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How to play Don't Starve Together
#1
GasBandit
GasBandit
Tagging @Dei @Celt Z @Terrik @Snuffleupagus @Cobra_Royality, but of course anybody interested is welcome to pile in.
I know there was a Don't Starve Together thread already, but it was less about learning to play.
First and foremost, Don't Starve is a gothic horror survival game where a number of random people (whose names all begin with W) are whisked away to an alternate dimension called "The Constant," where it is expected they will die. In order to survive, we must gather resources and construct tools and structures that help us advance our mastery of the strange rules of the Constant.
The basics:
Pick a character, they all have advantages and disadvantages.
Once you have picked a character and joined the game, note the upper right hand corner - there's a clock and a calendar. These are critical to your survival.
Also there are three meters - Hunger, Sanity, and Health. If hunger gets to zero, you will take constant starvation damage. If sanity gets low enough, nightmare creatures will start to manifest and attack you (along with other changes to the world). If your health reaches zero, you die.
Time of day is broken into 3 parts - day, dusk, and night. The most important thing about this is that at night, if you are caught in the pitch black, the darkness monster (who is known as Charlie) will attack you out of nowhere, and usually can kill you in 2 hits. So it is important to either have a source of light, or be asleep during the night, because for some reason being asleep makes it safe to be in darkness.
The game is broken into 4 seasons:
Fall is the season that the game typically starts in. Temperatures are mild, weather is usually calm, and food is plentiful. This is the "easy" season, when it is best to prepare for the future as well as you can, and do extra difficult tasks like find the lunar island or attack bosses. After the first fall, Bearger (Bear-Badger) will show up and look for food, and he's not afraid to break open things you store food in to get it.
Winter comes after fall. The days are shorter and the nights are longer, and if you don't have a source of heat, you will quickly freeze to death. This can be staved off with warm clothing and thermal stones heated at a fire, and the characters that can grow beards are kept warmer by them being long. Food is hard to find during this season, but you can use the plentiful ice found at glaciers as fillers in a crock pot, so as long as you have one meat morsel and 3 ice, you can make some meatballs. Deerclops typically shows up during winter to destroy your camp if he finds you in it. It's also a good idea to stock up on ice for summer.
Spring comes after winter. It rains a lot, and being wet will cause you to get cold as well as lose sanity. Crops and bushes regrow food faster in spring, but meat on a meat rack dries slower in the rain. Occasionally it will rain frogs, which can be a game ender if you aren't ready for it. Moose Goose will show up in Spring, and soon will be followed by her Moslings. They are pesky if near your camp but can usually otherwise be ignored.
Summer is the last season before Fall loops back around again. In the summer, it's very hot, which can cause you to overheat and die if you don't have a way to cool down, such as a thermal stone kept cold in a refrigerator, or building an Endothermic Fire. Additionally, plants that are not watered in some form (ice flingomatic, watering can, etc) will wither and not produce anything. Worst of all, anything can catch fire for no reason at any time, and an uncontrolled fire in your base can destroy everything. Ice Flingomatics are an absolute necessity for your camp - if you don't have them, it is as good as game over. Dragonfly spawns near the lava pits in Summer. Antlion also comes around, and if you do not bribe him with trinkets, he will cause earthquakes which cause sinkholes on the surface (which can kill you and destroy structures) and cause cave-ins underground.
The order of the day is the two golden rules: Contribute, and don't be shitty.
Special note - joining a server in Winter, or how to survive on your own in winter:
More to follow when I or somebody else feels like it.
I know there was a Don't Starve Together thread already, but it was less about learning to play.
First and foremost, Don't Starve is a gothic horror survival game where a number of random people (whose names all begin with W) are whisked away to an alternate dimension called "The Constant," where it is expected they will die. In order to survive, we must gather resources and construct tools and structures that help us advance our mastery of the strange rules of the Constant.
The basics:
Pick a character, they all have advantages and disadvantages.
Once you have picked a character and joined the game, note the upper right hand corner - there's a clock and a calendar. These are critical to your survival.
Also there are three meters - Hunger, Sanity, and Health. If hunger gets to zero, you will take constant starvation damage. If sanity gets low enough, nightmare creatures will start to manifest and attack you (along with other changes to the world). If your health reaches zero, you die.
Time of day is broken into 3 parts - day, dusk, and night. The most important thing about this is that at night, if you are caught in the pitch black, the darkness monster (who is known as Charlie) will attack you out of nowhere, and usually can kill you in 2 hits. So it is important to either have a source of light, or be asleep during the night, because for some reason being asleep makes it safe to be in darkness.
The game is broken into 4 seasons:
Fall is the season that the game typically starts in. Temperatures are mild, weather is usually calm, and food is plentiful. This is the "easy" season, when it is best to prepare for the future as well as you can, and do extra difficult tasks like find the lunar island or attack bosses. After the first fall, Bearger (Bear-Badger) will show up and look for food, and he's not afraid to break open things you store food in to get it.
