Why Marotters are so good (and if you hate them, why it is a good thing)

[Jakepeng99]

1. Unique ocean threat with multiple ways to encounter. Its more interesting, as most mobs just try to kill you in different ways. This one will try and steal food out of your inventory. You can either keep trying to snatch it back and try escape, or engage combat. Both have benefits and downsides.

 

2. Super atmospheric. They interact with their environment so much, they are so playful.

 

3. Survival interactions. I like stealing from their nest, it makes them aggressive, and adds a risk and reward. (Not the best rewards, but feels good to do, especially when you get a bullkelp stalk or meat).

 

4. Cool ways to utilise them. You can row them to a cookie cutter nest for a cookie cutter farm.

 

5. Cute, with lots of personality.

 

6. Feels like a pest. You may hate them, but they are doing their job well. They are an effective antagonist to your survival, especially on the ocean which needs more threats.

 

These combined make the marotter in my opinion, my favourite mob klei has ever released in all of dont starve.

[Mysterious box]

Yeah I agree dst could use more threats like this it reminds me of a expansion on the idea of the gobblers, monkeys, and slurpers where their goal isn't just to kill you but to inconvenience you.

[_zwb]

nah they are way too obnoxious, it's almost as if they want to make ocean experience worse

[Capybara007]

I like that they have a 5% for bottles so you can make a lategame farm out of them and get bottles without ever sailing

Edited June 24, 2025 by Capybara007

[ZeRoboButler]

3 hours ago, _zwb said:

nah they are way too obnoxious

So are splemonkeys and several other mobs, but their inclusion in the game has more than just one purpose. Being on the ocean is about more than just fishing and listening to sailing music. Threats on the ocean should ideally come in all forms, not just to the player and the boat, but their resources as well, Even though ultimately a large majority often just paddle with driftwood for short lengths.   

(not to mention their value as food, killing two of them and your set for a while with a stew)

[_zwb]

16 minutes ago, ZeRoboButler said:

splemonkeys

they only spawn in the ruins whereas marotters spawn in any shallow water, you can't go anywhere in the ocean without a marotter chasing you, that's not the case for monkeys.

 

also they steal non-edible foods like living logs... just why? why does it has to be so obnoxious? and why does it not give up when I sail a few screens away from its home(if you use drift wood oar it will just be able to catch up but not enough to get on your boat in time)?

[SilverSpoon]

8 hours ago, _zwb said:

nah they are way too obnoxious, it's almost as if they want to make ocean experience worse

Agree, sailing in DST was bad enough, but then they added Marotters and Pirate Raids.

All punish and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

[Cassielu]

4 hours ago, ZeRoboButler said:

splemonkeys

Splemonkey has a clear existence significance, a complete behavioral pattern, a clear confrontation method, a learning space, sufficient rewards, an appropriate reward-punishment curve, a reasonable cycle in the long-run game, elaborately designed distribution of biomes, and consistent interaction with all related things in the ruins.

Marotter doesn't have any of them. It's just a knockoff Splemonkey that appears in the wrong place at the wrong time

[Echsrick]

i hate them and there bad and they.....wait...i cannot hate something thats allready extinct

[Edible Coal]

i like them overall, little meat thief that provides a bit of threat on the shallow sea, atlease they dont run away and throw poop at you..

that being said, i remember one of them stole my sun fish and untill that moment , i never realise how much i want a marotter skin scarf...

[Dwight34]

I do like marotters, and at least if you dislike them, you can easily exterminate them. What I really despise is the pirate raids like everyone else, and the white spiders in the caves with their invincible webbing that forces you to forever hug the walls any time you want to visit AG, FW, or have to go through a monkey village.

[PunkShark]

I've had em steal and eat my kitchy idols as i was moving around as goose.



I've had a group of 'em try and steal food from my backpack as i was hunting a varg hunting 2 ewecus. 

Or a group just following chester, or endlessly pursuing your boat cause you have fish in the tin fishing bin.

They bring so much chaos and i absolutely love em.

Edited June 25, 2025 by PunkShark

[Jakepeng99]

1 hour ago, PunkShark said:

I've had em steal and eat my kitchy idols as i was moving around as goose.



I've had a group of 'em try and steal food from my backpack as i was hunting a varg hunting 2 ewecus. 

Or a group just following chester, or endlessly pursuing your boat cause you have fish in the tin fishing bin.

They bring so much chaos and i absolutely love em.

Exactly. You get what i mean by hating them is a good thing.

 

Most players will just see it as losing the game and want them removed... and to that i say just kill them, move their boats away, or keep your cheaper foods earlier in your inventory.

