Don't Starve

Lyno · Post by **Lyno** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 9:05 am

Chrisoc13 wrote: I have no idea what parts would be spoilers for people and I tried to keep it spoiler free but just in case:
Spoiler:
Since starting yesterday I've played 4 or 5 games and managed to get to day 29 on my last one. But then winter came. I was holding out through winter. I had a bit of a rabbit farm going with a bunch of drying stations and a crock pot I was churning out food and staying alive just fine, in fact I was prospering. I had some rabbit earmuffs to keep me warm and I had a nice big camp with wooden walls, a bunch of berry bushes on one side, a tree farm on another side, saplings on a third side and grass on the 4th side. I was really moving along and doing well. Even winter wasn't much of a problem, I had to spend more time sitting around the fire to stay alive and my time to get things done during the day was short but I was still doing fine and even was contemplating stealing some penguin eggs. But then it happened.

I was cutting down trees from my tree farm for the much needed firewood through the winter and I had another tree wake up (my second one for this game, the first one I took to some pigs and spiders and let them take care of him) but this time I couldn't seem to get rid of him, so I lit him on fire a few times and spent two terrible nights away from my established camp with little campfires barely making it through the night without all my supplies. Finally on the third night the tree finished me off as I was trying to escape again. I had recently managed to activate an alter that allowed me to respawn but I had died away from my camp and therefore all of my warm clothes was away from camp. I tried to stay in camp to stay alive but without my warm clothes or firewood it wasn't going to happen so I ran from my camp towards where my stuff was. I almost made it there before I died from exposure. And that was the end of Wilson that time.

Spoiler:

-Lyno!

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 10:17 am

Lyno wrote:
Spoiler:
Plant some pine cones next time. It'll turn the tree neutral. I kept dying to it over and over til I finally looked up the wiki on how to deal with it.
-Lyno!

Ah thank you much. I thought about trying it but didn't have any on me at the time.

On a new game now, day 23 and thinks are cruising for Wilson. I tried the strong man but he was so weak when he was out of food I couldn't get him to do anything so I went back to Wilson. I made wood floors etc and a nice home for Wilson now. Not sure if the walls and floors do anything for him but at least it looks like he has set himself up a nice home! I have everything going for me now I just need to hold out through the winter as it is approaching.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 10:28 am

Well... when the server crashed.. I was composing this long reply - and saved it.....

Butterknife wrote:If you don't mind me asking, Unagi, how do you deal with
Spoiler:
the hound attacks? I keep getting killed as more and more hounds attack. I've tried setting up an area with lots of traps, but if I am not near that area when I start to hear them coming ... well, I never last long.

Sure, it's not unlike your solution - but I'll go into (way too much) detail

Spoiler:

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 11:07 am

I'm finally getting into this game, and coming in late. Steam sales bring me so many interesting things.

I'm going as "wiki-free" as I can and it's been a lot of fun (so I'm avoiding the spoilers here). The things I've looked up were "How to get the last two characters?" and "How do I catch the boomerang?" ... I killed myself with the boomerang the first time I made one. I had no interest in doing that again.

My record so far is 29 days.

Spoiler:

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 11:49 am

Loving this game so far.

Going to put this in spoiler in case you don't want to know, but I personally don't think of it as one, as IMO, I would have NEVER found this out via exploring in game alone:

Spoiler:

I am staying out of caves for now, as it shows that they are still in beta. I made the mistake of going into one with all my worldly possessions in my backpack, and found myself surrounded by a nest of spiders. So I died on the spot, slinging all my stuff around at the base of the monster brood.

Of course I reincarnate at the cave entrance, but sans stuff since all my stuff is below! ooof. Big blow!

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 11:59 am

I'm not sure that First Point on your Second Spoiler is true.

Spoiler:

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 12:01 pm

Unagi wrote:I'm not sure that First Point on your Second Spoiler is true.

Spoiler:
Shaving it off (in the spring!) restores sanity, but I don't believe it gives you a +sanity while it's sitting there

Ooh, thanks. Did not know that.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 12:04 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote:I am staying out of caves for now, as it shows that they are still in beta. I made the mistake of going into one with all my worldly possessions in my backpack, and found myself surrounded by a nest of spiders. So I died on the spot, slinging all my stuff around at the base of the monster brood.

