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Wormwood

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

Overview​

The wormwood.lua prefab implements the gameplay logic for the Wormwood character in Don't Starve Together, centered around the bloomness component that controls a 4-stage bloom progression system. It integrates with components such as sanity, health, hunger, petleash, skilltreeupdater, and acidlevel to deliver unique mechanics: sanity restoration from planted crops (within range), pet tending/skill coordination, photosynthetic health regen in daylight, and special behavior under acid rain. Bloom stages also affect movement speed, hunger rate, and visual skin.

Usage example​

local wormwood = SpawnPrefab("wormwood")
wormwood.components.bloomness:SetLevel(1)  -- Stage 1 bloom
wormwood.components.bloomness:Fertilize(10)  -- Advance bloom stage
wormwood.components.skilltreeupdater:ActivateSkill("wormwood_blooming_photosynthesis")  -- Enable photosynthesis

Dependencies & tags​

Components used: bloomness, sanity, health, hunger, petleash, skilltreeupdater, skinner, talker, playerspeedmult, burnable, foodaffinity, fertilizable, eater, farmplanttendable, mine, temperature, acidlevel, hunger.

Tags: Adds plantkin, self_fertilizable, and conditionally beebeacon (when stage > 0). Removes beebeacon when stage <= 0.

Properties​

PropertyTypeDefault ValueDescription
fullbloombooleannilSet to true when bloom level is 3 (full bloom). Enables AOE tending, pollen/seed FX, and photosynthesis.
beebeaconbooleannilSet to true when bloom level is ≥1; adds beebeacon tag.
overrideskinmodestringnilCurrent skin build override name (e.g., "stage_2"). Controls visual progression.
pollentasktasknilPeriodic task for spawning pollen FX. Active only during full bloom.
planttasktasknilPeriodic task for spawning plant FX. Active only during full bloom.
pollenpooltable{1,2,3,4,5}Pool of randomized pollen/seed variations used for FX.
plantpooltable{1,2,3,4}Pool of randomized plant FX variations.
plantbonusestable{}List of pending sanity bonuses over time.
plantpenaltiestable{}List of pending sanity penalties over time.
photosynthesizingbooleanfalseTrue when photosynthesis is active.
_loadingbooleanfalseInternal flag used during world loading.

Main functions​

UpdateBloomStage(inst, stage)​

  • Description: Synchronizes Bloom stage changes with gameplay and visual state: enabling/disabling bee beacon, full bloom AOE effects, stats modifiers, and player skin. Also manages queued state changes (e.g., morph waiting for state graph exit). Called automatically by bloomness.onlevelchangedfn.
  • Parameters: inst (entity instance), stage (number, optional) — defaults to current bloomness:GetLevel().
  • Returns: Nothing.
  • Error states: May defer morph logic if in a nomorph state (sets _queued_morph = true and waits for "newstate").

DoAOEeffect(inst)​

  • Description: Executes full-bloom AOE effect. Tends farm plants in range, resets bramble traps (if skill "wormwood_blooming_trapbramble" is active), and updates photosynthesis state (if "wormwood_blooming_photosynthesis" is active). Called periodically every 0.5 seconds during full bloom.
  • Parameters: inst (entity instance).
  • Returns: Nothing.

OnFertilized(inst, fertilizer_obj)​

  • Description: Handles fertilizer application (from compost, manure, formula). Delegates to specialized handlers (OnFertilizedWithFormula, OnFertilizedWithCompost, OnFertilizedWithManure) based on nutrient type. Used by the fertilizable component.
  • Parameters: inst (entity instance), fertilizer_obj (entity).
  • Returns: true if nutrients were processed; nil otherwise.

OverrideAcidRainTickFn(inst, damage)​

  • Description: Overrides default acid rain damage behavior. Instead of taking damage, Wormwood gains formula-based fertilizer (which may advance bloom stage).
  • Parameters: inst (entity instance), damage (number, typically negative).
  • Returns: Nothing.

CalcBloomRateFn(inst, level, is_blooming, fertilizer)​

  • Description: Calculates bloom progress rate. Uses season modifiers and fertilizer amount to compute the tick rate. Used by bloomness.calcratefn.
  • Parameters: inst (entity instance), level (number), is_blooming (boolean), fertilizer (number).
  • Returns: Rate multiplier (number).

CalcFullBloomDurationFn(inst, value, remaining, full_bloom_duration)​

  • Description: Calculates how long full bloom lasts when fertilized during bloom phase. Respects "wormwood_blooming_max_upgrade" for extended duration. Used by bloomness.calcfullbloomdurationfn.
  • Parameters: inst (entity instance), value (fertilizer amount), remaining (current timer), full_bloom_duration (base duration).
  • Returns: New total timer value (number).

OnPollenDirty(inst)​

  • Description: Spawns local pollen FX when the pollen netvar changes (triggered via "pollendirty" event).
  • Parameters: inst (entity instance).
  • Returns: Nothing.

SpawnBloomFX(inst)​

  • Description: Spawns bloom transformation FX (e.g., wormwood_bloom_fx). Only runs on the client (not dedicated server).
  • Parameters: inst (entity instance).
  • Returns: Nothing.

WatchWorldPlants(inst) / StopWatchingWorldPlants(inst)​

  • Description: Listens for "itemplanted" and "plantkilled" events in the world and grants/penalizes sanity over time depending on distance (using SanityRateFn for gradual changes). Also triggers immediate sanity delta + announce for self-planted/killed plants. Used at spawn/resurrection and removed on ghosting/death.
  • Parameters: inst (entity instance).
  • Returns: Nothing.

UpdatePhotosynthesisState(inst, isday)​

  • Description: Manages health regen via "photosynthesis_skill" source. Enabled only during full bloom + skill activation + daylight + not a ghost.
  • Parameters: inst (entity instance), isday (boolean).
  • Returns: Nothing.

PetLeash callbacks​

  • OnSpawnPet, OnDespawnPet, OnRemovedPet
    • Description: Update pet-count-dependent effects for lightfliers (light radius, pattern order) and fruitdragons (max health, buffing). Triggers RecalculateLightFlierLight, RecalculateLightFlierPattern, and RecalculateDragonHealth.
    • Parameters: inst (entity instance), pet (entity instance).
    • Returns: Nothing.

Events & listeners​

  • Listens to:

    • "itemplanted" (world) — Sanity bonus for nearby planted crops.
    • "plantkilled" (world) — Sanity penalty for nearby killed plants.
    • "equip" / "unequip" — Manages headgear symbol override (beard).
    • "ms_becameghost" — Resets bloom to 0, stops plant watching.
    • "ms_respawnedfromghost" — Restores bloom and plant watching.
    • "ms_playerreroll" / "death" — Removes all Wormwood pets.
    • "stopghostbuildinstate" — Triggers bloom FX on exiting ghost build.
    • "pollendirty" / "bloomfxdirty" — Client-side FX synchronization.
    • "newstate" — Handles deferred morph if in nomorph.
    • "season" world state — Applies spring fertilizer bonus at season change.

  • Pushes: No events directly.

    • Uses SanityRateFn to incrementally apply sanity delta via Sanity.DoDelta.
    • Talker announcements ("ANNOUNCE_GROWPLANT", "ANNOUNCE_KILLEDPLANT", "ANNOUNCE_BLOOMING") via talker:Say().