Treeguard

Don't Starve

DST

Treeguard
	1400 / 2000 / 2500
	35 / 50 / 62 to player 105 / 150 / 186 to mobs
Attack Period	3
Attack Range	2.1 / 3.0 / 3.75
Walking Speed	0.735 / 1.5 / 2.34375
	-100/min when fighting, -40/min otherwise
Drops	, ×6
Spawns From
	"leif" "leif_sparse"

“He's huge!”

–Wilson

“He looks flammable!”

–Willow

“Is wood man!”

–Wolfgang

“A lumbering beast.”

–Wendy

“WARNING: MOBILE TREE”

–WX-78

“I... don't even know.”

–Wickerbottom

“I'm sorry about all of those trees!”

–Woodie

“Disgusting creature!”

–Maxwell

“A possessed tree! What a revelation!”

–Wagstaff

“That's an ancient wöödland being.”

–Wigfrid

“Where did that come from?”

–Webber

“Step off, grey belly!”

–Walani

“I'm out of my element!”

–Warly

“Glad me legs don't do that!”

–Woodlegs

“DID WILBA DISTURB'TH THOU'ST?”

–Wilba

“Hello!... Hello?”

–Wormwood

“I'm sure I'll look back on this one day and laugh.”

–Wheeler

“The trees have eyes!!”

–Winona

“No need to fight, my great tree friend!”

–Wortox

“Treebeast!!”

–Wurt

“They've come to take their revenge!”

–Walter

“Even the trees are out to get me!”

–Wanda

Treeguards are Boss Monsters that can occasionally transform from Evergreens when a nearby Evergreen is chopped down. They are initially hostile towards the wood-cutter, assuming that is how they were spawned, have very high health and damage, and are capable of killing most unarmored characters in three strikes. They can be pacified by planting new trees nearby.

Starting on Day 4, felling any Evergreen has a 1.33% chance of spawning a Treeguard from a nearby Evergreen (within 15 units of distance, or just under 4 Pitchfork tiles). After Day 30, up to two treeguards may spawn. After Day 80, up to three Treeguards may spawn at once, given enough Evergreens nearby. They can spawn from any size Evergreen tree, but not from burned Evergreens, dead Evergreens, or Evergreen saplings (from recently planted Pine Cones).

A special Set Piece can be found as soon as Day 1, called the Living Forest, where up to ten Treeguards can be found hibernating. They will turn hostile towards the player should they chop a tree nearby.

When chopping down a Lumpy Evergreen, there is also a chance for a Lumpy Treeguard to spawn, which behaves the same as a normal Treeguard, but looks different.

When killed, they drop Monster Meat and 6 Living Logs. Living Logs are required to build a Shadow Manipulator, among other things.

Behavior

When one appears, a Treeguard aims to attack whoever chopped down a tree near them, and follows them limitlessly, only stopping when several new trees are planted nearby. Planting a Pine Cone within 16 units has a 15% chance to calm them, and within 5 units away has a 33% chance. Treeguards growl every time a pine cone is planted, even if they're sleeping.

The moment a Treeguard is pacified, it returns to the ground disguised as an ordinary tree, as if it were asleep. A Treeguard in this state does not wave in the wind, does not have a trunk, and does not appear on the Map. During Winter, sleeping Treeguards also don't have snow, making them easy to distinguish from actual trees.

At night, neutral Treeguards go to sleep, plopping down wherever they happen to be standing. If no one chops a nearby tree or attacks the sleeping Treeguard, it will not wake up until morning comes. At day, neutral Treeguards wander aimlessly until night comes or until they are angered again. Neutral Treeguards can still be put to sleep with pine cones.

A Treeguard being asleep does not stop Mobs from deciding to attack it. Pigs, Abigail, and other friendly mobs must be kept in check, as they will draw aggression from any Treeguard they hit, although the Treeguard will focus its attention on those that attack it.

If an angered Treeguard doesn't growl when the player plants Pine Cones, it's not being done close enough. Planting trees ahead of time does not prevent Treeguards from spawning, nor does it calm them later. Attempting to chop down a tree within 20 units of any neutral Treeguard enrages it again, though planting more trees can calm it again too. It's even possible to calm a Treeguard after directly attacking it.

