A Substitute for Rot in Lunar Mutated Mobs' Loot

[yyyyyyyyyyyyyyy]

All mutated mobs caused by Incursive Gestalt parasitism drop Rot instead of Meat. From the perspective of lore, this is understandable as they are corpses controlled by Gestalts. However, in actual gameplay, if they have no other special loot, their drops become practically worthless.

For mutated bosses, their main loot is Spark Arks/Nucleation Fluid. As mentioned, Rot is merely a piece of lore, a negligible addition for actual gameplay because the bosses' main loot are already very appealing and rewarding. So there is no problem with bosses' loot.

But the problem becomes immediately apparent with small mobs. Bright-Beaked Birds are currently harmless and still valuable for transforming Infused Moon Shards into Pure Brilliance. Crystal-Crested Buzzards, on the other hand, are extremely threatening, yet lack commensurate rewarding loot. They only drop Rot and Moon Shards, which are very common (I explained this detailedly in another thread, check it here)This is a significant reason for the poor reputation of Buzzards.

It's foreseeable that more mutated mobs caused by Incursive Gestalt parasitism will appear in the future. For ordinary small mobs, dropping a piece of Meat would be a sufficiently attractive reward. Due to the existence of Rot drops, mutated mobs, especially small ones, will inevitably face a severe lack of loot rewards.

Therefore, I suggest designing a new item to replace Rot as their drop, essentially a lunar version of Rot. My inspiration comes primarily from Rot itself, Nucleation Fluid (mutated boss loot), Monster Meat (loot from mobs mutated by normal lunar energy), and Moon Shrooms (food mutated by normal lunar energy).

Its texture should draw reference from Rot, Nucleation Fluid, and Monster Meat – a viscous colorful(purple mainly)mixture with flowing blue bubbles.

It is edible, reducing hunger and health while increasing sanity and grogginess, considering Rot and Moon Shrooms' effect. It has no Perish Times, can't be cooked and can only be used as fuel, much like Rot.

I am unsure if it should be able to be put into Crock Pot and have its own unique Crock Pot dishes; that sounds a bit disgusting.

I envision its main functions as two-fold: Firstly, as a permanent Lunar Experiment to transform entities into their lunar forms. Crystal-Crested Buzzards inspired me; when they gnaw and transform corpses, blue liquid flows from their mouths, which is why I emphasize its texture should have blue bubbles.

Secondly, as a component for crafting Infused Moon Shards. As mentioned in my another post, regular Moon Shards can be obtained in large quantities through CC and Lunar Hail, while the production of infused ones is much lower and cannot be conveniently stored for immediate use, limiting the ability to repeatedly spawn CC and mass-produce Brightshade Bombs. Therefore, it's necessary to add a recipe that consumes 1 Rot substitute and a considerable amount of regular Moon Shards to craft 1 Infused Moon Shard. This would serve as a supplementary method for readily acquiring infused Moon Shards at the cost of consuming large quantities of regular Moon Shards and defeating numerous mutated mobs.

Mutated bosses should drop large quantities of it, perhaps depending on how much Meat their regular forms drop, maybe even more than the Meat quantity. Crystal-Crested Buzzards should also drop large quantities, as they possess the ability to mutate other creatures, implying they should contain a lot internally, but should drop less than mutated bosses. Bright-Beaked Birds should drop 1 or perhaps less than 1, considering they can spawn in large numbers currently.

These are my rough ideas——as you can probably tell, I haven't settled on any specific data, not even the name of this Rot substitute. Any additions, refinements, or modifications are welcome. And truly hope the developers can see these suggestions.

Edited October 31, 2025 by yyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

[Popian]

In the case of Buzzards, I believe they are not supposed to be rewarding outside of using their fire for your own benefit. The world is changing to focus on the threats around you and your interaction with them.

I do think it is a fair proposal to get "Nucleation Scraps" that are combined in some way into Nucleation Fluid, depending on what the Gestalts are interacting with to produce it. From the name it is suggested that the fluid creates the crystals in the corpses, but in the Spark Ark recipe it is used as a liner to keep the pulse contained?

With more fluid produced it can tie in with infusing shards, possibly with an electrical component involved.

[yyyyyyyyyyyyyyy]

22 minutes ago, Popian said:

In the case of Buzzards, I believe they are not supposed to be rewarding outside of using their fire for your own benefit.

Lunar flame is an unsettled balance problem instead of a qualified and healthy enough game method. I find nothing happy when a Buzzard caused 5700 damage to Dragonfly after last hotfix.