Overview
Hiya! Here is my guide to Don’t Starve and Reign of Giants. I will explain the game mechanics, detailed info and strategies to each character and creature and how I survive. I’v tried to make it as cute and fun to read as possible in a non-serious way~Hope you enjoy my guide and remember to give it a thumbs up and Fav if you enjoy it! Thank you!ROG update to guide soon!
Intro and what this guide is about
Hiya! this is my guide to Don’t Starve. I very much enjoy this game and it is probably my favourite indie game of 2012/2013. I have played Don’t Starve for quite some time and have slowly learn’t all the early and mid game techniques to survive successfully. Any text in bold is important, if its bolded and underlined then it is very important!
Game Mechanics
Don’t Stave has a number of game mechanics you need to watch out for and consider.
Hunger: Hunger is obviously…well how hungry you are. Eating food keeps you healthy and not eating lowers the meter. If the meter runs out you starve to death swiftly and die, not much more to it that that!
Health: Health is the second thing you need to pay attention too, Don’t Starve is a very dangerous world with everything out to get you. When damaged your hp will not regenerate unless you eat good food such as cooked food or items such as a healing salve or honey poultice
Death: When either of these meters run out you die, since this game is in a roguelike style it means their is no respawning. If you die then you need to start from the beginning
Nighttime: When it gets dark the spiders come out of their nests, dont worry though they arnt too dangerous at this point unless in huge numbers. When night fully comes you need to make a campfire or get some form of light because if you are in complete darkness you will die to the Grue, a night monster that will attack you after a sound is played so get some light!
Spoiled food: Food spoils over time, it starts off green which means it is good to eat. When its yellow it doesnt give as much hp and hunger as normal, if it spoils more then you cant really eat it unless you are WX-78 (character) you can however use it as fuel for fire. Yellow spoilage restores 2/3 of the hp/hunger that it was going to restore at green but restores no sanity at all. Red restores 1/2 of hunger and does not restore and HP and actually lowers your sanity by 10. Avoid eating food in red!
Wormholes: These are little floor mouths that when clicked allow fast travel to other wormholes and are very good for exploration. Always go through them to check whats on the other side, you never know those rocks you always needed early might be on the other side! Be warned they reduce your sanity by 15 each time you jump through it. In Adventure Mode there are sick wormholes which are one way travel across the map so be careful using them.
Escape!: Littered in a area are strange contraption parts, if you find them all (4 parts) and then find the wooden base you can put it all together to make this…thing. When you use it you get the option to destroy your current world and remake it (a completely new world), but you get to keep your inventory!. Perfect for people who want a new world but without killing themselves.
Research: You must build a prototype of each item first to unlock it. Basically to build a prototype you need to be at the science machine/alchemy lab and build the item like normal, this costs about 2x the resources as normal. Once you make the prototype the resources go back to normal costs and can be made as usual. Also this is per character so it does not carry between characters!
Sanity: Sanity is a is a bar for you to manage along with health and hunger, sanity can be shown increasing or decreasing based on the arrow in its meter. If its pointing up then your sanity is increasing, if down then its decreasing. Sanity decreases by jumping through wormholes, being in the dark alone, eating monster meat, being close to monsters and resurrecting yourself using an amulet or Wilson’s Meat Effigy. Sanity can be increased by picking flowers, sleeping, wearing clothes such as the dapper vest and eating taffies. When insane your screen will flicker, wierd sounds will start playing and Hallucinations will start to appear and attack you.
Caves: Caves are entered by unplugging a sink hole, these are found anywere on the map and must be broken first with a pick axe. Once you jump in you will be in a dark area with permenant night time. Caves have limited natural light so you will need torches and have a variety of new monsters. When you die in a cave you will respawn outside of it
Reign of Giants Mechanics
Wetness
Wetness occurs when it rains, you must avoid it reaching 50 as this will cause clothing to reduce sanity along with items becoming slippy and worst of all you will start freezing to death. equipping or holding wet items will drain sanity, you can tell something is wet by the blue outline around the item. You can dry items by putting them near fires or keep them dry by storage. Items that burn such as logs will have a shorter burn time and fires go out quicker with waterlogged logs. Beware keeping ice in your inventory will increase wetness when it melts. The last thing to look out for is it will give all tools the chance of being dropped when using them. Reducing wetness is done by standing near a fire to dry yourself or reduce it by standing under a tree, rain clothing like the umbrella works too!