There are three sizes available for Treeguards — short (70% scale), normal (100% scale), and tall (125% scale) — that spawn from Evergreens of respective sizes. A Treeguard's health, damage, combat range, and walking speed all scale with its size.

Treeguards do not come from dead Evergreens, Spiky Trees, or burnt trees.

If killed by fire, the Treeguard will not drop its usual loot, but will leave some ash and cooked Monster Meat.

Poison birchnut trees do not count as treeguards due to their differences in behavior and ability.

Hunting

Each tree felled has a 1.33% chance of summoning a Treeguard. Having trouble with this is quite normal. A way to speed up this process is to get help chopping trees by befriending Pigs. They chop trees if they see the player do it, and they continue to chop them down until the player runs away. If the Pigs spawn Treeguards, the Treeguards will attack the Pigs instead of the player.

A good way to find Treeguards in DST is by chopping trees as Woodie, as he has a higher chance to spawn Treeguards in the multiplayer version of the game.

In , another way to summon a Treeguard faster is to burn many trees in a cluster and keep a small, newly planted tree next to the cluster. Each burnt tree will count as a regular tree when chopped and will take considerably less time to chop than healthy trees. Chop the burnt trees while the newly planted tree is tier 1 to make the ensuing battle easier, and plant two or three more trees near the cluster if one wants to spawn multiple Treeguards.

Combat

Treeguards have a great deal of health, but are slow. An effective way to wear the monster down is by dodging its attack, and then running in to strike 3–4 times before dodging again, although this will drain Sanity considerably. This method works especially well with Woodie's Beaver form.

Leading a Treeguard to other hostile creatures or vice versa is another effective way to kill either. Pigs will attack them on sight, and multiple Pigs can easily disorient a Treeguard by the hit-and-run tactic. Treeguards can be easily tricked into fighting strong mobs such as Clockwork Rooks, Deerclops or Tentacles.

If a Treeguard walks through or near fire (such as flaming Trees or a Campfire), it can catch fire and take damage over time. Treeguards take a very long time to die this way, and their most useful drop (Living Logs) will turn to ash when they are killed, therefore it is not reccomended to use this strategy unless there are no other options available for eliminating the Treeguard. It's strongly advised to lead burning treeguards away to an area with no or few flammable objects to avoid compromising an entire forest.

They can be put to sleep using the Pan Flute or Sleep Darts. A Treeguard takes four blasts from the Ice Staff to be frozen.

Tips

• Non-aggressive Treeguards can be kept around to fight other mobs, such as Pigs, Tentacles, and even other boss monsters. They can soften or kill the enemies, thanks to their high health and damage.
• If the player dies and respawns, the Treeguard will be pacified.
• Spiders will not attack a Treeguard if it steps on the web outside their nest.
• Mobs and bosses that can knock down trees (a Clockwork Rook or Bearger, for example) can cause a Treeguard to spawn. Treeguards that spawn this way will attack the mob that knocked down the tree that caused them to spawn. This can lead to Treeguards being interesting allies in boss fights.
• Pacified Treeguards can be kept around base to be used as method to lower sanity, since they will not be hostile. This is useful for Maxwell due to his innate sanity gain.
• Treeguards should ideally not be pacified near sleeping areas, as the game will consider it as "too dangerous to sleep" and prevent use of structures such as Tents.
• A simple way to find a sleeping pacified Treeguard is by hovering an Axe over trees. The prompt for a regular tree is "chop", whereas the prompt for a Treeguard is "attack".
  • Another option would be to check to see if the tree has an insanity aura.
• Treeguards are notably more flammable than other Mobs, meaning it is possible to lure them into fires to damage them from a safe distance. It should noted that this method is time consuming, so the Player will likely have to retreat near Night by pacifying the Treeguard or Knocking them out. Fire will burn the dropped living logs as well so it's best to finish it off near its death.
• Treeguards that are hostile towards a player will change their attack target when another Mob, such as a Pig or a Hound, attacks it. After the Treeguard takes out the new target, it will remain neutral.
  • In Don't Starve Together, Abigail is an easy way to lose a Treeguard's aggro, as it will become neutral if she is dispelled while it is targeting her. She can even safely be summoned again immediately afterward.
• If the player has acquired a Bee Queen Crown, the player can lure a bunch of Treeguards into a boxed area and provide a sanity station.
• Sometimes after being chased for a while, a Treeguard will walk around randomly, not attacking the player. If this happens, one may use this time to get ready to fight it again, because it will begin attacking the next morning (even if it went passive right after morning).

