Suggestion: Add Optional Mob Health Bars (Toggle Feature for Console Players)

[UrbanAesthetics]

Hey everyone 👋

 

I am an avid Dont Starve Together lover and have been playing for years on console. One thing I have always wished for though is a mob health bar feature.

 

It would be awesome if this could be added as a toggle option in the settings. That way players who prefer the classic DST experience can keep it off, while those of us who want a bit more clarity during fights can turn it on.

 

Having a toggleable health bar would not take away from the games challenge or atmosphere, but it would make combat feel more manageable especially during boss fights. It helps you gauge how far you have come in a fight and decide whether to keep pushing or retreat and regroup.

 

Thanks for reading and I hope this idea gets some consideration.

[Captain_Rage]

45 minutes ago, UrbanAesthetics said:

Having a toggleable health bar would not take away from the games challenge or atmosphere, but it would make combat feel more manageable especially during boss fights. It helps you gauge how far you have come in a fight and decide whether to keep pushing or retreat and regroup.

.... making the game easier.

[UrbanAesthetics]

2 hours ago, Captain_Rage said:

.... making the game easier.

well yes.. essentially thats why i said it should be a toggle feature 

[Evelo]

"(Toggle Feature for Console Players)"
Why just console?

Edited October 9, 2025 by Evelo

[Cassielu]

We all know that it's not really optional

[AliceShiki]

26 minutes ago, Evelo said:

"(Toggle Feature for Console Players)"
Why just console?

Probably meant to be, "I want this feature to be officially added to the game because I wanna use it on console, so I can't use a mod for it."

Anyways, I'm someone who always plays with a mod that shows enemy HP, so I'd like it to become a feature. Optional toggles are always neat anyways~

[UrbanAesthetics]

3 hours ago, Evelo said:

"(Toggle Feature for Console Players)"
Why just console?

because PC has a health bar. its just a modded feature. console do not have one at all

[Curly Bill]

It would be nice if there was a way to have mods available for console players. But that's probably beyond Klei's, and any steam focused developers really, scope of possibility.

 

Maybe a mid-late game item could work though? an item you can have in your hand to show like the level of hp for bosses/enemies? kind of like the Premier Gardeneer Hat, the Thulecite Medallion or even compass.

[slendyproject]

8 hours ago, Captain_Rage said:

.... making the game easier.

I feel like this forum conflates inconvenience with difficulty sometimes. Not having feedback as to what your weapon is even doing against bosses feels more like outdated clunky design, and not meaningful difficulty. DST is filled with so many micro annoyances that dont actually add meaningful or fun difficulty to the game that mostly stay around still because people keep insisting they should even though they make the overall experience janky.

Original dont starve not having healthbars made more sense because most mobs were made of paper. But the healthpool of bosses is so inflated that it would do a lot of good if players could see how much longer they have to hold F instead of just waiting for something to happen with zero visual indication.

[Captain_Rage]

Like mentioned countless times before: add visual cues in the shape of animations for the bosses instead of yet another HUD element.

But you are not just holding F in combat. You are kiting, attacking on opportunity, timing your recoveries and trying to outlast the boss.

[Gashzer]

Visual clues of increasing damage or a boss getting hurt would be better than a health bar, crab king fight has this for example.

But health bars for only bosses would act as a good additional affirmation cue for new players to know that this boss mob is different from normal mobs (normal mobs should never get a health bar but I think all normal mobs should get a slow hp regen effect like beefalos and merms). For example if a new player stumbles into dragonfly while exploring, yes boss music starts but I dont think that is enough to hammer home how dangerous dragonfly really is unlike if a boss meter showed up with the boss music... you kinda need it all!

Boss health bars are an expected norm in games like this tbh.

Edited October 9, 2025 by Gashzer

[slendyproject]

1 hour ago, Captain_Rage said:

Like mentioned countless times before: add visual cues in the shape of animations for the bosses instead of yet another HUD element.

But you are not just holding F in combat. You are kiting, attacking on opportunity, timing your recoveries and trying to outlast the boss.

For some of them sure. I find the ancient guardian fight a lot of fun for example because there are a lot of things going on that require your attention. But dragonfly mostly boils down to holding the attack key, Even more so with the wall strategy.

51 minutes ago, Gashzer said:

Visual clues of increasing damage or a boss getting hurt would be better than a health bar, crab king fight has this for example.

But health bars for only bosses would act as a good additional affirmation cue for new players to know that this boss mob is different from normal mobs (normal mobs should never get a health bar but I think all normal mobs should get a slow hp regen effect like beefalos and merms). For example if a new player stumbles into dragonfly while exploring, yes boss music starts but I dont think that is enough to hammer home how dangerous dragonfly really is unlike if a boss meter showed up with the boss music... you kinda need it all!

Boss health bars are an expected norm in games like this tbh.

I also just think they are an inherently "fun" feature. It makes the fight feel more significant and rewarding, and helps newer players actually stay in the fights if they see that the boss is low when they otherwise might run away and be disappointed that seemingly they made no progress at all.

[Cruvimaster]

10 hours ago, Captain_Rage said:

.... making the game easier.

Making the game easier is exactly what the developers do with every update. Every skill tree update makes the game easier. T.I.N.G.L.E. made the game easier. Enabling rifts in the settings makes the game easier.

[loopuleasa]

Making Boss HP Bar mod core in vanilla would fit, but keep in mind the game and boss fights are MUCH easier with HP bars.

