All magic fires should be changed to controlled burning

[Mr.Oshiro]

Compared to ice magic tools, the practicality of fire magic is much lower.Because every time a tool such as  fire Staff(including Firebell and Fiery Pen) is used, the burning creatures will run around and spread flames everywhere. If dropped objects are accidentally burned to ashes, the damage caused often outweighs the benefits.There's really no need to punish players like this. This doesn't mean replacing Willow with a regular character, she can control all types of fire and exert much greater power on this basis.

The same goes for the flames brought by the Fire Hound. If you kill it in forest or something like that, fires are almost inevitable. It can have an impact on nearby enemies like Ice Hound to add fun, but there is really no need to burn down a forest or be forced to move to an open space.

        

Edited March 23 by Mr.Oshiro

[Echsrick]

the magic tools yes, the fire hounds no i think thats part of the challange in a way

[Captain_Rage]

3 hours ago, Mr.Oshiro said:

If you kill it in forest or something like that, fires are almost inevitable.

That is the point. The fire mechanics in the game have already been tweaked and adjusted over 10 years and there is no reason to ruin the game completely by removing one of its core designs.

[Cassielu]

7 hours ago, Echsrick said:

part of the challange

About that, I think this "challenge" has somewhat gone off track. If it encouraged players to build fire-fighting facilities in their bases, that would be great. But the current situation is that almost all players will choose to leave their bases when the Hound wave arrives to completely avoid the threat of Fire Hound. Well, this doesn't seem like a normal challenge.

[Bumber64]

2 hours ago, Cassielu said:

About that, I think this "challenge" has somewhat gone off track. If it encouraged players to build fire-fighting facilities in their bases, that would be great. But the current situation is that almost all players will choose to leave their bases when the Hound wave arrives to completely avoid the threat of Fire Hound. Well, this doesn't seem like a normal challenge.

Well, you can't fight them in the comfort of your base. (I could've sworn tooth traps burn, but apparently they haven't ever.)

Edited March 23 by Bumber64

[Cheggf]

7 hours ago, Cassielu said:

About that, I think this "challenge" has somewhat gone off track. If it encouraged players to build fire-fighting facilities in their bases, that would be great. But the current situation is that almost all players will choose to leave their bases when the Hound wave arrives to completely avoid the threat of Fire Hound. Well, this doesn't seem like a normal challenge.

Literally the only time I have ever seen people leave base to fight the hounds is when it was people who joined after the ice already melted and made a base without flingomatics. Every other time everyone is consistently making anti-fire things. Even if there weren't red hounds, there's still smoldering from summer, so you need something to stop fire. If you're in the oasis and you want your plants to wither for some reason then you can ignore making flingomatics, but at that point the sandstorm is blinding you and making you move 10x slower if you don't have that hat on so trying to evade red hounds like that is the biggest challenge they could possibly pose. 

[Mr.Oshiro]

5 hours ago, Cheggf said:

Literally the only time I have ever seen people leave base to fight the hounds is when it was people who joined after the ice already melted and made a base without flingomatics. Every other time everyone is consistently making anti-fire things. Even if there weren't red hounds, there's still smoldering from summer, so you need something to stop fire.

The threat of smoldering is much lower than the flames brought by the Red hounds. Smoldering requires meeting the conditions of daytime, completely dry ground, and withered plants, and only selecting one combustible material to burn within the screen range, giving you enough time to extinguish it (by hand). In contrast, Red hounds appears in both summer and autumn seasons, with a large number and extremely fast spread of flames. You cannot build flingomatics in every place.

The threat level of the Red Hound Wave should be at the same level as that of the Blue Hound Wave.Changing the flames it causes to not spread and still affect surrounding creatures (just like the Blue hounds can cause freezing), I think this is reasonable.

11 hours ago, Bumber64 said:

Well, you can't fight them in the comfort of your base. (I could've sworn tooth traps burn, but apparently they haven't ever.)

The problem is that fighting in the wilderness can also easily cause losses. A fire hound will burst into three flames, and resources such as reeds, cacti, and beehives can also be easily burned down in addition to forest fires. It has no reason to cause such great damage.

Edited March 23 by Mr.Oshiro

[Seero]

it would be such a magnificent and welcome change to the firestaff

[Mysterious box]

21 hours ago, Cassielu said:

About that, I think this "challenge" has somewhat gone off track. If it encouraged players to build fire-fighting facilities in their bases, that would be great. But the current situation is that almost all players will choose to leave their bases when the Hound wave arrives to completely avoid the threat of Fire Hound. Well, this doesn't seem like a normal challenge.

