Return of Them

The feature in the article is in progress. Information may not be accurate as they are prone to ongoing changes by new game updates.

Return of Them
Developer	Klei Entertainment
Beta Release Date	May 16, 2019

Return of Them is a free Don't Starve Together expansion. It is to be distributed as an "Update Chain", meant to add game changing features in the same vein as A New Reign. Similar to its predecessor, Return of Them started as a beta.

The first update, Turn of Tides, began its beta phase on May 16, 2019. While originally intended to be released on June 20, 2019, it was later delayed and was released at August 15, 2019.

The second update, Salty Dog, is slated to have its beta start on September 12, 2019.

Official Description

Charlie’s machinations have come to a head as she turns her attention towards the skies - and the mysterious entity that awaits there. Our Survivors will be forced to contend with terrifying monstrosities beyond their comprehension, and yet, there may be a silver lining: their minds and horizons will be expanded under the sublime light of an ancient moon.

Features

Items marked with a star (*) are currently only available by accessing the beta branch of Return of Them.

In Return of Them, the Ocean was completely reworked to create a new area accessible by multiplayer boats. The other features of this expansion include:

World

• Biomes for the Lunar Island
  • Lunar Archipelago
  • Lunar Baths
  • Lunar Forest
  • Lunar Mine
  • Rocky Beach
• Anenemy
• Boat Fragment
• Celestial Altar
  • Celestial Altar Base
  • Celestial Altar Orb
  • Celestial Altar Idol
• Celestial Fissure
• Driftwood
• Inviting Formation
• Hot Spring
• Moon Glass
• Salt Formation *
• Sea Bones
• Sea Stack
• Shattered Spider Hole

Mechanics

• New crafting tab: Seafaring
• Rowing and Sailing via Multiplayer Boats
• Enlightenment (also referred to as Lunacy)

Mobs

• Carrat
• Cookie Cutter *
• Deep Ocean Fish *
• Gestalt
• Horror Hound
• Malbatross *
• Moon Moth
• Moonrock Pengull
• Mothling
• Puffin
• Saladmander
• Shattered Spider

Plants

• Bull Kelp
• Lune Tree
• Stone Fruit Bush
• Variant of Sapling

Items/Structures

• Seafaring Tab
  • Boat Kit
  • Oar
  • Driftwood Oar
  • Boat Patch
  • Anchor Kit
  • Mast
  • Steering Wheel Kit
  • Anchor Figure Sketch
  • Winged Sail *
• Craftables
  • Flare
  • Salt Box *
  • Think Tank
  • Cookie Cutter Cap *
  • Feathery Canvas *
  • Seawreath
  • Moon Glass Axe
  • Glass Cutter
  • Bath Bomb
  • Moon Moth Figure Sketch
  • "Moon" Figure Sketch
• Food
  • Raw, Cooked, and Dried Kelp Fronds
  • Raw, Ripe and Cooked Stone Fruits
  • Lune Tree Blossom
  • Moon Moth Wings
• Bull Kelp Stalk
• Cookie Cutter Shell *
• Driftwood Piece
• Malbatross Bill *
• Malbatross Feather *
• Moon Shard
• Salt Crystals *
• Sprouting Stone Fruit
• Turfs
  • Moon Crater Turf
  • Rocky Beach Turf

Tweaks/Changes to existing content

• The Potter's Wheel now also accepts Moon Shards as sculpting blocks, allowing all Sculptures to be made with this material.

