Guides/Mob Killing Guide

This is a WIP guide that contains basic and advanced tactics for surviving most of the possible hostile creature engagements in Don't Starve.

Equipment
While your character can actually brawl and punch enemies to death, most playable characters in Don't starve are not known for their physical prowess and even the smallest of the enemies will easily outdamage and kill your character if unprepared, so you'll need weapons for dealing damage (poke the enemy with the pointy side until it stops moving) and armor for your character to wear.

Weapons
Almost every item your character can wield in his/her hands can be used as a weapon. From fishing rods to pickaxes, and from walking canes to dark swords, every item you can wear in the Hands slot of your character has it's own damage value and can be used to hit the enemies.

Your main weapon for the entire game will be probably the Spear

Creature Behavior
Creatures in Don't Starve may be separated in classes, depending on their normal behavior against external threats and character proximity.

Passive
Passive creatures will never attack your character or other creatures, even if they are being dealt damage. While some of them may be completely impervious to character presence, most of them are "frightened" of your character and will actively avoid your character if he/she gets too close.

Passive, non-"frightened" creatures are Passive, "frightened" creatures are:
 * Butterflies. Will keep flying between nearby flowers.
 * Rabbits (and Beardlings). Will run to their designated rabbit hole. If your character stands beween the hole and the rabbit, they will actively run away from your character if you're giving chase, or run towards the hole, then away from your character once they get near if you stand still.
 * Birds. If your character aproaches while they're grounded, will immediately take off and fly away.
 * Gobblers. Will try to hide in a nearby Berry bush or actively move away from your character if caught in open ground and no bushes are nearby.

Neutral
Neutral creatures tolerate your character and other creatures presence, and will only fight back if attacked first or threatened.

While some neutral creatures won't mind your character's presence and allow it to an extent, others will actively avoid your character, and to engage them your character will either need a ranged weapon, or cornering them against the terrain or a structure.

Neutral, non-"frightened" creatures are: Neutral, "frightened" creatures are:
 * Beefalos (while not in their mating season)
 * Bees
 * Treeguards (1)
 * Koalefants
 * Smallish Tallbirds
 * Pigs (2)

(1) Treeguards will only attack the creature that chops down a nearby tree (the final "chop" that cuts down the tree itself); while most of the time will be your character, if your character has befriended a Pig and is the Pig the creature that lands the last chop on the tree, the Treeguard will attack the Pig while staying neutral to your character, still being an active creature in the world.

(2) While Pigs will not actively run away from you and may even step into yourself, will quickly fall back a short distance if you (or themselves) move too close to each other.

Aggressive
Aggressive creatures will immediately attack your character (and natural enemies) when they get to close to each other. Most of the aggressive creatures in the world are highly territorial and will only chase your character some distance away before returning to their spawn location, while others will chase you a long distance or even forever.

Aggressive creatures are:
 * Beefalos (during their mating season)
 * Clockwork Bishops
 * Clockwork Knights
 * Deerclops  (will chase forever unless outrun by a long distance)
 * Frogs
 * Ghosts
 * Guardian Pigs
 * Hallucinations
 * Hounds (Timed hound waves will chase forever; hounds spawned from Hound Mounds will not)
 * Killer Bees
 * Krampus
 * Mactusk & Son
 * Merms
 * Mosquitoes
 * Spiders (only slightly aggressive during daytime and dusk, become extremely aggressive at night)
 * Spider Queen  (will chase forever unless outrun by a long distance)
 * Tentacles (non mobile, unable to chase)
 * Treeguards (will chase forever unless outrun by a long distance)
 * Tallbirds (will chase a much longer distance if eggs are taken from their nests)
 * Werepigs

Stunlocking
Small enemies in the game are vulnerable to stunlocking; a stunlockable monster being hit by any kind of attack will become stunned for a small time frame; if your character keeps attacking the monster repeteadly the stun timer will continually reset allowing the monster to be killed without any kind of retaliation

Creatures currently vulnerable to stunlocking (as of game version The End of the Beginning)
 * Bees and Killer Bees
 * Spiders and Spider Warriors

