Shadow Splumonkeys can be pretty unfair

[Raspberry Shake]

So, I was playing a game of DST, and had been looking for the ruins for a decent amount of time, and finally found them. As soon as I enter, I am surrounded by splumonkeys. Less than a minute passes, and nightmare cycle starts. I do not get a chance to run. I do not even get a chance to fight or equip my body armour. As soon as the cycle starts and am completely swarmed, stunlocked into oblivion, and die. That's fair!

[fimmatek]

Well, I don't say they are fair, but you can definitely avoid that fate if you're a bit more careful. You can approximately check whether it is nightmare phase or not (color of the ground and some stuff, sounds, nightmare fissures etc). If you are unsure, better go forward carefully, listening to the sounds of monkeys. There's a warning phase before they turn into their shadow form, during that you should leave them as soon as possible. And most importantly, never let them close to you. Those are truly some evil little bastards.

Honestly, they are the worst animals Klei/Maxwell/They have ever created.

[Alarsin]

Personally, I never understood why people hate monkeys so much. If you don't want to fight them, just don't be near them when the cycle starts, that's it. There's always enough time in the "interphase", and it's really easy to tell that the cycle will start soon.

[Raspberry Shake]

20 minutes ago, Alarsin said:

Personally, I never understood why people hate monkeys so much. If you don't want to fight them, just don't be near them when the cycle starts, that's it. There's always enough time in the "interphase", and it's really easy to tell that the cycle will start soon.

 

35 minutes ago, fimmatek said:

Well, I don't say they are fair, but you can definitely avoid that fate if you're a bit more careful. You can approximately check whether it is nightmare phase or not (color of the ground and some stuff, sounds, nightmare fissures etc).

I had JUST entered, and hadn't seen much, if any, of the ruins turf. By the time I noticed it was interphase, it was too late.

[GenomeSquirrel]

It’s a feature, it’s designed to kill you so you can’t have nice things.

[Raspberry Shake]

17 minutes ago, GenomeSquirrel said:

It’s a feature, it’s designed to kill you so you can’t have nice things.

I get the entire "the world is out to kill you" part, but I didn't even get a chance to do anything.

[TheKingDedede]

Get a Fire Staff and burn their Pods from a distance. The Ice Staff can also be used to freeze them in place.

[GenomeSquirrel]

27 minutes ago, Raspberry Milk said:

I get the entire "the world is out to kill you" part, but I didn't even get a chance to do anything.

I'm not one of those "uncomprising survival" people, I'll attest that most things barely care about you as long as you don't hit them or one of their family, and virtually all problems can easily be solved by hats, but monkeys are unrelenting death machines

[Mday]

It is actually possible to kill the monkeys 1 at a time. Or just keep running until the nightmare phase end.

[Russian_Philin]

I do not know, I destroy their totems and all, otherwise an army of evil shadow monkeys will run after me.

 

[Mahoood]

Worst case scenario you can run in circles until it’s over

[Raspberry Shake]

38 minutes ago, Mday said:

It is actually possible to kill the monkeys 1 at a time. Or just keep running until the nightmare phase end.

 

Just now, Mahoood said:

Worst case scenario you can run in circles until it’s over

I couldn't run, they had surrounded me just before nightmare phase started, and almost immediately stunlocked me.

49 minutes ago, GenomeSquirrel said:

I'm not one of those "uncomprising survival" people, I'll attest that most things barely care about you as long as you don't hit them or one of their family, and virtually all problems can easily be solved by hats, but monkeys are unrelenting death machines

Wait... splumonkeys can K.O you without warning... Prime Apes are a pain in the ass 24/7... and spider monkeys don't respawn, making it incredibly hard to get silk when the plants take over. Monkeys truly are evil.

[Duxe]

37 minutes ago, Raspberry Milk said:

 "...and spider monkeys don't respawn, making it incredibly hard to get silk when the plants take over."

Kind of? Spider monkeys spawn as long as there is one alive, I believe someone confirmed they multiply from each other. They don't respawn if all of them have been killed though. And if you want to offer them some protection, you can get rid of all the plants around the monkeys.

Edit: To keep the response somewhat on topic though, I do agree with the original post, which is shown in my favorite mathematical equation that Wilson has come up with in his lab:

amount of fun had = 100% / number of shadow splumonkeys currently near you

[Szczuku]

But... to be surrounded by monkeys you'd need to keep going deeper into ruins cuz there is always slurper/nightmare fissure biome b4 monkey biome.

And if you kept just casualy going deeper into literally the most dangerous place in the entire game it's kinda your fault that you died there.

[Raspberry Shake]

32 minutes ago, Szczuku said:

But... to be surrounded by monkeys you'd need to keep going deeper into ruins cuz there is always slurper/nightmare fissure biome b4 monkey biome.