Version History

Salty Dog September 18, 2019 Rev. 368562 Salt Formations will now regrow over time (unfortunately fully mined salt formations in existing worlds will not regrow) Salt Formations yield resources in stages when mined Driftwood and Driftwood Oar are waterproof. Fixed a crash when dropping a wet oar Update the Salt Box map icon Malbatross now has its own fight music Fixes from: https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/111849-game-update-368379/ September 16, 2019 Rev. 368004 Return of Them beta hotfix Woodie fixes from update from 367948: https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/111682-game-update-367948/ Fixed wave splash FX Fixed a crash if the Malbatross tries to swoop while frozen or sleeping Malbatross Feathers, Feathery Canvases and Down Feathers can now be burnt or fuel in fires. The Winged Sail will now drop the correct items when destroyed (for real this time) Fish shoals no longer get attached to boats as they sail by Fixed Steering Wheel inspect strings Fixed a save/load bug for Sea Stacks Rowing with a wet oar now has a chance slip out of your hands (follows the same rules as other wet tools) Birds no longer get wet when they land on water. September 13, 2019 Rev. 367770 Return of Them beta hotfix Fixed the top speed when using multiple masts. Hammering the Winged Sail will now drop the correct items. Hammering the Mast will now play the correct animation. Malbatross will abandon the fight if brought on land. Fixed a crash when the Malbatross dives. Waves won’t spawn outside of water. Woodie fixes from https://forums.kleientertainment.com/game-updates/dst/367616-r895/ September 12, 2019 Rev. 367426 Additions Salt Formations Cookie Cutters New Warly Spice: Salt The Malbatross Resources: Salt Rocks, Feathery Canvas, Malbatross Bill, Cookie Cutter Shell. Craftables: Salt Box, Winged Sail, Cookie Cutter Cap. Bug Fixes OSX 64 bit support Driftwood Oar’s damage is now the same as the Oar Fixed some rendering bugs Turn of Tides August 14, 2019 Rev. 359823 Bug Fixes Added a larger retrofitting island Hammered masts will no longer add speed. Fixed Anchor and Steering Wheel crash Fixed flickering of waterfalls Fixed Caves minimap Minimap art tuning (tweaked edge of the world color) August 13, 2019 Rev. 359445 Changes Added some variation to the edge of the world (sorry, this will not retrofit into existing beta worlds) Refactored the boat-tracking camera to work with setting other follow target on the camera The player should no longer get stun-locked while drowning Walls, Fences, and Sign Posts no longer jitter while on moving boats Minimap now reflects the edge of the world. Fixed Cave Worm Attacks warning sounds Notes for modders: FocalPoint:PushTempFocus() is now fully deprecated The EmbarkerCameraController component has been removed FocalPoint:StartFocusSource and StopFocusSource got a number of improvements and should now fully work as you’d expect them too Please remove the nointerpolate tag from any structures (this tag will cause objects to jitter while on moving boats) August 9, 2019 Rev. 358771 Bug Fixes Fixed a crash while drowning Fixed characters jittering on the client while watching other clients hop on and off boats. Fixed a small camera dip while hopping on and off boats. Fixed anchor disappearing when in use. Fixed missing seastack textures. August 8, 2019 Rev. 358457 Changes Added waterfall world edge August 7, 2019 Rev. 358249 Bug Fix Fixed the depth worms in caves August 6, 2019 Rev. 358029 Bug Fixes Fixed the missing hound sounds Reduced the amount of Seastacks and improved their world gen layout (this will be retrofitted into existing worlds) Fixed the mouse not being able to click near the top of tall objects (like the Mast) while in certain locations in the world Improved handling if the player is interrupted while hopping onto a boat. Platform hopping is now blocked if a blocker object is in the way of the hopping path. Bees no longer plant flowers in the ocean. Fixed a bug with the sail raising that cause the player to walk or use something behind the sail instead of “heave ho”ing on the second pull. Added Seastack art variation. July 26, 2019 Rev. 356040 Bug Fixes Fixed the mast placer when on a boat, shows green when placement is ok now Mast direction can be controlled when placing on land by rotating the camera Fixed the anchor animation getting stuck in a dropping loop Fixed a crash when too many items were spawned in the world. Brought in Warly Rev. 355695 Bug Fixes Fixed the placer image for the mast. Fixed some issues with mast and anchor on land Fixed an issue with the anchor getting stuck Fixed crash that could occur when a character despawns after having jumped on a boat Fixed a