Surviving Winter On Don’t Starve

Overview

The ultimate winter survival guide. Everything from hounds to freezing, covering all aspects of the hardest part of the year…

Surviving Winter

As you probably know, Winter was implemented into the game (as with other seasons), to keep gameplay fresh, offer new challenges, and ultimately, make the game harder. Winter, is by far the hardest season. Food shortens, hounds grow stronger, ponds freeze over and bees hibernate, and the dreaded deerclops roams the map. Such making all new players exeptionally vunurable to the dangers. In this guide I will attempt to simplfy the preparations needed for winter, and give various ways of tackling it’s daunting task.

Keeping Food

As game’s title implies the objective is to not starve. Winter makes this harder. You have ultimatley 30 days (presuming you spawn in Autumn with season length of default) giving you 3 days to make settlement, 7 days to make adequete food sources and 20 days to improve defenses and facilities of your base. Let’s focus on the ” 7 days to make adequete food sources” part. The most devistating shock most new players find with Winter is that most food sources simply drop off the self. Crops stop growing, bees hibernate and ponds freeze over. Very little is left. And a harder challenge is to adapt to the demands of the season. You will probably find most players, on danger of starvation in Winter have very little options. Die from starvation in your camp, or venture out into the howling cold to forage for leftovers which is as much as a death sentance as starvation is. If proper preparation isn’t done, death will soon follow as you are caught in the trap of Winter’s closing power.

The world in Winter is closing down, parts dropping off and hibernating until there are only three things needed; to keep the fire going, to keep the food coming, and to ward off the dangers of your dying sanity as nights grow longer. One of the few exeptions in the game of a hibernating animal are rabbits. With the help of cheep traps and snares, rabbits can become THE best source of food in the game. On average, it takes five rabbits per night to keep a player alive, and added with the chance of nothing being caught seven traps should be made and placed on top of the burrows, so as soon as the rabbit leaves the warren then it is snared. Rabbits exit the holes throughout the day, and return at evening, making sunset the time to go and gather the snared traps. The meat can be made into jerky or meatballs, and so is valuable both for hunger and sanity.

Hibernating is a possible way of survival throughout Winter, although is risky. It involves storing vast quanitities of food high enough to last the entire of the season, allowing the player the ability to remain in the reative saftey of their camp. However, it means the player’s lifeline is also on the edge, if the storage is destroyed then you will surely starve. It also costs alot of time beforehand to gather the food, but can be appropriatley done if managed well. The items should be stored in a freezer or ice box always if possible.

Mixing the source of food is ultimatley the best though, meaning the player need not rely too heavily on one thing working. A mixed base would have a decent sized rabbit trapping zone, basic supplies stored in an ice box, a small bee farm and a bird cage to transfer monster meat into eggs.

Preventing Freezing

Hypothermia is an obvious yet fatal danger of Winter in Don’t Starve, and can ground you to your camp if proper precautions are not made beforehand.

Luckily, there are some ways in which it can be prevented.

The Beefalo hat is one of the most effective anti-cold clothing items in the game classed at a level of teir 3 hypothermia resistance. It has a insulatory factor of 240, and is also fairly cheap costing beefalo byproducts (8 beefalo wool and 1 beefalo horn), meaning killing roughly 3 beefalo provides all that is needed. The hat should be taken off when by a fire or not when in need, although can on average survive 15 days (half of Winter) before breaking being worn full time.

If you’re planning for a fairly unproductive Winter of living off snares but need some kind of clothing to help keep warm for that short time of collecting the rabbit meat then these are the earmuffs you need. They are only teir 1, and have a incredibly poor thermal insulatory factor of 60, but are cheap, costing 2 (live) rabbits and 1 stick each. They last 5 days, provided you only use them for a quater of a day then you can make them last for about 20 days. A good quick one to remember.

The Winter hat I have not much opinion on. I see no reason other than shortage of beefalo for you to use a hat like this, but hey ho, people do. It’s a teir 2, 120 insulation so a strange mix between the last two. I find the best way to use this is for travelling medium distances fairly regularly. It has about 10 days of health (worn all the time), so will last the way through Winter. It is crafted with 4 beefalo wool and 4 silk, so need not go killing beefalo but can shave them simply instead. The hat also gradually regenerates sanity for some reason.

