Merm

Don't Starve

DST

Merm
	250
	30
Attack Period	3
Walking Speed	3
Running Speed	8
	Veggie Seeds Goodies Generic Raw
Drops	: :
Spawns From	: :
Special Ability	Eats fruits and vegetables from the ground.
	"merm"

“Smells fishy!”

–Wilson

“Eww, it's all swampy.”

–Willow

“Is fishy man!”

–Wolfgang

“Horrid swamp thing!”

–Wendy

“ANIMATED SEAFOOD”

–WX-78

“A piscean biped!”

–Wickerbottom

“What foul sea did that crawl out of?”

–Woodie

“They were already here when I arrived.”

–Maxwell

“A marvelous humanoid. Perhaps it has evolved from the marshy depths.”

–Wagstaff

“Die söggy beast fish!”

–Wigfrid

“I would've thought they would bathe more often!”

–Webber

“Go dunk your head, guy.”

–Walani

“Fishmongers!”

–Warly

“Ye scalawag.”

–Woodlegs

“UNPIG O' TH' SEA”

–Wilba

“Glub Glub Man”

–Wormwood

“Hi, I'm Wheeler. And you are... not human?”

–Wheeler

“You sure are ugly!”

–Winona

“Aren't you intimidated by my massive horns?”

–Wortox

“Hello, flort!”

–Wurt

“A bog monster! I knew they were real!”

–Walter

“You run along now, pay me no mind.”

–Wanda

Merms are semi-aggressive Mobs that live in Mermhouses, which are found in Marshes. They are covered in dark green scales, and have bulging eyes, gaping mouths, and gills on the sides of their heads.

They take two blasts from the Ice Staff to be frozen and just one Sleep Dart to be put to sleep. Merms drop raw Fish and Frog Legs when killed, and these remains can often be found in Marshes after Merms battle with Tentacles.

Merms eat Fruits, Vegetables, Seeds, Mandrakes, and even Crock Pot Recipes.

Behavior

Merms spawn from Mermhouses, which can be found in Marsh Biomes. They also spawn in specific set pieces, including a set piece where they spawn with pigs, resulting in them fighting. A Mermhouse can house up to 4 Merms, and it respawns a Merm in 4 days after it's killed. During the Day, only 1 Merm per Mermhouse is normally outside (unless it gets into combat, in which case all the other Merms come out), and when Dusk comes, all Merms go outside, much like Spiders.

Merms will only become aggressive if a mob or player gets too close to their house. Similar to Pigs, when they are provoked, they will attack in groups and will kite. They only react to incoming players, Pigs, Bunnymen, Chester, Hutch, Gobblers, Rock Lobsters, Abigail, MacTusks, Wee MacTusk, and Mandrakes.

Hunting

A Mermhouse.

Merms can be kited, very similarly to Pigs. Thanks to the hostile nature of the Marsh Biome, Merms are often discovered in pitched battle with Tentacles, Spiders, or both. For this reason, they make for an excellent source of Tentacle Spikes, Tentacle Spots, Monster Meat, Fish, Frog Legs, Spider Glands, and Silk: Simply wait for the Merms to finish fighting, then clean up what they leave.

It isn't recommended to fight several Merms at once, as they run faster than the player and will kite, like Pigs. Once the player runs some distance apart from a Merm, it will stop being aggressive and will walk back to its house.

To start a battle between Merms and Tentacles, Fruits or Vegetables can be used as bait. When a Merm finds the food, it will approach and eat them one by one. Placing a few Fruits and Vegetables near a Tentacle close to a Mermhouse will increase the chance of a Merm getting attacked by the Tentacle while going after or eating the food. When the Tentacle attacks the Merm, more Merms will come out to fight. Alternatively, Merms can simply be lured towards a Tentacle while they are chasing the player character.

Since Merms are always wet, weapons like the Morning Star and Electric Blow Darts are excellent choices as they do bonus damage to wet mobs.

Below is the number of hits it takes with each weapon to kill Merms when playing with characters with a default damage modifier. The Weather Pain is not included due to the random nature of its projectile.

Weapon
No. of hits for	59	19	15	10	9	8	6	5-9	4	5	4	3	1

Downloadable Content

A Merm's home in Shipwrecked.

Merms also appear in the Shipwrecked DLC, with minor differences. In the DLC, they will drop Tropical Fish instead of Fish and Frog Legs. Merms in Shipwrecked live in and spawn from Merm Huts, instead of Mermhouses. The DLC also introduces a passive variant of Merms, called the Fishermerm.

Tips

• In Shipwrecked DLC, normal Merms drop significantly less valuable loot (only 1 Tropical Fish) and can be a nuisance to players trying to collect resources in the biome they inhabit. They are also not a very effective defense against Crocodog waves, preferring to attack the player instead. Their kiting pattern also makes them inefficient for use in an Elephant Cactus farm. It may therefore be practical to demolish their houses and drive them to extinction
  • Their Fishermerm counterparts likewise should be kept alive: Merms do not spawn in Fishermerm's Huts, and Fishermerms do not eat the fish that they periodically catch. The difference between Merm Huts and Fishermerm Huts is the blue paint and the fish and trident symbols adorning the Fishermerm's Hut.

Trivia

• Merms were added in A Little Rain Must Fall update.
• "Merm" is an abbreviation for "Merman", a man-sized creature with the tail of a fish.
• Merms are almost certainly based on the Deep Ones, a race of fish-like humanoids from the horror fiction of American author H. P. Lovecraft, who live in Innsmouth, a run-down town similar to Merm villages. They may also be based on the Gill-Man, the antagonist of the famous movie, The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
• Kevin (Klei's lead developer) answered the question "Why do Merms drop Fish?" in the ShannonZKiller's pre-release Twitch video. The answer was "They are made of fish".
• Merms are not created by Maxwell like other monsters, judging by his quote: "They were already here when I arrived."
• Pig Heads, as of The End is Nigh update, spawn in Merm villages, and along Roads passing through Marshes. This suggests some kind of hostility between the two tribes of animals. Similarly, Merm Heads spawn inside some Pig Villages.
• Merms are instantly hostile (unless fighting something else) when spawned via the Console because they have no house to placate them.
• Merms feature in The Gorge event for Don't Starve Together are the result of a plague inflicted on the beings of this Gate Realm by the Gnaw. When players let the Hangry Meter go completely empty, they will succumb to the plague and turn into Merms themselves.

Bugs

• Merms may continue to attack the location of a Tentacle after the Tentacle has been killed.

Animations

• 

  dancing

• 

  angry

• 

  buff

• 

  site idle in royal tapestry

• 

  eat

• 

  abandon

• 

  hungry

• 

  pickup

• 

  reject

• 

  take

• 

  sleep

• 

  transform

• 

  atk down

• 

  atk up

• 

  atk side

• 

  atk down combo unused

• 

  atk up combo unused

• 

  atk side combo unused

Gallery

• 

  A frozen Merm.

• 

  Merm eating Butterfly Wings.

• 

  Merms attacking Tentacles.

• 

  Merms attacking and kiting a Tentacle.

• 

  A Merm taking damage.

• 

  Wilson with a dead Merm and its loot.

• 

  A Merm sleeping.

• 

  Merm artwork produced for A Little Rain Must Fall update.

• 

  A Merm as seen in a drawing from Art Stream # 3.

• 

  Merms as seen in a drawing from Art Stream # 38.

• 

  Two pig houses placed near a rundown house.

• 

  Everything that we have from the lost Art Stream with Merm

• 

  Steam Animated Sticker Merm

• 

  Merm concept art

• 

  In DST Loading Screen