Rock Lobster

Don't Starve

DST

Rock Lobster
	1125-1800
	56.25-90
Walking Speed	2
	Elementals
Drops	× 2, , × 2
Spawns From
Special Ability	Can hide in their shell gain 95% Damage Reduction, passively regenerates health. Eats minerals from the ground.
	"rocky"

“It has terrifying claws.”

–Wilson

“We don't have much in common.”

–Willow

“He is mighty! Like me!”

–Wolfgang

“What terrible sights they have seen.”

–Wendy

“MY SHELL IS NICER”

–WX-78

“Their carapace is made of rocks.”

–Wickerbottom

“Lobster supper time!”

–Woodie

“I banished these guys for a reason.”

–Maxwell

“A geological golem! If only it could answer my many questions.”

–Wagstaff

“He may be a wörthy cömbat cömrade.”

–Wigfrid

“Snip snap!”

–Webber

“No need to fight!”

–Walani

“Hmm... I would have to be careful to not chip a tooth.”

–Warly

“Back ye clawed devil!”

–Woodlegs

“YON CAVE BEASTIE 'TIS MADE OF ROCK”

–Wilba

“Rock Pinchy”

–Wormwood

“You look like you've had some adventures.”

–Wheeler

“Easy there, slugger!”

–Winona

“Can a rock possess a soul?”

–Wortox

“Hi!”

–Wurt

“Wow! Look at you!”

–Walter

“You keep those claws far away from me!”

–Wanda

Rock Lobsters are neutral Mobs found in Caves. They eat all minerals except for Marble, all of which can be given to them to befriend them. They grow over time, slowly regenerate their health, and come in a variety of colors. They are also immune to the freezing effect of the Ice Staff.

When killed, they shatter and drop Meat, Rocks, and Flint. They can be found in the Rocky Plains Biome.

Behavior

Rock Lobsters are slow-moving and live in herds. They repopulate and grow over time every 4 days; while they do so, their size, Health, and damage output increase. They roam around and attempt to eat nearby minerals, only fighting when they are provoked. When attacked, Rock Lobsters hide by mimicking large stones. While hiding, their stone shells gain 95% Damage Reduction and regenerate 10 Health per second.

Like Pigs, Rock Lobsters can be convinced to follow and fight for the character when given any minerals such as Rocks, Flint, Gold Nuggets, or Gems; however, they only follow for about 3 minutes (6 segments), regardless of the type of mineral given. Each additional mineral fed to a Rock Lobster will increase the loyalty time by another 6 segments, up to a maximum of 40 segments, or 2.5 days.

Rock Lobsters will go to sleep after spending 2 days awake. A sleeping Rock Lobster will awaken after half a day of sleep. Time of day or light does not affect their sleeping habits. A Rock Lobster may also be put to sleep with the Pan Flute or with three Sleep Darts.

The Rock Lobster regenerates 10 HP per second while in camouflage.

Hunting 

Rock Lobsters have high health and protect themselves from damage. They also live in herds and will defend each other when necessary. Additionally, their health slowly regenerates. All of this taken together means that Rock Lobsters are very difficult to kill. When possible, it's a good idea to separate one from the group before fighting it, or use ranged weapons since they are slow-moving, which allows for multiple hits in a short time.

Also an effective way to kill the Rock Lobster is to kite: hit it and run out of its range before it can hit back. It is also noted that while a Rock Lobster is sleeping, one can kill it with Gunpowder or Slurtle Slime, as once lit, those explosives will deal large amounts of damage to groups of sleeping Rock Lobsters, and they will not wake up and aggro the player. 9 Gunpowder can easily take out a fully grown Rock Lobster.

However, due to their incredibly high health, regeneration, damage absorption, and abysmal drops for the effort it would take to kill a Rock Lobster, it is almost never worth it to kill them, and even if you need them dead, leading them to hostile monsters would be a much better idea, as you'll get extra monster loot along with the death of the Rock Lobsters.

Below is the number of hits it takes with each weapon to kill Rock Lobsters and their offspring 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	Immune	295-424	92-133	74-106	46-47	41-59	37-53	30-43	20-62	16-42	25-36	21-30	19-27	13-18	7-9	2

Rock Lobsters take 3 Sleep Darts to be put to sleep.