[BeeClops]

I love them, best bottle farm. Tho they have annoyed me a couple times to be fair

[AliceShiki]

I have no opinion on Marotters, but since people mentioned the monkeys, I guess I can say I hate the monkeys~

They're just annoying pests that keep stealing thulecite that I'm hammering, will occasionally steal my Miner's Hat if that other annoying mob gets on my head, and are extremely annoying to kill because they don't fight on melee.

When I was trying to explore the ruins for the first time, I died to darkness because they stole my Miner's Hat, then I rolled back the server and tried killing the monkeys and found out how much of a pain it was to fight them... So after that I just started avoiding them like the plague they are.

I should probably just look at the settings later to see if I can disable them. They just feel like a pain to deal with.

The monkeys only feel fine to deal with during Nightmare Cycle. The rest of the time they're just annoying.

Edited June 25, 2025 by AliceShiki

[Dwight34]

19 minutes ago, AliceShiki said:

I have no opinion on Marotters, but since people mentioned the monkeys, I guess I can say I hate the monkeys~

They're just annoying pests that keep stealing thulecite that I'm hammering, will occasionally steal my Miner's Hat if that other annoying mob gets on my head, and are extremely annoying to kill because they don't fight on melee.

When I was trying to explore the ruins for the first time, I died to darkness because they stole my Miner's Hat, then I rolled back the server and tried killing the monkeys and found out how much of a pain it was to fight them... So after that I just started avoiding them like the plague they are.

I should probably just look at the settings later to see if I can disable them. They just feel like a pain to deal with.

The monkeys only feel fine to deal with during Nightmare Cycle. The rest of the time they're just annoying.

They're annoying, but if they bother you that much they can be entirely blocked off by walls and a door, and if you don't reset FW too often, burning their huts also work. Plus they give bananas, meat, manure, and if in nightmare phase, nightmare fuel and beard hair. And they'll distract and fight depth worms. They're high-annoyance/high-reward mobs.

[AliceShiki]

2 hours ago, Dwight34 said:

They're annoying, but if they bother you that much they can be entirely blocked off by walls and a door, and if you don't reset FW too often, burning their huts also work. Plus they give bananas, meat, manure, and if in nightmare phase, nightmare fuel and beard hair. And they'll distract and fight depth worms. They're high-annoyance/high-reward mobs.

I'll probably just look at the settings if I can disable them. Sounds simpler than using walls.

I do burn their huts, but it doesn't get rid of the monkeys that already exist, so it's doesn't solve the problem in its entirety.

But yeah, I'm aware they can be rewarding, it's just that to me it's like... Gigantic annoyance high reward, so the balance is tilted too hard on the annoying side of things, which makes me just want to get rid of them.

[Pe Dabliu]

One thing I still don't understand about them is - are they renewable? I collected all of their dens arround my map and built a farm with them in my base, using eye laser towers and or catapuls, but I destroyed some in the setup process (7ish dens). Can I find them back eventually, or are those dens gone forever?

[_zwb]

3 hours ago, Pe Dabliu said:

One thing I still don't understand about them is - are they renewable? I collected all of their dens arround my map and built a farm with them in my base, using eye laser towers and or catapuls, but I destroyed some in the setup process (7ish dens). Can I find them back eventually, or are those dens gone forever?

not renewable

[Dwight34]

16 hours ago, AliceShiki said:

I'll probably just look at the settings if I can disable them. Sounds simpler than using walls.

I do burn their huts, but it doesn't get rid of the monkeys that already exist, so it's doesn't solve the problem in its entirety.

But yeah, I'm aware they can be rewarding, it's just that to me it's like... Gigantic annoyance high reward, so the balance is tilted too hard on the annoying side of things, which makes me just want to get rid of them.

Fair I suppose, but without them, getting beard hairs will be a serious pain if you aren't playing Wilson. I did absolutely despise the monkeys when I was more of a beginner so I get the feeling, they can feel really unfair and annoying.

[hyoton123]

Meat, items to pillage, clean up cookie cutters, free boat with funny quotes when you get out to deeper water with said boats. i love em.

[jeffyconehead]

The best part is how they encourage you to go into deeper waters, since I'd much rather have fun outmaneuvering sharks than dealing with these.

[oregu]

They stole my tall scotch eggs and I couldnt react fast enough for it to not eat it cause of lag. So I destroyed every single den I saw even if it took all the time. Theyre good sources of food though in otherwise foodless locations, so I will give them that.

[somethin]

I like em. They drop lots of meat considering their size and how easy it is to kite them. 

[gaymime]

they do add a bit of excitement when you are first sailing the ocean, nothing quite like minding your own business during dusk then getting ganked by a pair of long boys because one stole your amulet while you were busy with the other and now you can't get your fire going in time