Of course I reincarnate at the cave entrance, but sans stuff since all my stuff is below! ooof. Big blow!

Friendly Spiders?

Spoiler:

I'm actually staying out of the caves for now too... I'm tempted, but too creeped out.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 12:17 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote:Loving this game so far.

Going to put this in spoiler in case you don't want to know, but I personally don't think of it as one, as IMO, I would have NEVER found this out via exploring in game alone:
Spoiler:
Wilson's beard acts as a winter hat, which has two big effects tied to it (see second spoiler for what those are

You're right. That's not something I would have easily guessed at, or even not easily guessed at. That's a lot more beneficial than I originally thought, which was "Hey, that stuff burned real good" when I threw it into a fire.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 1:28 pm

Yeah, as much as I don't want to look stuff up, so much in the game is soooo random, illogical and/or doesn't give you any feedback about what it does, that at some point, you almost have to do it (to progress very far at least).

Reminds me a bit of Order of the Stick in that regard.

tiny ogre · Post by **tiny ogre** » Mon Nov 18, 2013 4:06 am

I've owned this since February or March, but never really got into it. That finally changed. I think what mainly did it is the discovery that they added controller support (looks like last month, news to me yesterday.) My PC is really a console, hooked up to a big TV with a couch in front of it. I CAN play mouse and keyboard games on it, but I PREFER controller games. Turns out Don't Starve is, surprisingly, a nearly perfect controller game. I would've thought with so much item management it wouldn't work that well, but the control scheme they came up with really does work, and I like it that way much more than I did with a mouse (or touch pad on my laptop).

Anyway, my best game is still day 16 (and actually that one's still on-going, but I died in a lightning induced forest fire far from the touchstone I found, and was so distressed at the thought of that trek without my gear I just started over... and haven't lived that long in 3 games since. Heh.) and I haven't read all the spoilers in here, so I don't have much to add about the game itself, but if you're like me and are always looking for good controller games on PC, this one is darn good.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:07 am

It is a damn good game for what it is. It takes a long time to get the hang of the process of survival, but once you're established it seems like the real challenge is in not killing yourself foolishly as I tended to do.

My biggest non-spoiler is to say "Make sure you know all the controls" as finding out there was a Map that could lead me back to anywhere I had been was a huge game changer for me - as well as a giant facepalm.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:53 am

I would love it if they would port this one to XBL.

Fitzy · Post by **Fitzy** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 8:36 pm

Awesome game, wish I had bought it sooner.

My latest game I got to day 16. I was very happy. Wondered into a swamp to gather reeds. Deftly avoided death until I stopped to consider my options. Double penetration and death. I respawned exactly half way between my lost stuff and my base. Now I have no idea which way to go. I'm loving this

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Mon Dec 15, 2014 9:34 pm

Don't Starve Together

Now it's a team effort.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Mon Dec 15, 2014 9:45 pm

It’s actually considerably harder with multiple people. Playing with a friend we have not made it past day 14.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 3:42 am

Apparently, since they didn't alter the seed values for the game, it's a good idea to increase the resource availability by a tick when generating the world, this is especially important with 3+ players.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 12:25 pm

I have been playing this quite a bit since Christmas (thanks, Kraken!). I'm disheartened at the early players who got to day 60. 60!!?? The best I've managed is day 30.
Winston is my longest-lived character, but I've also played Willow and Woody.

It looks like owners of this game will get "Don't Starve Together" for free when it goes out of early access. I'm looking forward to trying this with one or more friends.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 1:40 pm

I'm happy I'll be getting a free copy of don't starve together. I'm disappointed I have to wait for it to be released from beta before I get it.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 6:50 pm

Based on people's advice that it's better to go into this game cold, I haven't read this thread.

Maybe too cold: I don't get it. I've started it four times, dying on the first night every time. Without giving too much away, can someone explain why I would want to keep doing that? I'm not understanding the love. Failing at the same thing over and over with no explanation is just too much like my typical workday.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 7:00 pm

I guess the question is why are you dying on the first night.

I haven't played in a long time but my first guess is you let it get dark and something came after you in the night and ate you.

