Deerclops Destroyed Everything!

[Cwen]

I read about strategy to avoid Deerclops somewhere, which is to run away from base when hearing its arrival. So when Wilson gave the signal of something big was coming, I quickly grabbed a few things and then ran to somewhere far away. When the earth was shaking, I wore the bush hat and after a while the shaking stopped. I proceeded to walk back to the base and found broken pig houses along the way (there were pig houses near the place I hid).

 

To my surprise, my base was destroyed as well. Having no choice I rebuilt everything and the Deerclops came again and you know what happened. Gosh, any way I can do to avoid encountering those bosses? I am still not used to the whole game and would like to avoid as many mishaps as possible.

 

           

[Zillvr]

Hey @Cwen, welcome to the forums. My only suggestion is to make use of a boomerang to take his attention away from your camp if he spawns very close to it. Then lure Deerclops towards your nearest swamp and attempt to make him stand right on top of a tentacle. Once they both attack each other, leave as fast as you can leaving Deerclops aimlessly in the swamp.

 

If you happen to spawn any Treeguards while chopping trees, don't kill them and just pacify them by planting pinecones near them. Keep them around so when Deerclops spawns they can take the brunt of his attacks if no swamp is near you.

 

I hope that helps, goodluck. Cheers.

[ThePurplePanda]

You can also prepare a "backup" camp with only a fire pit and a chest. When it only remain 4-5 days of winter, just take some food and stay around your second camp. Then, you will not have to run away.

 

After that, you "just" have to kill him. As @Zillvr said, treeguards as really good and reliable option. You can also use gunpowder or slurtle slime, and make it explode (a good and quick solution, yet very expensive). Some people just lure him into beefalos... But Deerclops could easily kill an entire herd and leave you with only tears and lamentations of young beefalos... and the Deerclops still alive !

[TerraStarver]

OR you can just tank him grab 2 of your trusty axe (for incase of night comes or you decide to summon leifs/treegurads),a wood or marble armor but thucelite works best for advanced players and 2 or more hambats (incase ur willow because her minds are fragile)

another good way is to lure him to other bosses like bearger (if you have the DLC) but 2 or 3 spider queens work best and also hounds if you do find a pack of hound mounds lure him into that because hounds will attack anything after doing that run!

 

 

 

 

another one you can do the run and attack strategy (not recommended) just attack 2 times than run do that one time don't attack 3 times though it will freeze you also don't forget to NOT use marble armor it will slow you down and makes you to hit once only use thucelite,wood,or scalemail but anyways not recommended cuz you will lose your sanity GREATLY and it do takes forever and you will end up in a firepit fight (fight near the fire)

 

 

 

 

anyways hope it helps

[~Matt]

What probably happened is that you didn't get far enough away, and the Deerclops spawned near your base.

 

Something else you can do is plant a lot of trees in a certain area during winter, then lure the giant to said area when it spawns. It will naturally "chop" them, and a treeguard probably will spawn.

 

When pitting Deerclops against other creatures, the only ones that can probably deal substantial damage to it are tentacles, spider queens and treeguards. Beefalo, no matter the number, will probably just serve as cattle.

[grekon]

You are doing something wrong. Are you running away from your base but still let him go anywhere he wants after spawning? You need to lure him away. Deerclops is set to attack a player or structures if you use a bush hat the only thing left for him is structures. go away from your base and then wait for the deerclops to appear on your screen, look for him if you dont see him. Then lure him away by aggroing him. You can use a boomerang,ice staff or a melee attack if thats all you have. Sometimes just walking up to him makes him aggro you. Take him to the place of your choice and then once you are satisfied with where deerclops is run away without looking back. You can outrun him if you keep running without stopping.

[blaaaat]

Assuming you play vanilla and not RoG:

 

• If you choose to run, run far from any structures you want spared before the Deerclops spawns. Run when you hear its groan. It's easiest if you have a mini-base ready to survive luring the Deerclops away.
• Taking on the Deerclops, however, is usually better. Now, you might need some preparations, so I don't know if this will be useful to you, but here goes. The two easiest methods is to have a decent sized beefalo herd nearby and await the Deerclops there. Think 30+ adult beefalo. They should be able to take care of him. Alternatively, spend summer setting up a tooth trap field. You may not have that many teeth yet your first summer, but it's a good goal to strive for.
• If you're nearby a swamp, leave Deerie there and come back later for the loot. Pigs are a good aid too, but you will have them hired so you can manipulate the fight away from their houses.
• If nothing else, look up how to activate console commands on the DS wiki and remove him through code when he shows up. It's cheating, but if you need the extra time to learn winter, then that's what you need.

