This was done because you can't do a Merm War the same way you can with Pigs or Bunnies. You need to recruit each Merm you want gone and they will only ever fight one Merm at a time. (You could make it so that the Merm attacks the Merm King so that all other Merms will attack that one, but you still need to recruit them, so it's annoying. Couldn't tell you if this is intentional or bugged because of how buggy Wurt's release is.) Otherwise, this is an almost fully automated Mermguard farm. Gems and Merm Hats are the only thing you'll keep needing, though Merm Hats can be preserved for an extremely long time via Bundles since you are only ever wearing it for less than 30 seconds out of the total 6 minutes.
Crafted Merm houses may be easier to make, but Mermguards respawn 4 times faster than those from the Crafted Merm Houses. (2 days while the Merm House vs half a day with the Merm Watch Tower).
Not only that, the Merm King serves as a nice on/off switch to the farm as well since the Merm Guards won't spawn unless a Merm King is alive. That way, you don't have to worry about mobs clipping out of the fences or statues.
I find that the converted Merm-to-Merm King lasts 4 days before it starves to death (without giving it additional food) . And since Merms from the crafted Merm Houses respawn every two days, it's replacement is on standby. Since the Merm Guards respawn every 240 seconds, you're getting just a ton of fish and frog legs every day, which is why I chose them instead of the Regular Merms.
6 Kelp is all you need to turn the next Merm into a Merm King, and since the Bull Kelp regrows a piece of Kelp every 3 days, 6 Bull Kelps will always be there for when the next Merm you want to convert.
When Merm King dies, it (seems to) summon 4 Merm Guards, but through AI manipulation, they make their way to the statues at the bottom and get killed by the catapults.
My (Initial-ish) Opinion On Wurt If You're Curious:
You would think Klei had learned their lesson about making characters that have structure based perks that don't need said character after it's been built, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Also, Warly, Wormwood & Wortox are characters that really made an impact on the game while Wurt doesn't really bring anything different to the game. (You can also circumvent the DLC requirement to making Wurt structures on your own worlds if you know where to look in the lua).
Her "downsides" are hard to call as downsides (Vegetarian only diet covers actually covers a lot of foodtypes, ie. Foodtype Veggies, Seeds, Generic & Goodies - including stuff like Honey - and is kinda nullified by the fact she gets a bonus to foodtype Veggies. She can't trade with Pig King but flint tools exist. Only time I've ever run out of gold is in the mid-to-late game when I was using Opulent Tools regularly (while having tons of flint) or Scaled Chests. Dealing with pigs as Webber/Wortox is nothing new now).
Don't really see much of a reason to keep the Merm King alive since you can see how easily replaceable he is. His loot table for trading fish for stuff is not inspiring either imo (untradeable trinkets for Wurt, seeds, spoiled food, tentacle spots, and these specific seeds: durian seeds, pepper seeds, eggplant seeds, pumpkin seeds, onion seeds, garlic seeds. Can't be bothered to figure out the chances for them either, but seems rare-ish).
Her upsides of stat boosts are extremely buggy atm (relogging and changing shards puts you back to max stats) and is just a stat boost from default Wilson stats to better overall stats at the end of the day.
Speed boost on swamp turf is a poor man's Cobblestone that only affects Wurts. You also only need the swamp turf to place down the structures, but you can change them to your turf of choice later.
Books are ok for sanity gain if it's an issue for you, but doesn't really matter to me. Same goes for the sanity gain from having a piece of fish in your inventory, but that also seems bugged since a cooked fish will give you sanity, even though Wurt says "Fish are friends, not food!"
Merms are just better choppers than pigs & bulkier than Bunnies; two things that have already been a part of the DS/T experience.
Fish Cordon Bleu from Warly is better than her Strong Grip perk cause you'll still freeze and lose sanity when wet as Wurt. With the Cordon Bleu (inedible to Wurt lol), you won't face that issue cause you'll never get wet under its effect. Only advantage that perk has is that you don't lose any stats or your inventory when you drown at sea (except for what's in your hand, despite the name).
I'm just not feeling it with this character the same way I was with Wortox, Warly, and Wormwood. Probably because this is the main thing that she can offer, which I'm debating on modding to the game to see what happens (I would think making Wormwood's craftables available to all wouldn't cause as much as a fuss as Wurt's, which tells you a lot about this character imo).
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