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Difference between revisions of "Bogeyman"
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| − | #Being accompanied by at least one [[Adventure mode#Companions|companion]].<br /> | + | #Being accompanied by at least one [[Adventure mode#Companions|companion]]. However, if you go to sleep, there is a chance the companions will wander, even if you ask them to wait.<br /> |
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#Sleeping/waiting the night away inside a shelter (see below).<br /> | #Sleeping/waiting the night away inside a shelter (see below).<br /> | ||
#Sleeping/waiting/travelling [[Caverns|underground]] or in the more desolate [[biome|biomes]], such as [[mountain|mountains]], [[desert|deserts]], [[beach|beaches]], [[ocean|oceans]] and [[lake|lakes]]. | #Sleeping/waiting/travelling [[Caverns|underground]] or in the more desolate [[biome|biomes]], such as [[mountain|mountains]], [[desert|deserts]], [[beach|beaches]], [[ocean|oceans]] and [[lake|lakes]]. | ||
Revision as of 02:50, 24 October 2014
| This article was migrated from DF2014:Bogeyman and may be inaccurate for the current version of DF (v50.14). See this page for more information. |
v50.14 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF.Note that some content may still need to be updated. |
A bogeyman ñ is a night creature which attacks unwary adventurers who travel or sleep outside at night alone. Both fast travelling and travelling normally on the local map trigger bogeymen. The bane of many a young adventurer, bogeymen can prove to be deadly foes for the inexperienced and the unprepared.
Avoiding bogeymen
Fortunately, adventurers are not doomed to face bogeymen every time night falls. In fact, bogeymen can be avoided entirely by:
- Being accompanied by at least one companion. However, if you go to sleep, there is a chance the companions will wander, even if you ask them to wait.
- Sleeping/waiting the night away inside a shelter (see below).
- Sleeping/waiting/travelling underground or in the more desolate biomes, such as mountains, deserts, beaches, oceans and lakes.
When you are ambushed by bogeymen, you will get the message:
A turn after receiving this message, 4-6 bogeymen will begin spawning around you.
You will receive the message:
if you try to travel or sleep/wait while at least one of the bogeymen is still alive.
Dealing with bogeymen
If you're playing as an adventurer with a speed of over 1000, you may be able to run away from bogeymen. However, there is no escaping the night. No matter where you run, the bogeymen will teleport near you if you ever get too far away. You can get rid of these pesky creatures in three ways:
Killing them all
The most obvious solution. However it is probably the most difficult one for inexperienced adventurers, and anyone who attempts to do this should be well prepared. Once your adventurer becomes skilled, this will become a trivial task. See the "Fighting bogeymen" section for more information.
Surviving until dawn
Bogeymen will be vaporized by the morning sun, so if you can't kill them but are able to run away from them or dodge/block their attacks well, you have another option:keep on doing that until dawn breaks. Unfortunately, this can take quite a while, depending on the time of night you were ambushed.
Entering a shelter
"Shelter" here refers to (non-ruined) buildings, (inhabited or uninhabited) lairs (including shrines and labyrinths) and caves. Seeking refuge in such a place will make the bogeymen disappear in a puff of smoke. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why townspeople encourage you to spend the night in their homes. You can find the nearest shelter by examining the map in your Quest Log.
Once you succeed in doing one of the above, you'll get the message:
and then you can get back to adventuring.
Note that even if you successfully defeat bogeymen using any of the three methods described above, you can never get rid of them permanently, as they will ambush you again some other night if you do not take precautions. However, if you prefer not having to deal with bogeymen, generating a world with "Number of bogeymen types" set to 0 in advanced world generation will ensure that no bogeymen exist in your world.
Bogeymen are created procedurally at the start of world gen, much like Titans and Forgotten Beasts but to a lesser extent. The number of different types of bogeymen can be controlled in advanced world generation, as demonstrated in the previous paragraph. During a bogeyman ambush, you will face mixed types of bogeymen. For example, some Bogeymen are generated with wings and thus have the ability to fly, but this doesn't usually affect adventurers unless they too can fly. Others might be generated with appendages such as horns which can be used to gore the bogeyman's prey.