Overheating
Overheating is the opposite to freezing in Don’t Starve which occurs in summer, the screen will start turning orange and you will die fast. There are a number of ways to combat it such as making a endothermic fire, eating ice and certain clothing such as the umbrella and chilled amulet. A thermal stone also works if you stick it in a ice box to freeze it but be warned when its at its coldest it will still kill you. If it comes to it then retreat to a cave or stand near a tree to reduce heat gain.
Characters
Wilson
Wilson is the character you start with, he is just a scientist. His perk is he grows a long beard over a few days, using a shaver lets you get his beard hair which is then crafted into a item that resurrects you on death, a great and valuable item indeed.
Willow
Willow is the 1st unlockable character unlocked by getting 160xp (8 days). She is a little girl who loves fire. She gets a sanity bonus near fire and is immune to fire damage. She also has a lighter that acts like a infinite torch with a small radius. her disadvantage is she has lower max sanity and will randomly set things on fire when it is low.
Wolfgang
Wolfgang is the 2nd unlockable character which is unlocked by getting 320xp (16 days). A big strong man who will beat up any dirty spiders that messes with him. He has a large stomach so he can eat more but has a faster sanity drain in the dark and near scary things such as monsters. The more he is fed = the more damage and hp he has, but if its low he gets lower damage and hp so make sure you are always full!
Wendy
Wendy is the 3rd unlockable character which is unlocked by getting 640xp (32 days), another little girl with a ghostly sister, my personal favourite. She has a item called abigails flower, it charges up over time but once it is fully charged you need to kill something to summon her sister Abigail. Abigail will defend Wendy until Abigail loses all of her HP. Wendy is less afraid of the dark and scary monsters but does do less damage overall.
WX-78
WX-78 is the 4th unlockable character which is gotten by getting 960xp (48 days), this time a robot who hates all life. WX can eat spoiled food with no penalty which is awesome, he does start with less stats than most characters but eating gears will permenantly increase them, overall making him the strongest character if he is fed enough gears. He takes minor damage in the rain but creates sparks which = light. He can get hit by lightning which will overcharge him, this means he will run fast and glow in the dark
Wickerbottom
Wickerbottom is the 5th unlockable character which is unlocked by getting 1280xp (64 days), this time a librarian who is very smart. She gets a bonus tech level which means she can craft certain items without the science machine. She also has higher max sanity which is quite nice. Her special ability is she can craft spell books that have powerful magic such as summoning lots of crows. Her disadvantages are she is a insomniac so she cant sleep at all and she has a high penalty for spoiled food.
Wes
Wes is the sixth unlockable character, he is unlocked by finding him on Adventure Mode. This guy is a mime and as you can guess he cannot talk at all. Wes is pathetic in terms of stats, the lowest in the game as he is meant to be the games hard mode character. His special ability is he can make balloon animals….yup thats it you expected something useful? nope.
Maxwell/Waxwell
Maxwell/Waxwell is the seventh and technically final character to unlock, he is unlocked by beating Adventure Mode. His perks are he is dapper which means sanity drain is lower, he is frail (75 hp only) so he can die easily just like Wes and he starts with a dark sword, night armor, 4 nightmare fuel and a purple gem.
Woodie
Woodie is the 8th unlockable character, it requires you to get 1600 XP to unlock him (80 days), he starts with a axe called Lucy and has a very special ability. Lucy talks and tells you to cut trees and warns you about a “curse”, Lucy has infinite durability and cuts trees extremely fast. Woodie’s signature ability is his curse, basically if he cuts too many trees too fast or a full moon comes out then he will transform into a were-beaver, you will lose your hud and you will get a new meter called the log meter. It will decrease like hunger but you can fill it by eating logs, grass, cones, twigs and saplings. If a monster hits you, you will just lose some log meter instead of HP. Were-beaver form lets you completely wreck trees and rocks at a super speed. Oh did i mention you are immune to nighttime death too? the only issue is you drop your inventory when you transform, once your meter hits 0 you will respawn as woodie on the next day with 50 hp, hunger and sanity.
Reign of Giants Characters
Wigfrid
Wigfrig is a actor who thinks she is a Valkyrie, her buffs are she does 25% more damage to all enemies and takes 25% damage less but also gains 25% of the enemies attack damage as health and sanity, sounds too good to be true right? well guess what her con is she can only eat meat so starting out is pretty cruel as her. Though have no fear she starts with a spear and helmet for all your rabbit killing needs. To unlock her you must get to the next level xp level in RoG
Webber
Webber is a adorable little spider man who has as very fun ability. His perk is he can grow a silk beard which can be shaved to obtain silk, he can also eat monster food and get no penalties (yay a decent use for it!) and he even starts with some in his inventory!. Now for the most exciting perk, all spiders are neutral to him!, you can give food to spiders to make them allies just like pigs. Whats the disadvantage? well your a spider, all normal friendlies like bunnymen and pigs will attack you on sight but meh bring in a spider army and killem all!. You unlock webber by getting his skull from a spider (low drop rate) and burying it at a open grave.
