Overview
This guide shows players various different strategies to survive hound attacks. It also covers the statistics of hounds, types of hounds, loot, when they appear, how many appear, how they attack, and more.
Introduction
Whether you are a new player, or just can’t quite find a good way to kill hounds, whether you don’t have a strategy, or yours doesn’t work, whether you always die, or keep having an area burned by fire hounds, this guide will help. These strategies will show players How to Survive Hound Attacks in Don’t Starve.
Hound Basics
Hounds are hostile mobs that attack around every 10 days, at any time, including night. If they do attack at night, you can sleep in a tent to postpone the attack, however if you try to use a straw roll your character will proclaim that it is too dangerous. You will hear a unique growling and barking sound before they arrive, to be replaced with a running and panting sound when they do. Upon approaching, the hounds will run directly towards the player, and not stop at anything while doing so. Multiple hounds will spawn after another, until all of them have been spawned. Once all of the hounds are killed, the attack is over.
Normal Hound – The basic black hounds, the most common, and the only hounds that appear in the first attack. Other than having a slight health advantage to the other types of hounds, they do not have any special aspect.
In a Fire Staff Trap (Set Peice), several fire hounds are seen guarding a fire staff. When the fire staff is picked up, all of the hounds will wake up and attack the player. It will also begin to rain.
In the Reign of Giants DLC, ice hounds freeze any nearby enemies when they are killed. However, in order to freeze the player, two ice hounds must be killed within range.
In an Ice Staff Trap (Set Peice), several ice hounds are seen guarding an ice staff. When the ice staff is picked up, all of the hounds will wake up and attack the player. It will also begin to rain. This is the only instance where ice hounds can be seen during summer.
Fire Staff Trap (left), and Ice Staff Trap (right).
Kiting
A basic way to deal with hounds is to confront them directly, by kiting. Kiting is a fighting strategy, where you strike your opponent a select amount of times, then dodge its attack, and repeat. However, since we are dealing with multiple hounds, this can be very difficult. It is recommended to use this strategy only for the first few hound attacks, as there aren’t very many other options at this point, and also because very few hounds attack early in the game. Once the amount of hounds starts to increase as the days go by, especially when ice and fire hounds begin to appear, different strategies are recommended.
Kiting is very simple, but can be challenging at times. For example, an enemy with short range or the ability to be stunlocked (stunned once hit) is very easy to kite, even if needed. However, an enemy with large range, attack speed and move speed can be difficult to get a hit on. In this case, hounds are the more easier enemies to kite.
Step 1: Run. Equip a weapon, and wear armor if needed. If an enemy is faster than you, your best option is to run away until they catch up and attack. However, if the enemy cannot catch up to you, run at it to activate its attack animation, and run away before it’s about to deal damage (or simply run away from the enemy entirely, if you don’t want to fight it). Hounds are very fast, and thus will likely be able to catch up to you.
Step 2: Charge. Once the enemy has attacked and you are just barely out of its reach, charge in as the attack animation finishes. Deal some amount of hits to the enemy, depending on its attack period (interval of attacks in seconds). Hounds have an attack period of 2, therefore you can probably deal 2-4 hits before having to dodge again.
Step 3: Dodge and repeat. Once your striking time has ended (don’t get too greedy, it takes 1-3 repeats of this cycle to kill a hound), quickly run away and dodge its next attack. Then repeat step 2. For hounds, in this case, it’s a good time to get a few hits in, run away, or kite other hounds when they stop to bark for a while. If it’s night, they will fall asleep after barking, thus giving you a chance to attack them or wait it out and prepare until morning. Continue this process, and you will be able to survive the first few hound attacks.
Fire
This is not a very effective way of killing hounds, and should only be used in emergencies. It is recommented to play as Willow to preform this strategy, as she is immune to fire damage.
Lead a pack of hounds to a forest, and light it on fire (if not already lit before the attack). Get the hounds to walk into the fire to damage them, but make sure to watch out for the fire and the hounds yourself. Another option is to build a lot of campfires, give them a decent amount of fuel, and have the hounds walk near/on them. Campfires are considered open fires, which means they can cause damage to mobs. You should not use fire pits for this strategy, as they are meant to be closed fires and cannot do damage to mobs. Fire/Red Hounds are not immune to fire damage, meaning you can kill all hounds this way, although highly not recommended.
Mobs
An effective way of killing hounds it to lead them to various mobs that will aggro on them. There are many mobs this strategy will work with.
Lead hounds to a beehive or killer bee hive. When they decide to attack it, the bees inside will come out and aggro on the hounds, thus causing them to fight. It is recommended to use an area with multiple hives, as one may not be enough. Be warned, as some hives could be destroyed in this process.
Lead hounds to a spider den or spider queen. When they get near it/Attack it (respectively), the spiders/spider queen will aggro on the hounds and attack them. Be careful, however, as the spiders/spider queen or hounds could harm you. Some spider dens could be destroyed/spider queens killed in this process.