Tips

• Rock Lobsters can take out most giants with little to no effort. Having high health and damage, regenerative abilities, and immunity to fire and ice, they are a good solution to any boss in the game, especially the Ancient Guardian.
• A group of Rock Lobsters can easily take out a herd of mating Beefalo if left unsupervised. However, one or two Rock Lobsters will easily be stopped by a large herd, as they will be hit too often to come out of hiding.
• Another above-ground use for these creatures is against hound attacks. By using this guide, the player can easily defend against hounds. If hiding fails, simply run around the pen and let the hounds aggro onto the lobsters.
• After the April 27, 2015 Update not only was their overpopulation problem fixed, but also now if brought to the overworld, as soon as they stop following the player, they'll wander towards the closest Rocky Biome and will stay in its borders (like how beefalo tend to search for Savanna). This can be used to create a contained environment for them to use against hounds and bosses.
• A Dragonfly will kill Rock Lobsters within a few hits, and her AoE attack is particularly devastating. While this makes Rock Lobsters unreliable in a fight against the giant, a player can use a Dragonfly to quickly reduce their Rock Lobster numbers in the event of overpopulation.
• When directing Rock Lobster followers to attack a target, one should be careful not to accidentally click on one of the Rock Lobsters themselves or else they (and any other Rock Lobsters in the vicinity) will start to fight each other and could end up in a nearly endless brawl, unable to be controlled or attack hostile mobs.

Trivia

• Rock Lobsters were added into the game during the It's Not a Rock! update.
• Rock Lobsters may have been inspired by the actual rock lobster, although this version is a lobster with a shell made out of rock. Rock Lobsters have one large claw and one small one, a trait similar to that of fiddler crabs.
• Rock Lobsters may have also been inspired by the B-52's song "Rock Lobster".
• Unlike other neutral followers such as Pigs, Rock Lobsters will not attack Webber or Wortox on sight. However, Webber's allied Spiders will attack the Rock Lobsters and vice-versa.
• It takes 40 days for a Rock Lobster to reach its maximum size, health, and attack power.
• Rock Lobsters drop meat when killed, indicating that their stone-like exoskeleton is merely a shell and are organic creatures instead of living rock or silicon-based lifeform. This is further supported by Wickerbottom saying their carapace is made out of stone.
• Maxwell mentions how he banished the Rock Lobsters to the caves for a reason, implying they once lived on the surface.
• Prior to the April 27, 2015 Bugfix, Rock Lobsters on the Surface would breed uncontrollably and eventually fill the entire world.
• The Rock Lobster's spawncode might be referencing the popular movie series Rocky.
• The Rock Lobster's appearance might have been inspired by the Garthim, from the film The Dark Crystal.

Bugs

• If the character befriends a Rock Lobster and several Spiders start to attack the character, the Rock Lobster will only attack the first Spider and not all of them.
• If a character enters or leaves a cave with Rock Lobsters as followers, the Rock Lobsters may disappear.
• If the player attacks a hidden Rock Lobster with a ranged weapon, it will come out of hiding and then be passive to any following melee attacks for a while without hiding.
• In the Shipwrecked DLC, Rock Lobsters can occasionally follow the player through the Seaworthy. Due to the way a Rock Lobster herd relocate its home point, they are limited to the island on which the Seaworthy is located. When brought to other islands using tools such as the Telelocator Staff, they will always try to find a way back back to the Seaworthy.

Gallery

• 

  Rock Lobster as seen in Stream Smash

• 

  Four Rock Lobsters, one of which is hiding.

• 

  Wilson with a small Rock Lobster.

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  Wilson and a fully grown Rock Lobster.

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  Wilson being attacked by a full-sized Rock Lobster.

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  Fully-grown Rock Lobsters overpowering a Spider Queen. Notice the size difference.

• 

  Rock Lobsters fighting each other.

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  A Rock Lobster sleeping.

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  A dead Rock Lobster.

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  Rock Lobster eating Flint.

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  Befriended Lobsters fighting in a Reed Tentacle Trap.

• 

  Rock Lobster featured in the It's not a rock! poster.

• 

  A scared Rock Lobster in the poster for the April 27, 2015 update.

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  A Rock Lobster spawned outside the map.

• 

  A Rock Lobster as seen in a drawing from Art Stream # 29.

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  In Tough Crowd achivment

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  On Steam Community Center Background