Kiting
Kiting, (also known as Hit-and-Run) is the action of running back and forth between creature attacks, hitting the creatures in the small time frame available before they start attacking again. Kiting itself may refer to both Defensive Kiting and Offensive Kiting mechanics. The standard kiting mechanic when fighting lone, kiteable creatures, is the following:
 * 1) Stay in motion, constantly moving away from the enemy.
 * 2) Wait for the enemy to start it's attack animation.
 * 3) Keep moving and stop a short distance away, until the attack animation of the creature ends.
 * 4) Immediately move towards the creature and start attacking. If you know that creature's Attack Period, land as many hits as you believe you can get during that time frame. If you're not sure, best is to land just one or two hits.
 * 5) Repeat from 1 till the creature is dead.

Defensive Kiting
All melee monsters in the game are vulnerable to defensive kiting. As long as your character keeps moving "away" (doesn't need to be in an exact straight line, just the general direction) from the creature when it starts their attack animation, your character will outrange the creature attack radius before the animation ends, counting that attack as a "miss".

Defensive kiting is less effective against monsters that attack in packs since you may get attacked from several angles at the same time, with separate atack timers.

The most common exception to this mechanic are ranged monsters, since proyectile speeds are always faster than movement speeds and thus, no creature can outrange a proyectile. You'll need to run in a zig-zag pattern, or make a turn once a ranged attack animation starts to avoid those kind of attacks.

Ranged creatures not vulnerable to defensive kiting are:


 * Mac Tusk


 * Clockwork Bishops

Also, some creatures in the game have developed a defensive kiting behavior themselves, thus, once engaged, will stay in motion, continually moving away from their main target (which can be the player or another creature) until their attack period is reset. Creatures with defensive kiting behavior will only kite the enemy their are attacking, thus, other enemyes may land attacks normally as long as they can predict their movement well enough to position themselves.

Creatures with defensive kiting mechanics:
 * Bees and Killer Bees (while not actively kiting, will usually move a short distance away after most attacks)
 * Clockwork Knights (while not actively kiting, will usually move a short distance away after most attacks)
 * Pigs (and Guardian Pigs)
 * Merms
 * Mactusk & Son (ranged enemy, will actively try to stay at range from his chosen target)

Offensive Kiting
Most creatures in the game are vulnerable to ofensive kiting. Once creatures end their attack animation several seconds must pass until they can attack again; on these seconds most creatures will either stand still, make some kind of animation (barking, growling,...) or will keep moving towards you if they're melee, readying themselves for their next attack. Your character may use that time to hit the creatures several times without any kind of retaliation, then start a defensive kiting procedure once their attack period is reset.

Check a particular creature wiki page or the AP column in the Monster info table for updated attack period values.

Mobs that are vulnerable to offensive kiting.


 * Spiders and Spider Warriors
 * Hounds (all variants)
 * Bees and Killer Bees
 * Beefalos
 * Tallbirds
 * Mosquitoes
 * Ghosts
 * Krampus
 * Hallucinations
 * Tentacles
 * Clockwork Knights
 * Deerclops
 * Treeguards
 * Spider Queens

Creatures that have developed a defensive kiting behavior (see defensive kiting above) are usually immune to ofensive kiting from their main target.

Advanced Mechanics (by creature)
While this does work for many hostile mobs, some are more difficult and require a more advanced approach.

Beefalos
Beefalos always help each other and fight in packs; If you attack any beefalo by mistake, all nearby beefalos will immediately engage you in combat (this includes other beefalos you may stumble upon if you run away with a beefalo chasing you), although most of them will lose interest in you very quickly except the one damaged, that will chase you a much longer distance.

Fighting a herd is extremely dificult and damaging since you will usually be severely overwhelmed. If you plan to kill a beefalo the best idea is to land a hit in your target (a ranged weapon is prefered), run away to a place you actually know there are no beefalos until all beefalos but the one damaged stop the chase, then kill the now isolated beefalo with standard kiting mechanics.

