giants Giants Mechanics

[csc_unit]

@Rellimarual Hounds!  Only hounds/ firehounds I'm talking about. Sorry if it wasn't clear enough lol. I can't imagine fighting giants, one with toothtraps and 2 that close from my base.

[Instant-Noodles]

Deerclops Spawn Mechanics

Deerclops spawns are based on a timer.  When the timer hits 0, Deerclops spawns.  That timer is determined by this formula:

Spawn Timer (Days) = [(Winter Season Length - 1) / (Max Attacks Per Winter + 1)] x Modifier
Modifier = 1 (Normally)
Modifier = 6 (If Deerclops has been killed)

On default world settings, Winter Season Length is 15 Days and Max Attacks Per Winter is 4.  So:

Spawn Timer (Days) = [(15-1)/(4+1)] x Modifier = 2.8 x Modifier

Therefore, Deerclops' Spawn Timer is 2.8 Days and 16.8 Days if Deerclops has been killed.

But:

NO_BOSS_TIME = 26 (in day cycles)

The game stores day cycles as whole numbers starting from 0.  So, Day 1 (from Day til Night) is Day Cycle 0 and Day 2 (from Day til Night) is Day Cycle 1.  This means that no giants can spawn within the first 27 full days.  Therefore, the first day a giant can spawn on is Day 28.

Moreover, the Spawn Timer (game stores this in seconds; 1 day is 480 seconds) only counts down during Winter and only if there are players on the surface.  If there are no players on the surface during winter (for example if they're all in caves) then the timer pauses and Deerclops spawn would therefore be delayed.

For the first Winter, Deerclops will typically (see above paragraph) spawn on the Night of Day 30 (i.e. 28 + 2.8 = 30.8 Days).  If you lead Deerclops away and it doesn't maintain aggro on something, it will despawn offscreen.  It will then respawn in 2.8 Days (from the moment of its despawn).  However, if you kill Deerclops, then it will next spawn in 16.8 Days (from the moment of its death).  But since Winter is only 15 Days long, Deerclops won't spawn again this Winter and any remaining time on the timer when Winter ends is saved and used as the starting value next Winter.

Knowing the above, you can estimate when Deerclops will spawn each year.  To do so, note the day Deerclops was killed this year and add 71.8 Days (i.e. 16.8 Winter Days + 20 Spring Days + 15 Summer Days + 20 Autumn Days = 71.8 Days) to it.  If the resultant day is within next year's Winter Period, then that day is the earliest Deerclops can next spawn (will be exact day if there is always a player on the surface during winter).

For example, if we assume Deerclops is killed immediately on spawn (won't happen in an actual-game, but the timer is only reset to 2.8 or 16.8 Days when Deerclops despawns or is killed) and there's always a player on the surface during winter (so the timer never pauses during winter), then we get the following spawn days for the first 10 Years:

Year | Winter Period | Calculated Spawn | Will Spawn
1        Day 21-35          Day 30.8                Yes     
2        Day 91-105        Day 103.6              Yes
3        Day 161-175      Day 174.4              Yes
4        Day 231-245      Day 246.2              No
5        Day 301-315      Day 301.2              Yes
6        Day 371-385      Day 373                 Yes
7        Day 441-455      Day 444.8              Yes
8        Day 511-525      Day 516.6              Yes
9        Day 581-595      Day 588.4              Yes
10      Day 651-665      Day 660.2              Yes

When the Spawn Timer is at 59 seconds (or 59/480th Day), the game will pick a random player on the surface as Deerclops' target.  The game will then play a warning growl near that player.  Other players near the target will also hear the growl.  Another growl will be heard every 11 to 19 seconds afterwards until 29 seconds or less remains on the timer.  At that time, growls (which get louder) will repeat every 9 to 11 seconds until Deerclops spawns.  Concurrently (after the first growl), your player will make a comment about a giant being nearby every 5 to 15 seconds until Deerclops arrives.

A caveat to the above is if the timer is at less than 60 seconds (i.e. less than 1/8th Day) and Deerclops has already acquired a target, but that target leaves the surface server (i.e. quits game or enters caves).  In this case, the timer is reset to 61 seconds (or 61/480th Day) and the game attempts to pick a new target.  If none are available, the timer pauses.

When the timer hits 0, Deerclops will spawn off-screen up to 40 units away (1 unit = 1 wall) from the target and aggro on (i.e. attack) the closest structure from the target's location that is within 40 units away.

 

Bearger Spawn Mechanics

As with Deerclops, Bearger can't spawn during the first 27 full days or if there are no players on the surface.  In addition, it can't spawn if a Bearger was killed on the same day, if it hasn't been at least 27 full days since the last Bearger was killed, if there are already Bearger(s) in the world equal to or greater than the spawns this season, or if it isn't Autumn.  

