[Q] Hound mounds? Why...?

[myxal]

OK, I've read a few posts in this topic the other day, and left puzzled why would anyone be concerned with loss of hound mounds.

Can some of those posters - @Clwnbaby, @Weird Wanderer, and I think quite a few others - please elaborate, what good are these hound spawners? Maybe my playstyle is different from theirs (obviously), but just from the regular waves, I have more than I know what to do with of all possible loot - monster meat, teeth, and gems. I guess if you have Wickerbottom on the server and use blowdarts for everything, then you probably need all the teeth? Or are in the caves all the time and need to farm teeth ASAP? Even then, wouldn't having a Varg pen in the swamp/near beefalos accomplish the same goal, and provide extra loot? I looked at the tips on the wiki and nothing struck me as totally worth it, because...

I'm thinking of nuking the last 3 or so mounds in my game, to build a tumbleweed farm in the 2nd desert. (The 1st desert has the antlion, and dealing with the sandstorms every summer there is just a PITA... - oh right, if you have 2 deserts, only the one with antlion will get the sandstorm. No summer breaks for you, dragonfly...)

Also, has anyone tested if mound hounds ignore walls the same way varg hounds do (ie. they never damage walls as long as the spawner is alive)? I might be inclined to preserve them if I can keep them in a pen.

[Onetel21]

OFF TOPIC: IMB4 new character gets announced: 

Wolfie , the Dog-Man-Person

Perk: Wolfie can craft Hound mounds. Now you can break yours without having to fear other people blaming the **** out of you and quitting your server for that.

(I think there is a modded character that does this)

BACK TO TOPIC: I don't see the use of hound mounds either, unless you wanna create a safe-way with 100+ tooth traps you can farm monster meat from spiders and get gems from Earthquakes and Tumbleweed (ah.).. so yeah, i'm curious as well, why shouldn't i break them if they are dangerously close to something i want to protect (pigs, for example)

 

[King Rich 1357]

Why is everything else in the game to KILL U SO MUCH THAT U RAGE QUIT. I hope I helped

[Mencken]

Tooth farms.

[Destros09]

Gem farms: summer is quite easy with ice staffs and chilled amulets, and houndmounds make a surplus of those in addition to life giving amulets.

tooth farms (not like teeth are needed): honestly not that useful but sometimes earlier game there's a bit where the trap to hound ratio gets low.

monster meat: crockpot, enough said

taking a chip off giants: eh, but I've seen it done

 

[MondayNight]

1 hour ago, Destros09 said:

Gem farms: summer is quite easy with ice staffs and chilled amulets, and houndmounds make a surplus

tooth farms (not like teeth are needed): honestly not that useful but sometimes earlier game there's a bit where the trap to hound ratio gets high.

monster meat: crockpot, enough said

taking a chip off giants: eh, but I've seen it done

 

Statistically and quantitatively putting it, there is no valid reason to keep hound mounds around except if you are camping close to them. Virtually any other of the available sources of teeth, monster meat, and gems out there is more efficient than hound mounds (again: except if one wants to camp really close to them, in DF's desert and use them the same way one would do with spiders for example). As a side note regarding gems one pointed: camp in caves. You will have by the end of spring a SICK amount of them blue and red gems from earthquakes and stalagmites - yesterday on a public server did exactly that (caves, stalagmite mining etc) and by the end of my rounds there (start of second winter) we had about 70 of each type (middle chest beside Shadow Manipulator, in the back of Scaled Chest from that perspective was full of gems), red and blue, more than any dog mound farming could possibly provide in same time frame.

I think all this "don't destroy hound mounds, they be very important, noob" originated with 1 youtuber or the like and flock's spirit perpetuated said misconception/partial truth as I've never seen it being backed up by solid arguments. Plus, as pointed with the comment you cited me in, in public pubs I've almost never seen anyone farming hound mounds, except 2 or 3 times in over 900h public games or so (again those 2-3 times people were ACTUALLY camping in DF's desert, close to dog mounds).

PS: regarding giants - Fly regenerates life, Deer will actively destroy mounds (all of them) if close, and Bear will paw-slam mounds and dogs into utter obliteration; so this argument also falls.

[fimmatek]

Personally, I just usually leave them as they aren't renewable and, who knows, once they can be useful... so I just don't like to destroy stuff that I cannot undo. But other than that, I don't know. One can farm hounds with a Warg too.

[HamBatter]

Early on they're good for teeth, but later on they're good for being more controlled spawns over Vargs in autofarms.

Can't do much if they're placed in a bad location relative to other goodies though.

[Tosh]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm a fan of farming trees near hound mounds and leading the treeguards over to the hounds. I basically get a constant stream of free pierogi (throwing in cactus) and living logs while I work. I think it depends on the server really. If it's a small server between friends and nobody uses them, then by all means clear them out. It's only really when you get to bigger, more public servers that it's probably more polite to leave them be. The resources you get from destroying them don't really compare to what you get from farming the hounds, so I don't really see the incentive.