crash with boattrailmover Fixed a crash when the mast is burned A possible fix for caves worlds failing to load. July 24, 2019 Rev. 354959 Changes Sailing has been revised Hauling up an anchor takes more time, but multiple players can help. Sails can be furled quickly with the right timing. Steering must be maintained until the heading is set. Steering is faster with less speed. Boat has been made more durable (small bumps do less or no damage, harder to spring a leak) Ocean Biomes have new art Seastacks can be broken and mined Camera now follows the boat when the player is on a boat. Can now drop things onto the water. July 17, 2019 Rev. 352774 Changes Retrofitting of non-beta worlds is now supported Retrofitted the ocean pathfinding support into existing beta worlds Lune Trees will now repopulate, should the player decide to clear-cut them (Note: Unfortunately this will not work with retrofitted non-beta worlds) Fixed a crash with the fossilized fx Fixed boomerang animations over water Telltale Hearts can no longer be traded to ghosts that are floating over the ocean The Bearger no longer chases its targets indefinitely, and should drop an out of reach target more quickly. The Deerclops is now also wary of targets that it cannot reach. July 11, 2019 Rev. 351615 Bug Fix Fixes a crash when building structures Rev. 351507 Bug Fixes Overhauled performing actions, including walking, while on a boat to properly handle the moving platform and lag. Improved pathfinding through water for flying and amphibious creatures (only on newly generated worlds) Fixed a bug where the players could end up washing ashore on the small islands or somewhere in the ocean Fixed a crash when a player leaves shortly after a Gestalt was spawned Projectiles launched/thrown (eg Waterballoon, Ice Flingomatic Snowballs) while on a moving boat will now inherit the boat’s velocity The Waterballoon and Ice Flingomatic’s snowballs no longer bounce off the edge of boats or the land/ocean physics boundaries Fixed a bug where Lazy Explorer/Wortox teleports could miss a moving boat Burned Carrats now drop Cooked Seeds instead of Ash The Bearger can now charge at targets it is chasing (restored behaviour from single player Don’t Starve) Change Bearger and Spider Queen AI while their target is on a boat July 3, 2019 Rev. 347868 Bug Fixes Fixed the crash in the wardrobe Fixed an issue that caused servers to slow down over time and slightly improved performance. Fixed an issue with deployed masts not rotating correctly Fixed ghosts not colliding with the wall boundaries in the caves Fixed inspect string for the dug up saplings found on the island Fixed missing Carrat murder sound June 28, 2019 Rev. 347373 Bug Fixes Non-flying critters can now hop onto boats. (There is currently a known issue where physically blocking them can allow them to walk on water.) Fixed Wardrobe crashing with a mod character. (Alternate character modes may still not appear correctly for mod characters.) Fixed Mast animation. Items deconstructed with the deconstruction staff on boats will no longer disappear like they've fallen into the void. June 27, 2019 Rev. 347014 Bug Fixes Updated wardrobe to be cycle through different states of the character. Normal, Ghost, Mighty, Bloomed, etc. Fixed a crash when baby beefalo are killed while following an adult beefalo Fixed a crash when the shadowhand tries to put out a fire (may fix other crashes as well) Fixed mermbrain targeting crash Modified the flare overlay effect to display better on non-standard screen sizes June 26, 2019 Rev. 346546 Bug Fixes Projectiles should no longer get stuck on the shoreline edge. Masts should no longer be deployable on water. Currently, they still display as red when placing them on a boat. Disabling distortion should now also disable the zoom blur lunacy effect. Fixed a few bugs with the Steering Wheel Island spiders' spike sounds are no longer missing Fixed a crash when raising an anchor placed on land Removed the world-generated invisible boat fragments Updated a number of creatures to stop chasing bait or food that's on the water Fixed the boat health meter not being visible when loading onto a boat as a client Bull kelp roots can now be planted in the ocean Boats should no longer be able to trap bull kelp inside of them when deploying Dying on the edge of boats, with a large inventory, should no longer cause the boat to start moving June 18, 2019 Rev. 344479 Bug Fixes Boats should no longer be deployable in the void. Walking around the boat using a controller and having an oar equipped should no longer sometimes show the word “boat” instead of “row”. Fixed some bugs when using a controller to row. Attempting to deploy items such as a mast or anchor should no