That's proof that it's impactful though as one of the major ways to fight fires is to prevent them in the first place.

[Bumber64]

17 hours ago, Mr.Oshiro said:

The problem is that fighting in the wilderness can also easily cause losses. A fire hound will burst into three flames, and resources such as reeds, cacti, and beehives can also be easily burned down in addition to forest fires. It has no reason to cause such great damage.

Much in the way deerclops and bearger can cause damage, except it only triggers when they die, so you can just avoid killing them when they're sitting on stuff.

I'd gladly trade any wildfire for a red hound wave. They aren't going to start a fire just offscreen as you're running around doing other stuff.

Edited March 24 by Bumber64

[AliceShiki]

So, I think I agree with the magical fires being controlled in general, the overall point of stuff like Fire Staves being very hard to use is a very fair one.

On the note of Red Hounds though... It's a bit hard for me to say whether I'd like or dislike this change, tbh.

My gut reaction was that the main challenge of Fire Hounds is the fire spread, so that would be bad.

As I thought of it though... I realized that being forced to prepare specifically for the hounds can be annoying... Like, here are the main options against Fire Hounds, I think:

A) Flingos... Which absolutely work, but also, a lot of people just turn Wildfires off, so they wouldn't have the Flingos, so this would be unavailable for them... People who use other anti-wildfire methods like Oasis base or Above Average Trees would also be in trouble... For standard settings worlds that are using Flingos for Wildfire protection though, the Flingos you build for Summer should protect you just fine... For as long as they have fuel that is, which they may not have if you're not in Summer? It can be annoying to hastily refuel them when you hear a Hound Wave coming in case it comes with a Red Hound.

B) Lure them away from anything important... This definitely works, but uhn... Kinda annoying? Also the Houndius Shootius can't do its shootius if the houndius isn't near it, which makes it doubly more annoying.

C) Build an arena specifically for Hound Waves... Again, it works, but requires specific base building skills and planning that many do not have, as they might not be big into the complex base building part of the game (or into megabasing if you wanna take it a step further).

So... I feel like handling the Fire Hounds is always kinda annoying? I'm not sure if changing this would be the right decision, but I can understand the logic of wanting this changed.

I don't have a set opinion on this, tbh, I'm just thinking out loud here.

[Bumber64]

There's also water balloons, watering cans, and luxury fan.

You can put out small fires at the cost of health if you didn't bring any of those.

It's just kind of pointless if the hostile fire mob doesn't set things on fire.

Edited March 24 by Bumber64

[Pruinae]

I'm on board for everything except fire hounds

[Mike23Ua]

For the 5000th time DST is sold and classified as an Uncompromising RogueLite, and not only is it in the list of top RogueLite games on Xbox, it’s in the top THREE. This game is for all intent & purpose: Meant to punish players who prepare poorly.

Fire Hounds are a unique danger BECAUSE they can set everything on fire when killed, so it is up to you (& the other people you may or may not play with) to know how to handle fighting them. This usually involves kiting them out into an open space area so their flames don’t catch anything important on fire. (Aka a safe patch of emptiness in the forest)

and when things go poorly, you have to know how to have a Backup plan (Iceflingo, Water Balloons, Willows fire eating lighter, or just a simple water can with water in it.)

That is the very Nature of this game, and making firehounds anything less than FIRE HOUNDS (by doing some silly magic fires that can’t cause destruction) then you effectively kill DST & turn it into peaceful base simulator.

[cybers2001]

5 hours ago, AliceShiki said:

C) Build an arena specifically for Hound Waves... Again, it works, but requires specific base building skills and planning that many do not have, as they might not be big into the complex base building part of the game (or into megabasing if you wanna take it a step further).

Kind of a non-issue. Nobody who has never seen a red hound before will be building a base larger than 2 screens, and you're already punished for letting regular hounds into your base since they can kill chester and glommer, and attack your walls, so most players should at least know not to put their panic room in the middle of their kitchen.

The Dragonfly turf is useful exactly for the purpose of fire hounds, or even just one flingo in the middle of a tooth trap field will do it.

[Mr.Oshiro]

On 3/24/2026 at 6:15 PM, Bumber64 said:

Much in the way deerclops and bearger can cause damage, except it only triggers when they die, so you can just avoid killing them when they're sitting on stuff.

