"Chomper" redirects here. For another variant of Chomper, see Black Chomper.

Red Chomper
Location
Spawns randomly in Old Woods Biome Bunker Entrance Wedding Village The Bridge Broken Truck Ruins Great Lake
Behavior	Aggressive
Attack type	Melee
Drops	Odd Meat Random loot
Health	90
Running Speed	Fast-Medium
Stamina	Unknown
View Distance	200
Damage	Medium
Notes	Can be baited with Meat.
Release	Initial release

Red Chompers are aggressive creatures in Darkwood. They are very dangerous and attack on sight. Despite their relatively early appearances, they are one of the strongest creatures and can pose great challenge even in late game.

They appear to be humans that have gone through the final stage of the Plague: their heads have torn in two all the way down to their chests, forming a large mouth filled with teeth.

Red Chompers can be found in a few preset locations in the Silent Forest such as the Broken Truck, and are often found roaming the Old Woods and the Swamp. They have a high chance of spawning near the Old Woods Hideout during the night.

Dormant Red Chompers can be found in many locations. They will get up and become hostile if stepped on or attacked.

Some Red Chompers (including all dormant ones) will be split in half with a melee weapon after being defeated, revealing the lower half of the body, the legs, to be human. The top half will still try to chase and attack the Protagonist by crawling with its arms, at a much lower speed and leaving a trail of blood behind it, until it is killed.

When killed, Red Chompers always drop Odd Meat, and occasionally random loot such as Rags or Wires. Rarely, they can drop a 9V Battery. Additionally, a split Chomper's lower body can be looted after a day, yielding one extra Odd Meat.

Variants

There are multiple notable variants of the Red Chomper:

• A unique Red Chomper can also be found at the Wedding. This variant wears a torn wedding dress and appears to be the bride, along with mocking the dance shown off by the brides seen before. It is the only Red Chomper found in the Dry Meadow, and likely the first Red Chomper the player will face.
• A small Red Chomper is encountered in the Village Well. This unique Red Chomper drops the Doll. Despite its small size, it has the same attack power as a full-sized Chomper, but easier to kill than the regular variant because of its lower attack range and health. There's also a chance it will retreat after being hit.
• Antek is a Red Chomper (and presumably a former Villager) encountered in The Village, which the Village Leader uses to control the other Villagers. If the Protagonist kills The Sow in the Pig Shed, he is told to go to the Mayor's House, and then enter the Village Cellar. Once inside, the exit door is locked and Antek is released from his cell by two hostile Villagers, forcing the Protagonist to kill them all. Breaking into the Mayor's House by force will also result in Antek's release. In-game, Antek is physically identical to other Red Chompers, but has a chain leash attached to him, confining him to the Village Cellar.
• There are also the Musician's parents, the Half-Dead Man and the Half-Dead Woman, who turn into Red Chompers if a certain interaction isn't performed. It is unknown at the moment if they have regular Chomper models.

Related to Red Chomper is the 'illusory' Black Chomper, a much stronger version of the Red Chomper that only appears in dreams. A Red Chomper covered in Black Substance is often confused with a Black Chomper, the definitive distinction is whether if it appears in a dream or not.

Attacks

Chompers have two attacks:

• Charge attack: can be dodged by walking left or right, cannot be dodged by running towards the opposite direction. Will not charge twice in a row. Can pre-charge weapon and safely punish the chomper after charge.
• Bite (melee attack): dealing half a pip of damage, cannot be dodged by walking left or right, but can be dodged by running away. Possible to hit the chomper head-on with a melee weapon (preferably the Shovel).

Strategy

Chompers will try to dodge melee attacks when walking but not when sprinting.

Chompers are carnivores and can be lured or distracted by dropping Meat onto the ground.

The Shovel, the Axe and shotguns are particularly effective at taking down Chompers.

Dormant Red Chompers can be easily executed with the Shovel with Sharpened upgrade or the Axe before they can attack. Note that one extra hit is needed to finish off the upper body.

With some finesse, a Red Chomper can be killed with just a Board With Nails by walking backward and hitting it repeatedly while evading its attacks at the same time. This strategy is not recommended for beginners.

In the Swamp, there are specific occasions where the Protagonist will encounter Red Chompers covered in Black Substance, which must be burned off with powerful light sources before damage can be done to the Chomper itself. These are most common during the night and in the Great Lake.

Confirmed weapon stats against Red Chompers

• It takes one shot to kill a Chomper with a Single Shot Shotgun, Double Barrel Shotgun or Pump Action Shotgun in close range. (v1.3)
• It takes two shots to kill a Chomper with a Hunting Rifle; the first shot takes away around 90% of the Chomper's health. (v1.1)
• It takes 5 shots to kill a Chomper with a Pistol. (v1.3)
• It takes three charged swings with a Sharpened Axe and four with a Sharpened Shovel to kill a Chomper. (v1.1)

Trivia

• The Small Red Chomper found in the Village Well is the child of Hanuska.
  • Dialogue with the Chicken Lady reveals that Hanuska's child was born hideously deformed, suggesting that the child was born heavily infected, if not already some sort of Red Chomper.
  • The Small Red Chomper was also probably thrown into the Village Well by the Villagers, as they forcefully took away the child from Hanuska and burned her house down, with her husband inside.

• There are several characters encountered in the game who seem to be transforming into Red Chompers, but haven't transformed yet (or may be unable to). This includes the Madman encountered in the Doctor's House (who has a noticeable split form down his head and complains about a headache), and the Musician.
  • There are also infected corpses that possibly have either started to transform into Red Chompers or are unable to complete the transformation. There are also similar looking bodies that are in fact dormant Red Chompers.
• The Bride Chomper used to disappear upon death before the 1.4 release.
• Game files mention a test "Blue Chomper". It is unknown whether this is a type of Chomper intended to be implemented.
• It is possible that the split-head appearance of the Chompers is a reference to John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982), specifically the famous blood test scene where Palmer is revealed to be a Thing. Both Palmer and the Chomper's heads are split in a similar manner, and Palmer's transformation causes large amounts of blood to cover his head, giving him a very "red" appearance.

Gallery

A dormant Red Chomper

A Chomper cut in half.

Bride Chomper from the Wedding

Small Chomper from the Village Well (dead)

A Red Chomper in the Old Woods.