Hound

Hounds are a type of recurring wolf-like beasts that spawn periodically in packs. When they spawn, their aggressiveness will be set on the player and they will move towards them, regardless of range. They will however prioritize eating Meats left on the ground. Otherwise, they will continually chase the player.

The player will be warned of incoming hounds by sounds of heavy breathing and growling. Hound attacks are not affected by any in-game actions, such as setting up a permanent camp or fire. Hounds will not spawn more often than every 3 days. There is also a chance for Red Hounds to spawn depending on the day. Further into the game, more Hounds attack more often (see section).

It is hard to run away from Hounds, since they move faster than the player. If the player manages to get far away, the Hounds will still chasing and instead slowly wander towards the player. Other Mobs, such as Pigs will attack the Hounds on sight.

Spawning
Note that due to the way the game spawns mobs, it is possible for individual Hound spawning to sometimes fail due to them spawning in invalid locations, such as ocean tiles, resulting is less Hounds spawned.

Ways to Defend Against Attacks
Attacking them directly is not indicated as they will not stutter after being hit, much like the Tallbird or Beefalos. Instead, you can preety much kite them just like Spiders, but do be carefull as it may not work on multiple Hounds because of them being much faster.

A (somewhat risky) way to protect a camp against them is to place multiple Bee Boxes around it.

The Hounds will often attack the bees instead of the player and get swarmed and killed as a result. This is risky, however, since the Flame Hounds can easily burn a camp down, along with the Bee Boxes when they die.



Another way for the player to protect themselves from them is to stay around Beefalos when they hear the heavy breathing and growling. Upon being chased by the Hounds the player should run as far as possible and they'll start attacking the Beefalos, they will team up on them and kill them easily. This also works when near a Treeguard. They will sometimes attack it instead of the player and the Treeguard will usually take them out with one swing.

Once the days go by and the numbers of hounds per swarm begins to get larger, It may become harder to take them all on with just armor and a tentacle spike. If one has survived enough hound attacks, they should have accumulated several hound's teeth, which can be used to create tooth traps. By setting several tooth traps in closed geometric shapes, such as a triangle, and placing meat in the center, one can create an effective houndtrap. When the hounds swarm, they'll all go for the meat at first, triggering at least one of the traps. When several hounds begin to do this, it causes a lot of damage to the group, and can often kill them all off. In cases where they aren't all killed, the meat distraction gives the player enough time to pull out a pan flute and play them all to sleep, or employ some other method of trickery. In case of night attacks, it is recommended to place fire pits on the edges or near the center of the shape.

The best way to get rid of them without getting hurt is usually to run as straight as possible and twards other animals. When the hound starts barking it is looking to change target an will choose the closest creature to it apart from another hound. If the new target creature fights back the player is free to do whatever he was doing before the attack.

Try to never be caught off-guard as these creatures will make quite quick work of you if you choose to fight unprepared.