[Auth]

If your hound mounds are dangerously close to Dfly, just get a varg to follow you and get it to aggro on dfly. The dfly will smack a hound or two which aggravates all of them. This can be used to take a worthy chunk out of him.

If not, they're pretty worthless to you besides being wigfridge food/health/sanity farms, an easy source of meat, or deadly decor, I suppose. Hounds teeth and gems are farmable from them, but both gems and teeth have limited uses and will probably end up being in huge hordes with you...

[Nanoking308]

I don't know about anyone else, but I prefer to have my base near deserts so I can farm hounds. Hounds are particularly useful for blowdarts and gems. I don't recommend to destroy them, because they provide a reliable source. Hound mounds allow hounds teeth whenever you want, so you don't have to wait for the periodic houn attacks. Also, if there is a boss that comes while you are unprepared, you can lead them to the hound mounds and hope the hounds take out the giant. Monster Meat is good if you are Webber or Crockpot dishes. That's what I do with hound mounds.

[ShadowDuelist]

I tend to farm them a bit for early teeth and meat before the first summer, when the hound waves still spawn very small numbers. Then after that point, I usually leave just one or two when I'm playing as Wigfrid, in case I need some extra health/sanity. For the rest of the characters I rarely keep any of them: in all my lategames they ended up becoming a nuisance when I'm strolling around the desert picking cactii or tumbleweeds.

I rarely got gems from them either, even when visiting them on different seasons. But I'm open to explore this use a bit more, if it actually works.

Knowledgeable item farmers out there, how would you suggest an efficient way of farming gems out of hound mounds? And more importantly, is it worth it? compared to normal hound waves or other methods.

[Kolascay]

Whole thing can be summed up with;

Vargs?

Unreliable.

Hound Waves?

Unreliable early game, reliable late game.

Hound Mounds?

Also unreliable. But not as unreliable as vargs and early game waves.

[Rellimarual]

I don't think I've ever seen fire or ice hounds spawn from hound mounds, so how can you farm gems from them? Or do they only produce fire and ice hounds in summer and winter?

[GuyNamedChris]

2 minutes ago, Rellimarual said:

I don't think I've ever seen fire or ice hounds spawn from hound mounds, so how can you farm gems from them? Or do they only produce fire and ice hounds in summer and winter?

Haunt them. They don't run back into their dens after changing to an ice or fire hound either, so that's handy.

[Destros09]

They spawn from them

[HamBatter]

22 minutes ago, Rellimarual said:

I don't think I've ever seen fire or ice hounds spawn from hound mounds, so how can you farm gems from them? Or do they only produce fire and ice hounds in summer and winter?

Looks similar to the chance you get them in waves, so it's tied to day count.

The seasonal ones might be more rare overall?

[Cheetos]

I can't speak for Clwn, but me and him play on the SU server that pretty often has anywhere from a 12-20 player start to the game. Easy points to be made here:

• The world needs to be preserved plain and simple here, there is a reason we have rules against hammering Pig / Bunnymen,  Hound Mounds, destroying all Spider Nests, digging up way more Berry Bushes, Grass Tufts than your base needs and worse, not taking care of them so they get destroyed during Summer. Consideration to ALL other players who need those resources, as well as any future newcomers who want to join in. I'm sure this is a point most people already see the purpose of in a high player count server, especially if it clears the first 2-3+ DST years, no first winter resets.
   
• I play Wigfrid, Hounds from Mounds are 100% chance to drop Monster Meat, as opposed to waiting on hound waves (which you may not get a spawn for yourself anyway). Extremely easy early game food compared to spiders that have a 50% chance for MM, 25% for gland / silk. Generally using both is enough to get you through Autumn with little effort, but Hound farming is OP surface food early on. Get a Bird Cage / Crock Pot up and it's useful resources for other Characters too. Give 4 MM to a pig for Meat / 2x Pig Skin. Food / Pig Houses / Ham Bat for early boss rush?
   
• Red Gems / Blue Gems farms, appropriate season / haunting the hounds into the variation and killing them is a 20% chance for their respective gem. This can also be a pretty decent way of getting your Shadow Manip up early if you didn't get to digging up graves first or Clockwork Bishop kills. Which are first come first serve outside of the ruins.

1. Earthquakes for comparison are a 5% chance for a red / blue / marble, require you to be sitting in the caves or inducing Earthquakes with Slurtle Slime. Not everyone will be doing that.
2. Tumbleweeds have a gigantic loot table, 0.04% chance for Blue Gems, 0.02% chance for Red Gems. You'll be at it for awhile lol.