Trivia

• Tall Treeguards have the highest amount of health of all the vanilla mobs, and they deal the most damage to other mobs (not to the player).
• In the game files, the Treeguard is named "Leif", which is a male given name of Scandinavian origin. Here, it could be derived from the Old Norse name Leifr (nominative case), meaning "heir" or "descendant," but it's more likely a pun on the word "leaf".
• Treeguards may have been inspired by the Ents in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings or similar creatures (such as Treants) from other fantasy books, movies, games, and lore.
• Winona's inspect quote for Treeguards ("The trees have eyes!!") is a reference to the movie The Hills Have Eyes.
• In older versions of the game, the sound played when a player swung a weapon was the same sound a Treeguard makes while swiping.
• The Treeguard is the only neutral Boss Monster in the base game and Reign of Giants DLC. TheShipwrecked DLC added the Tiger Shark, which is also neutral towards the player.
• If the player spawns a Treeguard while underground, exiting to the surface and returning does not stop it from chasing them.
• A tall Evergreen Treeguard was featured as the antagonist to Woodie in the Don't Starve Together animated short Tree's a Crowd.

Bugs

• If the player attempts to use a Straw Roll to sleep while in combat with a nearby Treeguard, the game will not pick it up as being "too dangerous", and the character will awake the next day with the Treeguard still attacking.
• It seems with the Strange New Powers update, when a big Treeguard is summoned and the player leaves the game after a short while, there is a chance it will become (and stay) a medium-sized Treeguard. It is unknown if health and attack power values are left the same as a big Treeguard.
• Fighting other mobs in the presence of a neutral Treeguard, whether walking around or sleeping, will cause that season's boss monster music (for example, "E.F.S." for Summer in the vanilla game or Autumn in RoG) to play without the Treeguard becoming aggressive towards the player. This also happens when fighting near a Spider Queen or other Boss Monsters (e.g. attacking Moslings near their mother Moose/Goose), whether the ordinary mobs are related to the boss or not.
• If the player eats a cooked mandrake while being attacked by a Treeguard, it will cause the player to wake up the next morning with the Treeguard pacified.
• A Treeguard may spawn from planted saplings. It's unknown if this is actually a bug or intended.
• On rare occasions when chopping down a tree, a Treeguard will spawn from said tree, which will result in a crash.
  • In DST, however, this will not result in a crash.

Gallery

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  Treeguard Sprites

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  Lumpy Treeguard Sprites

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  An attacking Treeguard in a screenshot on the Don't Starve website.

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  Treeguard asleep on an Improved Farm.

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  Treeguard stretching after it wakes up in the morning.

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  A frozen Treeguard.

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  A dead Treeguard.

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  Large, Medium and Little Treeguards active at the same time. Note the size difference.

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  A Lumpy Treeguard.

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  Size comparison between Wilson and a large Lumpy Treeguard.

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  A frozen Lumpy Treeguard.

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  Two Treeguards (normal and Lumpy type) spawned at once.

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  The shadow of a Treeguard teased in another promo image.

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  A Treeguard along other monsters, chasing Wilson in a promotional image for Don't Starve.

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  A decorated Treeguard in a Christmas themed poster.

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  The Set Piece with three neutral Treeguards in the Desert biome.

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  A Treeguard, as seen in the PS4 trailer for Don't Starve Together.

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  Treeguard as seen in the Release Poster for A New Reign.

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  The Treeguard on the attack in Tree's a Crowd.

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  The Werebeaver attacking the Treeguard in Tree's a Crowd.

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  The Weremoose attacking the Treeguard in Tree's a Crowd.

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  Woodie dining with the defeated Treeguard's head nearby in Tree's a Crowd.

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  A Treeguard as seen in a drawing from Art Stream # 65.

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  In the "Tree Whisperer" achievement.

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  On Postcard from CD Don't Starve

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  On CD Don't Starve Box