How can I survive the hounds?

[DoNotUberMe]

I am in the 67 day, and the hounds are becoming a serious problem, any tip on that?

[Klinwun]

The best way is tooth traps, if you can't afford that then use a GIANT herd of beefalo (emphasis on the giant part).

If you're on the run while not near your base just run to safe haven where you can take care of the hounds, they'll likely get distracted by butterflies, bees etc. Then once they're distracted you can quickly get to more fortified grounds and come back when you're ready.

I recommend watching Salendrak's video on hounds in his Don't Starve Reign Of Giants Beginner's guide series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVqxdlWiHzo (also works in DST). Hope this helps!

[RequiemsRose]

There is also the option of recruiting a few pigs to fight as well. If you actually want to win the fight you may need a few. If you just want to distract the hounds somewhere farther away so you can bail and deal with them later, you only need like 2-3.

There's a few mobs you can lead hounds toward to weaken them or maybe even kill them without you needing to fight directly. As mentioned above, beefalo are a good option, especially if the herd is large and bonus points if you have the beefalo hat in spring. Beefalo in heat attack almost everything on sight after all. Pigs, pengulls, tentacles, and treeguards deal a good amount of damage to hounds and may even win the fight under the right circumstances. Tallbirds, bees, and spiders make for good distractions but will almost always lose the fight with the hounds.

Depending on your world settings you may have more options available as well. For example, if you have mandrakes set to lots, then you also have enough of an abundance of them to casually knock out enemies to either get away or get a few cheap shots in. If you are set to default though, those are rare and precious and should not be wasted. Another example, if you tend to set clockworks to more (or are insane enough to pick lots) because you hate gear hunting like me, you can also usually find a rhino to pit against the hounds.

[Justice]

You can also use Lureplants as trap against hounds

[Freybjörn]

I don’t know why, but i almost never met people who love swamps. Let's say, out of fifty people with whom i spoke on this topic.. Only five people shared my enthusiasm. As for me - tentacles are OP
In general, if not talking about marsh: hives of wild bees, beefalo, mechanic figures, toads by toad's rain walking in the place, then u safety get them spawnin'
Anything that can somehow give them a fight. At the beginning of the game, while there are not many of them, try to practice killing them. It is important to learn how to kite them. Two AA - run away - repeat until victorious
Just now noticed - 67 days? It’s strange that now it’s still a problem for you, of course, at this day here will be more of them (but even then up to a certain limit), however.. Try to tame the pigs/bunnies (or spiders) for this business, stone lobsters btw as so imbalanced weapon
You should use expirience of games, like Skyrim - a companion in heavy armor with a shield (not like a dd with a two-handed sword or light armor) can be so usefull. In general it is calmer alone in any game, -n here is too, but for such situations, in the best traditions of MMO and MMORPG, you will need someone who will just tanky for u, after which you can kill them one by one. Even a chester or birds nearby can distract the hounds will do the trick, when you take turns dealing with one or two. As mentioned above - the lureplant will be able to hold them in the stanlock for a bit while you kill them

[Big Bobby Sue]

You can also have a few log suits in your inventory and when one is used up the next will automatically be used. Same for your weapon and your football helmet.

Mostly, you should be saving hounds teeth to build tooth traps and place them all together somewhere close to your camp. Put some fireflies on there so you can find them in the dark.

[Big Bobby Sue]

Originally posted by RoboEmperor:

git gud

stockpile football helmets and logsuits
keep a ham bat ready at all times
when hounds attack hold down the attack button

done. the end.

if u git better use night armor and dark sword.

if u wanna cheese then just bring a couple of rock lobsters up and pen them in with stone walls and just run to them whenever the hounds attack.

The people who recommend tooth traps are cowards. i thought the bigger hound waves needed a sea of tooth traps but i was wrong. the hounds come to you one at a time so simply holding down the attack button will kill all the hounds.

Wow. What a rude comment.

I don't like fighting, I tend to get killed and lose my game. Not that I have to explain my choices to you.

They do not wait and come one at a time. Sorry, I have played enough and I know that's not true. The first few do. Have you ever lived past the first few?

How about you play your way and I play mine and nobody calls anyone else rude names??

[Big Bobby Sue]

Ok dude. Keep being rude. I reported you.

[RIZURPER]

try to bring stone crabs from cave to surface

[Damo!!]

Totally late to the party here, but hounds definitely can be a problem in later days even with good armor and weapons because of how they swarm. They always seem to come at the worst times too! I find personally that getting a tooth trap pit up as early as you can (each on takes a log, a hound tooth, and rope to create). A good tooth trap field is about 30-40, but by the time you get there, leading hounds to their place of death will be second nature to you. Just be wary of lureplants as I've lost many a toothtrap field to forgetting to place said field on man-made turf (wooden boards, cobblestone, carpeted, or checkered floor). Lure plant eyes can't spawn on those BUT they can reach over, so don't place your traps too close to the edge. Lureplants are generally good hound repellents by the way, but they will lose to fire hounds. Still, they will at the very least distract hounds for long enough for you to run if needed.

Regarding hounds teeth, you can get them via normal hounds at a relatively low drop rate, ice/fire hounds (which have less hp but better tooth drops and a chance for their respective color gems too), hound mounds in the desert (which early on are the quickest way to get them and if you can find one or two that are isolated you can tank the hound attack with a football helmet and a ham bat or tentacle spike), or you can also find them in tumbleweeds.

It's good to know where helpful mobs are like beefalo and pigmen, but they will have some issues with the fire hounds in particular due to the whole lighting stuff on fire thing. That said, when running from hounds, stick to roads and if it's during the day try to run past flowers and such as hounds will become distracted by butterflies and basically anything they see. While they won't despawn if they're offscreen, you can at the very least thin out the immediate herd attacking you and then go back and pick the other ones off.

Lastly, hound attacks almost invariably happen to me whenever I've come out of a long cave dive. Be prepared for that. If you have the inventory space, you can always use a pan flute (assuming you got lucky at a glommer statue). If all else fails, a life-giving amulet can be a last resort. If you're going to die, you might as well die with a chance to come back again. The amulet puts nearby mobs to sleep and respawns you where you're at, which should give you enough time to pick up your stuff and haul outta there until you're more prepared.

tl;dr - Toothtraps are your friends, so are lureplants (as long as they don't eat your traps). Hounds have shiny object syndrome and can be distracted by anything. Try not to come out of caves lacking armor or a life-giving amulet if you have one available.