Concerned about the clockwork update

[aidankocherhans]

If the ability to tame clockworks is a permanent feature I think it will seriously harm the challenge of the game. They are very important to the ruins as the only combat encounter that cannot be avoided. The ruins are full of gears, so it's not that much of a cost to pacify them, especially if you can get them to fight and clear the rest of the ruins for you.

[Jakepeng99]

Yeah I agree.

1. Now the bishops attack is way easier to dodge, which was the main challenge from them.

2. Now they are stunned by electricity for a long time, making them a free kill.

3. Bishops stun other clockworks with their AOE.

4. You can tame them mid fight extremely easily.

 

These changes make the difficulty so simple kind of like a Nintendo game.

Edited February 13 by Jakepeng99

[Gashzer]

Think its cool to have more followers.

Since we can spawn bishops from full moons now, has anyone tested how an army of bishops fair against bee queen?

[Jakepeng99]

17 minutes ago, Gashzer said:

Think its cool to have more followers.

Since we can spawn bishops from full moons now, has anyone tested how an army of bishops fair against bee queen?

I have.

I had 5 bishops but before it started, the vultures killed most of them.

So i had 2 rooks, a knight, and 1 bishop. It went well.

 

 

Also, i think the AOE from bishops only works on non-flying mobs according to patch notes. It was mainly rooks doing the work (until i crashed, and the rooks attacked my friends instead of logging out with me)

Idk why people think bishops are the strongest when rooks are right there. They are destructive and friendly fire but its a downside easily compensated.

[djturner]

The vast majority of people just blink or ride a beefalo past clockworks as we get to where we want to be in the ruins. If this update makes us stop and smell the clockwork roses and do things a little differently, that seems like a good thing. I loved playing with the Coat of Carrots when that was added and this update has been just as fun so far. IMO, generally speaking, more playstyles/options to clear stuff is a good thing. Keeps things fresh and mixes up runs.

[Hungry French]

2 hours ago, Jakepeng99 said:

Да, я согласен.

1. Теперь от атак слонов гораздо проще уклоняться, а ведь это была главная сложность.

2. Теперь они надолго оглушаются электричеством, так что их можно убить без особых усилий.

3. Слоны оглушают другие часовые механизмы своим АоЕ.

4. Их очень легко приручить в бою.

 

Благодаря этим изменениям сложность игры стала такой же простой, как в играх Nintendo.

No. The Nintendo games were more complicated than what is happening in the game now...

8 minutes ago, djturner said:

Подавляющее большинство людей просто проезжают мимо часовых механизмов, когда мы добираемся до нужного места в руинах. Если это обновление заставит нас остановиться, понюхать часовые розы и сделать что-то по-другому, то это, наверное, хорошо. Мне нравилось играть с «Морковным плащом», когда его добавили, и это обновление пока что не уступает ему в увлекательности. На мой взгляд, в целом, чем больше стилей игры и вариантов прохождения, тем лучше. Это позволяет сохранять разнообразие и не зацикливаться на одних и тех же маршрутах.

Do a lot of people play in a variety of ways? I see monotonous playing styles. But why? Others are not effective.

[Gashzer]

10 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

I have.

I had 5 bishops but before it started, the vultures killed most of them.

So i had 2 rooks, a knight, and 1 bishop. It went well.

 

 

Also, i think the AOE from bishops only works on non-flying mobs according to patch notes. It was mainly rooks doing the work (until i crashed, and the rooks attacked my friends instead of logging out with me)

Idk why people think bishops are the strongest when rooks are right there. They are destructive and friendly fire but its a downside easily compensated.

Ahhh so bishops are better for AFW, rooks are for bee queen and knights for dragonfly? 

Suppose if bishops could target flying mobs they would be OP.

[Milordo]

Yup yup! All true! This should be a top priority in these weeks to be fixed! 

1 hour ago, Jakepeng99 said:

Yeah I agree.