[Cwen]

Thanks guys for the quick replies!

 

Most of the methods mentioned here involved 'letting other monsters kill the bigger monster' which sounds really really scary~ 

Maybe I will try the tree planting one?

(please tell me Deerclops is the most tricky boss)

[ThePurplePanda]

Maybe I will try the tree planting one? (please tell me Deerclops is the most tricky boss)

 

Tree planting is really good and almost 0 resources is needed.

 

Deerclops is kind of strong with the AoE attack, but the other one are also quite strong. Bearger is the worse for me. Moose is quite easy to kite, with some training. 

[blaaaat]

Thanks guys for the quick replies!

 

Most of the methods mentioned here involved 'letting other monsters kill the bigger monster' which sounds really really scary~ 

Maybe I will try the tree planting one?

(please tell me Deerclops is the most tricky boss)

On the surface in vanilla, Deerclops is the toughest enemy. Those in the caves and ruins are arguably more tricky because of the all-dark conditions you fight them in. (And if you ever try RoG or DST, have fun with the Dragonfly.)

 

Getting monsters to kill other monsters is something to get used to, but you'll master it soon enough. The difficult part is learning and memorizing behaviors. Like, Treeguards that rise due to the Deerclops will attack them, but pre-existing Treeguards are neutral, so they won't fight the Deerclops until the Deerclops fights them or damages trees. "Fortunately", the Deerclops is aggressive and will automatically attack the Treeguard if they're the closest thing to kill nearby. Same with beefalos, unless they're in heat. Pigs will attack monsters on their own, but again, you don't want to let the Deerclops get too close to pig houses.

[~Matt]

Think 30+ adult beefalo. They should be able to take care of him.

 

This is the only flaw in your text. Remember that not all beefalo will be able to attack the Deerclops, since there is a melee range, and the Deerclops has an AoE, which has a much bigger range, and at two hits will freeze or kill most of the beefalo. Only a really big herd that can take many death tolls will deal substantial damage to the Deerclops, or, in fact, any of the giants, except for GMoose.

[blaaaat]

This is the only flaw in your text. Remember that not all beefalo will be able to attack the Deerclops, since there is a melee range, and the Deerclops has an AoE, which has a much bigger range, and at two hits will freeze or kill most of the beefalo. Only a really big herd that can take many death tolls will deal substantial damage to the Deerclops, or, in fact, any of the giants, except for GMoose.

I get the feeling OP is playing vanilla, which I have clearly stated in my post. Therefor, the Deerclops has no freeze power and can be taken down by a herd that size. I mean, I've never counted how many I got involved against it, so maybe 30 is too little, but I estimate it is not.

[~Matt]

I get the feeling OP is playing vanilla, which I have clearly stated in my post. Therefor, the Deerclops has no freeze power and can be taken down by a herd that size. I mean, I've never counted how many I got involved against it, so maybe 30 is too little, but I estimate it is not.

 

He does say "those bosses", but I get your drift. Sorry that the part you said it was vanilla went completely over my head, but 30 does seem like too little even for the vanilla Deerclops, 50+ seems more realistic as it still has a slam attack that can kill a lot of beefalo in one go.

[grekon]

He does say "those bosses", but I get your drift. Sorry that the part you said it was vanilla went completely over my head, but 30 does seem like too little even for the vanilla Deerclops, 50+ seems more realistic as it still has a slam attack that can kill a lot of beefalo in one go.

You need 1 and that 1 is you. A person can kite and if you can't kite tank it, as simple as it can get. Its just a deerclops... Beefalos should be used against hounds not giants cuz everyone already mentioned how it ends. I personally only use beefalos at the very beginning for fur and some free fuel. Besides that they are useless to me I wouldn't notice even if they all gone and died. 

 

But I have a question to you guys. How do you get 30 or 50 beefalos. How long does it take to have so many? I tried to have a herd in a pen but I only had a dozen or so.

[The Sober Scot]

I have the opposite problem of OP. As soon as I hear the warnings I run out of my camp and then the deerclops just doesn't spawn...

 

It's quite frustrating. 

 

[~Matt]

You need 1 and that 1 is you. A person can kite and if you can't kite tank it, as simple as it can get. Its just a deerclops... Beefalos should be used against hounds not giants cuz everyone already mentioned how it ends. I personally only use beefalos at the very beginning for fur and some free fuel. Besides that they are useless to me I wouldn't notice even if they all gone and died. 

