Night monsters: what comes out after dark, and how to make it to morning

What comes out at night?

Openworld is a voxel sandbox on a whole, round planet — walk straight and you come back to where you started — under a real sky with Moon phases and eclipses, all the way to the Sun, by way of the Moon and the planets. And like every good survival game, the day is for building and the night is for… holding on.

A full day lasts 25 minutes. When the Sun drops below the horizon, the world starts bringing out its night creatures: zombies first, then whatever fits the land you're standing on. A swamp has its slimes and its bomb toads, a desert its cactus golems and its sand djinn, the mountains their trolls and ice golems. Play the scene below: they come out of the dark toward the camp.

click the monsters · point at the scarecrow

Why do monsters spawn in the dark?

Every second and a half, the world tries to bring a creature somewhere around each player: a random spot between 24 and 64 meters away, never within 24 m of anyone. The place decides who may come (its biome, water or land), and the sky decides when: as long as daylight is low, the night species are allowed. About three tries in ten are made underground, in a cave pocket at least 6 m below the surface — and down there, it is night all day long.

• 12monsters at most around you (Normal)
• 24 mthe closest one can appear
• 25 mina full day on the planet
• 3 sfor a night walker to burn at dawn

The bestiary of the night

Each creature has its land, its habits and its weak spot. The behaviour below is at Normal difficulty; you have 100 health.

Zombie — everywhere

• Where: any land, and caves. Comes alone or in groups of up to three.
• What it does: claws, bites, slams — each blow takes a big bite out of your health.
• How to handle it: it walks slowly and runs at under 3.1 m/s; you walk at 4.3. You can always walk away… on Normal. Drops 1 to 3 bones.

Troll — mountains, taiga, snow, caves

• What it does: 2.6 m tall, a slam, a charge and a kick that hit far harder than a zombie. Always alone.
• How to handle it: its blows are slow (two seconds between them): hit, step back, hit again. It drops 3 to 5 bones, often a troll tusk… and sometimes a diamond it was carrying.

Ghost — any land

• What it does: floats, says BOO, scratches. It passes through walls — your hut won't stop it.
• How to handle it: a tamed cat chases ghosts away, and it fades out in your torches' light. It drops ectoplasm, a glowing part.

Scarecrow — the plains

• What it does: it can't move while someone is looking at it, and runs at you the moment nobody is. It notices a player from 32 m away, whatever the difficulty.
• How to handle it: keep it in sight and walk toward it. Drops straw.

Shadow cat — forest and taiga

• What it does: stalks you, then blinks to just behind you. Runs at 6.5 m/s: you won't outrun it.
• How to handle it: turn around when it vanishes. Drops fur.

Pumpkin fiend, slime, shroomer, imp

The small fry. The pumpkin fiend (forests and plains) glows like a lantern — handy, you see it from afar — spits, and drops a pumpkin. The slime (swamps, forests, caves) hops and drops gel, an epoxy binder. The shroomer (giant mushroom forests, forests, swamps, caves) drops spores, for purple dye and glowing dials. The imp (badlands and caves) comes in packs of two to four, runs fast and drops its fire gland.

Bomb toad — swamps

It hops up to you, swells for about a second, and bursts: everything within 3 meters gets hit, hardest at the center. Even killed, it still bursts. Keep your distance — a bow is your friend here.

Bats — caves and forests

By day they hang asleep from a cave roof; at night they fly in flocks of two to five and swoop at you. A cat chases them off. They drop guano, a fertiliser that also stands in for saltpetre in gunpowder.

The golems of the night

Heavy, slow, hard-hitting, and made of stone, ice or mud: the sun doesn't burn them. The ice golem walks the snow and mountains, the magma golem the badlands and the caves (five times more likely near lava, and it glows), the cactus golem the deserts and badlands, the coral golem rises from the shallows of a beach, and the mud golem sleeps sunk in its swamp until prey comes within 16 m. Golems hunt zombies too.

What are they weak to?

• The Sun. At dawn, a night walker with open sky above its head smokes, flashes and burns away in about three seconds — leaving nothing. A roof, a tree or a rock overhead saves it. Golems, bats, mimics, plants and sea creatures don't burn.
• Walls. Walkers hop up about one meter, no more, and no creature breaks blocks. A real wall keeps them out — except ghosts, which float through, and bats, which fly over.
• Your weapons and armor. A sword of any material, a bow for the bomb toads, and armor from hide to titanium to take the blows.
• Your animals. A tamed dog fights whatever attacks you, a cat chases ghosts and bats away, and a parrot ruffles up to warn you when a monster comes within 16 m.

How to survive the night

1. 1

   Build before sunset

   Four walls and a roof, even small. Walls taller than a meter keep walkers out. Not sure where to start? Our guide to building voxel by voxel.

2. 2

   Light it up

   Torches inside and around your walls: no monster spawns within 14 m of them, and what wanders into their light fades out. Ideas in decoration and light.

3. 3

   Sleep in a bed

   At night, a bed becomes your respawn point. And when every player on the planet is in bed, the night passes: the screen fades to black and the world wakes up at sunrise.

4. 4

   Gear up, step by step

   Iron armor, a good sword, a bow. Coal and iron are in every cave — our guide to your first night shows where to start.

5. 5

   Let the Sun work

   If the night is going badly, hold on under a roof until dawn. Whatever is left outside will burn.

Does difficulty change them?

A lot. The same night can be peaceful or terrifying depending on the world's difficulty level. At Easy, there are no monsters at all — those that were there vanish. At Normal, up to 12 come around you, they notice you from 20 m and a zombie chases you at about 3.1 m/s. At Terrible, three times as many come, they see you from 40 m, they hit two and a half times harder… and a zombie runs at 4.8 m/s: faster than you walk. You have to sprint.

Is it safer underground or outside?

Outside, by day, yes. Underground, it is always night: zombies, trolls, slimes, imps, bats and magma golems can appear in a cave at noon, and the Sun will never come to burn them. Go down with light, armor and a way back. Everything about what lies beneath is in our guide to caves.

And on the Moon?

Not much, and nothing of the night. The dustback grazes the lunar moss in herds and the geode snail crawls in craters and halls: both are gentle. The one to fear is the dust maw, which hides under the dust of the Moon's deserts and labyrinths and bursts out under its prey. If you want to go stand on the Moon, watch where you step.