This vest is most effective when used in crafting higher teir clothing or in combination with a more effective head piece. This one is fairly expensive, costing a koafalunt trunk which will mean you will have to go on a long koafalunt hunt. Although, the hunt is very bountiful giving alot of food as well. It’s up to you. Personally I don’t bother but I can see how other people do.

The hibearnation vest is probably the best to choose, if not the most expensive, being teir 3 / 240 insulation. It costs 1 thick fur, 2 rope and a dapper vest, meaning the player must tackle large numbers of hounds and spiders, and kill a catcoon, meaning you’ll have to go through quite a way round the map and battle lots of deadly hounds. The vest also reduces hunger by 25% when wearing and increases sanity. It lasts 7 days, so don’t go wearing it non stop, you will need it later unless you have a sewing kit to repair it with.

Those are the main best peices of clothing for whatever reason, be it sanity or warmth. There are others, like the dapper vest, but I consider them too risky to obtain, too time consuming to gather, or down right useless.

Regardless of clothing, a fire should always be kept burning in Winter at the home base where you should be staying. Other good items include the thermal stone. This is basically a walking campfire
that needs to be kept in a chest or lie on the ground next to a campfire (beware of moleworms) for it to charge. Once charged, you can basically not freeze whilst carrying it around, but beware, once it enters grey/blue stage it will no longer help, and if on ROG it reaches icy blue it can actually help freeze you. Not very good for travelling long distances with, but will keep warmth effectively for a short journey.

Torches can also help in a dire situation, but you’ll find you’re burn through grass and twigs if you’re relying on them.

Surviving Those Evil Hounds

Hounds are evil. They are always a common increasing threat, and become harder in Winter.

Durnin this season, ice hounds spawn, capable of freezing the player when attacking, so direct conflict is highly dangerous. Ice hounds can of now also freeze the player, so travelling when the hounds attack are practically a death sentence. If you don’t take some precaution to the hounds, matey, you’ll find you wont be around too long.

Tooth traps are very effective, especially when used in a panic corridor and require their own enemy (hounds teeth) to create. Judging by the fact hounds become pretty common later on in game, these sould become pretty cheap. The best way is to make a thin corridor lined down with them so that hounds cannot enter without beeing “toothed”.

Panic rooms can be made, basically a heavily walled room made from stone with a fire pit, chest and funneled entrance so that the hounds are funneled in towards you one by one, meaning it’s 1 to one combat. Once the hound dies, another one spawns in. See picture if you dont understand me.

The final option I advise is the enviroment. You could possibly if you avoid dying make a treeguard farm that you lead the hounds into, or just use a herd of beefalo if you’re in the savana. You can use spiders, planting eggs near the entrance of your base, even combine them with the panic room so there are tooth traps at the entrance, then spiders, then you in a funneling room. Pig villages are even an option, although I wouldn’t advise the danger of it being destroyed.

AAAAAAAAAARRRR! THE DEERCLOPS! RUN!!

The deerclops is like the big cheese of Winter, the smorg of the cold (wait, that doesn’t make sense, smorg is a dragon, he isn’t physically cold…).

Many new players have tried and failed to battle this almighty beast. Many run, and die. Many hide, and are found, many fight, and are killed. Welcome to officially THE worst boss of the game – teh deerclops! Its a genetically engineered hybrid of a cyclops and deer. Wow.

He can shatter your base with one stamp of his foot, kill any animal with one swipe of his claws, even freeze you solid with his icey cold breathe. How must we defeat this godsome almighty beast??!!

One answer – you run.

Many new players are unnaware of the deerclop’s existance, and when they hear it’s moaning prepare for the hounds. Sadly, this isn’t as easy as the hounds. My first encounter with it was it actually entered my base, or moreso tore a hole through my wall and casually walked in. I was terrified, and ran as fast as I could, and soon, unprepared, met my cold end of charlie in the night. So, basically you do one of two things:

a) die

b) make a survival preparedness kit.