Bogeymen dissolve into harmless smoke shortly after being killed. Severed body parts can be picked up but they too vaporize quickly. However, it is sometimes possible to keep them if you pick them up and fast-travel away before they start smoking. Note that bogeymen cannot be butchered as they are considered sapient creatures. They also can't be animated by necromancers.
During a bogeyman attack, the "give up" option in the Esc screen becomes Give in to the night. Selecting this will end the game immediately. If you end the game in this way, or are otherwise killed by bogeymen, you will be described in Legends mode as having died in the the dark.
Fighting bogeymen
Bogeymen are tough because they have very high agility, giving them a high speed and are naturally skilled in unarmed combat and dodging, so their punches hurt and they are difficult to hit. With low weapon skills you'll have a hard time hitting them, but once you can hit them they become very easy to kill but if you know how to fight them effectively, they will go down surprisingly easily. Here are a few tips for fighting them:
- Don't panic. Always know where your towel is. Carefully planned manoeuvring is the key to survival.
- Use your size to your advantage. Bogeymen are surprisingly small relative to the playable races available in unmodded games. Set your combat preference to charge, and you will knock them over every time you strike. This can easily give you the upper hand in battle, as being prone slows bogeymen down and gives you more time to act.
- Wrestling moves will usually work. Bogeymen are so small that they have a hard time breaking wrestling holds from the other races. They do not feel pain so breaking bones will not disable them, but breaking a leg will slow them down.
- Your speed is an important factor when it comes to fighting bogeymen. Whilst a slow adventurer can be swarmed and killed in seconds, one who is faster than the bogeymen has a distinct advantage.
Remember, prone bogeymen are much slower, so charge at them as often as you can, so you can knock them off their feet. You could also try to sever off feet or legs, as this will make them permanently prone. If you are carrying a lot of heavy objects, it might be a good idea to drop your backpack or, better yet, throw the heavier and/or pointier objects at the bogeymen if they are not too close to you.
If you are really desperate for speed, you might also want to consider dropping your armor if it is slowing you down too much. Note that, while the extra speed might very well prove vital for your survival, you will also be more exposed to bogeymen attacks and will probably die faster if they manage to attack you and you are not a good dodger. You might want to consider keeping your helmet-a punch to the head by one of these creatures can easily ram your skull through your brain and end your life.
- Despite what your imagination might imply, bogeymen are actually organic creatures. This means that they can be killed by damage to the brain, beheading, bisection (the separation of the lower body from the upper body) and excessive blood loss, and it is also generally easy to sever limbs and break bones.
However, like a number of other night creatures, bogeymen do not feel pain and do not breathe, so they do not receive pain-related penalties or die from suffocation. This means that the most effective weapons to use against them are edged weapons. With sufficient weapon skill, it is easy to score a hit that will sever a limb or puncture a vital organ such as the heart. Due to their small size, it is also easy to chop off the head or the lower body, killing the bogeyman instantly.
- Whatever you do, don't allow yourself to get surrounded. If a group a bogeymen are approaching you from one direction, move in the opposite direction. This generally leads to them approaching you in a line rather than a group, as the fastest bogeyman reaches you first. Thus you can fight them one at time if you are fast enough.
- Don't let bogeymen get the initiative. If you let the bogeyman attack you their skilled punches will likely break a bone and you'll be dead. So you should charge at one, attack it and run away before it has the chance to strike back.
- If the odds are against you, don't hesitate to flee. Remember that you don't need to kill bogeymen to get rid of them - you just have to survive the night or enter a shelter. Thus you should try to run in the direction of the nearest town, fortress, cave or lair. If you have a high enough speed, running away should actually be quite easy, as the bogeymen won't be able to catch up with you despite their constant teleportation. If ever a bogeyman gets too close to you, charge at it to knock it over and slow it down, and then continue running.
- Above all, remember that losing is fun!