Wilderness Golem

Wilderness Golem

Type	Monster
Location	The Farm
HP	30
Damage	5
Defence	1
Speed	3
XP	5 [1]

The Wilderness Golem is the monster that grows out of the farm's own soil after dark. It pushes up through the ground, shuffles towards whoever is still out watering, and does its damage by walking into them, and a sword puts it down in a few swings. Its difficulty climbs with the farmer's Combat skill, so it never quite becomes free, and the real reason anyone welcomes it is the loot: Fiber in armfuls, Mixed Seeds, Omni Geodes, Iridium Ore and the rarest hat in the game, a crown of leaves called the Living Hat. One of these golems also has the most dramatic cameo of any monster in the valley, as the thing Abigail cuts down in her final heart scene.

Behaviour

A golem begins buried and emerges where the farmer is not looking. After that it drifts about without much purpose and only gradually works its way across the field, which is the one mercy of the fight: it is slow, so a farmer who spots one has time to decide whether to deal with it or finish the row of parsnips first.

There is nothing to dodge. No projectile, no charge, no second phase, just a body that hurts on contact, which makes a sword the obvious tool. A wide swing reaches the golem before the collision does, and a couple of hits is usually the whole encounter.

What keeps the golems relevant is the scaling. The stronger the farmer's Combat skill, the tougher the golems that rise, so a late-game farm still has something to fight rather than a nuisance that has been outgrown. On the Wilderness Farm the spawns happen inside the farm's own boundaries, which means the fight comes to the farmhouse door instead of waiting at the bottom of a mine.

Location

Night on the Wilderness Farm is the golem's natural habitat. That layout spawns monsters by default, and it pays for the privilege elsewhere: cliffs and water take up much of the map, there is less tillable ground than on other layouts, and the fishing is the weakest in the game, with most casts pulling up rubbish. Monster loot is part of what balances that trade.

Any other layout can be opened up. Handing a Strange Bun to the Dark Shrine of Night Terrors in the Witch's Hut switches farm monsters on permanently, and ticking the monster option when a save is created does the same from the start. Either route puts golems among the crops on a Standard Farm.

Bats and Truffle Crabs share the same darkness, and on a farm with a high Combat level the Iridium Golem joins them, which is the same silhouette with several times the health. Fighting on the farm has one quiet cost: a kill there hands over only a third of the usual Combat experience, and for this golem that rounds down to almost nothing.

Drops

Fiber is the staple. Nine golems in ten give some, and many give a second helping, which matters because the alternative is swinging a scythe at weeds one clump at a time. Grass Starters, Scarecrows, the Loom and the Worm Bin all want Fiber in quantity, and a night of golem clearing covers a season of crafting.

The seeds are the charming part. Mixed Seeds fall from about half of them, with a second roll on top, and planting those gives whatever crop the season allows. In Spring the golems also carry Rice Shoots, which otherwise have to be bought, so a Spring night of fighting is effectively a trip to the seed shop.

The valuables make the list worth reading twice. An Omni Geode drops on about one kill in twenty and holds anything the game's geodes can hold. Iridium Ore has two separate chances, Coal fills out the pile, and Earth Crystals appear rarely. Both the Diamond and the Prismatic Shard roll far more generously here than on most monsters, which puts a shard, and therefore an enchantment or a Galaxy weapon, within reach of a farmer who never leaves the farm.

Rarest of all is the Living Hat, a crown of leaves that no shop stocks. The odds are tiny, a hundredth of a percent, but they are still ten times better than the only other route, which is clearing weeds and hoping. For a farmer chasing the full hat collection, the Wilderness Farm at night is the place to do it.

Items this monster can drop when it is defeated, with the chance of each.

Item	Image	Chance
Coal		10%
Diamond		0.1%
Earth Crystal		0.5%
Fiber		90%
Fiber		50%
Living Hat		0.01%
Mixed Seeds		50%
Mixed Seeds		20%
Omni Geode		5%
Iridium Ore		1%
Iridium Ore		1%
Prismatic Shard		0.1%
Diamond		0.05%
Prismatic Shard		0.05%

Notes

Abigail's last heart scene belongs to this monster. Once she is married and her friendship is full, walking into the Backwoods during the day sets off an ambush: the farmer is knocked flat, Abigail arrives, draws her sword and kills the golem without hesitating, then quietly admits that she has never taken a life before. The scene is the reason many farmers recognise the golem's sprite long before one ever rises on their own land.

