Hound

"Stay back, foul minion of evil!"

- Wendy

Hounds are wolf like monsters that attack in packs. They are not usually found while exploring (although there are exceptions to this, see below) but periodically attack every 3-10 days. At least two will typically appear, with more spawning at once as the game progresses. During such attacks, they may be accompanied by Red Hounds (in Summer) or Blue Hounds (in Winter). Hounds take two blasts from an Ice Staff to be frozen. When killed, they drop Monster Meat, with a chance of dropping a Hounds Tooth.

Warning
When a pack of Hounds is nearby, snorting and growling sounds can be heard. These sounds start off softly and grow louder as the Hounds approach. Characters will soon call attention to these sounds with phrases such as, "Did you hear that?" Usually these warnings appear at least twice before the Hounds come. Once the hounds appear, the growling will be replaced by a running/panting sound as they charge.

Character Warnings:
 * Wilson: Did you hear that?
 * Willow: Show yourself!Hound_Mound.png
 * Wolfgang: I hear puppies!
 * Wendy: The hounds are baying.
 * Wickerbottom: Something is approaching.
 * WX-78: SOMETHING IS COMING.
 * Woodie: There's something out there.
 * Wes: ...
 * Maxwell: The hounds are growing restless.

Behavior
Hounds immediately charge the character when they appear and are not fooled by a Bush Hat. Also unlike other monsters, they are not distracted by Meats on the ground, although they occasionally stop to eat when they lose interest in the player. After a while, they can become interested in any other Mob and may attack them if the character is some distance away. Hounds will even sometimes sit outside rabbit holes if the rabbit has escaped inside. It is possible for Hounds to run off somewhere to chase another target, then wander back to the player and attack.

If there are walls between the Hounds and their target, they will attack the walls and attempt to break them down.

Fighting
Hounds are really fast and cannot be outrun, unless they are being distracted and/or the character is running on a road. They will bite as soon as they are in range and pause for a moment before and after each chomp. It is possible to dodge their bite and then strike back during the pause, although this is difficult with multiple Hounds attacking. Wearing an item that slows the player, such as the Marble Suit, will greatly increase the chance of being bitten.

It takes most characters five hits with a Spear to kill a Hound, though Wolfgang on a full belly takes three. Once a Hound executes an attack, successful or not, it may stop to bark. When they do this, their AI will target the nearest mob/food, and cause them to go for it instead. This is a great way to kill them, as when they attack a Mob that fights in a group such as a Beefalo, they will be quickly dispatched.

Hound attacks in Sandbox Mode
Hound attacks are a threat in a Sandbox Mode. The default attacks escalate until they are too dangerous to fight alone. The player can use the Wooden Thing early on to travel to a new world and reset the days. Custom Hound attacks are constant.

After the second attack, there is a chance that some of the Hounds will be Red Hounds in the summer and Blue Hounds in the winter. The chance of those varieties appearing increases by the day.

There are currently no Hounds in Caves.

The attack script is in: DontStarve > data > scripts > components > hounded.lua According to the script, the default hound attacks eventually escalate to "crazy."



Strategy

 * See also: Hound Wave Survival Guide or Guides/Hound Repelling


 * For a few Hounds (2-3), the player should be able to defeat them with a Spear, Log Suit, and Football Helmet. Even just a Log Suit and an Axe can prove sufficient.
 * For lots of Hounds, lead them to Tooth Traps or Bee Mines, or lure them to the Beefalo. Once Beefalo are bitten by the Hounds, all Beefalo nearby will join in to attack the Hounds. This will probably kill all the Hounds while possibly giving bonus drops from killed Beefalo. The same basic strategy can be employed using Pigs instead of Beefalo. The main consideration when choosing between the two would be the proximity, the number of neutral mobs available, and the time of day (Pigs go back to their houses for the dusk/night). Pigs can deal with Hounds faster, because they attack them on sight and use kiting.
 * Neutral Treeguards are very effective against Hounds, as when a Hound gets distracted on a Treeguard and tries to bite it, the Treeguard will attack it back. Large and medium Treeguards will kill Hounds in one hit. Beware of red hounds that may set entire forests ablaze upon death, or set treeguards on fire, who then proceeds to run into trees.
 * Attacking a beehive or luring the Hounds to some bees is also an easy way of dealing with them. Beware that red hounds will burn down any nearby hives and bee boxes on death.
 * If playing as Wendy, Abigail's AOE attack can be useful for dispatching or distracting Hounds, although she is likely to die while doing so. Take the chance to use a spear or tentacle spike to deal as much damage as possible while they're distracted.
 * Some players create a "panic room" - a walled-off area with an entrance filled with Tooth Traps, through which incoming hounds are funneled. Sometimes a Fire Pit and supplies are kept inside for night attacks. Beware that although such tactics can easily handle hounds attacking a base, they will make exploration near impossible late game if you relay on them too much and have no other ways of dealing with 10 hounds attacking at once.
 * Some more places or creatures to lead Hounds to are Killer Beehives, Spider Dens, Spider Queens, Rundown Houses, Tentacles, and Pig Torches. Beware that red hounds may burn down beehives and spider dens, which may not be what the player wants if they were farming them for bees or spider drops.
 * Sometimes, via a wormhole, you can find an isalnd smaller than the screen; this is the perfect place for hound defence as hounds spawn of screen and therefore cannot attack you. They will still be waiting on the other side when you come back, unless they decided to attack other enemies near the wormhole, but they will not wander around if the player escapes in this manner during a hound attack.
 * Hound attacks on their own are not so much a threat as the time at which they happen. The majority of hound attacks occur at dusk or night, which means the player will be unable to run away from it without a light source. Using a torch to run away is rather troublesome because of the lack of vision and can lead to a few hounds getting in hits if you're turning sharp angles in the darkness and have 10 hounds chasing you. There is also the danger of freezing to death during winter while running away from hounds. A good idea to solve both the problems of heat and light are caves, which both spawn batilisks that may distract the hounds, and allow you to escape into them to spend the night until morning. The hounds will still be at the entrance waiting for you, but can easily be lead during daylight to other mobs that can distract them long enough for you to get away.

Bugs

 * Saving the game when the Hound attack warning begins and then loading that save will cause the attack to become bugged. The Hounds will never arrive and the warning will persist indefinitely, making the player unable to use tents and other items that require a "safe" condition. It is unclear whether this bug only happens when the Hound attacks are set to a frequency different from "default" under world customization settings in Sandbox Mode.
 * Occasionally, dying in a Cave and getting resurrected on the surface (perhaps when Hound attacks are supposed to begin) will cause the growling and snorting sounds to play in half-day intervals while the character remarks that the Hounds are coming, but they will not appear until a Hound attack in 3-10 days, where the warnings properly play close together.
 * Sometimes, hound attacks will 'reset'. This means that the growling noises will be longer and there will only be two normal hounds, just as the first hound attack.

Trivia

 * When playing as Maxwell, upon examining normal Hounds he says: "They don't recognize me!"; Fire Hounds: "I put fire gems in there as a joke."; Ice Hounds: "I had a lot of surplus gems!".