Creatures and combat

Every creature of the islands can be hunted, and some of them hunt you. This page covers who is dangerous, how a fight works, what protects you, and what happens when your health runs out.

The creatures

Each species has a stance that decides when it fights:

• Neutral: never attacks. Many of them run from you.
• Provoked: fights back whoever hurt it.
• Territorial: attacks whoever comes within a radius of its home.
• Hostile: attacks on sight at certain hours, and at any hour once hungry.

Drops only fall from a creature killed by a player.

Hostile

Creature	Health	Hostile at	Where	Attacks	Drops
Wolf	14	dusk, night (by day when hungry)	forest, taiga; white wolves on tundra and snowy peaks	bite 3 piercing, bleeding	fur, raw meat, fang (60%)
Lynx	14	dusk, night	forest, taiga	claw 3, pounce 6 slashing with bleeding	fur, claws (60%), raw meat
Spider	8	dusk, night	forest, mountains, steppe, tundra	bite 2 piercing, poison	coarse silk, venom (40%)
Weaver	30	always	caves 12 to 64 blocks deep, in the dark	bite 4, drop 6 piercing, poison	weaver silk, venom (80%)
Rock worm	60	always	inside the rock 8 to 64 blocks deep, on Vepre only	bite 6, lunge 9 piercing	gizzard, crushed copper, tin and galena (chances)
Drowned	16	always	at night on the outer coasts (beaches, stony shores)	claw 3 slashing, makes you wet	black salt (60%)
Ghoul	20	night	plains and swamps, at night	claw 4 slashing, fever	none

Some of them have habits worth knowing:

• A pack of wolves spreads around its prey and closes in together; a wolf below a quarter of its health gives up and runs.
• A lynx creeps up and only pounces from behind (within 60 degrees of your back), never while you face it.
• A weaver spins webs around its lair (one every 15 seconds, up to 10 within 6 blocks). Walking into one roots you for 2 seconds. It hangs from the ceiling and drops on you.
• A rock worm hears a pick: mining within 40 blocks of it draws it through the stone, and it lunges out of the wall at the nearest miner.
• The drowned burn in daylight under the open sky (3 sun damage per second). Struck down once, one rises again after 8 seconds with half its health, unless the killing blow was fire or the sun. They put out torches within 4 blocks. More of them come around the new moon.
• A ghoul smells the dead: it digs at a dead player’s body within 64 blocks and carries one item to its lair. It raids chests the same way. Kill it on the way and it drops what it took.

Territorial and provoked

Creature	Stance	Health	Attacks	Drops
Boar	territorial, 10 m	18	tusk 2.5, charge 4 (knocks down)	raw meat, fat, tusk (50%), hide
Brown bear	territorial, 14 m	40	bite 5, swipe 7 slashing (knocks down)	fur, fat, claws (80%), raw meat
Rat	territorial, 6 m, in caves	2	bite 1, fever	rat tail
Aurochs	provoked	40	horns 5, charge 7 (knocks down)	raw meat, hide, tallow (80%)
Elk	provoked	45	strike 5, charge 7 (knocks down)	raw meat, hide, palmate antler (bulls)
Badger	provoked	10	bite 3.5, bleeding	fur, fat
Asp viper	provoked	4	bite 1.5 poison	venom (70%), hide (50%)
Crab	provoked	3	pinch 1.5 slashing	crab meat, crab shell (80%)

The asp viper and the crab also strike anything that steps right onto them: watch the tall grass, ferns and grass of the plains and steppe. Elk bulls charge anyone within 14 m during the rut, days 52 to 64 of the 96 day year.

Neutral

The deer, rabbit, fox, horse, sheep, goat, chicken, cattle, hedgehog, bird, rook, barn owl, bat and the fish (trout, pike, carp, herring, cod) never attack you. They are sources of Raw Meat, Hide, Fur, Feathers, Wool and Guano. A hedgehog rolls into a ball and takes only a quarter of a blow; rooks gather over the dead. See Islands and biomes for where each lives, and Husbandry for the ones you can tame.

