Combat & gear · How it works
Monsters of the night
When and where monsters appear, how they find you, and how light keeps your base safe.
In the game
How to get it
Monsters appear in the dark: at night, or under any roof with no light. They see you, hear you, wander toward you and come to the noise of broken blocks. No monster appears within 14 m of a torch or a lantern, 8 m of a candle.
What it is for
Light your base and you are safe at home; the monsters' parts -- string, glowing parts, venom, shells, glands -- feed many crafts and the rockets.
Why it exists
Clear rules, so you can be safe at home, explore on purpose, and build farms that turn the night into resources.
The same text the game shows in its progress tree and on the item's sheet (I).
Openworld's monsters follow clear rules. Learn them and the night stops being a surprise.
Where they appear
- Darkness: night, or any place covered by a roof within 64 m above -- a cave, a closed room without light. A closed dark room spawns zombies even at noon.
- No player light near: no monster appears within 14 m of a torch, a lantern, a lit lamp or a fireplace, 8 m of a candle, 15 m of a street lamp. Lava, glowing mushrooms and crystals do not count.
- Out in the open they appear 24 to 64 m from you; in caves and closed rooms 16 to 40 m.
- Some ask for more: lava (imps, magma golems), mushrooms (shroomers), still water deep down (slimes), crops (scarecrows), the open sky (ghosts), big caverns 48 m down (bats). See each creature's page.
How they find you
- Sight: a monster that sees you comes (28 m at Normal). Walls block its sight; leaves and water do not.
- Hearing: about 10 m at Normal, through walls.
- Wandering: an idle monster often walks toward the nearest player.
- Noise: breaking a block calls the monsters around -- digging at night is loud.
- The difficulty changes all of these: see Difficulty.
How light protects you
- A monster that stays 3 seconds within reach of your light goes up in smoke and leaves nothing. Imps are the exception: light draws them.
- Most night walkers also burn away after 3 s in daylight under the open sky (golems, bats, mimics, rooted plants and sea creatures do not).
Why fight them
Their parts go straight into what needs them: string for bows and coils, glowing parts for torches and chips, venom and stingers to harden epoxy, shells for heat shields, glands for engines. See Monster parts and the Mob farm.
On the progress path
SV1SurvivalMain path
A sub-action of the step Flint: not needed to go on, but counted in your progress.
- This stepSV1 · Flint
- NextSV2 · Swords