Use a poison potion. Then try using a shield and a mace, jump on them and BASH; (or) Use arrows from a distance; (or, my favorite...) Kite other enemies to the tar pit and let the chaos ensue. Growths are one of the best designed enemies in the game and they can still take me out if I'm not paying attention (after 900+ hours).

These are honestly one of the tougher enemies in the game in my opinion I immediately snipe them with a bow and never hand an issue.. but if you let them get close well.. good luck.. they aren't fun.

Remember your Skyrim days and just use a bow.

Doesn't look like anyone's mentioned this yet, but it's a biggie;

You can still dodge at full speed while tarred and still have your I-frames. This knowledge has saved me quite a few times in the instances where I get tagged by an unexpected growth add. If you get tagged, and there are multiple growths, try to keep track of which order they may be firing in if they aren't all synced up and listen for them to fire another volley. Another possible lifesaver is knowing they do primarily poison damage, so poison resistance mead or the root mask mentions above should help out quite a bit.

They make a distinct squelching noise just before they fire which will be your cue to dodge to the side and if you can manage you stamina well enough( and they aren't too staggered for firing), you'll have a pretty good chance of breaking free, just keep an ear out for them to broadcast their attack.

Definitely while in or near plains, keep your head on a swivel at all times, granted this advice tends to apply more often to deathsquitos, but still, those growths have a deceptively large detection range and will come over to say hi if you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around nearby.

Another point to add is "defusing" the tar pits so later exploration should be less of a problem; make use of those shrubs and tree in the area to collect wood for a work bench; once you've cleared the initial complement of growths from a pit, plop a work bench or two on the edges of the pit to prevent future spawns for as long as the benches are intact, and afterwards, if needed you can drain the pit for a big cache of tar should you so desire.

Originally posted by FissionChips:

Dodge roll. Once you learn to dodge roll they're just slightly exhilarating.

You don't even have to do that. You can strafe one direction and as soon as they start to shoot you can walk the other way and they can't hit you unless you started out practically on top of them.

Yea, one at a time is not bad with a good shield. But i died to two of them while fighting a wraith. And then they camped my corpse. Died like another 2-3 times just trying to get my stuff. I wish the devs would stop that stupid corpse camping too.
Made the stupid mistake of building a base in plains next to a tar pit. I wont do that again.

Use the bow.

I'd rather fight 5 seekers at once than 5 growths. They brutal if you get hit even once cause the slowdown.

I have to admit, when I first encountered these guys yesterday their was 3-4 of them. I was like ok, black slimes, no biggie, I rush in to dispose of them but got instantly tar nuked and panicked . I turned to run and they quickly followed blasting me along the way...I was tarred
again and could barely move. I finally broke free and thought I had some distance but soon got nuked again. I am like wtf is up with these things. How are these mofos so fast and accurate.

I managed to get away and now make a point to try to face them 1 on 1, These guys had my adrenaline flowing for sure.

Originally posted by Dorjef:

Even when there is no line of sight and you cant see them, they can still see you and hit you?? How? How do they see through dirt and stone walls? Do they have a tar radar?

Most mobs behave exactly like that, it's not really a fault of the Growths.

thankfully they got no health to speak off. oneshot em instead of trying to run. they are a serious threat when a lox shows up together with them tough.

my first encounter with a tar pit ended in death day 218 :) but it never happed again afterwards.

also bows. they can oneshot them easy from long range.

but now that black marble is here tar isnt needed that much anymore. marble roofs > tar roofs. still useful for interior design i guess.

Originally posted by Dorjef:

Yea, one at a time is not bad with a good shield. But i died to two of them while fighting a wraith. And then they camped my corpse. Died like another 2-3 times just trying to get my stuff. I wish the devs would stop that stupid corpse camping too.
Made the stupid mistake of building a base in plains next to a tar pit. I wont do that again.

Get Root Armor from swamp, use bonemass ability and you should not have any problem next time you do a similar corpse run. As of fighting them directly, do not melee them except if you have high tier heavy armor and shield, but even then you will need poison resistance. The "safest" way is to snipe them using a bow with silver or even fire arrows.

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

Originally posted by Dorjef:

Even when there is no line of sight and you cant see them, they can still see you and hit you?? How? How do they see through dirt and stone walls? Do they have a tar radar?

Most mobs behave exactly like that, it's not really a fault of the Growths.

Nah... some mobs, not most. And its still bull.
Which other mobs can see you trough the terrain or buildings and land an attack on you by lobbing it over? Thats like shooting around corners to me.

Dodge roll. Once you learn to dodge roll they're just slightly exhilarating.

Their accuracy as high? You can literally walk perpendicular to their aim path at any speed greater than 0 and they whiff their barrage entirely. Also a shield completely neutralizes the tar effect and almost all of the damage.

I'll admit, when there's like 3 or more, and if their attack timing is out of sync, it's a lot harder, but one on its own is just a free tar.