Electric Attacks, Wigfrid, Brightshades and Fire

[Electroely]

One of the most notable changes in this beta is that any extra damage dealt by an electric attack will cause plant-based creatures to catch fire.

I dread this change.

Igniting your enemies directly has historically been a terrible idea in this game. The main issue is the sheer amount of destruction - not only does the fire spread to anything flammable nearby, it also instantly destroys any mob drops that can't be cooked.

This does not pair well with the fact that Brightshades are powerful planar mobs with useful drops that constantly spawn wherever player-planted plants are most dense. If electric damage gets involved, then the plant under the Brightshade is sure to burn. Unless you have a Fling-o-matic, in which case you will have a miserable time fighting the Brightshade because getting frozen resets their tired state and causes them to immediately retaliate with high-damage spikes upon breaking free from the ice.
And after all that, you end up losing the two Brightshade Husks that another player might need for their Brightshade gear. It all just seems like a big headache for Wigfrid to deal with anytime she decides to use the Lightning Strike to hit the main plant and multiple vine segments or when the world is wet (considering Brightshades spawn year round, that is an eventuality) and I think it should be reconsidered.

It really is just the brightshades, since every other plant-based mob is not a common or significant enough threat to warrant using the elding spear on instead of whatever other weapon is available.
Considering how strange the Brightshades are compared to other plants (given their "husks" are tough and flame resistant and their lack of affinity towards Wormwood like other plants) maybe they shouldn't count as plants and thus shouldn't catch fire when hit by lightning sparks.

[Milordo]

You know the solution? You know the very thing that has been asked to death for eons and has been put in a horrible dread system called "skill trees" ? Eeugh

Yeah. That.

Yeah.

[Jakepeng99]

18 minutes ago, Milordo said:

You know the solution? You know the very thing that has been asked to death for eons and has been put in a horrible dread system called "skill trees" ? Eeugh

Yeah. That.

Yeah.

This would be game changing. Fire damage sucks, its more of a weird stun than actual damage.

[Milordo]

12 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

This would be game changing. Fire damage sucks, its more of a weird stun than actual damage.

In reality it's more (atleast for me) of a little poison as I use it only to drain hp from bosses OR as a strategic tool for specific things like igniting gunpowder from distance or burning up Toadstool trees.

Your idea, our idea, the idea itself on fire damage that should have existed years ago, only improves the first part of poison. People would strategically think and use it with other enemies like Mactusk or Clockworks without worrying too much about the drops.

[flamboyant wolf]

29 minutes ago, Milordo said:

In reality it's more (atleast for me) of a little poison as I use it only to drain hp from bosses OR as a strategic tool for specific things like igniting gunpowder from distance or burning up Toadstool trees.

Your idea, our idea, the idea itself on fire damage that should have existed years ago, only improves the first part of poison. People would strategically think and use it with other enemies like Mactusk or Clockworks without worrying too much about the drops.

Yeah, I feel like fire just destroying drops(even those that normally do not burn, like silk) is not very fun, and has been limiting the usefulness of fire options for a while.

[Electroely]

2 hours ago, Milordo said:

You know the solution? You know the very thing that has been asked to death for eons and has been put in a horrible dread system called "skill trees" ? Eeugh

Yeah. That.

I'd love if fire didn't destroy drops, but I didn't mention it in this post because I feel that the particular issue I have with the electric damage change wouldn't be fixed with that change alone.

But yeah, I don't understand why non-flammable drops get destroyed. I think drops from burning mobs should just drop on fire instead so you can save them with a watering can or luxury fan.

[Milordo]

50 minutes ago, Electroely said:

I'd love if fire didn't destroy drops, but I didn't mention it in this post because I feel that the particular issue I have with the electric damage change wouldn't be fixed with that change alone.

I'm curious, why you think so? 

50 minutes ago, Electroely said:

But yeah, I don't understand why non-flammable drops get destroyed. I think drops from burning mobs should just drop on fire instead so you can save them with a watering can or luxury fan.

Exactly.

I suspect or atleast theorize, this is because we're observing/touching literally something archaic coming from the primordial soup of Don't Starve development. Klei always visualized since the start, this romanticism version of fire, where everything it touches, it will be destroyed and cancelled. A chaotic wild force that can backfires you badly, if you don't stay careful. I'm not totally against it and I want to respect the original vision of the creator/s, but they really overstated this mechanic.

2 hours ago, flamboyant wolf said:

(even those that normally do not burn, like silk)

Btw I always think silk should be burnable. . . . .

