The Antlion is a Mob exclusive to Don't Starve Together, introduced in A New Reign. It appears in the Desert biome during Summer Season. The players can either appease or kill it, otherwise, it creates Sinkholes on the surface or Cave-in Boulder when a player goes inside the caves. The Antlion can be given a Thermal Stone at stage 1 to freeze it and start combat, or one at stages 4 or 5 to set it on fire and start combat (using a hot Thermal Stone requires you to heat it by Antlion since it will not stay hot when away from fire during Summer, making this impractical).
Antlion first spawns in Summer when there is no rain and the ground is dry. 33 minutes and 36 seconds (roughly four days) after it spawns it will disturb the players unless tribute is paid to delay it. When the attack is complete, Antlion's disturbance timer will be set to 80% of the previous calm duration.
If it rains while the Antlion is Alive, it will despawn, respawning later with a reset timer at 33 minutes 36 seconds when the rain stops.
Tribute
Players can contribute the following items to delay the Antlion's disturbance:
Days
Items
1/3
2/3
1
2
3
4
For example, if one gives the Antlion an Egg, it would delay its attacks for 160 seconds, or 1/3 day. Giving the Antlion 10 Rocks will delay the disturbance timer by 3.3 days. One should keep in mind that its disturbance timer cannot exceed 6 days, so players may need to contribute a hefty amount of items to it at least twice throughout Summer in order to never be attacked, if players are going the appeasement route.
The Antlion has a maximum tribute period of 6 days. Once the maximum tribute is given, the Antlion performs a belly-rubbing animation with calm growls, indicating it is satisfied. This animation serves as a reminder for players to offer the next tribute within the following 6 in-game days, or 48 minutes, to avoid triggering destructive Sinkholes and Cave-in Boulder.
The easiest way to pay tribute is to mine rocks commonly found in the Mosaic biome, Deserts or underground stalagmites. The player could end up paying up to 6 Cut Stone or 18 rocks at a time, resulting in around 40 rocks per summer to keep the Antlion satisfied.
When the timer is up, there will be 3 warnings to let the players know that Sinkholes or Cave-in Boulder will start to spawn soon. Up to 2 players can be targeted by the Antlion in a single attack with between 2-5 Sinkholes if on the surface or 6-10 boulders if in the Caves spawning around each of them.
Sinkhole
For Sinkholes leading to the Caves world, see Sinkhole.
Sinkholes are craters that are created by the Antlion during summer when displeased. When they are created, they damage players and destroy Structures where they form. Once formed, new structures cannot be built on them and they'll slow down all players walking on them by 70%. Sinkholes cannot be removed by the player and will only begin to self-repair after 21-22 days since they were formed, taking 9-11 more days to fully repair. Players can prevent them from appearing by contributing items to the Antlion (listed below) or by killing it.
Characters also say different quotes depending on how long before the Sinkholes happen.
The Antlion can be given a stage 1, 4 or 5 Thermal Stone to start combat. The Antlion will either freeze or smolder, and then attack the nearest player within 3.75 Tiles. The Antlion will then attempt to trap the player within Sand Castles (not to be confused with Sand Castles featured in the Shipwrecked DLC), and then repeatedly slam into the ground, causing Sand Spikes to jut out of the ground. The Antlion can heal 200 each time it eats rocks. The healing can be interrupted by attacking the Antlion.
If killed, the Antlion drops 4 Meat, 6–8 Desert Stones, Blueprints for the The Lazy Deserter and Turf-Raiser Helm, 2–4 Rocks and varying amounts of Trinkets. The desert stone that is dropped may be insufficient until the following summer, and hence players may want to obtain a good amount of Desert Stones before killing the Antlion. Killing Antlion will ensure the summer will no longer have any disturbance from Antlion.