A survival preparedness kit is basically a kit which will help you evacuate your base. It is a chest or rucksack, somewhere near the exit, which you can simple pick up and run off with into the night.

One should include usually:

– 3 or more grass for starting a campfire
– an axe, for getting wood
– a spear, for defending yourself
– torches for if it is night
– any warm or cool clothing depending if it’s Summer or Winter.
– twigs and flint to make more tools
– a few logs of wood
– some jerky, honey, or any other food that can last a while

This might not all fit into your backpack, and will need to occupie some of your inventory. Dont hesitate if you have no room for it – drop everything! Leaving before the deerclops gets to trash your base is best advised.

You will be staying away from anything between a night to two days, so pack wisely. The deerclops can also be heard coming, making a moaning noise, and a good player can detect it’s coming before it spot’s your base. Wait a day and the deerclops will move on. Then you can return. REMEMBER TO KEEP YOUR SURVIVAL KIT IN PEAK SHAPE. YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN IT WILL BE NEEDED.

You and Your Base

Your base will be your home for Winter, this is why it is so important to make it good.

I could blabber on about stuff, but let’s keep things simple. In the list below there are all the things you will need for your base in Winter, and the ones with * are not crucial but optional:

– Walling or a panic room
– 4+ drying racks
– 1 or more bee boxes*
– a rabbit farm
– 1 ice box*
– 1 alchemy engine
– 1 tent
– a wood farm
– a survival preparedness kit
– 10+ berry bushes
– 5+ farms*
– chests

I recommend finding cogs to make an ice box, and some berry bushes or a honey farm to provide a filler to any crock pot recipies.

Sanity

Sanity is harder to maintain in Winter because nights are longer and there are no more flowers to be picked. Sanity will usually kill you in three ways. 1) hands will extinguish your fire and charlie will get you. 2) the nightmare creatures will kill you or 3) you whimp out and quit the game.

And so I advise 3 things to not do:

– go in dark areas
– stray near the deerclops
– say sanity is easy to keep up – it isn’t

All of these can be possibly lethal due to the sanity depression, and the last one, because you’ve just offended it. Sanity doesn’t like being offended.

There are also three things you can do to keep it high in the sky (wow, what’s with threes?):

Wear one of these constantly and you’ll have sanity going up, not down. Crafted with 6 silk, if you have a spider farm nearby then you’ll be fine. I reckon due to the decay rate, then you’ll probably need three or four to last through the whole of Winter.

Make a tent (i think it’s 6 silk), or fur bedroll and go to sleep. You could even make a straw bedroll, but you’ll end up churning through grass too fast and wont be able to keep up the stock needed. Every time you sleep your health and sanity will be boosted by something like 80, so it is efficient to sleep every so often. Take into account, tents last 6 uses, so if you’re gonna sleep every other night then you’ll need about three of them, but you can still survive only using one 6 times throughout the whole 21 days.

No kidding, each peice of jerky gives back 10 sanity. If you eat three a night then that’s +30 sanity right off the block. All you need is drying racks, and meat. Morsels will take 1 day to dry, so that makes it efficient to jerky 3 or 4 per day. I jerky 6 just to keep safe.

Summerised

Everything you’re gonna have to do:

– find some spiders and get silk or eggs to create spider farm
– get cogs to make freezer/ice box
– get charcoal and make crock pot and drying racks
– make survival preparedness kit
– make warm clothing
– set up a bee farm
– set up a rabbit farm
– collect and replant 10+ berry bushes
– stockpile grass and twigs and flint
– wall off your base
– make panic room and prepare for the hounds
– make bird cage and catch bird for eggs
– make tent or top hat
– make a few farms
– make chests
– make alchemy engine
– do anything that I’ve missed out on this list

And there we have it. Everything you’ll need to know (unless your a noob) about Winter. I may have missed some stuff out, although I either think it’s pointless to tell you or wrong as advice. Following the list closely at the end (or inventing your own), you should be able to be prepared – remember, Winter is easy as long as your ready for it.

Please feel free to rate this guide or comment on it below, I will reguarly respond to comments so don’t go posting them in vain.

Thanks for listening – Mr Blobs