Overview
This guide will make you OP just like Wes; You’ve been warned.
#1. You spawn into a new world (what to do)
Get at least 4 logs, 24 cut grass, 1 gold, 24 twigs, 10 flint, 12 rocks:
#1. Science Machine = Craft the following, then hammer down the machine.
- Backpack
- Shovel
- Hammer
- Rope
- Spear
- Torch
#2. Collect 30-50 Berry bushes; hammering down any Pig huts you find along the way (at least 2)
- Let the berries rot so that they can fertilize the bushes (DO NOT EAT THEM)
- If you need food, eat carrots and butterflies alongside seeds.
- Do not stop by a campfire for the night; continue traveling by torchlight and collecting items.
- The boards and cut stone from the pig huts are for the Alchemy Engine; the pig skin for a football helmet.
- Berry bushes can be found in grassland biomes and occasionally the forests.
- Pig Huts are always found in deciduous and forest biomes.
TIPS: Running at birds on screen makes them drop seeds (easy food) and carrots are instantly picked up saving you time. DO NOT EVER pick flowers; they spawn butterflies that provide healing and food. If you get raw meat, eat it raw. Don’t waste time cooking it. Most importantly, going insane is a good thing so don’t worry about it.
#3. Roam around the edge of each biome until you find/have all of the following:- 10 Gold/40 grass/40 Twigs/15 Flint/20-30 rocks
- Desert
- Pig King
- Plugged Sinkhole (Cave entrance)
- Marsh
- Spider Dens (you’ll need a tier 3 later)
- Mac Tusk Camp
- 2 Large meat and 1 Pig skin.
#4. Go underground (High risk, High rewards yo)
- Unplug the sinkhole you found and enter it.
- Look for Light flowers (harvest 25-30 bulbs)
- Build science machine again (craft 2 Electrical Doodads)
- Construct Alchemy Engine —> Craft a Lantern and Football Helmet, and Ham bat.
- Explore the caves until you find Bunny Men Huts (unless playing as Webber) and the ruins sinkhole
- Dig up Blue mushrooms from the mushroom biomes in the caves (you’ll need 20 at the minimum)
- Enter the ruins by breaking the thulecite plug (orange pile of thulecite that looks like the cave entrance plug) and going inside.
#5. Rushing the Ruins
Before I begin I would like to say that Wolfgang, WX-78, and Wigfrid are the best characters for doing this, but really any character can do it with extra prep work. - Watch out for the nightmare cycle (the ground lights up red) Don’t try to fight the shadow creatures, just run around until the cycle ends and they’ll die instantly, leaving nightmare fuel everywhere.
- Hammer and mine thulecite statues for gems (reloading the game will spawn different gems for the statue) Gems that the statue may drop can be seen somewhere on the statue but usually at it’s base.
- Hammer damaged clockworks (for frazzled wires, melty marbles, and a ton of gears)
- Find a yellow gem, go to an ancient pseudoscience station, and craft the amulet of Magiluminesence. (All this should be done by day 15)
- Return to the surface if one of the three scenarios occur: You run out of food, you have no armor, or your tool or weapon breaks and you cannot replace it.
#6. Go to the Pig King
Turn in all those frazzled wires for some serious gold (usually 80-90 gold in one haul)
The gears you obtained may be used to upgrade WX-78 or for ice boxes and such.
You’re now ready for the next chapter 🙂
#2. The Base
Grassland is probably the best place for a base in DS. Nearby Desert and Marsh is a plus.
Your base will need the following:
- Alchemy Engine
- Shadow Manipulator
- 3 Chests
- Bird Cage
- Crock Pot
- Fridge
- Lightning Rod
- 20 Saplings
- 20 Spiky Bushes (this allows you to have twigs all year round, they grow in winter.)
- 20 Grass Tufts (fertilized)
- 2 sustainable food sources (Farms are trash and don’t count) Most common is a berry farm and spider den.
