Two words about Wormwood

[Pop Guy]

Klei has revealed the features that (presumably) will has Wormwood in DST.

I would like to comment point by point on the characteristics of this new character, expressing my impressions:

• Wormwood can plant Seeds directly in the ground without using Farms.

Great. One of its most iconic skills, unique in its kind and with its utility niche. I'm glad that Klei left it as in Hamlet.
It also lends itself well to different synergies with the skills of other characters.

• In Spring, Wormwood blossoms, gaining increased movement speed, draining hunger faster, and attracting Bees.

Another useful and interesting feature of Wormwood.

• Eye Plants are friendly to Wormwood.

Very niche, with practically no real utility. If Wormwood could somehow accelerate the production of plant meat or if it could intensively reproduce the bulbs then it could become very interesting.

Wormwood has a Green Thumb crafting tab:

• Living Log can be created at the cost of 20 Health.
• Bramble Husk provides 65% Armor and shoots out thorns when hit, dealing 23 damage in a small radius.  The wearer is also protected from thorns.
• Bramble Trap shoots out Thorns when triggered, dealing 40 damage in a small radius.
• Compost Wrap restores 30 Health to Wormwood.  It can also be used as a very potent fertilizer. *

All excellent objects, especially living wood.
I think the only drawback is the armor: 65% of protection I don't think makes it really useful. It risks joining all those objects that in the game are only used to "make numbers" but that are outclassed in everything by better and more readily available objects (in this case a very ordinary wood suit).
I recommend raising the protection to 80% and making it a real alternative, the object itself is interesting. 

• Wormwood can use Manure, Guano, or Bucket-o-poop to fertilize himself, restoring 2 Health.
• Food items do not heal Wormwood.
• Wormwood takes 25% more damage from fire, and burns for slightly longer.*
• Wormwood loses sanity when plants are destroyed near him (e.g. picking flowers, completely chopping or burning down trees, digging up stumps, grass, saplings, or bushes, etc.)  This excludes plants that are diseased or already burnt.
• Wormwood gains sanity when plants are planted near him (e.g. seeds, flowers, trees, grass, saplings, or bushes, etc.)
• Sanity effects from planting or destroying plants is reduced the further it happens from Wormwood.*

For the rest, the healing and sanity mechanism is very similar to Hamlet, and it works. I still haven't figured out if Wortox can cure it.
I hope the spontaneous self-combustion will be removed in the summer. Maybe it could stay but without Wormwood being able to set the surrounding objects on fire. Nobody would like in his base on "a walking bomb" 

I believe the character will prove to be a valuable addition to DST characters: it offers unique gameplay and, potentially, very innovative strategies to survive.
Moreover, with a Webber, it would become an unlimited living wood farm. Not bad.

However, the resources available to players have increased exponentially after the updates.
I really hope that "the return of them" will present really difficult challenges, such as to justify all this abundance :'D

(Tip: buy Hamlet instead of Wormwood. You can get the artistically more evocative DLC that Klei has ever produced along with the new character  )

[Canis]

Honestly, I just hope Wormwood stays flammable. If they make it so he can't spread fire by himself, then that's perfectly fine. The threat of catching on fire is such a unique mechanic, and I really like it as a downside.

(Also when I say unique, I mean being able to catch on fire outside of the dfly biome.)

 

Edit:

Also yeah, I'd love if the bramble husk became more viable than the log suit. I'd hate for it to be just another 'meh' side grade, because DST has way too many of those.

[YouKnowWho]

I don't think the armor should be changed really. Really, the main point of it is to exchange protection for more offensive capability. It's pretty much a direct upgrade to the already existing grass suit anyway.

[CarlZalph]

31 minutes ago, Pop Guy said:

Wormwood has a Green Thumb crafting tab:

 

• Bramble Husk provides 65% Armor and shoots out thorns when hit, dealing 23 damage in a small radius.  The wearer is also protected from thorns.
• Bramble Trap shoots out Thorns when triggered, dealing 40 damage in a small radius.