Melee

Hold a weapon and use the left mouse button. The R key draws and sheathes the bastard sword.

1. Light blows: a short press strikes. Pressing again within the weapon’s combo window (0.45 s for the swords) plays the next blow of the combo.
2. Heavy blow: hold the button at least 0.5 s, then let go. Weapons without a heavy blow strike as soon as you press.
3. Every blow costs breath. Without enough breath the blow does not start.

A blow lands when its target is within reach and inside the arc it sweeps. Each weapon that wears out loses one use per blow that lands. The dagger deals 2.5 times its damage from behind (within 100 degrees of the target’s back).

Weapon	Type	Light blows	Heavy	Breath per light blow	Reach	Durability
Club	blunt	3, 3.5	6	8	2.4	100
Flint Spear	piercing	3.5, 3.5	6	8	3.4	80
Copper Spear	piercing	4, 4	7	8	3.4	200
Bronze Spear	piercing	4.5, 4.5	8	8	3.4	450
Copper Short Sword	piercing	3.5, 4	none	6	2.2 to 2.3	200
Bronze Short Sword	piercing	4, 4.5	none	6	2.2 to 2.3	450
Copper Long Sword	slashing	4, 4, 5	7	8	2.8 to 3	200
Bronze Long Sword	slashing	4.5, 4.5, 5.5	8	8	2.8 to 3	450
Copper War Axe	slashing	4.5, 4.5	8	9	2.6	200
Bronze War Axe	slashing	5, 5	9	9	2.6	450
Copper Mace	blunt	4, 4.5	8	10	2.4	200
Bronze Mace	blunt	4.5, 5	9	10	2.4	450
Dagger	piercing	2.5, 2.5	none	5	1.8	does not wear
Silver Dagger	silver	2.5, 2.5	none	5	1.8	90

The metal heads and blades are smithed (see Metalworking), then fitted to a stick at the workbench. The Bastard Sword (5, 5, 6, heavy 9) has no recipe yet.

Guard and parry

Hold the right mouse button to raise the guard: a shield’s in the off hand, otherwise your weapon’s (spears and swords have one, axes, maces, clubs and daggers do not). Raising it costs breath and cancels a charging blow or a drawing bow.

• Block: a blow from within the guard’s arc loses part of its damage. You pay breath for each blocked blow, more for a heavier one. Out of breath, the guard breaks and you stagger.
• Parry: raise the guard while the enemy’s blow is winding up (from the start of its attack to its impact), or just before it starts. The blow deals nothing and the attacker is thrown off balance. A guard held up longer only blocks.

Guard	Damage stopped	Arc	Parry grace	Breath to raise	Breath per block
Round Shield	85%	150 degrees	0.25 s	2	4 + 1 per damage
Long swords	50%	120 degrees	0.2 s	4	6 + 2 per damage
Short swords	40%	120 degrees	0.2 s	4	6 + 2 per damage
Spears	40%	120 degrees	0.15 s	4	6 + 2 per damage

▶

Round Shield

The shield takes any planks around one Leather, at the workbench.

The bow and the sling

Hold the left button to draw, let go to shoot. You need arrows in your inventory.

• Full power after 1 s of draw; let go before 0.25 s and nothing is shot.
• The arrow leaves at up to 38 m/s and deals up to 6 piercing damage, both scaled by how far you drew.
• A shot costs 10 breath. The bow takes both hands: a worn shield goes on your back and gives no guard.
• An arrow stuck in a block stays 60 seconds; walk within 1.5 blocks of it to take it back.

▶

Simple Bow

The Simple Bow takes an Ash Log or a Yew Log, some Plant Twine and a knife, which loses 4 uses. Arrows start with knapped arrowheads (four per flint):

Inputs: Flint

Layer 1 (bottom)

Result: 4 × Flint Arrowhead

▶

4

4 × Flint Arrow

The Sling (leather and two plant twines, at the workbench) shoots any pebble for 3 blunt damage, full power after 0.8 s, 8 breath a shot.