Tips:
- Only collect berries during the day (Gobblers don’t spawn at night)
- If lacking toothtraps for the berry farm, place a gate instead and close it. Any time a gobbler spawns, chase them into a corner and kill them. Alternatively, you can use a boomerang to kill them.
- Only harvest your spider farms resources during the day or the bunny men will attack you for carrying meat.
- Pigs should only be harvested on a full moon. You can have as many huts as you like, but have at least 2 if you can help it. Pigs provide the resources for Hambats and Football helmets (both pro items) so you should always try to have some.
- Lastly, always wear a football helmet, carry a weapon, and have a lightsource. Never go anywhere without it.
#3. Light, Helmet, Weapon!
Never engage in combat or leave your base without these 3 items:
#4. Sh** you shouldn’t bother with
Merms (drops are trash)
Tentacles
Healing Salves (a waste of rocks and ash)
Killer bees (and their nests)
Pengulls (they’re not worth it man, they OP.)
Beefalo (unless you want easy meat and don’t mind murdering them all)
Body armor (backpacks, magiluminesence, life saving amulets, belts of hunger, so many better options.)
Picking flowers (big no no, the butterflies are so very useful)
Building farms (that includes advanced farms, they are a waste of resources in the beginning. Late game might be a different story.)
Sanity items (they are a stinking waste, you should get comfortable with insanity because you can farm some serious amounts of nightmare fuel and have the best weapon in the game ALL THE TIME.)
Glommer (he’s a joke, seriously.)
Winter hats/coats (all you need is a thermal stone and 2 roaring campfires, stand between them and wait until you overheat. Then you should have at least an entire day to work before needing to warm up again.)
#5. OP Food sources
#1. Berries
Your #1 food source. You should have about 40-50 berry bushes before your first winter. Honestly you should have your farm built by Day 16. Spawns gobblers during the day upon being picked, allowing you to also farm meat along with berries.
#2. Cactus
Renewable, grows in winter. Acts as a vegetable in the crockpot allowing you to make Pierogis with it. Also good for sanity when cooked, but f*ck sanity.
#3. Ice
Ice comes from mini glaciers in the winter, absolutely mandadtory for the flingomatic. Harvest it everywhere you go.
Fun fact: 1 monster meat + 3 ice = Meatballs (62.5 Hunger) Cheapest recipe in the game.
#4. Spider Farms
Spiders are mandatory in this game. If all you have is a berry farm and a spider den, it is enough. Spiders provide more than just easy meat, but very precious spider sacs and silk. Can be autofarmed by building bunny hutches near it. 8-9 hutches per den is enough.
#5. Bunny man Farms
Build 9-10 bunny hutches. Feed a bunnyman a carrot and cancel attack another bunnyman to start a war. Pick up the loot, carrots first, meat during the day.
#6. Honey
A late game food as it is such a hassle to set up every single bee box (you need about 50-150) in order to have food for the entire year. I won’t go into details here, but if you looking for long term, here ya go.
#6. Health & Hunger
There’s only three recipes you should ever need to know in DS. These are those three. Every other recipe is a gimmick, a pain in the @$$ to obtain, or the ingredients require you to farm (another resource and time waster) plus Wigfrid can eat 2 of the three.
Pierogi = 1 Monster Meat + 1 egg + Any 2 veggies (Cactus, Mushrooms, Carrots)
Trail Mix = 1 Cooked Birchnut + 3 berries
Meatballs = 1 Monster Meat + 3 Ice (or) 1 Monster Meat + 3 berries
HEALTH
HUNGER
#7. Sanity (why you should be insane)
Actually don’t worry about sanity. You’ll gain sanity by killing Terror beaks and crawling horrors. If you don’t want to do that, go cry a river and play some weakling game (like Sims 4). You need that precious nightmare fuel, so suck it up. Plus, there will be so many flowers, green mushrooms, and cactus left in your world to do other things with, like cooking.
