The reason why Bernie! feels so inconvenient to use

[HeatAndRun]

First, Bernie! despawns when Willow is far from him.

This one is the biggest reason why Bernie feels too uncomfortable to use. Every single time you face with some hostile creatures, and don't wait for Bernie while he's taunting or attacking, Bernie just despawns. Some random nightmare spawned nearby? Boom! He despawns. Even when I mastered Accelerant II skill, Bernie just can't catch up Willow like this video in the spoiler below :

Spoiler

You need to babysit Bernie every time when there's a hostile creature nearby, which happens almost always when you have Bernie!.  Almost every other kind of followers follow the leader well, so why only the Bernie! should act like this? Bernie should not despawn even if Willow is far from him, and teleport to Willow if too far, like all the other followers do. 

Second, Bernie! constantly fights with nightmares even when Willow's not insane

Same as @-Variant said a few hours ago, Bernie automatically fights with neutral nightmare creatures even when Willow is not insane. If you help Bernie! fighting with nightmares, he will be deactivated because Willow's sanity will be restored. If you don't help him, he will die anyway because he will constantly be attacked by nightmares. So you just can't keep big Bernie because he constantly tries to involve himself in the situations where inevitably leads him to be deactivated. Bernie should not fight with neutral nightmares when Willow mastered "Bearly Sane" skills.

Third, Burning Bernie! only lasts for 30 seconds, only activatable by right-click him with lighter

Shares similar problem when the Overcoming Arachnophobia first introduced in Wikcerbottom beta. The book only lasted 30 seconds back then, like Burning Bernie. 30 seconds duration sounds right in paper, but feels too short in-game. Especially because you only can activate the Burning Bernie Perk through right-clicking Bernie! while equipping the lighter. Burning Bernie! ability should last longer than 30 seconds. We also needs other ways to ignite Bernie!, like force-attacking Bernie! with lighter, torch, fire staff, fiery pen or Flame Cast/Spontaneous Combustion of hot embers.

Fourth, Give Willow an way to deactivate Bernie! when she's insane.

With all the other problem Bernie! had like I mentioned above, The fact that you can't deactivate Bernie while you're insane is one big problem. If you don't have sanity food to deactivate Bernie!, you should leave Bernie! behind each time you go through Sinkhole or wormhole. Wurt can dismiss merms by killing a fish, Webber can do the same thing with shoo box, and Wendy can despawn Abigail so easily by just clicking Abigail with her flower. Bernie! also deserves such kind of treat. Maybe replacing the bland "Hot-Headed" skill will do the trick?

[Jakepeng99]

2 hours ago, HeatAndRun said:

Maybe replacing the bland "Hot-Headed" skill will do the trick?

Honestly dont make deactivating bernie a skill, it would be bad to use. Willow's skill tree is already super tight, it would feel really bad to have to choose this over other strong perks, or have to miss out on this essential qol feature in turn of other skills.

 

Make it part of Willow's normal kit and it would be nice. I agree with everything else, Bernie is odd to use.