All excellent objects, especially living wood.
I think the only drawback is the armor: 65% of protection I don't think makes it really useful. It risks joining all those objects that in the game are only used to "make numbers" but that are outclassed in everything by better and more readily available objects (in this case a very ordinary wood suit).
I recommend raising the protection to 80% and making it a real alternative, the object itself is interesting. 

I thought the bramble trap hurts not just enemies but any entity within its radius?

The armour would be something to equip if running through a field of thorns for protection.

[Canis]

5 minutes ago, YouKnowWho said:

I don't think the armor should be changed really. Really, the main point of it is to exchange protection for more offensive capability. It's pretty much a direct upgrade to the already existing grass suit anyway.

That's not really something to boast about. The Grass suit is basically just fuel for a fire if you find it laying around. 

I'm also pretty sure that bone shards are needed for the husk's recipe, and those are, for the most part, non-renewable, save for having people kill themselves over and over again for skeletons but that's really not cost-effective.

[YouKnowWho]

Just now, Canis said:

That's not really something to boast about. The Grass suit is basically just fuel for a fire if you find it laying around. 

I'm also pretty sure that bone shards are needed for the husk's recipe, and those are, for the most part, non-renewable, save for having people kill themselves over and over again for skeletons but that's really not cost-effective.

Still, my point still stands. It's not necessarily worse or better than a log suit, it's more up to the player to decide if they value offense or defense more. It's like the Marble Suit in a way, where something like mobility is exchanged for a better defense.

And hey, I'm not saying it's some almighty end game armor either. A character's special items shouldn't lead you to the end anyway; they should give you a different way to get there. 

[SeriousSteel]

 What I would like is if you could repair Bramble Husk with living logs and then Bramble Husk wouldn't just become an alternative, it would become repairable armour

[YouKnowWho]

3 minutes ago, SeriousSteel said:

 What I would like is if you could repair Bramble Husk with living logs and then Bramble Husk wouldn't just become an alternative, it would become repairable armour

This idea's not too bad actually! I'm a fan.

[Caochu]

At my beginning as Wormwood in Hamlet, I used the bramble husk only in lush season to clear my path through the brambles. Then I became bored of unequipping my backpack and losing one inventory slot for that, so I just equiped a football helmet and never used again the armor. Also, you can use the traps without the armor fairly easily and the "splash" damage is one of the worst idea you could have : it harms followers so be sure it will harm other players too, and if you think it can be useful while being submerged by spiders or hounds, you will just die and maybe the one you was trying to attack while being stunlocked will die too. But just maybe. I tried while wearing the armor AND a footbal helmet, the splash damage is nothing against being stunlocked to death.

No really, this armor sucks. It sucks even more than in singleplayer, because of its craft and the armor mechanics being different from DS and DST. If the craft wasn't that terrible (bone shards), it could be an emergency armor for when you don't have materials for a log suit while a hound wave is coming. But presently it isn't.

[Canis]

24 minutes ago, SeriousSteel said:

 What I would like is if you could repair Bramble Husk with living logs and then Bramble Husk wouldn't just become an alternative, it would become repairable armour

Oh my god, yes. That would solve all of my problems with it, such as it requiring non-renewable resources. Also, it'd be nice to finally have a repairable armor.

 

Im still down for an increase to 80% protection tho.

 

[Osbalop]

I think 80% protection and being able to be repaired by cactus flowers (that you can only get in summer) and 60% protection and using living logs to repair (very easy to get with wormwood) would be fair.

[The 2C3D]

I think their “can’t heal with food” is going to become significantly less important with multiple people, so here’s my idea. Without the ability to make healing more difficult, a similar “be careful with your life” could be achieved by removing cheap ressurection via the tell-tale heart, especially because they’re a plant. It would be overkill to leave him without some other means of resurrection cheaper then an amulet, though, so perhaps it would be best to give them a new, more expensive alternative in their crafting menu. Being in a character-exclusive crafting menu has the addition downside that Wormwood must prepare for their own demise, because no-one else can craft one later, unless two Wormwoods live together.