1. Now the bishops attack is way easier to dodge, which was the main challenge from them.

2. Now they are stunned by electricity for a long time, making them a free kill.

3. Bishops stun other clockworks with their AOE.

4. You can tame them mid fight extremely easily.

 

These changes make the difficulty so simple kind of like a Nintendo game.

Wait, wait, waiiit. Calm down your horses *badum tss*. 

Okay for all about the taming, but everything else is wrong. The bishops attack is not way easier. It's fair, fun and complex. This is the correct statement because you may have forgot or ignored also 1) the new damage buff to bishops 2) bishops attack stuns, are AOE (a new problem if you play in groups) AND burns Wormwood (and right now an idea has been borned to apply a similar malus to Wx, and I'm all in) 3) Rooks can double damage you, if you don't respect them 4) Rooks don't damage anymore other clockworks.

Then bishops don't stun other clockworks? Unless you're referring to the taming.

And finally, the electricity stun. Come on. That's the most Don't Starve spirit ever. You're literally required to craft a morning star or electric darts. A very not easy grindy items. There are zero problems in that. Even in numbers, by testing it, it was at all not easy to pull-up a chain electricity stun. But I'll tell you what. They should have just a little artificial resistance to the electricity status. Just a little bit.

Ruins are not easier, if you ignore the new gears mechanic. I've done too many testing yesterday and today to know it.

29 minutes ago, Gashzer said:

Think its cool to have more followers.

Since we can spawn bishops from full moons now, has anyone tested how an army of bishops fair against bee queen?

Yes, I did.

It's completely bonkers. They exterminate everything. Like everything everything. Rooks and horses too btw!!

That's why we're all up in arms to remove or fix in some way the new befriending mechanic.

12 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

Also, i think the AOE from bishops only works on non-flying mobs according to patch notes. It was mainly rooks doing the work (until i crashed, and the rooks attacked my friends instead of logging out with me)

Idk why people think bishops are the strongest when rooks are right there. They are destructive and friendly fire but its a downside easily compensated.

You said it yourself lmao xD. Bishops are the strongest because you only tested them against vultures. Just 10 bishops destroy not even most enemies, not even most bosses, but even super bosses/raid bosses!!!

10 minutes ago, djturner said:

The vast majority of people just blink or ride a beefalo past clockworks as we get to where we want to be in the ruins. If this update makes us stop and smell the clockwork roses and do things a little differently, that seems like a good thing. I loved playing with the Coat of Carrots when that was added and this update has been just as fun so far. IMO, generally speaking, more playstyles/options to clear stuff is a good thing. Keeps things fresh and mixes up runs.

You always could have done this. This is not a new thing per se' and we're not at all advocating to remove clockworks army. Before they were bugged, but now they have been fixed BUT also introduced an incorrect new mechanic. This has nothing to do with gameplay variety. 

[Velvy]

On 2/13/2026 at 11:03 AM, Jakepeng99 said:

Yeah I agree.

1. Now the bishops attack is way easier to dodge, which was the main challenge from them.

2. Now they are stunned by electricity for a long time, making them a free kill.

3. Bishops stun other clockworks with their AOE.

4. You can tame them mid fight extremely easily.

 

These changes make the difficulty so simple kind of like a Nintendo game.

i agree with most of your points except the first, old bishops were just "put armour on, facetank them" which is just boring. 

[KvltBear]

It does feel a little too easy to just walk up to them, morning star hit, gears, ahh my robot army expands *cackles*. But it is nice to have followers not on some ridiculously short timer, who can actually fight and are worth a damn. However, I did not notice the ruins clockworks regenerating health. All the damage I saw them take last night seemed permanent. And once they're gone they're gone. And you do need to kill some of them to get the gears. So there is some balance there.The bishop change is great, I always hated that attack and how you basically had to eat it. Looks much better now too.

Edited February 16 by KvltBear

[ShadowDuelist]

I think they should have a timer. Maybe a long timer? Or at least longer than a pigman fed with a large meat, but timer nontheless.

[GrapeVruit]

48 minutes ago, ShadowDuelist said:

I think they should have a timer. Maybe a long timer? Or at least longer than a pigman fed with a large meat, but timer nontheless.

