Why does the screecher have SO MUCH health?

[COVID-19]

I'm new to the game and I WAS absolutely loving everything about it. Until I encountered the screecher - and, honestly, it sucked my enjoyment almost to zero.

The mechanic is pretty easy, I killed my first one without dying (on easy mode, though). But now, every time I find a big island, I get a brief moment of excitement until I remember that bird and I almost can't be bothered to even visit the island.

The problem is the amount of health the screecher has. It takes at least 6-7 metal arrows to kill, assuming you have perfect aim. It also takes ages to kill, so you probably only get to recover 1 arrow from its corpse. That means it wastes at least 1 metal ore per kill. It's also a really boring mechanic to fight, and even more tedious to avoid (by sprinting/hiding when it squarks).

I see there's a lot of hate for the shark on this board. To be honest, I like the shark. You can fight it, avoid it, repair its damage, distract it with bait, avoid it by parking your raft on one side of an island and farming the other, etc etc - in other words, it feels well integrated into the game. But the screecher just feels like a boring mechanic with 3-times too much health, just to prolong the encounter in the cheapest way possible.

Question: is there a mod to either (i) reduce its health significantly to reduce the cost/boredom of fighting it, (ii) reduce its spawn rate to 0, or (iii) switch my current easy-mode to peaceful mode so I don't have to interact with it any more? It's totally drained my desire to play.

[Hyslyne]

If you time it well you can hit it 2 times per turn, making it a little faster. Maybe you can even hit it 3 times ? Never tried.
I know there's a mod to change from a mode to another, but I never use mods so can't help you find it.

[Anonymous Helper]

I don't know about mods that changes screecher specifically (there are several that change the shark though) but there are mods that allow you to change difficulty. I don't remember which out of hand but you can find them here:

https://www.raftmodding.com/

[sharktemplar]

there's a mod on raftmodding that gives you control over all creatures, you can toggle them to be passive meaning the screecher can become just a big birb in the sky, that's the mod you'll be looking for

[King Seesar]

Right? It's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bird it shouldn't have so much health and it takes ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ forever to kill, it's so annoying!

[Some random dude]

Once you hear the screech before it drops the rock get outta the way.
If you don't have a bow just keep moving while looting the island, and it should work.

[MightBeAnNPC]

I totally feel you. The expiring arrows are worse than the high health. Doubling arrow lifespan would save a lot of headache.

[umpisusi]

Agreed. This game would really benefit from custom difficulty, with adjustable everything. For me the enemy respawning is way too fast to be fun.

[MightBeAnNPC]

Originally posted by umpisusi:

Agreed. This game would really benefit from custom difficulty, with adjustable everything. For me the enemy respawning is way too fast to be fun.

When it comes to screechers, though, since the big islands are all randomly-generated, the only screecher in the game that technically respawns is the one on Caravan Island, and that's only after you get way far from the island and come back. For the sake of the screecher kill achievement, screecher respawns (maybe a 12 minute clock to not make exploration suck) would actually be great.

I'm guessing with respawns, you're talking about a different enemy such as bears, lurkers, or our old buddy the shark