[-Variant]

As I and others have said, if any sort of health indicator were to be added I'd much rather it be tied to an item or be more based on visual cues, like Guardian, Crab King, Toadstool, etc. 

I've made a few suggestions but I think giving W.A.R.B.I.S armor more info on its scanned target sounds wonderful. There could be more ways to view info of course but that's what comes to mind first. I just find the floating bars distracting and would prefer something a bit more grounded.

[Cruvimaster]

52 minutes ago, loopuleasa said:

Making Boss HP Bar mod core in vanilla would fit, but keep in mind the game and boss fights are MUCH easier with HP bars.

Would this fight with life bar (Wilson) be easier if I used the new Wolfgang (rework and skill tree) + Warly's recipe?

This argument that it's easier is just an excuse for those who don't want this bar in the game, even if it's optional.

 

Edited October 9, 2025 by Cruvimaster

[Stardust42]

7 hours ago, Captain_Rage said:

Like mentioned countless times before: add visual cues in the shape of animations for the bosses instead of yet another HUD element.

But you are not just holding F in combat. You are kiting, attacking on opportunity, timing your recoveries and trying to outlast the boss.

mate, combat will never be decent in a 2d game, just tedious at most, as in DST's case. F-walk -> F-walk rinse and repeat is NOT tuff. visual cues would indeed be in order tho, but that would add ~2.5 years of development lmao.

[SilverSpoon]

Maximum health is already in the scrapbook. If you are an Elite Gamer, you could just count. So adding a health bar doesn't change difficulty.

Edited October 9, 2025 by SilverSpoon

[Hungry French]

17 hours ago, Captain_Rage said:

.... making the game easier.

Klei has been making the game easier and simpler for 10 years. Literally every update can be described by your message.

[Capybara007]

its funny how people keep bringing the "this is not the spirit of dont starve" in 2025, its the same when somebody says there could be achievements in the game, and the replies are nothing but "10 years ago klei said no to achievements so they must keep that vision". Dst is no longer the same as it was 10 years ago

Edited October 9, 2025 by Capybara007

[BrixGoBrrr]

yes please add this, and yes make it numerical!
we're not all wired the same, and i know for me, comparisons click better when i can compare based on numbers and data, like being able to compare Deerclops at 4000 HP to Dragonfly at 22500 HP and do a quick risk assessment at a glance, instead of running away and/or pausing, to check-and-assess if engaging one boss vs another boss [wrong button, posted before i meant to!] is a fun kind of bad idea, vs a demoralizing and frustrating kind of bad idea 

i started on tablet then playstation, and the vibes and music are great! but mods on PC enabling opt-in numbers on-screen was majorly game-changing for me, and wish i had the option earlier

Edited October 9, 2025 by BrixGoBrrr
[wrong button, posted before i meant to!] 

[Cheggf]

10 hours ago, slendyproject said:

I feel like this forum conflates inconvenience with difficulty sometimes. Not having feedback as to what your weapon is even doing against bosses feels more like outdated clunky design, and not meaningful difficulty. DST is filled with so many micro annoyances that dont actually add meaningful or fun difficulty to the game that mostly stay around still because people keep insisting they should even though they make the overall experience janky.

Original dont starve not having healthbars made more sense because most mobs were made of paper. But the healthpool of bosses is so inflated that it would do a lot of good if players could see how much longer they have to hold F instead of just waiting for something to happen with zero visual indication.

When do you lack feedback as to what your weapon is doing? You can already easily see how strong weapons are by swinging them against weaker mobs and noticing which ones kill faster. When you hit an enemy it either takes damage or has some extremely obvious indicator that it's not working. 

34 minutes ago, Capybara007 said:

its funny how people keep bringing the "this is not the spirit of dont starve" in 2025, its the same when somebody says there could be achievements in the game, and the replies are nothing but "10 years ago klei said no to achievements so they must keep that vision". Dst is no longer the same as it was 10 years ago

We should remove hunger & sanity from the game and instead add guns to it. If you disagree, you're just stuck in the past. Hunger and sanity are simply getting in the way of my poor-man's boss rush, while guns would help me do it faster. Get on it, Klei!

[Bumber64]

7 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

When do you lack feedback as to what your weapon is doing? You can already easily see how strong weapons are by swinging them against weaker mobs and noticing which ones kill faster. When you hit an enemy it either takes damage or has some extremely obvious indicator that it's not working.

Mega blight. Particularly when it's toppled.

Edited October 9, 2025 by Bumber64

[Capybara007]

30 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

When do you lack feedback as to what your weapon is doing? You can already easily see how strong weapons are by swinging them against weaker mobs and noticing which ones kill faster. When you hit an enemy it either takes damage or has some extremely obvious indicator that it's not working. 

We should remove hunger & sanity from the game and instead add guns to it. If you disagree, you're just stuck in the past. Hunger and sanity are simply getting in the way of my poor-man's boss rush, while guns would help me do it faster. Get on it, Klei!

you would probably have this same attitude if five years ago someone on the forums said "klei should add skill trees to the characters and also a scrapbook that tells you the hp of the enemies"

[Cheggf]

9 minutes ago, Capybara007 said:

you would probably have this same attitude if five years ago someone on the forums said "klei should add skill trees to the characters and also a scrapbook that tells you the hp of the enemies"

I know you're incapable of having opinions and you just want to be a contrarian all the time, but five years ago I had the same opinion on skill trees and an in-game wiki that I do now. I don't just mindlessly disagree with everyone for no reason, I actually discuss the game.

Edited October 9, 2025 by Cheggf