I'm guessing they don't have a timer since when they're hacked, they see you as your creator, and apart from certain pieces of media, robots are eternally loyal to their makers. 

Other than that, it's probably to make the surface one's similar to the broken ones, as one's made from broken piles are eternally loyal as well.

Edited February 17 by GrapeVruit

[Captain_Rage]

22 hours ago, Velvy said:

i agree with most of your points except the first, old bishops were just "put armour on, facetank them" which is just boring. 

No, you could light them on fire to make them run around and pacify them for the time being. It was a good design. Tanking was not the best option, unless charging in with a group of players.

[ZeRoboButler]

On 2/13/2026 at 6:32 AM, Hungry French said:

Do a lot of people play in a variety of ways? I see monotonous playing styles. But why? Others are not effective.

If every one did things only because they were effective, life it self would be insanely boring. Some people don't tame beefalo, some people like playing only one character per world with no swapping and some people like surviving off only mushrooms. 

For some people, the fun is in the way they want to play, not really the most effective strategy. There is a decent chunk of people who care little or not at all about min maxing stuff.

[Mike23Ua]

27 minutes ago, ZeRoboButler said:

If every one did things only because they were effective, life it self would be insanely boring. Some people don't tame beefalo, some people like playing only one character per world with no swapping and some people like surviving off only mushrooms. 

For some people, the fun is in the way they want to play, not really the most effective strategy. There is a decent chunk of people who care little or not at all about min maxing stuff.

This, I’m not really playing as Wes if I have swaped to turn into Wolfgang to do boss fights.

I wish Klei would change the highly OP ability to character swap and instead push it further into the late game.

For context: it’s harder to unlock Wilson’s highly pointless Affinity perks than it is to switch characters with Celestial Portal.

Its brokenly dumb really.

Edited February 18 by Mike23Ua

[cybers2001]

The ruins have been repeatedly nerfed over the years, with the addition of lurking nightmares and masques making it less fun to clear, and ancient and boulderbough trees that let you get gems and thulecite without needing to go to the ruins at all. Not particularly upset at an update that gives a buff.

Edited February 18 by cybers2001

[Hungry French]

15 hours ago, ZeRoboButler said:

Если бы все делали что-то только потому, что это эффективно, жизнь сама по себе была бы безумно скучной. Кто-то не приручает бифало, кому-то нравится играть только за одного персонажа в каждом мире и не переключаться между ними, а кто-то предпочитает питаться одними грибами.

Для некоторых удовольствие заключается в том, чтобы играть так, как им хочется, а не в поиске самой эффективной стратегии. Есть немало людей, которых мало волнует или вообще не волнует стремление к максимальному результату.

These people are usually very few in my environment. Even all the ambassadors are playing efficiency...

[BeeClops]

idk I feel like ruins clockworks we're a non issue to experienced players, and new players won't really tame them anyway, and if they do fine, it's not like it takes that long to know how to manage them. 

If anything I find ruins clearing takes more time now as rooks don't kill eachother and other clocks anymore, I used to let them do most of the work but now I have to actually fight them myself. 

but yeah personally I don't think it changes much in terms of the actual danger of dying in the ruins, just gives more fun options to play around with which I approve. 

[BB Marioni]

On 2/18/2026 at 11:38 PM, Hungry French said:

These people are usually very few in my environment. Even all the ambassadors are playing efficiency...

I would say the opposite. Most people I find in discord servers and my friends play the game casually. Only people here on forums and youtube play as elites. 

[Velvy]

On 2/17/2026 at 1:11 AM, Captain_Rage said:

No, you could light them on fire to make them run around and pacify them for the time being. It was a good design. Tanking was not the best option, unless charging in with a group of players.

that risks very, very precious gears getting turned to ash unless you're willow. its usually just safer, easier and less resource intensive to just tank them, also its just usually more fun to dodge an enemies attacks to avoid it fully and i think an enemy being fun to fight against should be proritised 

Edited February 19 by Velvy