Neutral Creatures
Rabbits/Beardlings
Rabbits are well, just rabbits? they drop a morsel on death and are killed pretty easily, the best method to kill them is to put a trap over the rabbit hole with bait and wait for it to get caught
When your insanity is at 70 or less the rabbits will become Beardlings, these are black rabbits which act the same as normal rabbits except they drop monster meat, nightmare fuel and beard hair making it the only way to make the meat effigy for characters other than Wilson
Redbirds, Crow’s and Snowbirds
there are three species of birds with minor differences, the redbirds drop a redbird feather or morsel on death and spawn seeds, they can be attracted by berries and seeds so that you can capture or kill them. Crows are the same except they eat seeds, can be attracted by meat and drop a crow feather. Snowbirds only come out at winter and replace the redbird, they drop a snowbird feather. Each bird can be killed simply by capturing them with a bird trap or baiting them to land with seeds and then hitting them quickly though this is difficult.
Butterflies
Butterflies are harmless creatures that spawn on flowers, they can be killed when they land and drop butterfly wings that are used as a early game healing option, if you catch one with a bug net you can “plant” it to spawn flowers making it a efficient way to spawn more butterflies, who doesnt want a butterfly farm? This is very good for bee farms as they will harvest more honey with flowers in the area.
Pig
Pigs are found in pig villiages, normally in the darker wood areas of the game, they dont really do much other than walk around on first glance and kill spiders on sight, at night they go in their houses to sleep and daytime they just walk around. You can kill them to get pork which is a very good way of healing and hunger or you can feed them meat to have them follow you around, they will eat food they find and they give manure which can be used for farms. Attacking one will make them all go hostile if its done in a village so be careful
There are hostile pigs called Guardian Pigs, they defend the Ping King and spawn from pig torches
Pig King
The pig king is a big pig which sits around doing nothing, he spawns near a pig settlement and cannot be killed, you can offer him meat to get 1 gold nugget or offer him gravestone items for 2 – 8 gold nuggets, monster meat and frogs legs will not work, in adventure mode he has pig guardians and surrounded by obelisks
Bees
You want a nice supply of food? these are your friends and worst nightmares, you will find beehives, these can be killed to drop honey and honeycomb. if attacked killer bees will spawn to attack you but damage can be reduced to a very small amount using a bee hat. Normal bees just fly around looking for flowers to make honey for the nest. Use a bug net to catch them to make a personal beehive but beware the killer bee nests as these will attack on sight!
Tallbirds
These guys are just long legged eyeballs that walk around aimlessly and creates eggs to go in its nest, if you find one then a nest will be near, the eggs are a very good food source but it will anger the mother if you take the egg or get too close, treat them like a spider and they die easy enough, tho its better to steal the egg and run and return in a few days for a new egg You can stunlock these if you attack fast enough
Frog
Its a frog, not much more to say. Drops frog legs and when it is attacked it will alert more frogs, they will attack you and steal items from you, just kill them quickly with a spear they are not much of a problem
Beefalo
These guys travel around in herds in the savanna area, they can be hard to take down and they will all go hostile if provoked, they are a good source of meat and manure to make farms so its good to set up a camp near a herd. you need to fight them like a spider with the animations as usual. They have a mating season, you can tell this is happening by the color of their butts, if its glowing red dont go near as they will be hostile until the season is over unless you have a beefalo hat!
Baby versions added into the Progress update! means more food.
Koalefant
This guy travels around the entire map, you can find some dirt that you can search which will reveal a paw track look at the direction it is pointing and follow it until you find this guy, he can kill you in 2 – 3 hits and drops alot of meat and a item to make the new vest, he runs faster than you too, so good luck killing him with a spear~. There is a winter version of him that will drop a item for the winter vest for warmth
Chester
Chester is a mobile chest that will follow anyone that holds the eye bone, he is a unique spawn per world, if he dies he will respawn if you hold the eyebone. he holds 9 slots for items like a normal chest and will follow you around.