To intentionally go insane, eat raw green mushrooms: -50 Sanity each
Or if Wes, use those lovely balloons.
#8. Hounds
Just outrun them. Seriously.
They will eventually aggro on something else. When you hear them coming, craft a spare torch and high tail it out of your base. Great places to take them are Killer bees, Bee hives, Tentacles, Merms, Spider nests, bunnymen, Pigmen, Beefalo, Pengulls, Tallbirds, etc.
No need to build giant tooth trap fields or any of that nonsense. Hounds are a joke.
Underground you’ll encounter depthworms in place of hounds; also a joke as they can’t go underneath walls.
#9. The only things you really should craft (The Tabs)
If it’s not on the list then either it’s not practical: a waste of resources, or a waste of time. Refine Tab is skipped as you should know everything in the refine tab has a purpose. Obviously Wickerbottom’s books are OP and definitely on the crafting list.
Tools:
- Axe
- Luxury Axe
- Pick Axe
- Luxury PickAxe
- Shovels
- Hammers
- Pitchfork
- Razor
- Feather Pencil
Light:
- Campfire/Fire Pit
- Torch
- Lantern
Survival:
- Bird Trap
- Bug Net
- Umbrella
- Trap (only to obtain the prestihatitator, otherwise a waste)
- Water Balloon
- Thermal Stone
- Backpack
- Whirly Fan
Food:
- Bee Box (Late game structure)
- Drying Rack (late game structure)
- Crockpot
- Ice Box
Science:
- Science Machine
- Alchemy Engine
- Electrical Doodad
- Gunpowder
- Lightning Rod
- Ice Fling-o-matic
Fight:
- Spear
- Hambat
- Football Helmet
- Blow-dart (Fire blow-darts too, if Wes or Wendy)
- Boomerang (great for aggroing animals that run away or hunting small game)
- Bee mine (for cheesing bosses)
- Tooth trap
Structures:
- Chest
- Mini Sign
- Wood Gate
- Wood Fence
- Pig hut
- Rabbit Hutch
- Birdcage
- Wood Flooring
- Grass walls (especially for Wickerbottom traps)
Magic:
- Prestihatitator
- Shadow Manipulator
- Pan flute
- One Man Band
- Night Light
- Dark Sword
- Life Giving Amulet
- Chilled Amulet
- Nightmare Amulet
- Fire staff
- Ice Staff (extinguishes smoldering in summer, deaggros enemies, puts out fire)
- Telelocator Staff
- Telelocator Focus
Dress:
- Sewing Kit
- Straw Hat
- Top Hat (only for the prestihatitator don’t wear it.)
- Beekeeper Hat
- Bush Hat (very useful, for hiding from hounds)
- Walking Cane
- Eyebrella
Ancient Pseudoscience Station:
- Thulcite
- Magiluminesence
- Construction Amulet
- Lazy Explorer
- Deconstruction Staff
- Thulecite Crown
- Houndius Shootius
#10. Combat
TIPS:
Ice staffs, setting your targets on fire with torches/fire staffs, and pan flutes all deaggro your attacker.
Wes’ damage reduction does not transfer over to gunpowder or fire darts. Same for Wendy.
Blow-Darts and Dark swords are among the best weapons in the game for overall damage output.
Kiting vs. Tanking: Kiting is dodging the enemies attack, Tanking is taking the damage intentionally.
#11. Health
Blue Mushrooms = +20 HP
Big Jerky = +20 HP
Spider Glands = +8 HP
Butterfly Wings = +8 HP
Mosquito Sacs = +8 HP
Butter = +40 HP
Pierogis = +40 HP
Koalefant Trunk = +30 HP Raw (Cooked +40 HP)
#12. Cook it or eat it raw?
Alphabetical Order:
Batilisk Wings: Cooked gives +5 extra HP
Berries: Raw (cooked only gives one more HP) Best for crockpots
Blue Cap: Eat it raw +40 HP
Butter: Eat Raw (waste of time on recipes and cannot be cooked.)