There are multiple strategies for killing Antlion. Any of them are best with 2 thermal stones (one for Antlion and one for you) and appropriate goggles (for vision and movement). Build a fridge or endothermic fire several tiles away to cool the stones before combat (too close and antlion will destroy them). Start with full health and sanity. Restorative food such as Surf 'n' Turf or Pierogi and any necessary light should complete your preparations.
Sand Castles and Sand spikes
The Sand Spikes and Sand Castle, in increasing sizes, has 25, 65, 100, 250 HP. They last for 6-7, 7-8, 8-10, 15-16 seconds. Any structures placed/built that are hit by Sand Castles or Sand Spikes will be destroyed. Sand Castles are a way of trapping you, and the Sand Spikes are a way of damaging you, dealing either 50, 75, or 100 damage on hit, increasing with the size of the Sand Spike. Mobs take double damage. The Sand Castles and Sand Spikes can be turned into decorative Glass Castles and Glass Spikes when set on fire.
Tanking
A single player should be able to tank Antlion with approximately 1.5 Marble Suits and 0.5 Thulecite Clubs by holding down attack and only occasionally maneuvering closer when pushed out of melee range by the sand spikes. Keep the attack as continuous as practical so that Antlion cannot heal (the club's tentacles help with this).
Alternatively, a player could light 29 Gunpowders while Antlion is frozen to drop its health down below 200, drastically shortening the time it takes to kill it while still giving its loot.
Kiting
Players are likely to need Desert Goggles or Astroggles, paired with unrestrictive body armor such as a Log Suit or Thulecite Suit. Players can dodge the upcoming Sand Spike, using the sand circle as indicators for their locations. Players also can move preemptively since antlion would always target at least 1 attacker with sand spike. Players should move around to attack antlion from all angles to avoid a dense packing of spikes that will trap the players.
Below is the number of hits it takes with each weapon to kill a Antlion when playing with characters with a default damage modifier. The Weather Pain, Brightshade Staff, and Bee Mine are not included due to their random natures. This table does not take into account the damage bonus gained from characters with a lunar or shadow affinity. It also does not take into account the 40% damage bonus Wendy gets from attacking the same mob as Abigail, Wanda's damage bonus with Shadow weapons (except for the Alarming Clock, which does accurately reflect that bonus), or Wolfgang's damage multiplier when he isn't mighty.
Number of hits
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157 (Melee on land) 105 (Melee on ocean) 95 (spell)
131 (Melee on land) 88 (Melee on ocean) 79 (spell)
105 (63 ) (Melee on land) 70 (42 ) (Melee on ocean) 63 (38 ) (spell)
88 (53 ) (Melee on land) 59 (35 ) (Melee on ocean) 53 (32 ) (spell)
118 (Melee on land) 79 (Melee on ocean) 71 (spell)
99 (Melee on land) 66 (Melee on ocean) 59 (spell)
79 (48 ) (Melee on land) 53 (32 ) (Melee on ocean) 48 (29 ) (spell)
66 (40 ) (Melee on land) 44 (27 ) (Melee on ocean) 40 (24 ) (spell)
95 (Melee on land) 63 (Melee on ocean) 57 (spell)
79 (Melee on land) 53 (Melee on ocean) 48 (spell)
63 (38 ) (Melee on land) 42 (26 ) (Melee on ocean) 38 (23 ) (spell)
53 (32 ) (Melee on land) 35 (21 ) (Melee on ocean) 32 (19 ) (spell)
59 (Melee on land) 40 (Melee on ocean) 36 (spell)
50 (Melee on land) 33 (Melee on ocean) 30 (spell)
40 (24 ) (Melee on land) 27 (16 ) (Melee on ocean) 24 (15 ) (spell)
33 (20 ) (Melee on land) 22 (14 ) (Melee on ocean) 20 (12 ) (spell)
()
118 (Direct hit) 177 (AoE)
99 (Direct hit) 148 (AoE)
79 (48 ) (Direct hit) 118 (71 ) (AoE)
66 (40 ) (Direct hit) 99 (59 ) (AoE)
120