Mandrake
Mandrakes are a very rare creature that looks like a plant and is buried under the ground with just its leaves pointing out, there is only 2 – 4 per world and normally spawn around the same area, if you use one during the day it will die instantly and drop itself as a eatable item, if picked up at dusk it will follow you making lots of sound but replant itself when morning comes to avoid death
Bunnymen
Bunnymen are the underground version of Pigmen, the main difference is they attack you on site if you are carrying any meat on you (including monster meat), they drop 2 carrots and 1 meat on death and will ally with you for 1 carrot, they live in carrot houses and can also be crafted and placed on the surface, they are hostile to all meat eating creatures and will attack them on sight. On low hp they will run away and regen hp, treat them like pigmen if you want to kill them.
When your sanity reaches 80 the Bunnymen will turn into Beardlords. When they are like this they share similar animations to the Werepig and making growling noises. You can still befriend them by feeding them a carrot but be warned as they drain your sanity when following you.
Rock Lobster
Rock Lobsters are strange looking creatures that eat rocks, flints and gold nuggets. They grow stronger over time and regenerate health. They can be found after day 4 and are slow moving and live in herds just like Beefalo. Rock Lobsters can be befriended by giving them rocks, flint or gold nuggets but they will only follow you for around 3 minutes. If you want to hunt them be aware they can go into shell form just like the cave spiders and spitters which will reduce damage by 95%.
Neutral Creatures 2
Splumonkey
Splumonkeys are well…monkeys that sit in caves and try to steal items from you, they basically run up to you and make you drop an item, then grab it and run away similar to Krampus. They will drop the item if you manage to kill them though. They will throw manure at you and pick cave banana trees on sight.
Pengull
Pengulls are penguins that appear on shores in around groups of 7, the group will grow over winter. If you attack one of them then the entire group will slide towards the player and try to kill you. Pengalls jump from the ocean onto the shore and lay eggs, if you go near an egg they will hide it until killed, its a good idea to kill these to loot the egg to eat during winter but be warned as they will swarm you!
Houndius Shootius
Houndious is a turret, nothing more than that, they will pew pew any enemies you attack or enemies that go to attack you so they make perfect base defences. It does drain your sanity while standing near it but not by much. It regens 12 hp a second and can be healed with healing items. Its crafted with ancient guardian items.
Reigh of Giants Neutral Creatures
Catcoon
Catcoons are a blend between cats and racoons. They mostly mess around by jumping on trees and digging at items (can destroy them). They attack birds, rabbits, moleworms, butterflies and bees. Catcoons are hostile to eachother and can be made friends with you by giving them food. Catcoons will cough up items for you such as rot or grass. When killed it will respawn up to 9 times as cats have 9 lives.
Buzzard
Birds of the desert biome, they will fly around until meat is dropped, they will then proceed to land and eat it, If you go near them when they are eating they will attack you but they wont chase you.
Volt Goat
Volt Goats are a strange neutral creature. Basically it will just wonder at first but if a lightning bolt hits it then it will become supercharged, you will notice it when it glows. When this happens they become extremely aggressive and should be avoided as their attacks will stun. Volt goats stick in herds.
Moleworm
These guys are so frustrating, they will burrow towards items on the ground and then steal them to stash in a burrow, you can use a shovel to get some of the items back, once it surfaces smack it with a hammer and then kill it to deal with it.
Glommer
Glommers are strange flying spider looking creatures that spawn during full moons at a glommer statue in the birchnut forest. Picking up a nearby flower will make it your pet just like Chester. It has a sanity aura of 6.25/min so its a good way to restore sanity and will drop glommer goop every 2 – 4 days. Killing a glommer will make Krampus spawn instantly.
Hostile Creatures
many creatures in Dont Starve are out to kill you, here they are
Spiders
RAWWWR! These little guys sit in spiders nests, which are well, webbed cacoons. they come out at night time and will come out in the day to defend their nests if attacked, they drop monster meat (dont eat this) and silk, a valuable resource. they have a slow animation and can be killed easily with a spear, careful not to get swarmed tho, the best tactic is to attack once then run away to avoid the attack animation from then and then repeat.
Warrior Spiders
oh boy these guys, these guys come out of level 2 and 3 spider dens. they cant be kited due to moving faster than the player and the lunge at you, they can be extremely hard to deal with for new players, my advice? get a logsuit and spam attack them to kill them fast because they WILL kill you fast.
Killer Bees
You like normal bees? well here are killer bees, these guys spawn when you attack a hive or go near a killer bee hive. They attack you on sight and deal alot of damage unless you wear a bee hat, treat them like spiders but you will be unable to kill them without being attacked, my advice? if you dont have a bee hat dont even go near them or prepare for alot of health loss. they drop stingers and honey and are just a nuicience.