Don't know if this is controversial to say it or not.

[Electroely]

1 hour ago, Milordo said:

I'm curious, why you think so? 

The issue I have with lighting Brightshades on fire has more to do with destroying the plant underneath the Brightshade (which you can't really extinguish without a Fling-o-matic because of the Brightshade guarding it) and that it causes Fling-o-matics to freeze the brightshade, which resets their tired state and causes them to retaliate instantly when they thaw. The drops being deleted hurts too, but for Wigfrid it's not as bad since her own equipment is good for almost all scenarios (hence why I'm even writing this post in the first place instead of just using another weapon)

[Milordo]

7 minutes ago, Electroely said:

The issue I have with lighting Brightshades on fire has more to do with destroying the plant underneath the Brightshade (which you can't really extinguish without a Fling-o-matic because of the Brightshade guarding it) and that it causes Fling-o-matics to freeze the brightshade, which resets their tired state and causes them to retaliate instantly when they thaw. The drops being deleted hurts too, but for Wigfrid it's not as bad since her own equipment is good for almost all scenarios (hence why I'm even writing this post in the first place instead of just using another weapon)

Hmn.

What about Luxury fan? Could that be a solution?

[Baark0]

yet another reason to play willow

[Anomen77]

I've been a long time Wigfrid player and I don't think her lightning spear should be the final solution to every problem. She has the same access to planar weapons as any other survivor, if the spear doesn't work against brightshades (which are just ONE enemy) she can use anything else.

The joy of this game is finding the right tools for the job and that fun gets spoiled when one of them is always the correct answer.

Edited July 20, 2025 by Anomen77

[Milordo]

45 minutes ago, Anomen77 said:

I've been a long time Wigfrid player and I don't think her lightning spear should be the final solution to every problem. She has the same access to planar weapons as any other survivor, if the spear doesn't work against brightshades (which are just ONE enemy) she can use anything else.

The joy of this game is finding the right tools for the job and that fun gets spoiled when one of them is always the correct answer.

And in fact it has always been this way. It's some people really overracting waaay too much. 

[Electroely]

4 hours ago, Anomen77 said:

I've been a long time Wigfrid player and I don't think her lightning spear should be the final solution to every problem. She has the same access to planar weapons as any other survivor, if the spear doesn't work against brightshades (which are just ONE enemy) she can use anything else.

The joy of this game is finding the right tools for the job and that fun gets spoiled when one of them is always the correct answer.

You say this as if switching between weapons for different enemies is a common occurence. There is literally no instance in which you'd ever NOT use a Brightshade Sword or Shadow Reaper/Shadow Maul on an enemy because it's "not the right tool for the job" because it's not some puzzle game, it's combat. Wigfrid's Elding Spear is just her own alternative to these weapons to make her combat more interesting in the late game. Especially since Brightshades are one of the enemies the Elding Spear really shines against, with the dash being able to hit the Brightshade itself without getting hit by the retaliation attack  as well as being able to quickly take out the vines by hitting multiple segments.

The "right tool for the job" would be for dealing with special effects of certain mobs, like having to bring a fire staff to melt Crystal Deerclops's ice or a Weather Pain to kill the Ancient Fuelweaver's spawn. Once you've used these tools for their job, you go back to using the same weapon you use for every other instance of combat.

Having to stop using that weapon to use the same weapons every other character uses for ONE common enemy is completely arbitrary and I think it's terrible design, not "finding the right tool for the job"

Edited July 20, 2025 by Electroely

[Mr Giggio]

I would say Ice staff cuz it's what I do but I get your point

[lowercase skye]

13 hours ago, Anomen77 said:

The joy of this game is finding the right tools for the job and that fun gets spoiled when one of them is always the correct answer.

The extent of this before was, like, using a hambat against Toadstool. There was never a situation where a character needed to change weapon just to fight some common enemy like frogs or hounds.

[Mounir]

Huh. Aren’t brightshade husks not flammable? Isn’t there a cheese where you plant dragonfruit around magma pools so that deadly brightshades burn to death and you’re left with tons of husks? 😕

[Crestwave]

On 7/19/2025 at 2:07 PM, Electroely said:

when the world is wet (considering Brightshades spawn year round, that is an eventuality)

One neat tech to deal with this is to deploy an Umbralla, since the bubble instantly dries anything without a moisture meter.