• Sewing Kit for the Belt of Hunger early on for Wigfrid / Wolfgang / etc can be pretty handy depending on the player.
   
• Varg Farms are arguably better, but you have a 5% chance day one up to a 33% chance day 100 to spawn one from Suspicious Dirt and you need to trap it for personal use. They also get killed off accidentally by Frog Rain with only 1,800 HP by the less cautious players lol. The Hound Mounds in the D-FLY desert are always there.

Summarizing, they are a great reliable source of resources in the game, if you're playing on co-op servers, do your best to preserve the world for all options of resource needs for all current / future playstyles and players. Breaking these Hound Mounds does... well almost nothing. It does almost nothing. A little bit easier to walk in that small area they cover for tumbleweeds without fighting. Killing off the Hounds is easy if you need the Gold Rocks they guard, If you're playing DST exclusively alone, do whatever you want with your world if you still don't enjoy Hound Mounds, but please consider these points for those playing the DST multiplayer servers!

[myxal]

5 hours ago, Onetel21 said:

BACK TO TOPIC: I don't see the use of hound mounds either, unless you wanna create a safe-way with 100+ tooth traps you can farm monster meat from spiders and get gems from Earthquakes and Tumbleweed (ah.).. so yeah, i'm curious as well, why shouldn't i break them if they are dangerously close to something i want to protect (pigs, for example)

Well, I'm in no hurry; After ~1200 days I have about 6 death pits around the world, with ~100 traps in each of them.  (No caves, so hound waves are a guarantee.)

5 hours ago, Destros09 said:

Gem farms: summer is quite easy with ice staffs and chilled amulets, and houndmounds make a surplus of those in addition to life giving amulets.

I'm curious about this - I don't think I ever crafted the chilled amulet, how does one utilize it to best effect? The wiki doesn't mention how fast the amulet cools the player - how long will 1 last if used with eg. the eyebrella to delay overheating? Doesn't it get in the way of carrying stuff in the backpack? I rely more on the luxury fan, 1 is enough to get through summer if avoiding hounds in flammable areas and/or smouldering in the base; 2-3 if not avoiding them.

[ButterStuffed]

Hound mounds are nonrenewable. I don't like destroying non renewable things.

Pretty much the only reason I don't destroy them. I don't actively use them unless I decide to base really close to them. I do the same thing with cave spider nests and splumonkey barrels (maybe not anymore since they come back now) because I just cannot bring myself to destroy something knowing that once it's gone it is never coming back.

[Asparagus]

3 hours ago, Chris1488 said:

Haunt them. They don't run back into their dens after changing to an ice or fire hound either, so that's handy.

They do... if memory serves, it's the Mctusk icehounds that don't return after you change them to a normal hound/firehound...

But yeah, like Chris said, I like having a buddy die (voluntarily if possible OR Play as Daniel The Spectromancer and fight against the odds with his trusty friend Jerry the haunting staff and this is not a shameful way to promote the mod made by the forums' very own Company of Creators, just click on the link in my signature to get to know Daniel more!! Ok this is a bit of a shamful and long winded ad...) and go to the desert and haunt the hounds to get gem hounds... the more hounds, the faster you can make gem hounds... then just revive them with Life-giving Amulets or a Resurrection Statue

 

EDIT: Also, if you don't have caves on or if the server you're in doesn't have it on, then it's your best option to farm gems from. O__O

[CarlZalph]

3 hours ago, Rellimarual said:

I don't think I've ever seen fire or ice hounds spawn from hound mounds, so how can you farm gems from them? Or do they only produce fire and ice hounds in summer and winter?

I'm in the camp of if it won't come back then don't remove it unless it's directly in your way of making traveling longer.

[HamBatter]

14 minutes ago, CarlZalph said:

Is that right? I don't see any mention of autumn for fire hounds (nor have I seen them) and there's a special summer thing:

local function OnIsSummer(inst, issummer)
    inst.components.childspawner:SetRareChild("firehound", issummer and 0.2 or 0)
end

Is it capping the chance?

[CarlZalph]

5 minutes ago, HamBatter said:

Is that right? I don't see any mention of autumn for fire hounds (nor have I seen them) and there's a special summer thing:

local function OnIsSummer(inst, issummer)
    inst.components.childspawner:SetRareChild("firehound", issummer and 0.2 or 0)
end

Is it capping the chance?

Yeah looks like I've made a mistake in looking at how they're spawned and instead went straight to digging at the probability tables.

The post there is for when the mound itself is hit or haunted with a player nearby while having a child pending.

 

As it stands only firehounds can come from the mounds during summer at the 20% rate from it spawning normally.

[TemporaryMan]

1 hour ago, Cheetos said:

1. Tumbleweeds have a gigantic loot table, 0.04% chance for Blue Gems, 0.02% chance for Red Gems. You'll be at it for awhile lol.