185 (111 )
154 (93 )
185 (111 )
154 (93 )
139 (84 )
116 (70 )
139 (84 )
116 (70 )
111 (67 )
93 (56 )
111 (67 )
93 (56 )
70 (42 )
58 (35 )
70 (42 )
58 (35 )
()
142 (81 )
118 (68 )
142 (81 )
118 (68 )
189
157
126 (76 )
105 (63 )
142
118
95 (57 )
79 (48 )
113
95
76 (46 )
63 (38 )
71
59
48 (29 )
40 (24 )
()
71 (When thrown)
59 (When thrown)
48 (29 ) (When thrown)
40 (24 ) (When thrown)
150
236
197
157 (95 )
131 (79 )
177
148
118 (71 )
99 (59 )
142
118
95 (57 )
79 (48 )
89
74
59 (36 )
50 (30 )
()
177
148
118 (71 )
99 (59 )
()
89 (When thrown)
74 (When thrown)
59 (36 ) (When thrown)
50 (30 ) (When thrown)
295
246
197 (118 )
164 (99 )
221
184
148 (89 )
123 (74 )
177
148
118 (71 )
99 (59 )
111
92
74 (45 )
62 (37 )
()
111 (When thrown)
92 (When thrown)
74 (45 ) (When thrown)
62 (37 ) (When thrown)
()
236 (Direct hit) 353 (AoE)
197 (Direct hit) 295 (AoE)
157 (95 ) (Direct hit) 236 (142 ) (AoE)
131 (79 ) (Direct hit) 197 (118 ) (AoE)
()
353
295
236 (142 )
197 (118 )
()
177 (When thrown)
148 (When thrown)
118 (71 ) (When thrown)
99 (59 ) (When thrown)
Abigail
When playing as Wendy, it's possible to use Abigail to defeat the boss. Abigail can kill the Antlion on her own when riled up. As a floating creature, she is completely immune to its sand spike attacks. Giving her a Nightshade Nostrum will significantly speed up the process.
Wendy should stay outside the sandcastle ring and refrain from direct combat to make avoiding sand spike attacks much easier.
Remember that Abigail can sometimes lose focus, especially if there are other hostile or neutral mobs nearby, so it is advised to clear the area of such creatures before starting the fight. If that happens, the Wendy player should immediately redirect her target using the “Attack At” command to prevent the Antlion from healing.
Trivia
The Antlion was introduced in the Against the Grain update as a trader, while the ability to fight it was added in the Heart of the Ruins update.
The Antlion's name is a pun on its appearance (Ant + Lion) and the fly-like insect, the Antlion.
Wickerbottom and Maxwell's quote for the Desert Stone suggests that the Antlion might have come into contact with gems before, since its bezoars are impure Orange Gems.
Maxwell's quote for the Antlion is a pun on the word pride, referencing the fact that a group of lions is called a pride.
According to Wickerbottom, its scientific name is "Panthera auropunctata". This alludes to the combination of the scientific names of the two animals that make the Antlion; the genus of the lion "Panthera leo" and the specific epithet of the little fire ant "Wasmannia auropunctata".
When the Antlion was first released, several characters referred to it as a female. These examination quotes were later changed to a gender-neutral "it".
However, Wigfrid, whose quotes for the Antlion were changed to be gender-neutral, refers to the Antlion as "her" when examining the Antlion Figure, which was added long after the quotes were changed.
Warly, who was introduced to Don't Starve Together after the quotes were changed, refers to the Antlion as "amie", the French word for a female friend, when paying tribute. However, it appears that Warly uses amie and its masculine counterpart ami interchangeably: Wolfgang and Wormwood are also referred to as amie by him.
There's a value in the code that shows that the sinkholes could be repairable, but currently do not have any tool assigned to be able to fix them.
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these Mobs
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these creatures
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these creatures
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these creatures
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these Mobs