If you plan on murdering an entire beefalo herd, the best mechanic is by far the "Wool BBQ" method. Wait near the chosen herd until night (the more clustered the herd is, the better results), place a campfire nearby so the Grue doesn't attack you, then quickly use a Razor to shave the beefalos (you need to act fast); finally, set the dropped Beefalo wool on fire with a Torch or any other means. The fire should spread amongst all the dropped shaved wool, killing most (if not all) beefalos while still sleeping.

Bees and Killer Bees
While bees are easy to deal with since they can be stunlocked, once you hit a bee there's a small chance to aggravate nearby bees and to spawn a group of killer bees from the hive the attacked bee belonged to. Killer bees will always move and attack in a tight formation, thus making kiting dificult.

Bees do not have actively kiting mechanics but they tend to fly away a short distance after every attack, stop a second or two, then return to attack again.

Best way to deal with bees is to use a Bug Net instead of normal weapons since you need just to land one "hit", instead of the normal 2-3 you need with most other weapons. Catched bees may be used as materials for several structures, or murdered for components (commonly Honey and Stingers).

Deerclops
Deerclops is arguably the most dificult enemy to deal with in the game; while you may effectively use the default kiting mechanic against a Deerclops you must be aware of several issues while fighting one. Your best option to deal with a Deerclops is to lure him to other boss type monsters, then run around his back while engaged and hit him as hard as possible, watching closely if he decides to retarget you. Treeguards are the best option by far since they usually are alone and can withstand a good beating (still, you usually do not have Treeguards at hand when you need them). Spider Queens are the second best option (and usually a much viable one since you can actually "farm" Spider Eggs and control if a level 3 hive hatches one), but most spawned spiders will fall very fast to the Deerclops AoE damage thus leaving only the queen herself to tackle the Deerclops.
 * 1) Deerclops attacks deal AoE damage in a wide angle in the direction he is facing (Deerclop attacks do not hit just his main target, but eveything in range) and the attack range is much larger than most other enemies, so you must move farther away than expected while kiting to outrange him.
 * 2) Deerclops has a heavy sanity drain aura. This, coupled with his enormous health pool, make long battles easily drain all your sanity before you're able to finish him off, thus making yourself a target for Hallucinations
 * 3) Deerclops attacks do count as hammer strikes if a structure is on his attack range. Also, Deerclops movement may trample down structures. Fighting a Deerclops near your base camp will probably end with your entire base destroyed by the Deerclops attacks and movement.

Leading a Deerclops to a swamp is also a good idea, since nearby Tentacles hit in AoE, thus easily aggroing Deerclops. Also, nearby Spiders and Merms may actually join the party.

Creatures with kiting mechanics (specially Mactusk & Son) are another good option. While Pigs may be used, take note that they tend to fight near their houses and in a long enough battle the Deerclops may "accidentally" hit or trample their houses while engaged; finally, pigs may even eat the dropped Pig Skins from the houses, thus leaving you without components to reconstruct.

Do NOT lure a Deerclops into a Beefalo herd unless you want most of that herd destroyed. Since Beefalos attack in groups and do not kite, they will usually cluster in a thight pack around the Deerclops while attacking, and three or four Deerclops attacks will make short work of them.

Chess Pieces
Chess pieces are medium to high health, high damaging creatures that usually guard the Teleportato. If the character approaches they will stand up and stare at the player. If the character comes closer they will start attacking  (but still, there's some time before they engage so your character will almost always be able to land one or two free hits).

Nearby Chess Pieces will join the attack but will only chase for a very short distance while the attacked piece will chase you for much longer; this way you may easily isolate pieces and deal with them one by one.

Currently, there are two types of pieces:
 * 1) Clockwork Bishops: Bishops throw laser beams from their eyes about one screen away from their location. The beam travels very fast and is dificult to avoid, even by runing in zig-zag. They are slow moving and do not kite, but their attack animation is very fast, thus making dificult to predict their attacks.
 * 2) Clockwork Knights: Knights are melee attackers with a small defensive kiting mechanic, knights will headbutt their enemy, then jump a small distance away from them. Usually, they will whinny/battle cry for some seconds right after they kite and just before they close in for another attack, making that the perfect moment for landing some hits. The standard tactic to deal with them is to kite their attack, then target and chase them while counting their jumps, if after two or three jumps they stop and whinny, attack them once or twice, during the whinny animation, then run away; if they don't seem to stop, halt the chase and wait for their next attack.

