I love the new buzzards; HOWEVER

[-Variant]

I feel they need to have a few more work deterrents.

Let me start by saying that the current state of the buzzards are something I've always wanted, an active threat that encompasses multiple mechanics that ultimately changes how you approach the game. I love this about them.

But, with the new changes, I'm feeling they need some ways to fight-back against too.
Originally you could simply ignore them, and they'd mostly be on their merry way. Now, they actively tear up corpses. I'm not against this, in fact, I love it.
BUT! It comes with the glaring issue that anything dying will attract them now. Where as it was only a select few mobs, now every mob can call them. Again, really sick, but also devastating in some instances.

There's two main ways I think this could be approached. Passive and active ways of defending against them.
I feel like there's a lot of ways to go about either, I was considering a shelter of some sort to protect mob pens from them, but I can't figure out anything solid for that yet.

A different idea I had that I've grown on is using flares. Not just any flares, but probably some sort of Shadow based flare. These are lunar undead possessed corpses after all. Ideally they'd drop and stun the buzzards from the sky, giving you time to bring the fight to them in a slightly more controlled fashion than using corpses to lure them down.

That's ultimately the post though, just sharing my thoughts on the buzzards.

TLDR: I love the direction the buzzards are going, but there do need to be a few more ways to managing them that AREN'T instantly removing them as a threat or letting them pillage our villages.

[Mike23Ua]

Above photo does not look like a flare, it looks like a weird scarecrow made of DreadStone to me. Dreadcrow?

[Frashaw27]

I did have the idea of Houndious Shootius' hitting birds out of the sky while they have nothing else to target. I can also see a brief reprieve from the birds if you are in the sandstorm or a moon storm, with the former leading to them vanish8ng if you stay long enough. 

[Popian]

The corpses could use changes, such as a 1/4th chance to occur if it will not become a lunar mutation, normal decay if buzzards do not get to them in time (~1~2 flame casts), and interacting with them to get the loot with swarming adjusted accordingly.

[AliceShiki]

2 hours ago, -Variant said:

There's two main ways I think this could be approached. Passive and active ways of defending against them.
I feel like there's a lot of ways to go about either, I was considering a shelter of some sort to protect mob pens from them, but I can't figure out anything solid for that yet.

Perhaps Umbralla could work for this? I think it would be the simplest option.

Dunno if Umbralla range is big enough though, I never really tried to make farms, so I dunno how big of a range you need for them.

[Bumber64]

Maybe they could just avoid shadow items like gestalts do.

[Pumking7]

8 hours ago, -Variant said:

A different idea I had that I've grown on is using flares. Not just any flares, but probably some sort of Shadow based flare. These are lunar undead possessed corpses after all. Ideally they'd drop and stun the buzzards from the sky, giving you time to bring the fight to them in a slightly more controlled fashion than using corpses to lure them down.

The flare idea is unique and a very neat solution to solving the buzzard problem, but I would not really want another flare to exist for the sake of a sole purpose it feels like a lock-and-key design just for them. We already have the existence of the hostile flare which is already one flare that can only be used in two extremely specific scenarios, I think a regular flare for this purpose would be just fine. 

Perhaps the corpses could be imbued with embalming spritz to give the buzzard's a particularly nasty taste of pure horror which could heavily stagger them?

The night light's fumes from its fire could potentially weaken them upon flying down? 

[viblym]

Perhaps?

[Cruvimaster]

7 minutes ago, viblym said:

Perhaps?

It's much easier and cheaper to simply exterminate them one by one until they all disappear. It only costs one spider to do that.

[Bumber64]

11 hours ago, Cruvimaster said:

It's much easier and cheaper to simply exterminate them one by one until they all disappear. It only costs one spider to do that.

Ad infinitum.

Or we could have a way to deter them and do all the other things we want to do in the game.

[viblym]

On 12/7/2025 at 8:38 AM, Cruvimaster said:

It's much easier and cheaper to simply exterminate them one by one until they all disappear. It only costs one spider to do that.

the only thing that really gets spent is dark tatters, even when playing with a large group I've always had a decent surplus of them. Besides, the alternative is not having to fight them in the first place, of course fighting them is going to be the cheaper option, the proposal is to spend a resource to prevent it in the first place. It's a trade off for a reason.