Issues Caused by the Crystal-Crested Buzzard and Opinions & Suggestions for the Developers

[Prinha]

On 12/18/2025 at 3:21 PM, Cruvimaster said:

 

Minor adjustments are all I think they need. Another way to eliminate them and a method to protect the farms would solve the problem.

Love this. I guess next question would be on how to create a corpse on demand more readily. Bundle spiders? Do canaries work?

About the topic: 
Part of the megabasing fun (for me anyway) is to figure out designs that deal with the game mechanics and look pretty at the same time. If the existing base is really large it may also mean that restructuring is necessary. Not fun, I get it. 
 
Whenever something new is introduced, it takes a while for "good strategies" to be found. That doesn't mean that everything that adds new challenges to design is problematic. Give it some time. If it turns out to be as horrible as disease was, then it'll also be removed eventually. But from the looks of this video, I don't think, it applies to Crystal Crested Buzzards. 

I get the metaphor though. The mutation related changes, that offer no new rewards, feel bad — for some (many?) people. That's because we got the reward for rift activation before we got all of the downsides. The order of introduction is really on Klei here.

It doesn't matter, how many players are Chinese or not, your feedback is valuable and welcome regardless. I think, the main problem is the language barrier and potentially some cultural differences in expression and delivery of feedback. I also wish people would use the feedback forum rather than the general one. *shrug*

Edit: I will say though that the posts are too long and touch on too many tangential topics, many of which seem to be about directing blame somewhere. I can't bring myself to read all of that.

Edited January 6 by Prinha

[Well-met]

11 hours ago, Prinha said:

Love this. I guess next question would be on how to create a corpse on demand more readily. Bundle spiders? Do canaries work?

bats seem to work for me

birds don't though.

Edited January 6 by Well-met

[Dingle]

14 hours ago, Prinha said:

Love this. I guess next question would be on how to create a corpse on demand more readily. Bundle spiders? Do canaries work?

Moles are probably the current best.

1. They don't attack you.

2. They can't mutate.

3. They can be picked up and bundled if you want.

4. They run and hide if another mole is killed on the ground. So less risk of another mole dying if you just kill one in an area with a bunch of moles.

 

[BeastNleashed]

I absolutely hate that a few buzzards can annihilate a full merm army in seconds and then the merms becoming ugly Lunar merms which i cant even interact with.. 

I mean i really know that Klei hates Wurt Players but why we again get punished for playing her the way that Klei wants us (aka 1000 merm).

Also why they can destroy Catapults and other Structures? I mean its fine if i replace them in long-term worlds since i have enough supplies but its just annoying as hell.. why Klei always makes more and more ANNOYING stuff? and sure you maybe can "disable" them in settings.. but i dont know..im often not even playing on "my server" since its dont starve together and not dont starve alone.

[MariaUshiromiya]

50 minutes ago, BeastNleashed said:

I absolutely hate that a few buzzards can annihilate a full merm army in seconds and then the merms becoming ugly Lunar merms which i cant even interact with.. 

I mean i really know that Klei hates Wurt Players but why we again get punished for playing her the way that Klei wants us (aka 1000 merm).

Also why they can destroy Catapults and other Structures? I mean its fine if i replace them in long-term worlds since i have enough supplies but its just annoying as hell.. why Klei always makes more and more ANNOYING stuff? and sure you maybe can "disable" them in settings.. but i dont know..im often not even playing on "my server" since its dont starve together and not dont starve alone.

Have you ever considered killing all the buzzards before using an army of merms? Strategy is an important part of playing any game and the key to success, and you should try to develop one after a hard learning experience. I don't think Klei hates Wurt either, if they did they wouldn't of made lunar merms still stay faithful to a lunar aligned Wurt. It's a pretty fun strategy too, I'd give it a try! You can bait the buzzards with a dead spider or something and have them help with a boss fight. My favorite target is bee queen!

It saddens me how players have seemingly little interest in developing new methods of play. When mechanics come together naturally, most people would prefer the game to bend to ever niche case scenario and make every strategy viable instead of trying something else. Isn't that the fun of the game? To overcome challenges? Its okay if stationary turrets and swarms of mobs are weak to a certain threat, you come up with something new! It adds variance, interesting decision making, and a new layer of strategy to explore and consider.

 

[Naifxoxo]

DST when theres no difficulty:

 

DST when theres some difficulty:

[CrimsonStrider]

@adminaaassh

The reason I mentioned SB and TMD is to demonstrate that I understand how hyperbolic you're being. You're painting a picture of a marginalized community on the brink of mental collapse that civiliy discusses things related to Klei.