Hounds
Hounds are these dog like creatures that spawn randomly during the game, they will spawn somewere on the map and hunt you down, normally 2 or 3 at once. You know they are coming as you can hear barking and growling. when you hear this make a spear fast and some log armor if you can, when they come run at them and attack them fast, kill them apart of possible. Red versions can spawn which do fire damage and explode on death! be weary of these! During winter a Ice Hound is also after you with his two walrus buddies, treat it just like a fire hound. A good tactic i use to beat hounds is to place monster meat down, they will prioritise eating them over attacking so i lets you kill them without taking damage.
Tentacle
these guys are in the swamp area. If you want to kill one of them you need to deal with it like a spider, watch its animation and get a hit in after it attacks then run away and repeat, these guys are worth killing as they give you the Tentacle Spike, a better version of the spear (must have for hounds, the harder spiders and boss monsters)
Ghost
Ghosts only appear when you are digging up graves, they have a 10% chance of spawning and will damage you by touching you, they also damage other things nearby so any small critters will die, ghosts are slow and there damage is over time, not too much of a problem!
Werepig
thought the pigs are friendly? think again, this is a pig gone bad, feed him 4 monster meat makes him transform into a werepig, it will attack everything it doesnt care what you are. it will also eat any food it finds including precious mandrakes, they only transform during the night and die in 4 hits, easy enough.
Krampus
If this guy spawns then someone has been a naughty boy/girl, this guy spawns after you kill a certain number of innocent creatures such as birds and bunnies, what this guy will do is run up to your loot filled chest and steal it, he will then run away, if he gets away he keeps your items for good but you can kill him, he runs fast so make sure you can keep up by shooting him with sleeping darts or fire darts
Hallucinations
Hallucinations appear when your sanity is at 50% or lower, these will attack you just like any other creature when your sanity is 24 or less, the best way to deal with these is to completely avoid them by just keeping your sanity high by using the methods mentioned in the sanity section of game mechanics. they drop Nightmare Fuel which is used to build powerful items such as Night Armor and Dark Sword (both used for attack/defence against the horrors) but they may only be killed when you are at 0 sanity, if you mouse over them they will be visable before you hit 0 but your unable to kill them, they become more visable as your sanity lowers Being near them also lowers your sanity faster!
There are a number of variations of Hallucinations, small ones that run away when you get close and large ones that roam around the map, there is another one that appears at night when your at a campfire, it is a hand that will extend towards your campfire, you must step on it fast before it reaches the campfire or it will extinguish it leading to a quick and early death!
Mactusk N’ Son
a group of walrus’s and their faithful snow hounds who like to hunt you during winter, the father uses blowdarts to attack you, the son uses fists like a pig and the hounds well, bite you. be careful and try to take out the hounds first away from the father and son, after those are dead move on to the father and finish with the son.
Hostile Creatures 2
Mosquito
Bugs that spawn near ponds, they only come out at dusk and night, they deal a small amount of damage and will slowly fill up with blood while attacking, once they are full they will explode dealing alot of damage so kill them quickly, treat them like bees
Merms
Merms are just like pigs except they are hostile! they are fish people that live in rundown houses in swamps, they can spawn during the day but spawn faster during dusk, treat them just like killing pigs
Knights
Knights are clockwork monsters that guard the wooden thing, they are the only source of gears in the game and there are about 4 – 5 of them per world, they drop gears which is the only way to make the Icebox and are relatively easy to kill
Bishops
Bishops are another form of the Knights, they have a ranged attack and usually defend the Wooden Thing, when you go near it you will get a warning, if you go closer it will attack you by firing lightning bolts at you. To kill it id advise taking some armor and a pig or two and send them in first. You can dodge the lightning if you make a sudden movement after it fires but you need to be quick!
Cave Spider
Cave spiders are the same as normal spiders except they live in a cave, they have one new ability that lets them hide in thier shell to protect themselves, they do this after 2 hits and it absorbs 75% damage for a few seconds treat them like normal spiders but dont bother attacking once they shield themselves, Cave spiders spawn on spilagmites with spitters
Spitters
Spitters are a stronger version of cave spiders, they shoot web at you quickly but it can be avoided, the best way to take these on is with a ranged weapon such as the boomerang or fire darts. be warned that the web they spit has a splash effect
Slurtle/Snurtle
Slurtles are a type of turtle which is slow and has a shell they can hide in to stop damage, they have very high health too so take quite a beating to kill, every time it attacks you will drop a rock which they will then eat, there is a rare version called the snurtle too, this one has a round shell instead of spikey and it will run from the player instead of attacking, treat these enemies like the cave spider, just wait for it to come out of the shell!