Butterfly wings: Raw
Carrot: Entirely situational (raw is easiest, but can be used in crockpot or cooked)
Banana: Raw
Drumstick: Crockpot only
Eggs: Situational (can be cooked for quick hunger while waiting for crockpot to finish, mostly used in Pierogis. Can be cooked if old and fed to a bird in a cage to get a fresh egg back.
Fish: Eat it raw (only if you find it, you should never fish as you could spend your time better doing other things.
Frog legs: Raw (can be used in crockpot as a meat.)
Green Cap: Eat it raw -50 Sanity but good hunger boost
Glommer’s Goop: Can be eaten raw or used as fuel.
Honey: Raw, can be used in crockpot recipes.
Ice: Only use in crockpot recipes.
Leafy Meat: Eat it raw.
Meat: Dry it on a rack, eat it raw, or use it in recipes. Cooking is a waste of time.
Monster Meat: Raw if Webber, if not Webber; Cook it first. Best used for recipes.
Morsel: Eat it raw, or use it in recipes.
Red Cap: Only useful for recipes, poisonous and useless otherwise.
Roasted Birchnut: Best used for trail mix.
Tallbird Egg: Eat it raw for health, cook it for hunger.
Character Selection (their best role based on your style)
Wilson = Basic. Jack-of-all-Trades master of none character. Grows a beard. Standard.
Willow = Explorer. Her trusty lighter might not seem like much but it allows Willow to travel at night and keep her sanity up.
Wolfgang = Fighter. The beast of the beasts. He outputs damage based on his hunger. His health maxes at 300HP and he deals a whopping 34 damage (same as spear) with a walking cane.
Wendy = Farmer. Not a traditional farmer, but her sister Abigail allows her to murder swarms of weak enemies (like spiders) allowing her to make quick work of small hordes. Abigail generates 1 point of health per second, and deals 10-40 damage depending on the time of day. Wendy doesn’t hit very hard but her sister makes up for it.
WX-78 = Scout. He can travel long distances when overcharged, can upgrade with gears to a whopping 400HP and can eat almost anything without penalties. Downside, takes damage when wet.
WickerBottom= Homebody. She farms and farms some more. She knows many things, and her books make her the Goddess of DS. Second in deity status to Wes, of course. 😉
Woody= Resource Gathering. Woody sure has a nice axe, but he can collect huge amounts of resources (including nightmare fuel) at the cost of no resources as a werebeaver. Dig up grass tufts, saplings, chop trees, mine, etc. Woody can do it all, leaving space for other items in your inventory. Haul away!
Wes= God. Seriously. Wes is OP and seriously needs to be nerfed. When you play as Wes, he teaches you to get better at the game. So much so, that playing as other characters afterwards feels cheaty. Once you deal with the hunger problem, he’s like playing a clone of Maxwell and Wendy without the ghost. All that nightmare fuel allows Wes access to OP weapons early, and those balloons allow Wes to farm the fuel, and lure mobs into other hostile mobs/traps/or distract them.
Wigfrid = Tank. Helmet goddess of DS. She deals x1.25 damage to every item in the game so a walking cane that normally deals 17 deals 22 for Wigfrid. She gains sanity and health from conflict, but can only eat meat.
Webber = Spider King. Seriously. Webber with an army of spider followers behind him can take out nearly anything that doesn’t deal splash damage. Webber can eat raw monster meat without sanity penalties, can farm spider resources, and spiders are neutral to him (even spitters in the caves). However, pigs and bunnymen are hostile to Webber.
Maxwell = Shadow Man. He goes insane by splitting his mind. Fragile, but very well vexed in magic. He is the walker of the worlds in DS. He goes Insane when he feels like it but otherwise has a constant sanity boost that prevents insanity when other characters would wail in madness. Maxwell starts with the Dark sword, Codex Umbra, Nightmare Fuel, and Dark Armor. He is rather frail, but a spell sword nonetheless.