Frogs
Frogs are more annoying than damaging. While initially being slow moving monster, frogs almost double their speed when chasing an enemy. Frogs attack with their tongue over a medium distance, dealing a small amount of damage and knoking off a random inventory slot (if stackable, the entire item stack will fall) from your character each time they land a hit. Frogs do not seem to knock off worn/equipped items, only items on your inventory and backpack.

Since their attack period is somewhat fast and several frogs may attack at once, frogs may easily make you drop some items if caught unaware, and drop even more if you try to recover them since frogs will usually stand near them. Frogs will return to their ponds at dusk, allowing you to recover any dropped items

Best way to deal with frogs is to lure them into Traps instead of attacking since traps will instakill the frogs.

Ghosts
Ghost are dificult creatures to deal with without taking damage. They do not have an attack animation, but instead ghosts make AoE (area of effect) damage "pulses" with a quick attack period (just a little more than one second per "pulse"), thus making offensive kiting almost impossible.

Since ghosts deal AoE damage, you may defensively kite them around other creatures (best done with neutrals as beefaloos) and wait until the ghost pulses once, the ghost's AoE attack will also hit the nearby creatures and they will target the ghost.

Still, since their relatively small life pool, low damage, fast attack rate and insanity aura, most of the time is best to just equip some kind of defensive equipment and deal with them head on. Kiting a ghost until a suitable creature is found may actually cause more sanity damage than health damage.

Treeguards are the easiest of these monsters to fight, due to their SLOW speeds and delayed attack. But just in case, DO bring a log suit.

Then, you have the next easy mob to kite, Spiders! they are pretty slow and do a small amount of damage. Although you must remember, they can and will attack in a groups.

Next, werepigs: No doubt you met these, by feeding a pig too much monster meat, Or camping near the pig village at night, these guys are a REAL pain! They are quicker then you, and can hit pretty hard, armor yourself, and remember, kiting is NOT very easy with this guy! Be ready to lose health!

Finally, the Tallbird, kiting works, but you NEED to do it fast. A log suit is recomended, do to their 50 damage power.

Now, lets get to the top killers: Deerclops, Spider Queens, Merms, and Krampus!

Krampus is the dreaded Don't starve version of Santa. He's got a sack, and he'll steal you're stuff! Kiting him quickly is the TOP goal. Keep him away from your base, too. He'll die quickly if you use a spike.

Then Merms! DAMN those merms are fast! One house holds 3-4, so carefull! Kiting is not the best way to deal with them, so is good to use a dart. Kiting them will work, but its dangerous.

Now, its the *que scary music* BOSSES! Yeah, treeguard counts but he is too slow! Just come with this: Deerclops, keep 'em away from your base! he'll destroy chests. kite him up! Finally, the queen! She is an annoying gal, So kite her up too! pigs can take care of the runts of the litter, Those spiders, but if you're alone...Don't attack her.

The next tough monster is the Swamp tentacle. This monster just pops up out of the ground in swamps and uses a swiping motion to kill most things that come near it. The best tactic for this mob is either an army of befriended Pigs or a group of Spiders who are aggroed. To get the pig army, go to a Pig Village, the larger the better, and befriend a lot of Pigs, more than 5 is pretty much a guaranteed number to kill at least one Tentacle. Then, go to the swamp and find a tentacle, attack it then retreat so that you don't get hit and let your befriended Pigs aggro on the tentacle. That should be enough to kill the tentacle. Note you cannot ever get rid of the Swamp Monster, the tentacles do respawn. After the battle, there is either a dead tentacle or a lot of dead Pigs, either way you benefit pretty well. If your pigs died, collect their meat and skin. If the tentacle died, collect the second highest hitting weapon in the game and/or some material for a Feather Hat.