I had just come out of the fissure biome (and was running from some (lots of) slurpers, hence some of my ignorance), and did not see much of the ruins turf until it was to late

(plus ruins spelunking is fun and I never do it)

[Majestix]

It is much safer to explore ruins with moggles than without. And must never let slurpers chase you into unknown territory. 

As others have said, it's not that splumonkeys are unfair, it's rather that you are inexperienced. Like many things in the game, they are designed to kill you unless you take proper precautions, and until you learn how to deal with them. Eventually they just turn into a very efficient food and nightmare fuel source.

You will never find experienced spelunkers surrounded by splumonkeys just as the nightmare phase is about to begin. 

[Raspberry Shake]

Alright, lets just forgot the context. One does not have a chance when surrounded by shadow splumonkeys. There is, however slim, a possibility of you taking on Dragonfly with an axe. However, when sorrounded by splumonkeys, the outcome is predetermined before the player even gets a shot at it. That is the issue.

 

[fimmatek]

The situation with the splumonkeys is not unfair. It's like a lot of other situations in Don't Starve: quite unforgiving, but with time and experience you can learn how to avoid them. It's similar to getting near to an ewecus alone: you're pretty much dead. But that's the point of the game, players learn from their deaths and mistakes. This also means to be sometimes extra cautious. This might seem to be excessive, but especially during the learning phase, believe me, it is not. In this current situation this means never to run into the unknown. At least when I get into danger, I rather escape back till I can come back safely, because the ruins are the most dangerous area and exploring carefully is one of the best way to make sure I survive. 

What I would recommend is to explore the ruins as often as possible, in new worlds, with friends or alone, and you'll get the feel of it. There are a lot of little things you'll notice as you'll get more and more experienced, for example it is possible to tell the current phase from colors and sounds.

I understand that dying to the monkeys is upsetting - of course it is! But don't worry, you'll learn how to counter them  

Have fun and good luck with spelunking!

[Raspberry Shake]

Honestly, it might've been my fault for rushing in now that I've thought about it. You see, I had set out to get some thulicite and maybe the horn in early autumn. It was now 3 days till winter, and I had to find them quickly if I was going to survive and get back to base. Because of this I paid little attention to anything but the fact that "holy f**k I found the ruins about bloody time", and quickly rushed in to go mine some crap.

[Griver84]

I have to agree with the OP here, Shadow Splumonkeys have been the bane of my DS experience for ages. That being said, after this specific incident they aren't as much of a problem anymore (and I made sure to clear them ALL out in my current world). The ruins are so much more peaceful with them gone! LOL

Also I wholly accept any crud I get from this clip... This was 100% my own doing

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/322010937

[Rellimarual]

8 hours ago, Griver84 said:

I have to agree with the OP here, Shadow Splumonkeys have been the bane of my DS experience for ages. That being said, after this specific incident they aren't as much of a problem anymore (and I made sure to clear them ALL out in my current world). The ruins are so much more peaceful with them gone! LOL

Also I wholly accept any crud I get from this clip... This was 100% my own doing

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/322010937

I’ve died to them more than just about any other mob, it’s true, but once you learn how to farm them you can basically survive indefinitely around or in the ruins while amassing incredible amounts of nightmare fuel. I would never knock down their huts now.

[Griver84]

I left 1 hut up out of the way for farming purposes... Everything else went the way of the DoyDoy....

[TipherethB]

3 hours ago, Griver84 said:

I left 1 hut up out of the way for farming purposes... Everything else went the way of the DoyDoy....

stuck in an edge of the world, in a small wooden pen, with only one...er...."activity" to do for the rest of their lifes, waiting to have themselves slaughtered in front of their children ,who will keep the cycle going until the player dies?
 

Fair enough.

[FreyaMaluk]

On 12/18/2018 at 2:14 AM, Raspberry Milk said:

So, I was playing a game of DST, and had been looking for the ruins for a decent amount of time, and finally found them. As soon as I enter, I am surrounded by splumonkeys. Less than a minute passes, and nightmare cycle starts. I do not get a chance to run. I do not even get a chance to fight or equip my body armour. As soon as the cycle starts and am completely swarmed, stunlocked into oblivion, and die. That's fair!

tbh this situation is totally avoidable... check the floor gamma pattern to see in which stage of the nightmare calendar u are rn or use the Thulecite Medallion... and always wear moggles to have a much larger field of view... 

http://dontstarve.wikia.com/wiki/Nightmare_Cycle... check that post for more info on flooring illumination changes in each phase..

btw.. weren't u wearing armor? I mean it takes few seconds to equip your armor if your inventory is organized... and u can always pause for a second before entering the ruins to check if everything is in order... sooo

 

[DatShadowJK]

Next time take moggles into the ruins so you can indicate if splumonkeys are transparent (Shadow) or not (Normal)