Lead hounds to some populated rundown houses. The merms inside should attack the hounds soon enough, causing a battle to commence. This battle could end up with a few dead merms, although they respawn.
Another option is to use tentacles, as they are very powerful. Is it recommended to use multiple tentacles, as the hounds could easily kill a single tentacle. This could end with dead tentacles, making it a great way to get tentacle spikes/spots.
An effective way of killing hounds is to use pigs. Unlike the other mobs, pigs will attack hounds on sight, rather than having to be attacked first. Lead the hounds to a pig village, or befriend some before the attack comes. To befreind pigs before the attack, simply give them food around every 10 days, and keep them befreinded until the attack. If you live near a pig village, an easier option would be to quickly befreind some when the growling and barking noise is heard (or just stay in the pig village, as in the first suggestion).
Another effective way to kill hounds is to lead them to some treeguards. Treeguards can kill a hound in one hit, unless they are small treeguards. It is recommended to lead the hounds to an area with lots of treeguards, in order to deal with the hounds quickly. Due to treeguards’ high health, it is unlikely any will die in this process, unless they have been used for killing hounds many times before. Be sure not to get close to the fight, as both mobs together are quite strong.
A very effective way of killing hounds is to lead the pack to a herd of beefalo, especially during mating season as they will attack on sight. Beefalo are very strong mobs, and because there are many of them, the hounds can be taken out very quickly. It takes a single beefalo around 3-5 hits to kill a hound. Using the beefalo too much to kill hounds can end badly, as the hounds will kill all of the beefalos, as with all other mobs. It is also recommended to wear a beefalo hat when dealing with hounds while the beefalos are in mating season to avoid getting targeted by them.
Traps
Traps are a very effective way to kill hounds. There are different ways to set up traps, and two different kinds of traps you can use.
Bee Mines are an effective way to quickly deal with hounds. Bee mines are traps that, when set, trigger when anything moves near them. 4 bees will then spawn from the mine, and immediately aggro on whatever triggered the trap. Bee mines can only be used once, however. Set up a few in a specific area, and lead the hounds towards the mines to set them off. The bees should do the rest. It is also recommended to place meat (even monster meat) near the traps, so the hounds will try to eat it after stopping to bark, thus setting them off. It is also possible to end up with the infinate bee bug, where the mines constantly spawn in 4 more bees.
Crafting:
The easiest and most effective way of killing hounds is to use tooth traps. Tooth traps are traps that can be easily set on the ground, and will trigger when enemies step on them. When activated, they will spring out of the ground and do 50 damage to whatever triggered them. Tooth traps, however, must be reset to be used again, and will not cause damage to enemies while they remain triggered. They lose 10% durability when triggered, which means they can only be used a total of 10 times each. Tooth traps are made with one hound’s tooth, so killing hounds through other means is required before being able to craft them. There are a few options with this strategy:
Circle/Square – Place lots of traps in a small or average sized circle/square, and place meat inside of the circle/square. The hounds, upon appearing, will stop to go eat the meat yet trigger some of the traps along the way. This strategy also works without meat just as well, however you will have to lead/kite the hounds into the traps. It is also recommended to equip a weapon and wear armor too avoid too much damage if the hounds reach you. Here are some examples of this strategy:
Walls – Place two sets of stone walls (must be stone, other walls will burn due to fire hounds’ spread of fire upon death) in a parallel line, leaving space for lots of tooth traps in between them. Stand in the middle of the walls and traps when the growling and barking sound is heard, rather than leaving meat inside of it. This is because the hounds target the player first before anything else. When the hounds approach you, they will pass over the traps, causing the vast majority of them to die. It is recommended to equip a weapon and wear armor, in case the hounds manage to get to you or in case something happens to go wrong.
Cluster – An easy option is to just place lots of tooth traps together in a specific area. When the hounds come, lead/kite them towards the cluster to quickly take them out. Having lots of different clusters is also a good idea, as this will defeat the pack more quickly. It is recommended to equip a weapon and wear armor, as this involves a lot of running away from hounds.
Once all of the hounds are dead, collect the loot and use the hounds’ teeth to make more tooth traps, or save them for other means. 2-3 tooth traps (depending on the type of hound) need to be triggered by a single hound to kill it, making this strategy highly useful for surviving hound attacks.
Crafting:
Hound Statistics and Drops
The following table displays the statistics of hounds and their respective loot.
Hound Attack Frequency
The following table displays hound attack intervals, probability and warning times.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading this Don’t Starve guide, How to Survive Hound Attacks.
This guide may be outdated. If you know of any new useful strategies that this guide does not cover, or if you find any flaws or incorrect/misleading information, please write a comment letting me know and I will do my best to update the guide accordingly. I will also be glad to read suggestions or any personal experiences with hounds you may have.
Sources:
Don’t Starve Wiki – Hounds[dont-starve-game.wikia.com]
Don’t Starve Game[www.dontstarvegame.com]
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