Batalisks
Batalisks are a common monster in caves, they deal small amounts of damage and die in 2 strikes with a spear, they drop monster meat, batalisk wings and guano, be warned they try to swarm you in numbers by circling you, the best way to deal with them is attempt to kite and hit once then run, hit once, run and repeat or if you have a bunnyman with you they will kill them.
Tentapillar
Tentapillar is a larger version of a normal tentacle that appears in caves. When attacked it will spawn the normal sized tentacles that die in one hit, not much to this monster just be careful not to get swarmed by the smaller tentacles. When defeated it will retreat underground and cause an earthquake, watch your head!
Lureplant
A Lureplant is a plant that attracts prey by dangling meat, it spawns monsters called Eyeplants that will eat and attack anything that gets too close. When killed it will drop anything its eaten but not yet digested so you can get a number of items from them. If it cant produce normal meat then it will create leafy meat instead. If your able to harvest it, all the eyeplants will disappear and the Lureplant will go into a harvested state and then respawn 2 days later. A nice trick is to use a shovel to dig them up and plant them near grass and twig farms for them to harvest it or even a place were they will kill off other creatures such as a high level spider den.
Clockwork Rook
The Clockwork Rook is a huge creature that is found in Maxwell’s area, it drops 2 gears on death. It will attack by charging you, you know this will happen as it will slam the ground twice before charging. Try to avoid it as it will hurt….alot
Slurper
The Slurper is a unique creature, its a ball that will jump on your head and siphon your hunger away by equipping itself in your head slot DO NOT TRY TO TAKE IT OFF. It drains 1 hunger every few seconds and is a source of light from its eyes. They will sleep on spawn and when they become hungry they will wonder, as it starts getting even more hungry they will hunt the player down and try to latch onto you. once it reaches 90% hunger from draining you it will fall off and sleep again
Dangling Depth Dweller
these little white guys are a pain, they dangle and drop down onto you and then leap just like spider warrirors, treat them like spider warriors other than that they arnt anything special other than a major pain in the ass.
Depths Worm
Depths Worms can be found in caves, they hang around resources, eat dropped meat and wait for the player to come close before attacking. They also act as the caves version of hounds and will attack every few days. Best way to deal with these are to attack them the moment they come out the ground, they should wince and retreat. Just repeat this tactic till dead, rock lobsters are great for them too!
Reign of Giants Hostile Creatures
Birchnut Tree/Birchnutters
Just like treeguards they have a chance of spawning when cutting Birchnut Trees. The only real difference is they cant move and must be killed with a axe. They will spawn little birchnutters which are similar to spiders. Make sure to kill them fast along with the tree. The best method is to either burn them down or try to pacify them by putting logs down.
Vargs
This guy spawns when tracking a koalefant by chance starting at 5% but increases to 33% by day 100. When encountered he will howl to summon 2 more hounds and it acts the same way a normal hound does but slower. Treat him the same way you treat hounds.
Bosses
Spider Queen
Queen of the spiders, she spawns from a massive spider den. she is a boss creature that spawns spiders and spider warriors every 10 seconds and she drops the spider hat which is a rare and unique hat, my advice is to kill her adds as fast as possible and kite her, good luck~
Treeguard
dont you feel like killing trees is wrong? this guy does, he has a 13% chance everytime you cut down a tree to spawn and he comes in 3 sizes, he will kill an unarmored player in 2 – 3 swings so be very careful, treat him like a spider and just watch the animations and flee when you need to, do not fight him without armor and a tentacle spike or you are in for one hell of a fight. If you have the fire rod just burn him
Deerclops
The Deerclops is a massive deer…cyclops monster, my advice is to just run from him but if you insist on fighting then DO NOT GO INTO MELEE RANGE, use a blow dart preferably fire to kill it, it cal also be sleeped using a pan flute or sleeping dart if you want to escape it. he will destroy structures such as pig houses so be careful around your camp. It drops meat and its eyeball
Ancient Guardian
This big guy is the boss of the Ruins, it acts like the Clockwork Rook, so treat it exactly like that. OH and dont get hit, he hits for 100 damage making him the hardest hitting monster in the game.
Reign of Giants Bosses
Bearger
The bearger is the Autumn giant, he will throw all items out o chests and eat all food inside. He has two attacks to look out for, the first is a slam that will destroy everything infront of it and the second is charge which is well….a charge that will destroy everything in its path.
