In Don't Starve you mainly have to take care of three different things, hunger, health and sanity, which are displayed at the upper right corner of the screen. As long as you take good care of these three meters, you won't have too much problems to survive for some time, but everything changes when you meet the winter boss Deerclops for the first time.
Even if you don't activate the Reign of Giants DLC, Deerclops can suddenly show up at the end of winter and destroy all of your things without mercy. Often he also kills beefalos and other useful animals around and turns your cozy little camp into a field of destruction, if you even survive his attack yourself.

It's not easy to prepare lots of items for the fight

Most game guides tell you to prepare one stone fire pit, 2 helmets, 2 armors, one ham bat and a lot of tooth traps for boss fights. Of course that is a good strategy, but there is one problem.
It's just not that easy to prepare all of those items, when you just started the game, and try not to starve during the first winter at the same time. Honestly, when I first played the game, I just died because I didn't prepare enough food and warm clothes for the winter, and I didn't know that I would need a thermal stone to protect myself from the cold. So it's not easy to find time to perfectly prepare yourself for any boss fights.
A lot of people try to flee towards the Beefalos and make them fight with Deerclops, hoping that they will kill him. While this strategy works well during hound attacks, Deerclops is just too strong for beefalos and just kills them in short time. Maybe a large number of beefalos could do a bit of damage, but mostly they just die right away, when Deerclops hits the ground. Seeing all those beefalos die, is especially shocking because they are essential for farming and survival in general. Also there are not that many of them, it often takes quiet some time to find a herd, when you start a new game.

How to easily defeat Deerclops in Don't Starve

Lets take a look at a more cost-effective way to defeat Deerclops. One of the best approaches is to avoid close combat and take him into the swamp or into the spider forest. Of course it's best, if there are a lot of swamp pigs or spiders.
Make sure that you take Deerclops away from your camp, as soon as you hear him coming, so that he cannot destroy your stuff. He will repeatedly hit the ground while walking and smash everything in his way into pieces, so you need to act quickly. Also be careful to not take him anywhere near your pig friends.
Luckily it is very easy to know in advance when Deerclops is on his way because the ground will shake several times, like during an earthquake. But if you run away too soon, he will just destroy your camp, while you are away, so try to find him first.
While you take him to another area, you might also get hit a few times, and he cause a lot of damage, so try to wear at least a helmet and some wood armor and use a spear as weapon. Of course it would be much better with a ham bat and a better armor, but if you can't make those in time, this would be the bare minimum.

What about Tallbirds?

You might wonder why I didn't mention the Tallbirds, but they are weaker than you might think. Also there are not that many of them at once, so I wouldn't recommend to take Deerclops to the rocky area, where they live.

Then what about Treeguards?

If there is a Treeguard around, you are super lucky. Just make Deerclops fight with the Treeguard and enjoy the party. The bigger the Treeguard, the better, but I even saw a small Treeguard fight with Deerclops for quiet some time. After Deerclops is weakened from the fight, it will be much easier to finish him.

The best point about this strategy

If you take Deerclops to the swamp or spider forest, like I said above, make him fight with the monsters in the area and quickly flee to a safer area. He will be busy to fight with the swamp pigs or spiders, so you can use that time to eat some snacks and regenerate. Just lean back and enjoy the show from some distance.
If you are sure that Deerclops doesn't follow you anymore, put on some warm clothes and walk back home. Then you can go back to your usual routine.
Now the best thing about this strategy is, that you can go back to the battlefield on the next day and you will find that Deerclops has died and there will be all kinds of items from the fight. Just take a backpack with you and collect everything.
I tried this strategy several times myself and it works very well for me.
Of course Deerclops will not die, if it is just a very small swamp, or if there are not much spiders in the forest. So find a good place to take Deerclops in advance.

Also don't forget this simple trick

It can suddenly turn dark, while walking around with Deerclops, so make sure to prepare a torch in advance and place it on the first or second place in your inventory. In that way you just have to press 1 or 2 on your keyboard to activate it.
Even if there is no boss around, this is a very helpful trick in general. When I first played Don't Starve, I sometimes died because I didn't watch the time and it suddenly turned dark, so now I always make sure that I have a torch in my inventory. You can also make a fire pit in advance, so that you only need to place it somewhere later.
Tell me your favorite way to defeat Deerclops in the comment section. ^^

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