Other notable benefits of this being a change are that it doesn’t change mechanics from DS and that it won’t have any effect on those who play alone (and therefore do not benefit from having other players) because they couldn’t use tell-tale hearts anyways.

[Caochu]

Quick question as I don't want to make a poll for it as I don't think it deserves one : do we all agree the splash damage are useless ? Let's say that you fight spiders. Two scenarii depending the armor :

- Log suit : be hit once, take 4 hp damage, kill the spider in 3 spear hit. You need 2 manures to heal yourself.

- Bramble husk : be hit once, take 7 hp damage and do a 23 hp splash damages to everything around (players and followers included, if like singleplayer). Still 3 spear hit required to kill the spider. You now need 4 manures to heal yourself and people hate you as they took damages.

I always thought that instead of splash damages, the armor needs to have a better protection. A character that difficultly heals himself needs better protection, and not lesser with in fact no benefit. As it is now, you don't use the bramble husk to kill spiders, you don't use it to kill giants, you don't use it to kill raid bosses. Especially if that harms others players or followers ! Really, you would even go without armor than with the bramble if the splash damages meant decreasing other people armor durability and health point.

 

I only see two possible purpose for the armor :

- Make it an emergency armor in case of hound wave or giants, easy to craft with a living log and common materials (twigs, grass or seeds per example. Things you could harvest quickly. Or even, in fact, maybe nothing but just the living log). Not optimized as it keeps its 65% and will cost 20hp to craft, but still better than nothing and is a punishment anyway for you to not have another armor ready. But, veteran players won't never use it because they are always prepared, and new players won't think of looking in the green thumb tab if they don't think of crafting an armor.

- Make it a fitting armor for a character whose perk of difficult healing means he needs more than others characters to not lose health points. It could mean a lot of things like better %protection, higher durability but it could also be a regenerative armor that would act as a combination of an armor and a living amulet (that would fit so well with the design of Wormwood and its gem on the chest). But honestly I would prefer a better protection as healing is not really a problem once you established one spider farm.

So yeah, all that to say, the splash damages are useless and harmful and the protection needs to be at least 80% or people won't bother use the armor for fighting. Yeah sure the item won't be "dead" as we will see it during summer for picking cactus, but why would even a Wormwood player pick cactus ? It will be at best a one time craft, for different characters than Wormwood. Quite ironic sadly.

Honestly, something needs to be done.

[Viktor234]

3 hours ago, Pop Guy said:

All excellent objects, especially living wood.
I think the only drawback is the armor: 65% of protection I don't think makes it really useful. It risks joining all those objects that in the game are only used to "make numbers" but that are outclassed in everything by better and more readily available objects (in this case a very ordinary wood suit).

1% of protection: You'll be forced to use some headgear or enough healing to stay alive but it won't break not until you take durability*100 damage
100% of protection: You won't need any other gear but this armor will break really fast and thus it's 2nd ability won't be really useful

Do you want to use that armor to have some area of effect damage or only to keep yourself safe?

[FreyaMaluk]

4 hours ago, Pop Guy said:

For the rest, the healing and sanity mechanism is very similar to Hamlet, and it works. I still haven't figured out if Wortox can cure it.
I hope the spontaneous self-combustion will be removed in the summer. Maybe it could stay but without Wormwood being able to set the surrounding objects on fire. Nobody would like in his base on "a walking bomb" 

he shouldn't auto combust in summer.. the log says he will burn longer, not that he will catch fire in summer from overheating

1 hour ago, The 2C3D said:

I think their “can’t heal with food” is going to become significantly less important with multiple people, so here’s my idea. Without the ability to make healing more difficult, a similar “be careful with your life” could be achieved by removing cheap ressurection via the tell-tale heart, especially because they’re a plant. It would be overkill to leave him without some other means of resurrection cheaper then an amulet, though, so perhaps it would be best to give them a new, more expensive alternative in their crafting menu. Being in a character-exclusive crafting menu has the addition downside that Wormwood must prepare for their own demise, because no-one else can craft one later, unless two Wormwoods live together.

