Sgstalker

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-08

Overview

SGstalker is the stategraph responsible for controlling the stalker's behavior in Don't Starve Together. It orchestrates transitions between states based on internal flags, incoming events (e.g., attacks, summons, roars), and game state. It handles unique stalker abilities such as spawning shields, summoning minions and channelers, activating mind control, executing taunts, and managing visual/audio effects—including camera shakes, emissive blinking, sound fading, and visual trails. The stategraph integrates with core systems like locomotion, physics, health, entity tracking, and epicscare, and maintains state tags to coordinate interruptibility, busy status, and interaction permissions during complex animations.

Usage example

-- Example: Triggering a roar that may initiate the taunt state
if not inst.sg:HasStateTag("busy") and not inst.sg:HasStateTag("roar") then
    inst.sg:GoToState("taunt")
end

-- Example: Setting blink intensity based on threat level
if threat_level > 0.8 then
    BlinkHigh(inst)
elseif threat_level > 0.3 then
    BlinkMed(inst)
else
    BlinkLow(inst)
end

Dependencies & tags

Components used:

• CommonHandlers — for OnLocomote, OnSink, OnFallInVoid, and HitRecoveryDelay
• TUNING.STALKER_HIT_RECOVERY — hit recovery timeout constant
• TUNING.STALKER_SPEED — walk speed reset constant
• TUNING.ATRIUM_GATE_DESTABILIZE_DELAY — used in death3_pst timeline
• locomotor — used to halt movement (:StopMoving()) in gate states
• AnimState — for animation control (:PlayAnimation, :PushAnimation, :AnimDone, :GetCurrentAnimationLength)
• SoundEmitter — for sound playback and fading (:PlaySound)
• sg — stategraph interface (:GoToState, :AddStateTag, :RemoveStateTag, :SetTimeout)
• components.health — to check :IsDead() in flinch_loop, fallapart
• components.epicscare — for scare effect (:Scare(5)) in eat_loop, mindcontrol_loop
• components.entitytracker — for retrieving stargate entity (:GetEntity("stargate"))
• inst.Physics — for stopping physics (:Stop()) in gate states
• inst.Transform — for facing control (:SetSixFaced, :SetFourFaced, :ForceFacePoint)

Tags:

• INLIMBO, notarget, invisible, noattack, flight, playerghost, shadow, shadowchesspiece, shadowcreature, shadow — part of AREAATTACK_EXCLUDETAGS
• busy, idle, canrotate, moving, hit, attack, snare, spikes, summoning, feasting, roar, movingdeath, delaydeath, caninterrupt, usinggate, flinching, hasshield, attacked, attacker, NOCLICK, skullache, fallapart, mindcontrol
• Direct manipulation:
  • NOCLICK added in death{,2,3}_enter, removed on exit
  • busy added in eat_loop, eat_pst, mindcontrol_pre, mindcontrol_loop, mindcontrol_pst, flinch, flinch_loop, skullache, fallapart, idle_gate, idle_gate_loop, idle_gate_pst; removed in eat_pst, mindcontrol_pst, idle_gate_pst
  • feasting added in eat_loop
  • mindcontrol added in mindcontrol_pre, mindcontrol_loop, mindcontrol_pst
  • flinch added in flinch, flinch_loop
  • delaydeath added in flinch, flinch_loop, skullache, fallapart
  • usinggate added in idle_gate, idle_gate_loop
  • caninterrupt added in idle_gate, idle_gate_loop, idle_gate_pst
  • skullache added in skullache
  • fallapart added in fallapart
• Instance properties (no direct tag ops): returntogate, atriumstalker, foreststalker, persists, mindcontrolsoundtask

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
returntogate	boolean	false	Indicates whether the stalker should return to gate behavior
foreststalker	boolean	false	Determines if visual trail effect should be applied
atriumstalker	boolean	false	Likely used to distinguish Atrium variant behavior
persists	boolean	false	Entity persistence flag
hasshield	boolean	false	Flag indicating active shield state
wantstoroar	boolean	false	Temporary flag indicating pending roar intent
wantstoflinch	boolean	false	Temporary flag indicating pending flinch intent
wantstoskullache	boolean	false	Temporary flag indicating pending skullache intent
wantstofallapart	boolean	false	Temporary flag indicating pending fallapart intent
mindcontrolsoundtask	Task	nil	Task handle for sound fade-out scheduling

