Guides/Combatting Bosses

This article may contain instructional language and subjective recommendations. Readers should read the content carefully, and follow accordingly.

A guide by SgtZaitsev69

A Short Introduction

The already hostile world of Don't Starve is made even more dangerous by boss enemies. Many players first encountering one of these beasts will often die in a matter of seconds. This guide is the ultimate combat assistance to newer players when encountering bosses.

Deerclops

Regular Don't Starve

The original boss of vanilla Don't Starve. Deerclops is only encountered during Winter, making an already tough season even worse. Deerclop's arrival is announced by his moaning. Deerclops initial function is to attack and destroy your Structures. If you attack him, or all of your Structures are destroyed, he will then proceed to annihilate you if you are not prepared for him.

If you are positive that you do not have the resources, you can simply sleep during his moaning, and he will not appear at all that season, but you may encounter him either out of season or twice in the same season.

When combat becomes the only alternative, you must be ready depending on the character.

Wilson

Wilson is the most average character in Don't Starve and therefore has a fairly standard method of dealing with Deerclops. With a full beard, you don't have to worry about the cold, but you should still have a Campfire nearby. Deerclops has a long attack pattern, so kiting is a must. When Deerclops raises his hands to attack, move out of the way, after he attacks, move in and strike a few times before he attacks again, preferably with a powerful weapon but a Spear will do. However, simply tanking Deerclop's attacks with a Football Helmet and Log Suit is a viable alternative method if you have plenty of healing items.

Willow

Willow's strategy is similar to Wilson's. Willow's lower health means that tanking is not the best method when it comes to fighting Deerclops. However, there is no need for Winter clothes, as long as you initiate the fight a long way away from your base, simply start a forest fire, and kite in the flames as you are immune. This may result in you losing his valuable Eye.

Wolfgang

Wolfgang is by far the easiest character to defeat Deerclops with. With a full stomach, Wolfgang doesn't even need armor, or a powerful weapon, just a simple Spear is fine. Be sure to stand next to a fire in order to stay warm, and have plenty of healing items ready to use. Be warned that Deerclops' insanity aura may cause you to be finished off by Shadow Creatures after Deerclops has weakened you, so be sure to bring sanity-restoring clothing and foods. In Reign of Giants, you will have to bring armor, or kite because of Deerclop's new freezing ability.

WX-78

While it is pretty unlikely that you will be fully upgraded by the first encounter, if you are, armor and sanity restoring items are not necessary as long as you have plenty of gears. Most likely, you will not be fully upgraded, so simply kiting Deerclops is recommended if you are anything lower than fully upgraded.

Wickerbottom

Be sure to bring in On Tentacles, as they will not only distract Deerclops but will also drop Tentacle loot, such as Tentacle Spikes and Tentacle Spots, for use in combat and farming later on. Otherwise, just kite, but keep an eye on your sanity, as Wickerbottom cannot sleep to restore it.

Wendy

Abigail will most likely commit suicide in this fight, Deerclops will make short work of her, but she can still serve as a distraction, or potentially deal a killing blow, if at night. If Abigail dies quickly, don't fret, just kite, and you will be fine. Your low health is an issue, but not one worth not losing a fight for, if you are competent at kiting, that is.

Woodie

Transforming into the Werebeaver is recommended if you are not prepared to lose Structures. Stockpile Logs nearby to sustain the transformation long enough to kill Deerclops. If you don't want to transform and have a macho sense of pride killing the beast as a human, simply use kiting, or tanking, depending on your available resources.

Maxwell

The fallen king has trouble dealing with this boss due to his low health so avoiding the Deerclops is recommended. Summoning Puppets will serve only to make Maxwell even weaker. The summoning will lower his already fragile health and weaken his sanity enough to spawn Shadow Creatures. If a fight is unavoidable equip powerful armour and kite.

Non-direct methods of combat

If you missed sleeping through his moaning, and Deerclops shows up, be sure to have alternate methods if you are too scared to fight. Recruit several Pigs or Bunnymen to help you kill him. Be wary that Pigs will eat Deerclops' Eye and the 8 Meat he drops. Bunnymen will turn hostile if you grab any of the drops (as the Eye is considered a Meat item), so be wary. Beefalo can't reliably kill Deerclops due to his AOE attack. His tendency to destroy Trees may spawn a Treeguard to aid you in combat, but be wary about chopping trees in the area for a while.

You can also set 20 or 25 Tooth Traps, which will kill a Deerclops rather quickly with little to no risk involved, but you may be lacking the resources for large amounts of traps, by your first Winter, so this strategy is more geared for your second or third Winter.