For anyone deciding whether to turn farm monsters on, the golem is the argument in favour. It is the weakest of the three monsters that rise from farm soil, it drops the most useful bulk material in the game, and it arrives on its own schedule without a mine trip.

Spring is the season to take the golems seriously. The Rice Shoot only appears on their list while Spring lasts, and Rice Shoots otherwise have to be bought, so the same fight is worth more in Spring than at any other point in the year.

All Monsters

Every entry in this group, with its key details.

Name	Location	HP	Damage
Armored Bug	Skull Cavern	1	8
Armored Bug (dangerous)	Skull Cavern	250	20-27
Bats	The Mines & Skull Cavern	24, 36, 80, 300,; 268, 277	06, 07, 15, 30, 13, 14
Blue Squid	The Dangerous Mines	310	18
Bug	The Mines	1	8
Bug (dangerous)	Dangerous Mines	250	15-16
Carbon Ghost	Skull Cavern; The Dangerous Mines	190	25
Cave Fly	The Mines	22	6
Cave Fly (dangerous)	Dangerous Mines	266	13-15
Duggy	The Mines	40	6
Duggy (dangerous)	Dangerous Mines	280	8
Dust Sprite	The Mines	40	6
Dust Sprite (dangerous)	The Mines	280	13-15
Dwarvish Sentry	Volcano Dungeon	300	18
False Magma Cap	Volcano Dungeon	290	15
Ghost	The Mines	96	10
Grub	The Mines	20	4
Grub (dangerous)	Dangerous Mines	265	12-13
Haunted Skull	Quarry Mine; The Mines random dungeon floors	160	15
Haunted Skull (dangerous)	Dangerous Mines	310	19-26
Hot Head	Volcano Dungeon	215	18
Iridium Crab	Skull Cavern	240	15
Iridium Golem	Wilderness Farm	430	15
Lava Crab	The Mines	120	15
Lava Crab (dangerous)	Dangerous Mines	340	19-26
Lava Lurk	Volcano Dungeon	220	15
Magma Duggy	Volcano Dungeon	380	16
Magma Sparker	Volcano Dungeon	310	15
Magma Sprite	Volcano Dungeon	220	15
Metal Head	The Mines	40	15
Metal Head (dangerous)	Dangerous Mines	280	19-26
Mummy	Skull Cavern	260	30
Mummy (dangerous)	Skull Cavern	445	38-55
Mutant Fly	Mutant Bug Lair, Skull Cavern	66	12
Mutant Grub	Mutant Bug Lair	100	12
Pepper Rex	Skull Cavern	300	15
Putrid Ghost	The Dangerous Mines	500	25
Rock Crab	The Mines	30	5
Rock Crab (dangerous)	Dangerous Mines	272	13
Royal Serpent	Skull Cavern	150 + (50 × tail segments)	32-48
Serpent	Skull Cavern	150	23
Shadow Brute	The Mines	160	18
Shadow Brute (dangerous)	Dangerous Mines	370	22-32
Shadow Shaman	The Mines	80	17
Shadow Shaman (dangerous)	Dangerous Mines	310	21-30
Shadow Sniper	The Mines	300	18
Skeleton	The Mines	140	10
Skeleton (dangerous)	Dangerous Mines, Quarry Mine	655	16-18
Skeleton Mage	Dangerous Mines, Quarry Mine	355	20-25
Slimes	The Mines, Skull Cavern, Quarry Mine, Secret Woods, Tiger Slime Grove, and Volcano Dungeon	Varies	Varies
Spider	The Mines (Shrine ON)	200	15
Squid Kid	The Mines	1	18
Squid Kid (dangerous)	The Dangerous Mines; Skull Cavern	250	22-32
Stick Bug	The Dangerous Mines	700	20
Stone Golem	The Mines	45	5
Stone Golem (dangerous)	Dangerous Mines	283	13
Truffle Crab	The Farm	30	5
Wilderness Golem	The Farm	30	5