Goose
The goose is the spring giant, he will lay eggs and can do a honk noise that will make you drop your equipped item (more info soon)
Dragonfly
The dragonfly is the summer giant, it is attrached to birchnut trees and can spit lava (more info soon)
Biomes
Don’t Starve has a number of different Biomes that house different creatures and supplies.
Forest
Forests are identified by the brown floor and the mass amount of trees around making it the best place to farm wood. Spider Dens and Pigs are native to the forest and sometimes end up being close together, if your planning on farming wood here be aware that its prone to Treeguard spawns. You can also find graveyards here. Using a Fire Staff in this area is NOT A GOOD IDEA either unless you want a lot of charcoal
Grasslands
Grasslands are identified by the green floor and is usually the area you spawn in when you start a new game. They are quite safe and have plenty of resources such as trees, grass, saplings, carrots, flowers, flints and berry bushes. There is also quite a few rabbit spawns and ponds in this area too. You can also find bee hives and pig villages in this area but be warned when looking for bee hives as their can also be mass killer bee hives that will try to kill you.
Savanna
Savanna is identified by the yellow floor and mass amount of grass in the area, this is the only place in the game to spawn Beefalo so it is a much hunted place by players to set up camp. Savanna also has many rabbits, redbirds and crows too so this gives you a wide choice of food options. Spider Dens can spawn here but it is very rare.
Rockyland
Rockyland is identified by the grey, crackled floor and the mass amount of rocks in the area making it the best place to farm rocks, flint and gold nuggets. Tallbirds are the native creature in this area making it the only place to find tallbird nests, spider nests can be found here packed together so be warned if they are around!
Marsh
Marsh is identified by the purplish flooring and dead trees in the area. The Marsh is he most dangerous biome in the game due to its cruel tentacles. The native creatures to his area are the tentacles and merms, it would be unwise to build your camp in a Marsh (unless your crazy?). Spider Dens spawn often here and luckily they fight Merms and Tentacles so if your lucky you can loot the area once the fighting is over.
Chess/Maxwell Area
The chess area is identified by the grey and white marble squares (like a chessboard) and the pilars and statues in the area. This type of area spawns Knights and Bishops and is one of the only places to get Marble in the game. Flowers become evil flowers in this area so be careful as your sanity will drain fast. This area is usually the housing area of the Wooden Thing.
Caves
Caves are identified by…well being in darkness in a cave i guess?. They are very large areas and are actually brand new maps that are generated when entered. Caves are very dark and is considered always night time so be warned you will lose sanity and the grue will get you in darkness. There is natural light but not much, once you go in a cave some of the creatures will go onto the surface world too!. Earthquakes occur in the caves which will drop rocks, flint, nitre, marble and gold nuggets. Try not to get hit by any falling rocks!
Ruins
The ruins is the 2nd level into caves, it is found via plugged sinkholes in normal caves. Ruins has more rich materials compared to the cave and has a new boss and type of spider native to the area. The glowing floor does not count as a light source. There are more earthquakes in this area and something called nightmare lights will open up which will then cause hallucinations to attack you no matter what your sanity level is, good place to collect sanity if i say so myself.
Reigh of Giants Biomes
Desert
The desert is similar to the savanna, here you can find a lot of hound mounds which spawns hounds. The other creatures here are the buzzards. This area is a good source of Cactus flesh and the tumbleweeds can be harvested for items.
Deciduous Forest
This deciduous forest is the exact same as a forest biome except it has birchnut trees instead and spawns glommer statues which will spawn a glommer on a full moon and hollow stumps which then spawns catcoons
Seasons
Spring
Spring is basically raining season, it rains a lot so wetness is the battle here and thier is a higher chance for lightning. Mini glaciers will melt and every bee will turn red and act hostile (wont become killer bees though) The other issue is rabbit holes close up so you lose that source of food but new flowers will spawn. Spring lasts for 20 days.
Summer:
During summer daytime is very long, dusk is as long as how long night used to be while night is extremely short. Food spoils 25% faster during summer and crops need fertilization to grow. rainstorms usually happen during summer and this is the time when all of the animals come out of their homes except for the walrus’s. This is the best time to prepare for winter and collect as much Honey as possible (my personal opinion that honey is the best source of food next to tallbird meat) Be warned that overheating is a constant battle during summer, tips on how to combat it are in the overheating section of the guide. A drought can happen too which causes items to burst into flames including structures too, you will notice this happening when a item starts smoking. This is combated by building a ice flingomatic or cooling manually with hands or ice (hands will damage you). A simple solution is have a summer base as things will only set on fire that are near you. Summer lasts 15 days.