You're projecting your own feelings and actions. 

Normal people don't play this game with such high levels of stress. Comment sections are always harsh.

Your point is that Buzzards are bad, because they eat loot and ruin certain farms. I don't have a problem with you saying this, but I disagree. They're annoying, sure, but that's supposed to be a consequence of opening the rifts.

They're new, and most players are not very good or creative. Most people rely on someone else figuring out how to do something. That's fine. So rather than a knee jerk reaction, wait.

The update is out on Switch and I've been experiencing it. It's fine. I've done multiple bosses without issue. I don't do spider farms etc but it wouldn't change much.

I've done it as Wanda, Wortox, Walter and Winona.

Catch a few bees or spiders. 

Since you specified long term worlds; Catapults, Wormwood traps, Houndius Shootius.

Or wait until winter/rift despawns.

Or turn them off. Because nothing is locked behind them. 

Even if you fight them manually, they don't seem to regen immediately if they fly off. So kill other bee or spider and finish it off.

As for other players, don't open worlds you want to preserve to people that don't know how to deal with buzzards, or teach the people you're playing with how to deal with them. The same way you'd expect people you're playing with to understand how to deal with:

Deer, Fire, Antlion, Bearger

Edited January 16 by CrimsonStrider

[BeastNleashed]

On 1/10/2026 at 8:40 PM, MariaUshiromiya said:

Have you ever considered killing all the buzzards before using an army of merms? Strategy is an important part of playing any game and the key to success, and you should try to develop one after a hard learning experience. I don't think Klei hates Wurt either, if they did they wouldn't of made lunar merms still stay faithful to a lunar aligned Wurt. It's a pretty fun strategy too, I'd give it a try! You can bait the buzzards with a dead spider or something and have them help with a boss fight. My favorite target is bee queen!

It saddens me how players have seemingly little interest in developing new methods of play. When mechanics come together naturally, most people would prefer the game to bend to ever niche case scenario and make every strategy viable instead of trying something else. Isn't that the fun of the game? To overcome challenges? Its okay if stationary turrets and swarms of mobs are weak to a certain threat, you come up with something new! It adds variance, interesting decision making, and a new layer of strategy to explore and consider.

 

I indeed have, but "its saddens me" how you assume i dont develop new strategys. Like i said the Buzzards are just suuuper annoying! They not cool, they not hard, they juuuuuust annoying as Hell. especially with some Chars (like for example Wurt) and maybe you say "they wouldn't of made lunar merms still stay faithful" yeah i don't care, Lunar Wurt is even worse than Shadow Wurt, so no one plays it anyway..

Also why only 1-2 Chars get more punished by a new Thing ingame? For example same with Wormwood who catch on Fire everytime a damn Moongleam or what ever hits him.. but others don't care, and OTHERS even profit on it.. nice. (not nice)

Buzzards are just super unnecessary thing in the Game, they create lag, they destroy stuff, they make annoying Lunar Mobs.

And no its not "Okay if stationary turrets and swarms are weak" since its the Skilltree of the Characters, its the ONLY Thing that the skilltrees are focused on and for Both Characters it cost the most Ressources (and as Wurt TONS TONS), other then like every other Character Skilltree which cost only 6 minute of Work. But yeah i would be glad if they would rework the Skilltrees

Also its "saddens" me that you maybe can't kill Beequeen without cheesy tactic. (it doesn't and you can do it like that but most of the players HATE buzzards) and i don't want to waste my precious time ingame to jump wormholes, make out of date Toothtraps, or catch damn spiders (which also create a tons of lag and i get rid of them on surface) to kill Buzzards over and over and over again. For what reaaason? They not even give you something.. they more useless then the Marotters which are also easy to fight but still mostly only annoying and a pain for NEW  PLAYERS (as if they dont have it hard enough already)

[MariaUshiromiya]

10 hours ago, BeastNleashed said:

I indeed have, but "its saddens me" how you assume i dont develop new strategys. Like i said the Buzzards are just suuuper annoying! They not cool, they not hard, they juuuuuust annoying as Hell. especially with some Chars (like for example Wurt) and maybe you say "they wouldn't of made lunar merms still stay faithful" yeah i don't care, Lunar Wurt is even worse than Shadow Wurt, so no one plays it anyway..

Also why only 1-2 Chars get more punished by a new Thing ingame? For example same with Wormwood who catch on Fire everytime a damn Moongleam or what ever hits him.. but others don't care, and OTHERS even profit on it.. nice. (not nice)

Buzzards are just super unnecessary thing in the Game, they create lag, they destroy stuff, they make annoying Lunar Mobs.

