How to kill pretty much anything with a melee weapon.

[ajoraswill]

So I've been seeing a lot of people getting hung up over combat in this game and I figured I'd post a semi-guide from how I perceive combat to try to help people. This guide will hopefully prevent you from getting hit at all when fighting with a melee weapon except for certain monsters where its unavoidable. (exclude krampus from this list, I have yet to find one so I dont know his attack pattern)

How to bait an attack: Monsters usually have a start up time albeit some seem to attack instantly. The key to bait the attack is, as Soon as you get near them click away before they land the attack. This applies to most monsters, but some are much faster than others, the swamp tentacle for example has a devastatingly high attack rate and only leaves you with enough time in between for 1 melee attack before you must run.

Suggested Weapons: Spear, Tentacle Spike

Jackalope - Approach them with your back to their hole. They will run towards their hole giving you the second you need to land a melee attack. (works best if they are about 2-3 inches screen length away from their hole.

Swamp Frog - Hit it, and it dies.

Yellow Bee - Very Easy, Low DMG, 2 hits to kill, they do not attack unless provoked so you can always get the first hit and the followup second before they retaliate.

1v1: Just hit them twice, very easy.

Group: Run them away through some flowers, eventually they will de-agro and some will rest on the flower alone giving you the opportunity to kill it easily.

Suggestion: Bee Keeper Helmet makes their damage negligible.

Red Bee - Very Easy, Low DMG, 2 hits to kill

1v1: It will die before it can retaliate, hit it twice

Group: Run them away until they leash back to the beehive, then quickly follow close to them and try to get a couple of them to break away from the pack, do this until they are all dead and the beehive is yours.

Suggestion: Bee Keeper Helmet makes their damage negligible.

Black Spider - Very Easy, Low Dmg, 2 Hits to kill.

1v1: Just melee them, they are incapable of counter attacking before they die. Hit it twice.

Group: Youll want to run them away a bit, and turn and hit one once you feel confident that it will give you a solid attack and enough time to get away, then quickly run away. Their attack animation gives you enough time to not be hit. Do this until they are all dead, if Yellow spiders (see yellow spider).

Yellow Spider - Hard Difficulty, Medium Damage, 3-4 Hits to kill, Beware of leap attack.

I haven't found a good way to counter these buggers yet, if you get within a certain distance they do a leap attack at you that seems to be unavoidable regardless of what direction you turn. Only hard difficulty because it seems you must get hit at least once to kill one.

1v1: Just kill it, same rules as normal spider

Group: Avoid, if absolutely necessary to kill a group of them very deftly run them away, and as Soon as they turn around run back towards them until one or two turns around to attack you, if 1v1, kill it, if 2v1 I would still run until better odds.

Giant Spider (Spider Queen?) - Medium Difficulty, High HP, High DMG, Low Speed. Their damage is really high, but their slow speed and attack give you the edge.

1v1: The key is to get it to attack, let it get near you.. as Soon as you see it raise its claws scamper away a few steps then go in and attack it precisely 3 times and run away again as it will try to attack. Periodically it will look like its pooping? It spawns either a black or yellow spider, dispatch of these first before attempting to fight the big guy.

Group: If youre fighting more than one of these try to just separate them, if you cant abandon the fight for now and let them disperse until the situation is in your favor.

Black Wolf - Easy Difficulty, High Speed, Medium Damage, 2-3 hits to kill. The wolves come after a certain amount of time in one area I think? Anyways, they are super easy to kill as long as you have some MONSTER MEAT around. Just drop like 3 bits of it a little bit away from your base (to avoid fire wolves) and wait for them to come.

1v?: The amount of wolves that come will be from around 1-5 in my experience. This is really not a big deal if you have the monster meat, you can kill them most cases before they even eat the meat and they will ALWAYS rush towards the monster meat first instead of you.

Fire Wolf - Easy Difficulty, High Speed, Medium Damage, 2-3 hits to kill, Beware of combustion attack that lights valuables on fire. Same as black wolves, make sure to utilize the time before they attack to make sure youre not near any valuables or they will explode and burn your stuff when they die.

Tentacle Whip - Very Hard Difficulty, HIGH DMG, 8ish hits to kill, Doesnt move - stationary. The swamp tentacles basic attack is a 2 hit combo if you're in close range. You will die if you get hit 3 times from this monster with no armor, that equates to 1.5 attacks. But, he is able to be killed with no armor. After provoking his attack by moving in close you have to run away a bit until his attack animation is over, then quickly back in to hit him ONCE AND ONLY ONCE then repeat. Do this enough times and it will die.

Pigman - Easy Difficulty, Med Dmg, 2-3 hits to kill. They are pretty basic.

1v1: You can lure one away with a piece of food, then just hit him 2-3 times with a spear and he goes down before he can retaliate.

Group: After you attack one more will come, dont let them surround you and just run them away until they leave you alone, and then resume luring them away with food.

Beefalo - Easy Difficulty, High DMG, 8ish hits to kill. Super basic, but they used to scare the crap out of me because of the damage they do.

The hardest part will be separating one from the rest of its herd.

1v1: If hes not alone already you attack one once, then run. The entire herd will come after you, but keep running. The one you attacked will stay on you longer than the herd. Lure him a good distance away then after you see him do his gore attack and miss, move in and hit him 4 times precisely, then run away to bait his attack and repeat until dead.

Group: Dont fight more than one at a time, you will die.

Tallbird - Medium Difficulty, High DMG, 8ish hits to kill. They do a good deal of damage if they hit you.

1v1: Bait his attack, and hit him twice then run away again and repeat until dead. (Aim your pointer for their big head, easiest to click)

Group: I dont suggest fighting groups of these, run away until some leave you alone.

Treeguard - Medium Difficulty, HIGH DMG, 20ish hits to kill, Very Slow. This guy will catch you off guard when you harvest fully matured trees sometimes.

1v1: Bait his attack, hit him 2-3 times then run. Hes very easy to kill because of his speed, but beware he does a LOT of dmg if he hits you.

Werepigs - Haven't encountered them yet friends, cant share my knowledge

Krampus - Haven't encountered yet.

So thats it. If you like it let me know, I can basically kill anything without being hit and if I do get hit its because I was being dumb and taking chances. If this guide was pointless oh well! Enjoy. Happy holidays!

[Massah]

Krampus - Low Difficulty, no DMG, 2 hits to kill with Wolfgang + tentacle spike.

Easy way: Use a sleep dart (you probably can make one after killing birds to summon him). Worth to use it on him.

Otherwise, wait for him to snarl, which will give you enough time to hit him.

Or, place an item (any useless item) close to both you and him. While attempting to grab the item, he will not try to run away from you, giving you time to hit him.

[Karbon]

Thanks, very helpful guide!