Main functions

ShakeIfClose(inst)

• Description: Triggers a full-screen camera shake with parameters tuned for proximity; activated when the stalker is near players.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

ShakeRoar(inst)

• Description: Triggers a stronger and longer full-screen camera shake during roar or taunt actions.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

ShakeSummonRoar(inst)

• Description: Triggers a moderate full-screen camera shake used during minion or channeler summoning roars.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

ShakeSummon(inst)

• Description: Triggers a vertical-only camera shake during minion summoning.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

ShakePound(inst)

• Description: Triggers a vertical-only camera shake during ground-pound attacks (e.g., snare or spikes).
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

ShakeMindControl(inst)

• Description: Triggers a strong full-screen camera shake when mind control activates.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

ShakeDeath(inst)

• Description: Triggers a vertical-only camera shake during death animations.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

SetBlinkLevel(inst, level)

• Description: Adjusts the stalker’s emissive tint via SetAddColour and dynamic light intensity via SetLightOverride, based on the level (0.0 to 1.0).
• Parameters:
  • inst — the stalker entity instance.
  • level — float value from 0 (off) to 1 (full intensity).
• Returns: nil

BlinkHigh(inst)

• Description: Sets the blink level to 1.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

BlinkMed(inst)

• Description: Sets the blink level to 0.3.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

BlinkLow(inst)

• Description: Sets the blink level to 0.2.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

BlinkOff(inst)

• Description: Sets the blink level to 0.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

DoTrail(inst)

• Description: Calls inst:DoTrail() only if inst.foreststalker is true; creates a visual trail effect for forest variant.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

PickShield(inst)

• Description: Determines which shield variant (1, 2, 3, or 4) to spawn. Prioritizes main shields (3/4) if cooldown MAIN_SHIELD_CD = 1.2 has elapsed.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: Integer 1, 2, 3, or 4, or nil if no shield is selected (e.g., shield is still on cooldown).
• Error states: Returns nil silently on cooldown.

StartMindControlSound(inst)

• Description: Ensures the mind control looping sound is playing; cancels any pending fade-out task and restarts playback if not already playing.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

OnMindControlSoundFaded(inst)

• Description: Called after a 10-second fade-out; resets mindcontrolsoundtask and kills the sound.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

StopMindControlSound(inst)

• Description: Initiates a 10-second fade-out of the mind control sound (volume ramped to 0) and schedules OnMindControlSoundFaded.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: nil

ShouldReturnToGate(inst)

• Description: Checks if the stalker should return to gate behavior: returns true only if inst.returntogate is true and it has no combat target.
• Parameters: inst — the stalker entity instance.
• Returns: boolean — true if returning to gate is valid; false otherwise.

Events & listeners

Listened events:

• death: transitions to appropriate death state, except those with delaydeath tag.
• doattack: if not busy/dead, transitions to attack.
• fossilsnare: if not busy/dead, passes data.targets to snare.
• fossilspikes: if not busy/dead, transitions to spikes.
• shadowchannelers: if not busy/dead, transitions to summon_channelers_pre.
• fossilminions: if not busy/dead, transitions to summon_minions_pre.
• fossilfeast: if not busy/dead, transitions to eat_pre.
• mindcontrol: if not busy/dead, transitions to mindcontrol_pre.
• attacked: handles shield spawn, hit recovery, and interrupt logic; transitions to hit unless blocked. Also decrements data.resist in eat_loop when no shield is present.
• roar: transitions to taunt if possible; otherwise sets wantstoroar.
• flinch: sets wantstoflinch and transitions to flinch if possible.
• skullache: transitions to skullache immediately or sets wantstoskullache.
• fallapart: transitions to fallapart immediately or sets wantstofallapart.
• animover: triggers state transitions when main animation ends in eat_loop, eat_pst, mindcontrol_pre, mindcontrol_loop, flinch, idle_gate, idle_gate_loop, fallapart.
• animqueueover: triggers transitions when animation queue ends in flinch_loop, skullache.

Pushed events:

• None identified.