Butterfly

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"Butterfly, flutter by."

- Wilson

The Butterfly is a passive Mob commonly found in Grassland biomes. They spawn from Flowers (including Evil Flowers) and will slowly fly around, often landing on other Flowers. At dusk, they always land on a Flower to despawn. Butterflies do not spawn during Winter.

When killed, Butterflies drop Butterfly Wings (98% chance) or Butter (2% chance). Butterfly Wings can be eaten to restore Health, or used in a Crock Pot to cook Butter Muffins. As inventory items, they can be used to plant Flowers, which can spawn additional Butterflies or improve the production of Honey in Bee Boxes.

Butterflies are considered innocent creatures and killing one adds 1 point to the player's naughtiness level. Catching Butterflies with a Bug Net will not affect naughtiness.

Hunting
Butterflies will avoid the player when approached, making them difficult to attack using melee weapons. The best time to attack Butterflies is when they stop to land on Flowers, where they will rest for a few seconds. Hunting in an area with many Flowers will provide many opportunities to hit them. Butterflies also sometimes flutter around in place and can be easily hit. Walking close to a Flower seems to spawn Butterflies more frequently.

It is possible to hit a moving Butterfly in close quarters by approaching it and pressing force-attack button (Ctrl+F). Watch the Butterfly's shadow to determine its position. The Walking Cane makes this incredibly easy.

When caught using a Bug Net, a live Butterfly will become an item in the player's inventory (stacks to 20). With the Bug Net equipped, pressing the Spacebar automatically chases and catches Butterflies rather than picking nearby Flowers.

Butterflies die in one hit from any weapon. Butterflies take one blast from the Ice Staff to be frozen and cannot be put to sleep.

Reign of Giants icon.png Reign of Giants
In Don't Starve: Reign of Giants, Butterflies inside the player's inventory will starve in 2 days unless fed. They can be fed with anything edible to the player, including Mandrakes, Deerclops Eyeballs, Rot, etc. However, they only have 1 health, so any food item which decreases health will instantly kill the butterfly.

Shipwrecked icon.png Shipwrecked
In Shipwrecked, butterflies are blue but otherwise act the same. Butterflies do not spawn during Hurricane Season.

Trivia

 * Maxwell's examination quote of the Butterfly ("It's a flying flower.") can either be interpreted as an explanation as to why they are plantable or a reference to their use as a flower-spawner.

Bugs

 * When a stack of Butterflies is killed in the inventory, only 1 point of naughtiness will be added instead of the cumulative total.
 * On Xbox One the command to turn a butterfly into a flower is "Murder" instead of "Plant"