Other notable benefits of this being a change are that it doesn’t change mechanics from DS and that it won’t have any effect on those who play alone (and therefore do not benefit from having other players) because they couldn’t use tell-tale hearts anyways.

this would be a very bad idea in practical terms. sometimes people lag and get killed without even noticing and then they cannot get revived via conventional methods? Nope ty

[SeriousSteel]

 Auto combusting while being weak to fire is a huge problem, I hope it is removed too

[FreyaMaluk]

1 minute ago, SeriousSteel said:

 Auto combusting while being weak to fire is a huge problem, I hope it is removed too

auto combusting isn't a thing... the log is clear..  if he catches on fire he'll burn longer... that's it

[SeriousSteel]

Oh okay, thanks for clarification

[ShadowDuelist]

I suggested in an old post that maybe the husk armor could be a living plant (its made with living logs after all) and as such, it would slowly restore durability over time during the day, but at a very slow pace (EG: about 8% a day). So basically as long as you don't break it, you can keep letting it slowly heal.

65% protection would be fine if it had a decently larger durability than a grass suit, or as mentioned earlier, it slowly self repaired, since it trades the defense for extra secondary damage. With a regular 80% damage resistance helmet, most of the damage upon being hit would go to the helmet's durability anyway.

[Starlogy]

thats a lot more than two words

[Maxposting]

20 hours ago, Pop Guy said:

Eye Plants are friendly to Wormwood.

Very niche, with practically no real utility. If Wormwood could somehow accelerate the production of plant meat or if it could intensively reproduce the bulbs then it could become very interesting.

*laughs in eyeplant resource harvesting stations*

[Master_NiX]

About Bramble Husk

Do not look at 65% to stop you from crafting it.

This armor is meant to be worn with helmet, and in fact, can be quite useful even after 100 if you haven't built so called *panic* room.

First, I'll compare durabilities. Wooden Armor has 315 and Football helmet has 315 as well. DST doesn't have armor stacking, it has durability stacking. So while you use two armor pieces you recieve damage reduction from the highest (with Bramble Husk it would be Football Helmet - 80%).

However, I'd suggest Wormwood to play together with Wigfrid as she can craft cheap Battle Helmet and also can eat only meat, making Wormwood take the veggies from seeds, while Wigfrid can eat all the meat you make.

2nd. Ability of that armor. This armor is useful against Spiders and Hounds.

Spiders - Basically it won't let you stun lock you, as you move through the hordes of spiders. They will end up killing each other while you destroy spider dens or warrior spiders because they are the only ones non stun lockable.

Hounds on the other hand, are not stunlockable but because of their often attacks, they would end up killing each other faster than they can kill you, because each hit deals 24 damage AOE around you, not a single target, but everyone nearby (including other players without Bramble Husk).

3rd. It's durability in Hamlet is 375 and I dont think they will nerf it, making it better working for solo content in general (except for Klaus, because Deer).

 

Edit:

As for Wortox, I believe his healing will work as well, because Wormwood can recieve healing from anything except food. That includes spider glands and life amulet.

[GuyNamedChris]

5 hours ago, Starlogy said:

thats a lot more than two words

550 words to be exact.

[Nyla Smokeyface]

I really hope his quotes get updated. It would be nice to have quotes that are more than 2 words and aren’t just being Captain Obvious

[FeagleSnorf]

I just want to mention that they might change the armors stats.

I think a common ground for the armor could be 75-80% damage reduction, 30 damage, and the same durability as it does in hamlet(maybe less).

Also I do hope that the armor is repairable by livening logs. It fits in with the character and armor and I find it cool for some reason.