My second guess is you starved.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 7:06 pm

Kraken wrote:Based on people's advice that it's better to go into this game cold, I haven't read this thread.

Maybe too cold: I don't get it. I've started it four times, dying on the first night every time. Without giving too much away, can someone explain why I would want to keep doing that? I'm not understanding the love. Failing at the same thing over and over with no explanation is just too much like my typical workday.

At the start of the game, I try to get twigs (from saplings), flint, grass, and any easy to get food (berries, carrots).
Make an axe from the twigs and flint. Use it to chop down trees. That way, at night you can build a campfire - keep it going while it's dark. That way you can survive the night.

edit to add: I die a lot. But I've managed to make it to day 34, so I'm pretty excited. I do look up what to do with various items I get - what I can make out of them - because I suspect that the time I spend looking through the science machine stuff is "real time" and, therefore, time I need to spend getting food and other resources.

tiny ogre · Post by **tiny ogre** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 2:25 am

Bad Demographic wrote:
Kraken wrote:Based on people's advice that it's better to go into this game cold, I haven't read this thread.

Maybe too cold: I don't get it. I've started it four times, dying on the first night every time. Without giving too much away, can someone explain why I would want to keep doing that? I'm not understanding the love. Failing at the same thing over and over with no explanation is just too much like my typical workday.
At the start of the game, I try to get twigs (from saplings), flint, grass, and any easy to get food (berries, carrots).
Make an axe from the twigs and flint. Use it to chop down trees. That way, at night you can build a campfire - keep it going while it's dark. That way you can survive the night.

edit to add: I die a lot. But I've managed to make it to day 34, so I'm pretty excited. I do look up what to do with various items I get - what I can make out of them - because I suspect that the time I spend looking through the science machine stuff is "real time" and, therefore, time I need to spend getting food and other resources.

Yes, that's true. There's a mod called Relaxed Crafting that pauses the game while the crafting menu is open. That's all it does, and it's the only mod I use.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 9:41 am

tiny ogre wrote:Yes, that's true. There's a mod called Relaxed Crafting that pauses the game while the crafting menu is open. That's all it does, and it's the only mod I use.

That's huge.

I haven't played in a very long time, but distinctly recall dying multiple times because I needed to do something on the run and couldn't - like trying to run from hounds and needing to craft a torch at the same time. Unpossible.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 11:58 am

tiny ogre wrote: Yes, that's true. There's a mod called Relaxed Crafting that pauses the game while the crafting menu is open. That's all it does, and it's the only mod I use.

Thank you!

MHS · Post by **MHS** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 3:47 pm

Bad Demographic wrote:I have been playing this quite a bit since Christmas (thanks, Kraken!). I'm disheartened at the early players who got to day 60. 60!!?? The best I've managed is day 30.
Winston is my longest-lived character, but I've also played Willow and Woody.

It looks like owners of this game will get "Don't Starve Together" for free when it goes out of early access. I'm looking forward to trying this with one or more friends.

I started playing at Christmas, as well. I've lived to Day 168, which still seems really short. Things that have helped me the most: find a beefalo camp and establish yourself near there. I use Wilson because he can survive the winter best due to his beard. Collect spiderwebs and beefalo hair to make a couple of winter hats to get through the winter. Get a Chester and a backpack as soon as possible so you can store bunnies. I try to have 3-4 chests of bunnies stored before winter. Find some mandrakes and keep them in a chest for emergencies. Find both touchstones ASAP. Since your basecamp should be near a beefalo ranging area, there will probably be bunnies. Don't waste berries and carrots on bunny traps; watch which holes they go into at dusk and put your traps over those. When they come out the next day, they'll be in your trap. I have 3-4 traps going at all times. If I do use bait, I'll put down two traps right next to each other but only bait one- the bunnies will still usually go into both. Keep a log suit in your backpack and only put it on when attacking something so that it lasts longer. Always have at least one spare weapon in case you get attacked with a low percent remaining on your primary one. Build a couple of chests and put them near both touchstones, with an axe, some food, some logs, etc. so that if you get regenerated you'll have stuff to get you started and won't just die right away again. (You can build something at your basecamp and carry it to set it down elsewhere, not sure if everyone knows that.)

