[2021] These ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dogs need to stop.

Originally posted by xXMagnusXx: ...this was at 4am, when the sun is up but the traders are closed...

Aha. That sheds some light on the circumstances.

So the intention, as I understand it, isn’t to just randomly screw over the player. The intention is that the nights are particularly dangerous and scary, at least in the early game, and laying low at night makes a real difference. Hence there are dire wolves spawning at night among other things, even in the relatively safe forest.

I suspect your dire wolf was technically part of a nighttime wandering horde, which is supposed to just pass through if it’s never disturbed. Yours happened to show up right at dawn, and they don’t disappear with the sunrise. I hope that helps makes sense of what happened.

As far as their HP, do keep in mind that many animals are programmed to flee when their health is low. So in terms of just surviving the attack, you don’t necessarily have to take away all its HP and kill it.