Are the hat gather helpers meant to be so bad?

[wormwood123]

I tried the polly Rodger hat some time ago and wasn’t a huge fan of it, but today I used the salty dogs hat and I actually just couldn’t stop laughing at how bad it was. The salty dog would collect the furthest item from me and would come right back to me as soon as it picked up the first item making him extremely ineffective and quite pointless. Please buff the polly Rodger and salty dog they’re too cute not to be used! 
I mean cmon! Look at him! 

[Esplanado]

Why do those hats even lose durability in the first place...

[wormwood123]

Just now, Esplanado said:

Why do those hats even lose durability in the first place...

They’re so bad! Especially when considering how late specifically the salty dog is 

[Gashzer]

Klei probably copy and pasted woby's retriever skill from Walters skilltree...

Woby has the same bad habit of chasing items that are the furthest from Walter instead of prioritising closer items first. Which leads to frustration when i go to use this skill.

Please fix both doggos Klei!

[Maxil20]

I’m pretty sure the mob reaching the furthest item first is an intended effect to allow it to combo with the lazy forager, so the pet doesn’t get stuck in a loop of trying to pick the item the lazy forager just got over and over again. I do agree it would be nice if the follower could carry back multiple items at once, though!

[Baark0]

5 minutes ago, Maxil20 said:

I’m pretty sure the mob reaching the furthest item first is an intended effect to allow it to combo with the lazy forager, so the pet doesn’t get stuck in a loop of trying to pick the item the lazy forager just got over and over again. I do agree it would be nice if the follower could carry back multiple items at once, though!

if this is true klei should make this function only activate if the player is wearing both the forager and that hat

[Cheggf]

2 hours ago, Baark0 said:

if this is true klei should make this function only activate if the player is wearing both the forager and that hat

That is a really awkward and unintuitive interaction that very few people would even be able to figure out.

[DegenerateFurry]

30 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

That is a really awkward and unintuitive interaction that very few people would even be able to figure out.

Yes, and that awkward and unintuitive interaction is exactly how it is right now. What's being proposed is fixing that and having it only turn into the current mode (which is meant to not interfere with lazy forager) when a lazy forager is equipped. 

Let me put it this way: the logic for it should be "if items, pick nearest, give to player, repeat" because that is how most players will get use out of it. It is currently "if items, pick furthest, give to player, repeat", which typically means that it'll go grab the twigs from an off-screen twiggy tree or something useless like that instead of the rocks you're mining. The only case where that's actually helpful is if you're using a lazy forager, since that keeps the gathering assistants from trying to grab what's already being auto-grabbed.

Most players who use the item that picks stuff up for you (one of these hats/Woby) will never use a lazy forager on the grounds that they have something else for that purpose, and those who do are just trying to maximize their item gathering speed, so the best way to synergize these two item gathering assistants is to make them gather different items when worn together, as that means they don't waste time with overlaps. 

So, the logic should be "if items, pick nearest, unless lazy forager, then pick furthest, give to player, repeat". That covers literally all bases perfectly, instead of what we have now, which is set up for a niche conflict very few players would experience and is useless as a result. 

[wormwood123]

6 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

I’m pretty sure the mob reaching the furthest item first is an intended effect to allow it to combo with the lazy forager, so the pet doesn’t get stuck in a loop of trying to pick the item the lazy forager just got over and over again. I do agree it would be nice if the follower could carry back multiple items at once, though!

It actually can carry multiple items it just has to be already stacked as I found out when he was robbing woby of the logs he didn’t help to pick up in the first place 

1 hour ago, wormwood123 said:

It actually can carry multiple items it just has to be already stacked as I found out when he was robbing woby of the logs he didn’t help to pick up in the first place 

Just normally it won’t ever pick up multiple items 

Edited December 23, 2025 by wormwood123

[qwp18]

I was really surprised when I found out that the crusty-saltiness levels don't actually benefit him, really thought it'd let the beaver either be faster or carry several stacks or just like, anything to be, better? Maybe an AoE sweep like knapsack? Maybe the hat could summon both bird and beaver ?

[wormwood123]

I’ve figured it out! The beaver/bird are meant to be used at sea! It makes actually so much sense. It’s a pirate captains hat, sea themed animals. They’re actually quite helpful at clearing the boat and getting items from the ocean. How have I been so foolish.

[Jakepeng99]

On 12/23/2025 at 3:34 AM, Maxil20 said:

I’m pretty sure the mob reaching the furthest item first is an intended effect to allow it to combo with the lazy forager, so the pet doesn’t get stuck in a loop of trying to pick the item the lazy forager just got over and over again. I do agree it would be nice if the follower could carry back multiple items at once, though!

No, its for retrieving items on the ocean, while avoiding items already on your boat.

[Creatingabe1125]

I personally thought that it was so you could get items on the ocean possibly a bit far without having to change course. Like a bottle or driftwood.