Winter comes after fall. The days are shorter and the nights are longer, and if you don't have a source of heat, you will quickly freeze to death. This can be staved off with warm clothing and thermal stones heated at a fire, and the characters that can grow beards are kept warmer by them being long. Food is hard to find during this season, but you can use the plentiful ice found at glaciers as fillers in a crock pot, so as long as you have one meat morsel and 3 ice, you can make some meatballs. Deerclops typically shows up during winter to destroy your camp if he finds you in it. It's also a good idea to stock up on ice for summer.
Spring comes after winter. It rains a lot, and being wet will cause you to get cold as well as lose sanity. Crops and bushes regrow food faster in spring, but meat on a meat rack dries slower in the rain. Occasionally it will rain frogs, which can be a game ender if you aren't ready for it. Moose Goose will show up in Spring, and soon will be followed by her Moslings. They are pesky if near your camp but can usually otherwise be ignored.
Summer is the last season before Fall loops back around again. In the summer, it's very hot, which can cause you to overheat and die if you don't have a way to cool down, such as a thermal stone kept cold in a refrigerator, or building an Endothermic Fire. Additionally, plants that are not watered in some form (ice flingomatic, watering can, etc) will wither and not produce anything. Worst of all, anything can catch fire for no reason at any time, and an uncontrolled fire in your base can destroy everything. Ice Flingomatics are an absolute necessity for your camp - if you don't have them, it is as good as game over. Dragonfly spawns near the lava pits in Summer. Antlion also comes around, and if you do not bribe him with trinkets, he will cause earthquakes which cause sinkholes on the surface (which can kill you and destroy structures) and cause cave-ins underground.
The order of the day is the two golden rules: Contribute, and don't be shitty.
Special note - joining a server in Winter, or how to survive on your own in winter:
More to follow when I or somebody else feels like it.
#2
Cobra_Royality
Cobra_Royality
Thank you for this post @GasBandit
I guess sleeping protects you because if you don't know it's dark outside then it may not be
.
I have also learned that sculptures are not that useful. Same with boats
I guess sleeping protects you because if you don't know it's dark outside then it may not be
.I have also learned that sculptures are not that useful. Same with boats
#3
GasBandit
GasBandit
The most newbie-friendly character to play is Wendy. Here's why (watch both videos)
Basically, her ghost sister Abigail is a ravenous engine of death that can tank and destroy entire hound attack waves.
Basically, her ghost sister Abigail is a ravenous engine of death that can tank and destroy entire hound attack waves.
#4
GasBandit
GasBandit
Probably the second most newb-friendly character is Wilson, who is utterly average at everything, but has the perk of growing a beard which keeps him warm in the winter, and can be used as fuel when shaved. So that's all there is to say about him, really. Moving on...
Another popular character among beginners is Willow, the pyromaniac.
Another popular character among beginners is Willow, the pyromaniac.
#5
Celt Z
Celt Z
I will say Wendy worked out a lot better for me than Willow. Wendy doesn't get low on sanity or hunger as quickly as other players, and with Abigail doing a lot of the fighting, it's rare she takes damage. She's pretty good for being self-sufficient.
#6
Celt Z
Celt Z
Don't steal all the frog legs!The order of the day is the two golden rules: Contribute, and don't be shitty.
#7
GasBandit
GasBandit
A word on food -
If you're exploring, it's usually best to sustain yourself simply by foraging as you go. Pick up any seeds you find along the way, and also the occasional berry or carrot. Just take what you need, though, unless your goal is to bring a lot of food back to camp to cook for others. Berries and such spoil quickly.
You can cook things on an open fire. Usually (but not always) this will make it more beneficial when you eat it (notable exceptions are corn and certain kinds of mushrooms). However, for all the extra work it usually takes to get meat in this game, cooking it over a fire and eating it really doesn't give you much more nutrition than eating berries.
For the best results, you want to use a crockpot. Combining 4 items in a crockpot will cook them into something new. The most basic recipe, and probably the most hunger-efficient, is meatballs - one small unit of meat, and 3 edible fillers. The fillers can be berries, vegetables, or even ice. This turns a 12.5 hunger meat morsel into a 62.5 hunger dish. Just watch out, if you use frog legs as your meat, and one of your fillers is a vegetable, you'll make a froggle bunwich instead. This might actually be a valid choice, though, if you need healing - a froggle bunwich only restores 37.5 hunger, but it also heals 20 health.
Keep your ingredients and finished products in a fridge (or even better, each in their own fridge). The freshness of your final product will be the average of the freshness of your ingredients plus a small amount.
Cooking something over a fire also increases its freshness, so if you've got some berries that are very stale, cook them over a fire and then use them in a crock pot.
As for meat, it can be made to last much longer if you hang it from a drying rack. Turning meat into jerky completely refills its freshness, so if you're trying to maximize ingredient longevity, wait for the meat to go stale before you hang it.
Cooking green mushrooms is a really good way to restore sanity. It does a tiny amount of damage, but it's usually worth it.
Taffy is also good for restoring sanity - to make it, put 4 honey in the crock pot. It also does health damage, but since you've obviously got a source of honey, the damage can be mitigated by eating some raw honey as a chaser.