longer fail when doing so on a moving boat. Masts can no longer be placed so close together. Masts are slightly faster. New embark sounds. New mast deploy sound. New steering wheel sound. New sounds for mutated hounds, carrats, and saladmanders. Fixed incorrect string when launching boat using a controller. Boats can no longer be deployed on top of floating items. Player should no longer get interrupted when beginning to jump or landing on a boat. Player should now animate when steering using a controller. Boats can now be placed using a controller. Player should no longer walk away from the steering wheel when clicking on an unlit area. Spiders should now spawn from spider dens when placed on a boat. Fire effect when steering wheel is burning should no longer be layered behind the player. Fixed missing Driftwood Oar description. Wardrobe now uses the same layout as found in the Item Collection and Lobby screens for skin selection. Fixed a crash related to shadow hands Wormwood's craftable items now have floating visual effects Winona's Generator/G.E.M.erator can now only power devices on the same platform as them Projectile attacks in the caves should no longer get stuck on edges Oars now burn, and can be used as fuel Wormwood should now properly be affected by lune trees, driftwood trees, and rock fruit bushes Bunnymen, Pigs, and Guardian Pigs can now hop onto boats Werebeaver can now use planks to abandon ship. There is currently a missing animation on clients that we are investigating. June 10, 2019 Rev. 342138 Bug Fixes Fixed players occasionally falling into the ocean while walking on land Telelocator Staff no longer randomly targets the small islands off the coast of the Luna Island Players no longer drown while out of bounds (in the void). This is for mod support. Suspicious Marbles will now only spawn on the mainland (new worlds only) Fixed a crash on shutdown Abigail's flower should no longer randomly get wet or float on the ground Improved shadow hand behaviour for fires on moving boats Fixed rendering of Enlightenment fx on old video cards. Rendering optimizations Updated world generation animation Added strings for Wormood inspecting the Mothling Fixed inventory icon for Bull Kelp Stalk June 7, 2019 Rev. 341693 Changes Wormwood is now available in the beta Players can no longer board boats while mounted or heavy lifting Telelocator Focus can no longer be built on boats Tweaked Seafaring recipes Fixed players getting stuck while entering or exiting boats as they break apart Fixed crash when multiple players try to use the walking plank at the same time Lune Tree Blossoms can now be haunted Fixed extra Big Tentacles from spawning in and around the Atrium area (newly generated worlds only) New Driftwood Oar Followers no longer abandon the player when their follower items are picked up on boats More lunacy effect optimization to fix issues with it running on low end hardware. June 4, 2019 Rev. 340271 Bug Fixes Fixed turning invisible while riding a Beefalo and hopping on/off a boat Fixed drowning while mounted or holding heavy objects Fixed world gen crash with certain presets Hounds no longer spawn outside the bounds of the world Fixed crash caused by Bat Bat Infinite mod when opening Ornate Chests Moonrock Pengulls are no longer considered innocent creatures When a boat sinks, structures on it will now break accordingly The player should no longer randomly walk away from the steering wheel when setting a new heading. The player should no longer get stuck on the steering wheel when the boat is moving at faster speeds. Slightly increased the pickup range of objects lying on the water. Fixed boat health HUD indicator not being removed after dying on a boat. Bee boxes now work on boats. Burning a bee box no longer freezes the game. Added burnt art for the Mast, Steering Wheel and Anchor May 29, 2019 Rev. 338219 Bug Fixes Fixed Caves world gen layout and cave Stairs (requires a new world) Fixed /rescue in caves Items going out of world in caves should behave as normal Steering Wheels on boats can now be hammered and burned. Creatures should no longer try to eat or pick up items in the ocean Flying creatures and hounds are no longer killed by sinking boats Fixed a bug where certain items lost their skins while floating Changed draw order for Wooden, Checkered, Scaled, and Carpeted Flooring Further optimized lunacy overlay effect. Fixed missing Werebeaver boat hop and sink animations. Fires that spawn on boat should no longer prevent things to be built around them if extinguished. May 27, 2019 Rev. 337422 Bug Fixes Masts can now be hammered down and deconstructed Masts that are destroyed or burned down stop affecting their associated boat Birds in bird cages no longer