Clockwork Rook/DST

Don't Starve

DST

For the ruins version, see Damaged Rook.

“Storm the castle!”

–Wilson

“It's a castle!”

–Willow

“This one jumps the queen!”

–Wolfgang

“A Rook? Or is it a Castle?”

–Wendy

“ROOK AUTOMATON”

–WX-78

“A clockwork castle.”

–Wickerbottom

“Hmm... does the rook move in a straight line? I forget.”

–Woodie

“A castle for my home.”

–Maxwell

“Chaaaarge!”

–Wigfrid

“Who made these things!?”

–Webber

“What a rude contraption.”

–Warly

“Rock machine”

–Wormwood

“No way that was made in a factory.”

–Winona

“A scary rook! I sure am shook!”

–Wortox

“Look mean...”

–Wurt

“I wonder how it works?”

–Walter

“I'm not convinced that's proper clockwork.”

–Wanda

The Clockwork Rook is the third monster in the Chess Monster collection. Like the Clockwork Knight and Bishop, the Rook is a mechanical creature generally found around Chess Set Piece. The Clockwork Rook is the combination of a rhino and a rook chess piece.

Behavior

Clockwork Rooks stare at players coming close to them. If too close, a Clockwork Rook will raise its front leg and slam on the ground several times before charging at and ramming the player. It will also destroy anything that stands in between it and the player, including other clockwork pieces. This is useful, as Clockwork Rooks will often kill other chess pieces in a couple of hits. Their attacks can be used to destroy structures as well, similar to Deerclops and Krampus. When the Rook hits a Tree, Boulder, or Beehive for example, it will quickly demolish it and leave the resources behind. This can be useful for helping to get Marble from Marble Trees without a Pickaxe.

Clockwork Rooks are not only naturally aggressive towards players, but also towards Pigs, Merms, Chester, Hutch, Mandrakes, Rock Lobsters, MacTusk and his son, Bunnymen and any monsters except other Clockwork Monsters and Ancient Guardians that wander too close to them.

Below is the number of hits it takes with each weapon to kill a Clockwork Rook 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.

Number of hits

Weapon
	5
	5
()	7 (Old) 10 (Middle age) 12 (Young) 34 (Out of fuel)
()	10 (7 )
()	9 (7 )
	14 (12 )
	14
	9
	10 (6 )
	17 - 90 (15 - 59 )
	14
	14
	15
	16 (11 ) (13 (9 ) )
Note	16
	16 - 31
()	14 (12 )
()	15
	18
	18 (Melee on land) 12 (Melee on ocean) 11 (spell)
()	18 (Direct hit) 27 (AoE)
	18
	21 (13 )
()	22 (13 )
	22
	23
	27
	34
()	36 (Direct hit) 53 (AoE)
()	53

Tips

• A simple (albeit time-consuming) way to deal with Clockwork Rooks without taking damage is to let one chase the character into a nearby forest and let it destroy some Trees. This will eventually spawn a Treeguard, who will attack the Rook and usually kill it due to its superior health and damage output. This method is also useful for chopping down large amounts of trees and farming Logs and Pine Cones with little to no effort. (The leftover Treeguard can be used to deal with Deerclops or other bosses later on.)
• Note that the above strategy does not work well with Birchnut Trees as both Poison Birchnut Trees and the Birchnutters they summon will be easily obliterated by the Rook's charge in seconds. This, however, allows for much larger-scale farming since the Rook will take little to no damage each time.
• Rooks exclusively deal 200 damage to mobs that come in their way, making them very effective against hordes of low-hp enemies. A Clockwork Rook can kill entire groups of weaker mobs like Spiders in a single charge.

Trivia

• The Clockwork Rook was implemented in the Hungry For Your Hunger update.
• The mob's design draws inspiration from the castle (or rook) in chess, which also can only charge ahead in straight lines.
• The Clockwork Rook was originally called a Clockwork Castle.
• The Clockwork Rook looks very similar to the Ancient Guardian, even possessing identical feet, possibly implying that it was made to imitate the guardian.
• It is best to have a Rook destroy all nearby monsters and marble trees before killing it.
• If the player dies and respawns, any items on the ground from death can be destroyed by the Clockwork Rook's charge.
• It's entirely possible Maxwell repaired the robots from the ruins and brought them to the surface. This may mean that all clockwork machines were built by the Ancient Civilization, and not Maxwell. Further proof to this is that the Clockwork Robots seem to instinctively obey whoever repairs/makes them, thus explaining why the machines are loyal to Maxwell.

Gallery

• 

  Original design of the Clockwork Rook, as seen in A Little Rain Must Fall trailer puzzle.
• 

  A Rook sleeping.
• 

  Frozen Rook.
• 

  Ancient Guardian, which looks very similar to a Clockwork Rook.
• 

  A Rook being manipulated into attacking one of its allies.
• 

  A Rook during its charging attack.
• 

  A dead Rook.
• 

  A Clockwork Rook as seen in a drawing from Art Stream # 33.
• 

  Older versions of Broken Clockworks.
• 

  Clockwork rook concept art
• 

  Clockwork Rook concept art
• 

  Clockwork Rook concept art
• 

  On Concept Art from Bonus Materials from CD Don't Starve.
• 

  On Concept Art from Bonus Materials from CD Don't Starve.

DSRoGSWHamDST