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Spoiledfood

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-07

Overview​

The spoiledfood.lua file defines three prefabs—spoiled_food, spoiled_fish, and spoiled_fish_small—used in Don't Starve Together. It centralizes common behavior via a shared factory function fn() to create entities with perishable, fertilizer, and fishing lure properties. Key responsibilities include:

  • Setting up fertilizer stats (nutrients, value, soil cycles) and making the item researchable.
  • Enabling inventory, stackable, fuel, edible, tradable, and loot-dropping functionality.
  • Implementing rain-based decay for food/lure variants using the disappears component (perish when exposed to rain).
  • Supporting work-based looting for fish variants (e.g., hammering releases loot from fish).

It is not a standalone component but a prefab factory, returning prefabs with pre-attached components and shared logic.

Usage example​

-- Create a spoiled food item with default fertilizer properties
local food = SpawnPrefab("spoiled_food")
food.components.fertilizer.fertilizervalue -- Defaults to TUNING.SPOILEDFOOD_FERTILIZE

-- Create a spoiled fish that yields loot when hammered
local fish = SpawnPrefab("spoiled_fish")
fish.components.workable:SetWorkLeft(10) -- Adjust work required before looting
fish.components.lootdropper:DropLoot()   -- Manually trigger loot drop

Dependencies & tags​

Components used:
fertilizer, smotherer, inspectable, inventoryitem, stackable, fertilizerresearchable, selfstacker, fuel, edible, tradable, oceanfishingtackle, disappears, lootdropper, workable, floater, driedsalticon, rainimmunity

Tags added:
icebox_valid, saltbox_valid, show_spoiled, fertilizerresearchable, selfstacker, oceanfishing_lure, spoiled_fish

Properties​

No public properties are initialized in this prefab factory—only component properties and prefab-specific configuration via fn() parameters.

Main functions​

fn(common_init, mastersim_init, nutrients, kind)​

  • Description: The core factory function that creates and initializes a spoiled_food-type entity. It configures components, tags, physics, and behavior based on kind ("food" or otherwise for fish variants). Returns the fully initialized entity instance. Must be called only during prefab definition.
  • Parameters:
    common_init (function) – Optional post-init hook for both client and server.
    mastersim_init (function) – Optional post-init hook for server/master simulation only.
    nutrients (table) – Nutrient composition for the fertilizer component.
    kind (string) – Either "food" for standard spoiled food or nil for fish variants.
  • Returns: inst (Entity) – The initialized entity with all components attached.
  • Error states: If kind ~= "food", fish assets and animations are used instead of food.

fish_onhit(inst, worker, workleft, workdone)​

  • Description: Callback for the workable component when a fish item is hammered. Calculates how many loot items to drop based on workdone and stack size, then spawns loot. If full loot is harvested, launches the remaining item toward the worker.
  • Parameters:
    inst (Entity) – The spoiled fish entity.
    worker (Entity) – The entity performing the work.
    workleft (number) – Remaining work ticks.
    workdone (number) – Cumulative work applied.
  • Returns: Nothing.
  • Error states: Loot is reduced if stack size is smaller than num_loots. May drop zero loot if workdone is insufficient.

fish_stack_size_changed(inst, data)​

  • Description: Listener for stacksizechange events that updates the workable component's required work left proportionally to stack size.
  • Parameters:
    inst (Entity) – The spoiled fish entity.
    data (table) – Event data containing stacksize.
  • Returns: Nothing.

GetFertilizerKey(inst)​

  • Description: Simple helper used by fertilizerresearchable to provide a unique research key based on the prefab name.
  • Parameters: inst (Entity) – The entity instance.
  • Returns: inst.prefab (string) – The prefab's identifier (e.g., "spoiled_food").

fertilizerresearchfn(inst)​

  • Description: Research function passed to fertilizerresearchable:SetResearchFn. Delegates to GetFertilizerKey for dynamic research key generation.
  • Parameters: inst (Entity) – The entity instance.
  • Returns: inst:GetFertilizerKey() (string).

food_mastersim_init(inst)​

  • Description: Server-side initialization for food variants (spoiled_food). Adds ocean fishing lure capabilities and rain-based decay logic.
  • Parameters: inst (Entity) – The entity instance.
  • Returns: Nothing.

food_OnIsRaining(inst, israining)​

  • Description: Watches world rain state and triggers/disables decay via disappears when the item is exposed to rain and not held.
  • Parameters:
    inst (Entity) – The entity instance.
    israining (boolean?) – Whether it is currently raining. Defaults to world state.
  • Returns: Nothing.

food_IsExposedToRain(inst, israining)​

  • Description: Determines if an item is exposed to rain (not held, not rain-immune).
  • Parameters:
    inst (Entity) – The entity instance.
    israining (boolean) – Rain state.
  • Returns: boolean – True if item should be affected by rain.

fish_mastersim_init(inst) and fish_small_mastersim_init(inst)​

  • Description: Server-side initialization for fish variants. Adds lootdropper, workable, and event listeners for stack size changes.
  • Parameters: inst (Entity) – The entity instance.
  • Returns: Nothing.

Events & listeners​

  • Listens to:
    gainrainimmunity (food variants only) – Stops decay when immunity is gained.
    loserainimmunity (food variants only) – Re-checks rain state to restart decay.
    ondropped (food variants only) – Re-checks rain state on drop.
    stacksizechange (fish variants only) – Updates work left when stack size changes.
    "israining" world state – Monitored via WatchWorldState to detect weather changes.

  • Pushes: None (this prefab does not define any events).