Note that this does not seem to work on the vine segments for some reason, only the brightshade itself and the tail end of the vine. But so far I've found it to be fairly useful for the increased damage and chaining to make the other vines back off.

Edited July 21, 2025 by Crestwave

[lowercase skye]

4 hours ago, Mounir said:

Huh. Aren’t brightshade husks not flammable? Isn’t there a cheese where you plant dragonfruit around magma pools so that deadly brightshades burn to death and you’re left with tons of husks? 😕

The brightshades around lava pools don't actually catch on fire at any point, they just take ambient damage from being nearby the lava pool. Mobs that die from being near fire don't have their drops burned, it's only if the mob is physically lit on fire.

Edited July 21, 2025 by lowercase skye

[Lovens]

5 hours ago, Mounir said:

Huh. Aren’t brightshade husks not flammable? Isn’t there a cheese where you plant dragonfruit around magma pools so that deadly brightshades burn to death and you’re left with tons of husks? 😕

I think that strategy never made them actually burn, just take damage. I don't remember ever seeing brightshades on fire, only plants underneath them on fire. If that got changed I think Klei ruined another cool strat with this update too. 

[Draggofroot]

why cant you just not use Electric damage on plants???
there's only like 2 plant enemies that really pose any amount of threat.

[Mr Giggio]

Just came to my attention that the only attack that is electric aka puts plants on fire is the spear lung/dash attack that u perform by right click

Like the one u intended and by any means cant be an accident 

Like, just don't dash at the plants and hit default 

Is not like it's taking away game experience from you to avoid an attack in few enemies cuz despite bright shades it's only tree guards. 

[lowercase skye]

4 hours ago, Mr Giggio said:

Just came to my attention that the only attack that is electric aka puts plants on fire is the spear lung/dash attack that u perform by right click

Like the one u intended and by any means cant be an accident 

Like, just don't dash at the plants and hit default 

Is not like it's taking away game experience from you to avoid an attack in few enemies cuz despite bright shades it's only tree guards. 

Read the post over. The regular attack also sets plant mobs on fire if they're wet, i.e most of Spring.

[CyberSkink]

On 7/19/2025 at 4:27 AM, Milordo said:

You know the solution? You know the very thing that has been asked to death for eons and has been put in a horrible dread system called "skill trees" ? Eeugh

Yeah. That.

Yeah.

Why are you so against skill trees? I like them and think they can add a lot to the game if done right.

[Milordo]

8 hours ago, CyberSkink said:

Why are you so against skill trees? I like them and think they can add a lot to the game if done right.

I suppose you're new uh?

You can check old posts of mine if you want, but don't worry a response will come one day. When that day will come, I'll remember you and give you the response, or tag.

(It's a long response and it can't be done with a quick one.)

[Lovens]

Using the dash attack is one of the key defining features of the elding spear, both for the purpose of restoring its durability and for the purpose of utilising its crowd control capabilities. The AoE attack from the dash is what makes it so good in dealing with multiple brightshade vines coming at you at same time, allowing you to quickly hit all the segments of the vine and open up the main plant for direct attacking. Taking this away from Wigfrid feels unfair and absurd. Without this attack elding spear is no longer different from any other melee weapon and is nowhere near as enjoyable to use. Meaning also that you can't just go on a brightshade killing spree and be sustainable with spear's durability and recharge it while fighting brightshades, you would need to go out of your way to recharge it on some other enemies before fighting more brightshades. Which is twice annoying if you were fighting them in your base trying to defend your resources and now need to leave the base to seek enemies to recharge the spear on, so by the time you're back new brightshades will likely infest whatever you were trying to defend. 

Not to mention that charging while using elding spear is now such an established mechanic of the weapon that it would be very hard for Wigfrid players to purposely restrain from using it, after they've been doing it frequently and consistently mid fights for over a year. Muscle memory exists and it would be annoying to just dash and ignite a whole forest worth of chopped wood just because you dashed over one treeguard because you are so used to doing it. 

Also if I remember correctly the spear still does electric damage to all wet targets, meaning in spring or during the rain the regular attacks will also ignite plants. People keep saying its just treeguards and brightshades but what about mushgnomes? Do I now have to carry an additional weapon to kill mushgnomes any time I pass through the grotto? Will I set birchnut tree minions on fire as well (spear's dash was such a good way to dispose of those quickly)? Feels like not only Wigfrid is inconvenienced by this change but her unique fighting strategies and capabilities are artificially restricted and nullified in the favour of "world consistency". 

Edited July 23, 2025 by Lovens