Reign of Giants and Don't Starve Together

When you venture into the realm of Giants, you may encounter Deerclops with a new set of abilities. Deerclops, now in the role of the giant of Winter, has new elemental abilities to suit his new role. While he retains his spawn mechanics of moaning and spawning around Day 30, he now has the ability to freeze his foes after 2 hits. The first hit turns the target light blue, the next freezes them. If you can escape after the first hit, stand near a fire, which will warm you, and restore you to the first state. This lowers the effectiveness of Pigs, Bunnymen, and Treeguards as Deerclops now can hit them without retaliation. It also completely destroys Beefalo, as they will have no chance to deal any real damage to the beast.

While the general strategy for combat is largely the same for all characters, although, for more fragile characters, such as Maxwell, it is even more dangerous to get hit, as the next hit will most definitely kill you without armor. Wolfgang on a full stomach is still more than enough to kill Deerclops without armor, even with the new freezing ability.

While Don't Starve Together doesn't give Deerclops anything new, it increases his already vast health pool. Additionally, during the 2017 Winter's Feast event, Deerclops received a new skin that gave him an eye laser attack, which unfortunately, is nothing more than a reskin of his normal attack, as it has the same range and damage.

Bearger

Bearger is the most passive of the seasonal giants, seeking only food, not destruction or rampant death, fitting of the calmest season, Autumn. However, it does not discount the fact that Bearger is possibly one of the most annoying and dangerous Giants you will encounter. Bearger will never spawn during your first Autumn if it is the season you begin in.

Bearger will spawn after a few seconds of growling, take care that the warning is considerably shorter than Deerclops. After the growling ends, he will spawn off-screen and begin to passively follow the player, eating dropped food on the ground and breaking Beehives for Honey. Bearger will break open Chests and Iceboxes for the food inside. This makes him one of the more annoying bosses in the game. However, he is also considered by a large number of the community, to be the best axe in the game, as he knocks down trees in large numbers should he be walking in a forest. Bearger eats Monster Meat, and it will do damage to him, but it is almost insignificant. It takes around 240 Monster Meat to completely kill Bearger.

Bearger will turn hostile if directly approached, or if 3 pieces of food that he wants are taken right in front of him. After each food item is taken, he will softly growl, so use this as a warning to get out of his way. Bearger has a fairly standard attack pattern. He will swipe at the player, forcing you to drop your item if it connects. After three swipes he will initiate a ground-pound, which has the same range as his swipe, although it appears to go farther, then the cycle begins again. This ground pound will knock over trees and uproot Saplings and Grass. If fleeing from Bearger, he will begin to sprint, and will ground-pound once in range, regardless of the cycle. Bearger drops 8 Meat and Thick Fur when killed. In Don't Starve Together, he drops Fur Tufts after every ground-pound.

Pictured to the right are Bearger's attacks and the effect on the player and environment.

General

Bring healing items and spare weapons. Sometimes, it's too dangerous to grab your dropped weapon from near Bearger, so it is quicker and safer to have spare weapons on you.

Wilson

Wilson again is the most flexible of the cast to deal with Bearger in multiple ways. He can whittle him from afar with Darts, kite as mentioned before with Deerclops, or simply tank. Again, bring powerful armor, plenty of healing items and sanity-restoring items. Bearger's tendency to knock away your weapon is annoying, and makes tanking difficult, so kiting is preferred

Willow

Again, use fire to stay sane and deal steady damage to the beast. Keep kiting in the flames and bring strong armor, and healing items as per usual.

Wolfgang

Again, armor is not necessarily a requirement in Mighty Form, but simply tanking is not a good strategy. You will lose your weapon and eat a lot of damage as a result. Kiting is pretty good, but Mighty Form's damage buff carries over to Darts, so be sure to bring plenty.

WX-78

By your second Autumn, you should most likely be pretty close to fully upgraded, or fully upgraded. If you are, you have no use for healing items if you have a surplus of gears, simply eat a few when you are a good distance away.

Wickerbottom

Just kite, most of the weaker characters (in terms of combat strength) will have to kite to defeat this boss. Be sure to bring On Tentacles to deal extra damage. You may even finish Bearger off with the Monster Meat, as he will eat food before continuing to attack.

Wendy

Again, kite, but Abigail can provide a useful distraction if you need some space to heal or eat.

Woodie

In human form, kite. As the Werebeaver, store logs nearby to sustain transformation. Bearger's weapon dropping effect is useless on the Werebeaver, making it a hard counter to this giant.

Maxwell

As with Deerclops, Bearger should be avoided at all costs. Prepare for his arrival by stockpiling food far away from him. Use a Walking Cane to get him off-screen so your foodstuffs are safe.

Don't Starve Together

Bearger is largely the same, however, he is now officially neutral, and will not attack if approached. However, once he spawns in Autumn, he won't despawn unless he is killed. During other seasons, he will hibernate, and will not attack anything unless he is attacked. But before he wakes up, he will yawn, putting everything on-screen asleep. Bearger will then proceed to annihilate his attacker.