At the start of Autumn, the game checks whether any of the no-spawn conditions (above paragraph) are met.  If none are met, it will determine the number of Bearger spawns that will happen this season based on world settings (which changes max number of spawns and Bearger spawn chances).  If at least one Bearger will spawn this season, a spawn timer (game stores this in seconds) will be set based on these formulae:

Spawn Timer (Days) = 0.25 x [(Days Left in Season) / (Spawns This Season)] ± Spawn Variance
Spawn Variance = 0.25 x Spawn Timer

On default world settings, Bearger can spawn once per Autumn and the chance of this spawn is 100%.  So:

Spawn Timer (Days) = 0.25 x (Days Left in Season) ± 0.0625 x (Days Left in Season)

By default, Autumn is 20 days long, so from the second year onward Bearger will (supposed to anyways; see next paragraph) spawn 3.75 to 6.25 days (i.e. 0.25x20 ± 0.0625x20 = 5 ± 1.25 days) into every Autumn.

Unfortunately, the game currently has a bug in which it is grabbing the days left in the season from just before the game updates the count between seasons.  So, it is using 1 day left in season (taken from the last day of Summer) instead of 20 days left in season (which is the count from the first day of Autumn).  As such, the Bearger currently and unintentionally spawns 0.1875 to 0.3125 days (i.e. 0.25x1 ± 0.0625x1 = 0.25 ± 0.0625 days) into every Autumn from the second year onward.

As the timer counts down, the game chooses a target for the Bearger, plays Bearger growls, and force players to make giant comments based on the same rules as Deerclops (see above).  However, the caveat for Deerclops doesn't apply.  Instead, the game will choose a new target for Bearger immediately without extending the timer and the timer will not pause once set.

When the timer hits 0, Bearger will spawn off-screen up to 40 units away from the target.  If no target is available, Bearger won't spawn.

 

EDIT:  TL;DR - Deerclops spawns every 16.8 Winter days (where there is at least one player on the surface) from its last death.  Bearger currently spawns 0.1875 to 0.3125 days into every Autumn (but is supposed to be 3.75 to 6.25 days) starting from the second year.  Both Deerclops and Bearger spawn off-screen up to 40 units away from the player it has chosen as its target.

[kertinker]

1 hour ago, Instant-Noodles said:

2        Day 91-105        Day 103.6              Yes

So day 104, if you can kill Deerclops in 0.4 days, since 103.6 is if he dies immediately after spawning?

That... might actually be a good reason to not kill him quickly, because if you kill him in 0.2 days (a real time minute and a half) then he'll spawn on day 103.8, and .8 is in the middle of the night, just like it is the first year on day 30.8. If you take a minimum of 3 minutes and 20 seconds (0.4 days) to kill him, then the next Deerclops won't spawn until the morning has come.

So go take your deerclops logging! Or helping you farm tentacles! Or, I dunno. Kill him and avoid destruction of everything you love, and forget about doing it in 4 minutes.

[csc_unit]

That explain why I recently ended up with a Deerclops in my base without warning in the firsts seconds of the first day of winter. I thought this was a bug, but it makes sens if the timer simply pause from winters to winters

[Squats]

15 hours ago, Instant-Noodles said:

Bearger Spawn Mechanics

As with Deerclops, Bearger can't spawn during the first 27 full days or if there are no players on the surface.  In addition, it can't spawn if a Bearger was killed on the same day, if it hasn't been at least 27 full days since the last Bearger was killed, if there are already Bearger(s) in the world equal to or greater than the spawns this season, or if it isn't Autumn.  

So, Bearger has no chance of despawning on its own, and you can never have more than one alive at a time? And (assuming completely default settings) the absolute latest we could let Autumn Year 2 Bearger die--while still assuring a 1st of Autumn Year 3 new Bearger spawn--would be the 8th of Spring? (27 days before Autumn.)

Still re: Bearger, but unrelated to spawn times: Since autonomously eating monster meat hurts him, is it possible to keep Bearger alive longer by leaving healing food like Honey Hams around for him to eat?

 

Also, that explains why people say there's no Deerclops in Year 3. Too bad if you needed a third eyebrella for your team by then.

Thank you for this extremely helpful post!

[Nino123]

 

As i said upper, i generally drive bearger (attacking him) in a place where he'll gently roam, close to my base. So he'll protect me against hounds.

tried today:

In winter, you can drive the deerclope (or make ir spawn) close to the sleeping bearger, then wait for his ice attack. Bearger will be hurt and he'll destroy the deerclope (due to his snooze power).

 

[kertinker]

On 3/9/2018 at 6:22 PM, Squats said:

is it possible to keep Bearger alive longer by leaving healing food like Honey Hams around for him to eat?

Yes, as far as I can tell. I haven't tested it, but Bearger adds the "eater" component, and only changes the defaults for what foods he'll eat (meat, veggie, berry, generic, but not seeds for instance, and oddly not themed goodies like sugar cookies). The default for an "eater" is to adjust their health by the stuff they eat, whether positive or negative. So honey ham will heal him for 30. I think he'll eat dragon pies, too, for 40 health.

 

I also think Bearger will eat red mushrooms, incidentally, if you want to hurt him with diet.