How many rocks do I have to feed the Antlion to be safe for the whole season?

According to fandom's DST wiki, the Antlion has a window of a few days until you have to appease it. Different items will appease the Antlion for different set values.

Can you, on the first day of summer, walk to the Antlion and offer them enough items that you add by combining their value - e. g. for a summer that is ten days long, could you offer them thirty rocks; or would you be able to offer them fewer rocks because you don't have to appease them by the fourth day; can you even appease them for 10 consecutive days, or do you have to bring multiple offerings; is one offering from any one player enough for all players on that server?

All of these are aspects of my question - on day one of summer, suppose summer will be ten days long — how many rocks do I have to feed the Antlion so that they may leave me and all other players on the server alone for the whole season?

Solution 1:

According to some information I read, a Summer lasts 16 days in Don't Starve Together.

According to the Wikia page of the Antlion you linked to:

When the Antlion first spawns in Summer, players have about 4 days to pay tribute before it becomes enraged. [...] Players can either contribute Rocks, Trinkets, or Eggs to the Antlion and it will take away a bit of its rage. [...] One should keep in mind that its rage timer cannot exceed 6 days, so players may need to contribute a hefty amount of items to it at least twice throughout Summer in order to never be attacked.

So you can't just feed it tons of rocks on the first day and hope that it will leave you alone for the entire Summer. If you want it to leave you alone for the entire Summer, you will have to give it a frozen Heat Stone (put it in the fridge), give it to the Antlion and then kill it (it might be difficult if you're not used to it though).

You need the special Summer helmet to be able to move through the sand storm though. You can fish it up in the oasis during Summer. But if you're not lucky, the Antlion might get enraged before you even find it.

Alternatively, as the Wikia says, you can feed it twice in a Summer. Since a rock gives 0.33 days of respite, and the maximum is 6 days, then 3 rocks means around 1 day, so 18-19 rocks for 6 days.

Which means:

• First 3 days, you're fine.
• During the 4th day (before it ends), give it 18 rocks (or 19 if you're unsure).
• Come back 5 days and a half later to be safe (total: 8-9 days) and give 18 or 19 rocks again.
• Come back 5 days and a half later (total: 14-16 days). If Summer isn't over yet, you can give enough stone to last until Summer is over, just to be safe.

Personally, I usually kill it when I can, because you also earn some rewards for dealing with it:

If killed, the Antlion drops 4 Meat, 6–8 Desert Stones, a Lazy Deserter Blueprint, 2–4 Rocks and varying amounts of Trinkets.

The trinkets can then be brought back to the Pig King for gold, or to the Antlion on subsequent Summer.