disappear when reloading the world New art for leaks repaired with Trusty Tape Stone Fruit don't give more loot than their stack size anymore Stone fruit bushes no longer grow after being withered from picking them Unopened stone fruit and ripe stone fruit are now mole bait Fixed a starfish trap duplication bug Fixed a bath bomb duplication bug Moon trees now remain on fire when they grow Hot springs now glassify immediately during a full moon Star and Moon Caller's Staffs can now target locations over the water Fixed loss of stack when auto-equipping Bull Kelp Stock Fixed Antlion causing craters on boats You can now use 'wasd' to steer a boat when connected as a client. You can now bundle items on a boat. Buildings are a lot less likely to fall off a boat. Fixed another rendering issue with objects outside the world bounds. Oar takes a larger durability hit when rowing incorrectly. Optimized haunt shader so that it should once again run on pixel shader 2.0 hardware. Further optimized lunacy/post processing shaders. Boat fragments are now wet May 22, 2019 Rev. 336171 Bug Fixes Fixed Set Pieces overlapping the water (requires regenerating your world) Wormholes should no longer spawn too close to the water Lazy Explorer/Wortox teleports now work on boats. Fixed crash when Tallbird Eggs hatch Fixed a bug where players would not drop all their items when they died on a boat. Fixed resurrecting a player if they died on a boat when their inventory was full. Hound waves now spawn at sea Oars are now a weapon Oars will auto-equip a new one when broken Woodie will no longer be stuck when turning into a beaver while using the steering wheel. Fixed Moon Glass Axe durability when fighting shadows Red Fungal, Green Fungal, Deciduous, and Desert turfs have their inventory images back Fixed placer art for Sprouting Stone Fruit and Stone Fruit Bush Hounds are now wet while swimming Fixed hound art while asleep in the water Moved some of the tuning values for boats to Tuning.lua to make them easier to mod. Fixed a rendering issue causing some mods, such as Basements, to not render properly. Equipment that reduce wetness now work on failed rowing attempts. May 21, 2019 Rev. 335754 Bug Fixes Fixed boat health icon getting stuck open when jumping on and off a boat quickly Fixed crash when mods change the camera zoom limits Fixed crash when a steering wheel is removed while in use Fixed a crash when tall bird eggs try to hatch Fixed clients not being able to repair the boat. Fixed replanted/fertilized rock fruit bushes not growing or being affected by Applied Horticulture Fixed spoilage rate for Rock Fruit and tweaked loot chances Fixed Seawreath disappearing when dropped Houndius Shootius now renders correctly on boats Fixed Ocuvigil build on boats Fixed anchor and steering not saving/loading properly. Further optimized lunacy effect. Optimized ground/ocean shaders. Fixed not being able to place walls on the boat. Fixed tooth traps not being resettable Fixed Lucy possessing the Moon Glass Axe Fixed Werebeaver gnawing Rock Fruit May 17, 2019 Rev. 335371 Bug Fixes Objects built on the edge of the boat should no longer get built on the water. Fixed equipped items not showing up Fixed boats getting stuck when the anchor is burnt Fixed crash when near Saladmanders with the ice hat on Fixed crash when the deerclops leaves Optimized lunacy overlay effect. Fixed missing beach turf inventory image Fixed crash when debug spawning wave effects in the caves For Modders Added mod release id “R08_ROT_TURNOFTIDES” to modders May 16, 2019 Rev. 335011 Bug Fixes Fixed a crash when on or jumping onto a sinking boat Fixed a crash when hamming a Partially Assembled Altar Fixed overlap of beaverness and boat health hud meters Fixed chatter text when mining the Inviting Formations Fixed the Horror Hound spawning anim Changed oar inventory art Rev. 334844 Bug Fixes Fixed crash that would occur when disabling lag compensation and using an oar. Fixed occasional crash when jumping onto a boat Fixed occasional when walking away from Gestalts Fixed Horror Hound spawning New art for the Seafaring crafting tab Rev. 334676 Changes Added a new seafaring craft menu, accessible after building the Think Tank crafting station. Added a new multiplayer-centric boat mechanic, where players can build and deck out a boat for multiple survivors to travel together on Added a new island to explore

Trivia

• The official Chinese translation of Return of Them is 旧神归来, which means "return of the Elder God(s)" .It gives a highly possible info that Them may imply to some Elder God(s)

Gallery

Don't Starve Together Return of Them - Turn Of Tides Launch Trailer

A promotional image accompanying the launch announcement of Turn of Tides.