Every character has a "favorite food." They will get bonus hunger restoration from eating it. Find out what it is, then see if you can prioritize making that.
My go-to crock pot recipe is usually Pierogi. It's like a froggle bunwich on steroids, healing 40 health, 37.5 hunger, and 5 sanity. To make pierogi, combine 1 meat, 1 egg, 1 vegetable, and 1 filler (say, berry or ice) in a crock pot.
Eggs are easy to come by once you have built a bird cage and imprisoned a bird in it - every meat morsel or frog leg you feed the bird will make it immediately produce an egg. If you've got a Wendy in your group, and easy access to frog ponds, you shouldn't have to worry about meat or eggs.
Other good sources of meat:
Gobblers (those giant turkeys that try to steal your berries). These can be outsmarted by simply dropping food on the ground in a fenced area. They will try to go after the food on the ground first, but aren't smart enough to attack the fence. Kill them easily, and get rewarded with 2 turkey legs. These are small meat morsels and can be used as such, or you can combine two turkey legs with a meat (or monster meat) plus one filler to make a Turkey Dinner.
Monster meat is different from regular meat, in that unless you are Webber, eating monster meat will hurt your health and sanity. Using monster meat (or monster jerky) in a recipe however is safe so long as you only ever use 1 monster item in the recipe (and durian counts as a monster item). So, one monster meat and 3 ice will still make completely safe meatballs, but using more than one monster meat in a recipe will get you Monster Lasagne, which is of no use to anybody but Webber, and even then it's kind of a waste.
If you're exploring, it's usually best to sustain yourself simply by foraging as you go. Pick up any seeds you find along the way, and also the occasional berry or carrot. Just take what you need, though, unless your goal is to bring a lot of food back to camp to cook for others. Berries and such spoil quickly.
You can cook things on an open fire. Usually (but not always) this will make it more beneficial when you eat it (notable exceptions are corn and certain kinds of mushrooms). However, for all the extra work it usually takes to get meat in this game, cooking it over a fire and eating it really doesn't give you much more nutrition than eating berries.
For the best results, you want to use a crockpot. Combining 4 items in a crockpot will cook them into something new. The most basic recipe, and probably the most hunger-efficient, is meatballs - one small unit of meat, and 3 edible fillers. The fillers can be berries, vegetables, or even ice. This turns a 12.5 hunger meat morsel into a 62.5 hunger dish. Just watch out, if you use frog legs as your meat, and one of your fillers is a vegetable, you'll make a froggle bunwich instead. This might actually be a valid choice, though, if you need healing - a froggle bunwich only restores 37.5 hunger, but it also heals 20 health.
Keep your ingredients and finished products in a fridge (or even better, each in their own fridge). The freshness of your final product will be the average of the freshness of your ingredients plus a small amount.
Cooking something over a fire also increases its freshness, so if you've got some berries that are very stale, cook them over a fire and then use them in a crock pot.
As for meat, it can be made to last much longer if you hang it from a drying rack. Turning meat into jerky completely refills its freshness, so if you're trying to maximize ingredient longevity, wait for the meat to go stale before you hang it.
Cooking green mushrooms is a really good way to restore sanity. It does a tiny amount of damage, but it's usually worth it.
Taffy is also good for restoring sanity - to make it, put 4 honey in the crock pot. It also does health damage, but since you've obviously got a source of honey, the damage can be mitigated by eating some raw honey as a chaser.
Every character has a "favorite food." They will get bonus hunger restoration from eating it. Find out what it is, then see if you can prioritize making that.
My go-to crock pot recipe is usually Pierogi. It's like a froggle bunwich on steroids, healing 40 health, 37.5 hunger, and 5 sanity. To make pierogi, combine 1 meat, 1 egg, 1 vegetable, and 1 filler (say, berry or ice) in a crock pot.
Eggs are easy to come by once you have built a bird cage and imprisoned a bird in it - every meat morsel or frog leg you feed the bird will make it immediately produce an egg. If you've got a Wendy in your group, and easy access to frog ponds, you shouldn't have to worry about meat or eggs.
Other good sources of meat:
Gobblers (those giant turkeys that try to steal your berries). These can be outsmarted by simply dropping food on the ground in a fenced area. They will try to go after the food on the ground first, but aren't smart enough to attack the fence. Kill them easily, and get rewarded with 2 turkey legs. These are small meat morsels and can be used as such, or you can combine two turkey legs with a meat (or monster meat) plus one filler to make a Turkey Dinner.
Monster meat is different from regular meat, in that unless you are Webber, eating monster meat will hurt your health and sanity. Using monster meat (or monster jerky) in a recipe however is safe so long as you only ever use 1 monster item in the recipe (and durian counts as a monster item). So, one monster meat and 3 ice will still make completely safe meatballs, but using more than one monster meat in a recipe will get you Monster Lasagne, which is of no use to anybody but Webber, and even then it's kind of a waste.
#8
PatrThom
--Patrick
PatrThom
I don't know why this surprises me.durian counts as a monster item
--Patrick
#9
Emrys
Emrys
Unless you're playing Wurt, then durian is your favourite snack.