I'd gladly trade any wildfire for a red hound wave. They aren't going to start a fire just offscreen as you're running around doing other stuff.

To be honest, Fire hounds wave poses a greater threat than deerclops and bearger. If you know how to use the latter, they are basically free logging machines, especially suitable for destroying Marble shrubs, but flames can destroy anything that can burn.

22 hours ago, Bumber64 said:

There's also water balloons, watering cans, and luxury fan.

You can put out small fires at the cost of health if you didn't bring any of those.

It's just kind of pointless if the hostile fire mob doesn't set things on fire.

I know there are many ways to extinguish fires, but Fire hounds aren't just summer challenge. Half of the year belongs to their appearance time, let alone the frequent Hound wave in the later stage. It is really unreasonable to carry fire extinguishing materials for half a year to prevent losses. Just like ice hounds, the flames that appear after death can harm the surrounding creatures, and that's enough.
The destructive power of flames spreading everywhere is very strong, and this ability is reasonable for DS's wandering dragonfly, balancing threats and rewards.

[Tigris Nano]

I think magic stuff should be buffed in general. So many different things but dark sword and maybe shadow armor are only ones I would use often. And batbat as wormwood.

Fire hounds shouldnt be changed. They are supposed to be dangerous to you and your base. Also nerfing them would make game less diverse. I dont want to have another hound with just red skin. 

Also one more thing related to fire things. Enemies on fire should make this sound when you blast them with fire staff for example:

Spoiler

https://youtu.be/Abbli2PD2NU?si=NvSxCqODhtWeCkAb

Its hilarious

Edited March 25 by Tigris Nano

[Captain_Rage]

59 minutes ago, Mr.Oshiro said:

The destructive power of flames spreading everywhere is very strong

It really is not. It was in the beta version of DST over a decade ago.

[Mike23Ua]

1 hour ago, Mr.Oshiro said:

To be honest, Fire hounds wave poses a greater threat than deerclops and bearger. If you know how to use the latter, they are basically free logging machines, especially suitable for destroying Marble shrubs, but flames can destroy anything that can burn.

I know there are many ways to extinguish fires, but Fire hounds aren't just summer challenge. Half of the year belongs to their appearance time, let alone the frequent Hound wave in the later stage. It is really unreasonable to carry fire extinguishing materials for half a year to prevent losses. Just like ice hounds, the flames that appear after death can harm the surrounding creatures, and that's enough.
The destructive power of flames spreading everywhere is very strong, and this ability is reasonable for DS's wandering dragonfly, balancing threats and rewards.

See the problem with changing firehounds is that at that point they may as well redesign them entirely… for example getting turning them into shadow hounds that when killed leave behind shadow tentacles to smack the player around a bit.

Personally I wish the hounds got a visual overhaul, the Bush Hounds & the HorrorHounds look SIIIIICCCKKK with detail, even the freaking ClayHounds look cool… but the Fire & Ice Hounds? Those are still using art designs from 12 years ago.

If Firehounds looked more menacing, (aka flaming horse maines down their back and drooling magma) then people would easily be able to identify them in a pact of regular hounds.

As it stands right now though? Unless you’re paying very close attention to slight coloration changes, you can’t tell the difference.

Maybe this is by intentional design, I honestly don’t know… But what I can say is Borderlands has had Elemental Skag types for years, and they made them all visually identifiable at a glance.

[Bumber64]

4 hours ago, Mr.Oshiro said:

To be honest, Fire hounds wave poses a greater threat than deerclops and bearger. If you know how to use the latter, they are basically free logging machines, especially suitable for destroying Marble shrubs, but flames can destroy anything that can burn.

The giants will keep causing damage repeatedly until you lead them away or deal with them. Deerclops is the worst because it destroys any type of building unprovoked. Bearger goes after food-containing structures, and is a problem if attacked by something.

Fire hounds, if left alone, attack walls and creatures. There's only a serious concern if a creature manages to kill one.

4 hours ago, Mr.Oshiro said:

I know there are many ways to extinguish fires, but Fire hounds aren't just summer challenge. Half of the year belongs to their appearance time, let alone the frequent Hound wave in the later stage. It is really unreasonable to carry fire extinguishing materials for half a year to prevent losses.

Literally just don't kill them next to flammable stuff. It's actually that simple.

Edited March 26 by Bumber64