upon being killed, Hallucinations will sometimes drop Nightmare Fuel, used for crafting several Magic items. The sanity meter will drop by both standing near and fighting Hallucinations, but will rise by at least 15 points when killing them.

Crawling Horror
Originally believed to be the name of all the Hallucinations, the Crawling Horror is now known to be just one type. It is a large tick-like creature, with many legs, and is the most common of the Hallucinations. Crawling Horrors turn aggressive when the player's sanity is 30 or below. Walking near these will decrease Sanity. They give 15 Sanity when killed.

Terrorbeak
The Terrorbeak is a creature with an enormous beak and slim body, with several small legs. Like the Crawling Horror, it will attack the player, but is less common. Players can attack them most easily by trapping them on the coast or by hitting them with a Boomerang. If you are being attacked by Hallucinations, killing a Terrorbeak is a good way of stopping the attacks, as they give 33 Sanity when killed causing Hallucinations to go neutral again, even at 0 sanity.

Mr. Skits


Mr. Skits is a small serpent like creature that will watch from afar. Upon attempting to reach Mr. Skits, it turns and slithers away. They are harmless, and cannot be attacked. Mr.Skits may also flicker on the screen for a fraction of a second, then disappear without any animation. He will only appear if the sanity level of the player is below 165. His only purpose is to scare players of Don't Starve.

Shadow Watcher
Shadow Watcher is long and thin with many tentacles sticking out of its head. This Hallucination is harmless and cannot be attacked. It will not disappear when stood on, unlike Night Hands. The Shadow Watcher can appear if sanity is below 130.

Night Hand


Night Hands are hands that extend from the shadows. While not directly attacking the player, Night Hands will attempt to wreak havoc by putting out fires, potentially summoning Charlie. When stepped on they will shrink away into the darkness momentarily but will repeatedly attempt to put out the fire. Running towards one of the Night hands until the player is in complete darkness will cause it to vanish. It is not recommended to have low burning Campfires (It only extinguishes them a bit at a time). The only warning of a Night Hand is the sound of a Music Box playing. There may also be more than one Night Hand at a time, which can be very dangerous if the player is fighting a mob and will require them to keep running towards the Night Hands, and there will be more than one Music Box sound playing. Night Hand has an Insanity Aura -40/min.



There can be up to three Night Hands at a time, each taking up to 50% of the fires strength. They do have the potential to actually put out a fire if this occurs, however it is extremely rare and the more hands that appear, the less they can damage a fire (I.e. 1 Hand = <60% per hand. 3 Hands = <30% per hand). If the fire is at its highest strength then it is unlikely that even three hands can completely snuff it out, so a potential tactic is to max the fire and stand near to max it out again after the attack, although this burns quite a few resources and does not get rid of the Night Hands.

Occasionally, even when sanity is over half full, this particular hallucination can still appear.


 * Tip : A second fire nearby "cancels" the hands altogether for the night.
 * Sometimes, there's a bug where you are unable to drive the Night Hand away.

Eyes
When your sanity is below 160, several Eyes will pop out of the darkness. They are purely for atmosphere and have no effect. They disappear when stood upon. Rumor says that they are the eyes of the Grue, although it is unlikely unless there is more than one Grue, (This theory is being supported by the fact that Maxwell refers to the Grue that attacks you as Charlie, so maybe, there are other Grues with different names.) since there are often several sets of Eyes in the darkness at the same time.



Beardlings
When the player's Sanity level is under 80 (60 for Wes ), all Rabbits will be turned into Beardlings. Beardlings are extra-hairy black Rabbits that have Insanity Auras, and drop Beard Hair, Monster Meat, and Nightmare Fuel. Beardlings cannot drop Morsels.

A good way of getting beardlings withought losing too much sanity is to catch as many Rabbits as you can while sane, put them in Chests or your inventory, and kill them there when insane. This will enable the least amount of sanity loss due to the player not catching the Rabbits while already very low on Sanity.

Trivia

 * Crawling Horrors and Terror Beaks will go straight through walls while not aggressive, but if sanity is 30 or lower, they will manifest into a physical form and won't be able to pass through them.
 * Hallucinations become less and less transparent the more insane the player becomes.
 * Hallucinations can appear the first day/night, provided you manage to lower your Sanity quickly enough.
 * Mr. Skits sometimes "flashes" and turns everything else dark for a split second.
 * Their behavior has references to the monsters in Lovecraftian literature. Being that they are so otherworldly they cause humans to go insane, and their ability to move through dimensions.
 * Building a second fire within on screen distance away will cause Night Hands to retreat altogether.
 * When one is experiencing a sleep paralysis, it's common to see deformed dark opaque creatures creeping around the room. This description fits perfectly to the Don't Starve hallucinations. Also note that sleep paralysis is commonly associated with lucid dreaming  and in the science menu, description for the Dark Sword is: "lucid dreaming damage"

Bugs

 * Sometimes, Shadow Watchers will not disappear when day breaks, but instead a few seconds after.
 * Sometimes, after defeating a Night Hand, the music won't stop playing. This appears to stop after saving, quitting, and reloading the game.
 * Sometimes, on rare occasions in the morning a Night Hand will stay there. But, you can get rid of it like any other Night Hand.
 * Sometimes when fighting the Night Hand it will play the animation but it will still continue to extinguish the fire.