And no its not "Okay if stationary turrets and swarms are weak" since its the Skilltree of the Characters, its the ONLY Thing that the skilltrees are focused on and for Both Characters it cost the most Ressources (and as Wurt TONS TONS), other then like every other Character Skilltree which cost only 6 minute of Work. But yeah i would be glad if they would rework the Skilltrees

Also its "saddens" me that you maybe can't kill Beequeen without cheesy tactic. (it doesn't and you can do it like that but most of the players HATE buzzards) and i don't want to waste my precious time ingame to jump wormholes, make out of date Toothtraps, or catch damn spiders (which also create a tons of lag and i get rid of them on surface) to kill Buzzards over and over and over again. For what reaaason? They not even give you something.. they more useless then the Marotters which are also easy to fight but still mostly only annoying and a pain for NEW  PLAYERS (as if they dont have it hard enough already)

New things sometimes "punish a single character" because its just the game mechanics coming together. Klei didn't specifically choose to nerf Wormwood for the Warbot fight. Electric attacks just happen to ignite plants, Wormwood is a plant. I'd rather the rules be consistent and understandable than incomprehensible with constant exceptions to rules. Also they buffed Warbis armor in the same update to help alleviate the issue of being shocked. They were considerate enough to do such a thing. 

I have no reason to respond to your other points cause they are illogical and silly.

[Bumber64]

1 hour ago, MariaUshiromiya said:

Klei didn't specifically choose to nerf Wormwood for the Warbot fight. Electric attacks just happen to ignite plants, Wormwood is a plant.

I don't think we can ignore that Wormwood takes 25% more fire damage to begin with. They probably weren't thinking of Warbot specifically, but the decision not to exempt Wormwood from electric ignition is targeted directly at his existing downside.

[MariaUshiromiya]

No its cause he's a plant. Plant-like creatures get ignited when electrocuted. Wormwood is a plant like creature. Did you know In base game he can also suddenly ignite due to summer heat? Pretty brutal especially considering he already takes more damage from fire.

[key7870]

OMG... I totally feel you.
While there are ways to deal with them one by one, they spawn way too frequently. I have a save file that’s over 2,000 days, and after the update, I tried putting up with the vultures for a while but ended up just turning them off.
Also, the game didn’t use the traditional Winter's Feast theme song or any variation of it this year... and that makes me a little sad  -`д´-
Just like you said, the official livestreams have very few viewers, and there’s a lot of arguing in the comments under BILIBILI videos. The state of the community isn’t healthy either.

That’s why I came here. Really glad to see players like you still giving thoughtful feedback... I hope the devs see it. Giving you a bump!
 

[joshernut]

After having buzzards completely decimate my pig farm (I had forgotten they were flying around at night) and killed me over and over. I decided to rollback and turn them off from the main menu of that save, then reloaded my game just to see them still flying over my head. If turning them off doesn't actually DO anything than what was the point of having that option? I haven't set foot back inside the constant since then and that was over 2 months ago. Between them and those absolute units of uselessness the Ickors, I haven't had any desire to play. I hate to say this but, I will be looking for mods to remove these massive unbearable annoyances to the game the next time I decide to play. 

[-Variant]

4 hours ago, joshernut said:

After having buzzards completely decimate my pig farm (I had forgotten they were flying around at night) and killed me over and over. I decided to rollback and turn them off from the main menu of that save, then reloaded my game just to see them still flying over my head. If turning them off doesn't actually DO anything than what was the point of having that option? I haven't set foot back inside the constant since then and that was over 2 months ago. Between them and those absolute units of uselessness the Ickors, I haven't had any desire to play. I hate to say this but, I will be looking for mods to remove these massive unbearable annoyances to the game the next time I decide to play. 

They've very recently been massively nerfed. They're still pretty deadly, but they have a LOT more counterplay now. If you haven't given their new versions a shot, I recommend you at least give them one last try before removing them.

I believe turning them off disables their spawning. You'd just need to wipe out the existing ones. You can shoot them out of the sky and stun them with any old flare as well, so that, and their tuned fire breath should make them a bit easier to approach.

[Bleksmits]

Crystal Buzzards spoiled Bee Queen drop — the crown was reduced to about 10% durability, and only one Jellybean was left, almost rotten.

I dealt with the buzzards, but after about 5 minutes they came back again. Now it feels like I either have to grind post-CC materials just to fight Crystal Buzzards, or look up some obscure “mumbo jumbo” strategies online.

Also, when a boss or player dies, the buzzards show up and literally start eating the body. While they’re feeding, the corpse keeps twitching. What exactly is that supposed to mean, Klei?