 

But I have a question to you guys. How do you get 30 or 50 beefalos. How long does it take to have so many? I tried to have a herd in a pen but I only had a dozen or so.

 

Well, we were specifically talking about the efficiency of beefalo against giants, but your point is valid, I guess.

 

Also, I always put mating on 'more' on worldgen settings.

[imsomony]

@Cwen, if your character speaks about the giant arriving, it's too late. It's spawning within a few seconds. Instead, pay attention to what day you're on. If Deerclops is gonna spawn, he comes around day 31/32. Listen for his heavy breathing (a grumbly, growling sound). You get a couple of those before your character comments about hearing something big. I don't remember the exact number, but I want to say you have about 30 seconds from that first growl until your character comments. Run away when you hear the first growl, and Deerclops won't spawn near your base.

 

There isn't really a way to avoid his spawn. There's code in the files that spells out conditions which you may or may not meet. If you're not prepared to fight, and/or don't have a tooth trap field, it's best to use the environment to do your dirty work for you. No shame in that, especially if it's your first winter. Most of us aren't prepared for direct combat at that point. The suggestions others have posted (Treeguards, Tentacles, etc) are what I typically do if I can't take him on by myself.

[TemporaryMan]

Used to be easier to get 50 beefalo before Klei fixed a herd bug.  I have an older world around day 360ish and entire biomes are flooded with the things so only Old Bell could make a dent in them.  But I have a newer world that's past day 500 and has only 5 herds of a little more than a dozen each.

[blaaaat]

He does say "those bosses", but I get your drift. Sorry that the part you said it was vanilla went completely over my head, but 30 does seem like too little even for the vanilla Deerclops, 50+ seems more realistic as it still has a slam attack that can kill a lot of beefalo in one go.

Fair enough, both for the interpretation and amount of beefalos needed. As I said, I never count. I just go by what "density" I can see on the screen I'm waiting for the Deerclops at.

 

You need 1 and that 1 is you. A person can kite and if you can't kite tank it, as simple as it can get. Its just a deerclops... Beefalos should be used against hounds not giants cuz everyone already mentioned how it ends. I personally only use beefalos at the very beginning for fur and some free fuel. Besides that they are useless to me I wouldn't notice even if they all gone and died. 

 

But I have a question to you guys. How do you get 30 or 50 beefalos. How long does it take to have so many? I tried to have a herd in a pen but I only had a dozen or so.

Depends. So far my gameplay has always been beefalo-heavy, so if I don't find a decently sized starter herd in the main savannah biome, I don't try to survive as much. Usually, I find two to three herds in one savannah. I do not pen them, but let them roam where they are so that new herds can form naturally and only use walls if I need some area prediction (still calling for cattle grids). I ensure that with the exception of one-to-two for the beefalo hat none of them die for the first two mating seasons (a first Deerclops I use different tactics for depending on what I can get by then). After that the amount of beefalos tends to be big enough to (carefully) start exploiting them for giant fights. 

[TerraStarver]

and if youre not ready and want to sacrifice your base do these steps :

1. grab a thermal stone,a torch,a miner hat,10 logs,10 grasses and 3 boards

2. grab anything that would be essential after you done step 1

3. fill up your inv as much as you can without being killed

4. take a far away trip set up a campfire or firepit ( if you manage to grab some rocks )

5. wait for around 5 days then come back to your old base and then rebuild it hoping no food items gone to rot

6. repeat 

[emerphish]

@Cwen, if your character speaks about the giant arriving, it's too late. It's spawning within a few seconds. 

This is not true. I usually find that my characters says its line about the giant shortly after the first growl, leaving almost 60 seconds before it spawns, and then a little more before it becomes dangerous to you/your base.

[TheKingofSquirrels]

I read about strategy to avoid Deerclops somewhere, which is to run away from base when hearing its arrival. So when Wilson gave the signal of something big was coming, I quickly grabbed a few things and then ran to somewhere far away. When the earth was shaking, I wore the bush hat and after a while the shaking stopped. I proceeded to walk back to the base and found broken pig houses along the way (there were pig houses near the place I hid).

 

To my surprise, my base was destroyed as well. Having no choice I rebuilt everything and the Deerclops came again and you know what happened. Gosh, any way I can do to avoid encountering those bosses? I am still not used to the whole game and would like to avoid as many mishaps as possible.

 

           

 

Your strategy was right, it´s just you didn´t do it quick enough. The moment you hear the first sound of heavy breathing, get as far from your base as you can.