Armour

Armour is worn in five slots: head, chest, legs, gloves and boots. Each piece multiplies the damage of some types: the pieces multiply together, so every piece counts. A worn piece that wears out loses one use each time you are hit.

Full set	Slashing	Piercing	Blunt	Warmth	Durability
Leather	x0.72	x0.81	x0.87	12 degrees	120
Studded	x0.63	x0.71	x0.78	12 degrees	200
Bronze scale	x0.43	x0.55	x0.63	6 degrees	350

1. Make the leather pieces at the workbench from Leather: cap, jerkin, trousers, gloves and boots.
2. Add copper or bronze studs to a leather piece for its studded version (2 to 4 studs).
3. Add Bronze Scales to a leather piece for its bronze version (2 to 8 scales).

▶

Leather Jerkin

The chest piece protects the most (leather jerkin x0.88 slashing, bronze scale shirt x0.72).

Damage types

Every harm has a type: slashing, piercing, blunt, fire, cold, lightning, water, poison, light, shadow, silver, aconite, sun and fall. Bodies and armour resist or fear some of them: the ghoul takes double from silver, the drowned double from the sun and nothing from water, the weaver double from fire and nothing from poison, the rock worm more from blunt blows (x1.3) and less from piercing ones (x0.6). Pick the weapon to match.

Some blows also leave an effect: bleeding (0.25 per second per stack), poisoned (0.5 every 2 seconds per stack), fever (0.5 every 10 seconds, slower walking), knocked down (you cannot move or act for a moment) and wet. A Bandage stops bleeding, an Antipoison cures poison and a Fever Purge the fever.

Health

You have 20 health. Out of combat (10 seconds without hitting or being hit) it comes back at 0.05 per second, four times faster asleep in a bed and three times faster within 4 blocks of a torch. Eating helps: food such as Cooked Meat makes you nourished, which heals on its own. A fall hurts past about three blocks: 1 damage per m/s of landing speed above 13.5 m/s.

Breath

The one gauge of 100 breath pays for sprinting (9 per second), blows, the guard and shots. It comes back at 18 per second, only on the ground, 0.8 s after you last spent some; once empty you need 25 before you can sprint again.

Under water, with your eyes below the surface, breath drains at 6 per second: about 16 seconds from full. At zero you drown, losing 1 health per second.

Body temperature

Your body stays at 37 degrees while the felt air is between 8 and 28 degrees. Outside that range it drifts towards cold or heat. The felt air depends on the climate, the hour (5 degrees between night and afternoon), the height (wind above 600 m chills up to 12 degrees more), water (colder) and fire: a torch within 4 blocks warms you by 12 degrees. Clothing warmth lowers the bottom of the comfort range by its degrees; wet clothes keep only half of it, and being wet (40% of your body under water) cools you by 6 degrees for 90 seconds.

1. Below 35.5 (cold) or above 38.5 (heat), the top of your breath gauge is taken away.
2. At 34 or 40, all of it is gone and you lose 0.25 health per second, as cold or fire damage.

Death and the wandering soul

When your health runs out:

1. Your body stays where you fell, holding everything you carried and wore.
2. You come back at once as a wandering soul, at the last bed you slept in, or at the world spawn if you have none or it was broken. Using a bed (the E key) sets where you come back.
3. As a soul you can only walk: no flying, no fighting, no building, no items. Nothing harms you and no creature notices you. A compass over the hotbar shows the distance to your body.
4. Stand within 1.5 blocks of your body for 2 seconds to come back to life with half your health and everything still on it, each item back in its slot.

Meanwhile other players can search your body (the E key) and, under the default server rule, take from it, except wings. A ghoul may carry one item away. After an hour with its region loaded, the body becomes an Earth Chest that keeps the items and drops them when broken. If the body is gone, reaching the spot where it lay still brings you back, empty handed.