Autumn
Autumn is the calmest season in the game as you do not need to worry about overheating and freezing plus thier is only a slight bit of rain., the only nasty thing you need to look out for is the Bearger which is detailed in my RoG bosses section. Autumn lasts for 20 days.
Winter
Winter comes every 20 days or so, when it hits your character will get colder the longer you are not near a fire, after awhile you will take freezing damage and eventually die. you can wear warm clothes to extend the time away from a fire, food sources are also cut off during winter as crops will not grow and bees and butterflies will not leave home so make sure you are prepared for this! you know its coming by making a winter-o-meter, new dangers also appear with winter so be careful! Winter lasts 16 days.
My Survival Tips
Some rules first:
- Always cook your food
- Play it safe, dont take risks
- If you can attack it then it will probably attack back
- Dont attack hostiles without a spear
- Gathering food and supplies should be priority
- Plan your days at night time, know what your going to do before the day begins
- Wormholes reduce sanity by a big chunk, 3 jumps will put you at 0 sanity, only use them if you absolutely must and make sure you can refill your sanity after!
- Never reach 0 sanity unless you are prepared for it!
- Prepare for winter by creating clothes and stocking up on long lasting food in your ice boxes
- Make sure you have a rainometer and a winterometer as fast as possible
- Get a drying rack so that you can dry your meat, do not eat it while its wet!
- Make a lightning rod as soon as possible, it will save you alot of time and stress knowing your farms wont be set ablaze
Day 1 – 3: harvest twigs, grass, berries,carrots and pine cones. Finding flint should be your priority, make a axe when you find one then harvest wood, you will be living off berries and carrots for the first few days until you can make a trap to capture rabbits
When night falls make a campfire and cook all your food, also use your pine cones as fuel for the fire
Day 3 – 5: same as above but get a pick axe and get some rocks and a gold nugget, its a good source of flint too!, you wanna be looking for a savanna area or near a pig villiage to set up a camp, make a rock fire pit for your camp as it lasts forever, just need to add fuel each night to start it up, also make a chest if you can and a science machine
Day 6 – 8: Hounds can start spawning now, you may get them on day 5, but make sure you make a spear and go spider hunting to get some silk, you want to try to make a beehive to collect honey. once you have enough silk make a bug net too. go and catch some bees and get honeycomb from the hives so that you can make a personal beehive (remember to have the bee hat equipped all the time), be aware of killer bee swarm areas, stay clear of these unless you have a bee hat or you will die!
You could also go to the beefalo in the savanna are and get some manure to make some farms, plant seeds from birds in these to create crops. if you arnt in luck with either of these strategies then you must live off berries/carrots for awhile until you find one, move your camp if need be, if you are playing Wendy a good trick is to wait till night and hope Abigail spawns, then make her go over a beefalo a few times for it to die, the beefalo will not aggro and will just die, dropping 6 meat!, make sure you have a torch tho to avoid the night monster!
Day 9+: So you have a camp set up, some farms, a beebox and a nice steady food income, now your goal should be to make the alchemy lab and unlock as much as possible, Rush the Ice Box if you can as it stops food spoiling as fast. the new research engine requires you to make prototypes of each item first, so choose what items you want first carefully as they are pricy at first. be warned that sanity comes into play from here onwards so make sure you manage it efficiently by wearing clothes and eating taffies. Make sure to prepare for winter by stocking up on lots of honey if possible. Other than that watch out for the boss enemies, keep track of your hunger, health and sanity and play it safe and never take risks and you are in for a nice life in Dont Starve.
Surviving Winter
Winter comes every 20 days, id advise building a Winterometer so you can tell when winter is coming and when it will end. your character will start getting colder over time and is only kept warm by being near a fire, you will need to make warm clothes to slow the freezing. A quick and easy clothing item you can make are the rabbit ear muffs. if you are in the cold for too long you will start taking damage. Make sure you prepare for winter by creating a winter-o-meter and filling up ice boxes with long lasting food such as honey and try to be aware of the new dangers, id advise trying to turtle during winter as much as possible.
Thanks!
Thanks for reading! this guide took me a few hours and i intend to keep it updated until the day Don’t Starve stops being updated with fresh content, if you guys liked the guide a thumbs up and maybe even a fav would be great!
Disclaimer
The character and monster images are not owned by me! they are owned by the Don’t Starve Wiki.