Oh, and use nighttime to get yourself organized. I cook, eat, and organize my supplies at night. Empty Chester, build new chests, etc. Everything in the same place so that I don't have to panic-hunt for a spear when being attacked. Also, I like to build my camp with one side to the water and then build a stone wall against the other sides, with tooth traps stacked at the entrance for the big winter attack guy and the hounds.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:40 pm

Those are good ideas. I tend to leave some stuff near the touchstones (an axe, some already chopped wood, some grass) but it never occurred to me to put a chest of stuff there - really good idea.

I've made it to day 43 or so. Got lucky because the winter attack guy attacked the pig-man settlement next door. I figured this out when I passed through and saw meat, boards, and stones in places where there used to be pig houses. Maybe I should make some new pig houses over there? Does their population grow?
Also, I got really lucky when I went out to dig up berry bushes and was attacked by a hoard of hounds at night. I was way to far from the beefalo but I had a firestaff (or whatever it's called). I kept lighting the hounds on fire as I ran around and around and I guess some of them must have blundered into a beehive because suddenly the hounds were preoccupied with something else. I figured out it was bees because one attacked me. The next morning there was monster meat and stingers all over.

MHS · Post by **MHS** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:42 pm

Bad Demographic wrote:Those are good ideas. I tend to leave some stuff near the touchstones (an axe, some already chopped wood, some grass) but it never occurred to me to put a chest of stuff there - really good idea.

I've made it to day 43 or so. Got lucky because the winter attack guy attacked the pig-man settlement next door. I figured this out when I passed through and saw meat, boards, and stones in places where there used to be pig houses. Maybe I should make some new pig houses over there? Does their population grow?
Also, I got really lucky when I went out to dig up berry bushes and was attacked by a hoard of hounds at night. I was way to far from the beefalo but I had a firestaff (or whatever it's called). I kept lighting the hounds on fire as I ran around and around and I guess some of them must have blundered into a beehive because suddenly the hounds were preoccupied with something else. I figured out it was bees because one attacked me. The next morning there was monster meat and stingers all over.

After winter, be sure to wander around where the pengulls had their areas. You can cook stale and even spoiled eggs in the crockpot, and a lot of times they will leave a LOT of eggs around. If you can get a beefalo hat, befriend some pigs and take them through a beefalo camp while the beefalo are in heat. They'll kill the pigs (and/or the pigs will kill them) resulting in easy meat for you. Pigs do seem to re-spawn even after they get killed.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 7:28 pm

Sigh. Died at night on day 53 - I think a lightning strike nearby burned up everything around me, and me.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 6:56 am

Ugh, don't setup permanent camps near boulder zones, at least in DST. Meteors fall in and around those areas to replenish the boulders, which unfortunately tends to blow up a lot of stuff.

At least they changed it so that if a meteor hits a chest, it doesn't blow up everything, it just knocks stuff out of the chest and it survives.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 1:03 pm

Good tip, Turtle.

In my new game I got lucky and found Beefalo on day 2. In my previous game it took me until day 11.

Cortilian · Post by **Cortilian** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:02 am

Touchstones?. Well crap. That would have made life easier.

MHS · Post by **MHS** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 11:12 am

Bad Demographic wrote:Sigh. Died at night on day 53 - I think a lightning strike nearby burned up everything around me, and me.

I had a really, really nice camp set up and lightning torched all the berry bushes I had dug up elsewhere and re-planted in my camp.

I'll be able to go get more, and fortunately it only burned down half of the trees near me (well, half of the half still left after I accidentally burned some of it myself) but it was a bummer.

I found a third touchstone yesterday. I'd never seen more than 2, so that was new. Now I have a great camp and 3 activated touchstones. I'm feeling pretty good and will probably die to something completely stupid.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 11:27 am

MHS wrote:
Bad Demographic wrote:Sigh. Died at night on day 53 - I think a lightning strike nearby burned up everything around me, and me.
I had a really, really nice camp set up and lightning torched all the berry bushes I had dug up elsewhere and re-planted in my camp.

Gaps in tree lines and berry fields are now part of my regular planting patterns.

MHS · Post by **MHS** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 12:53 pm

GreenGoo wrote:
MHS wrote:
Bad Demographic wrote:Sigh. Died at night on day 53 - I think a lightning strike nearby burned up everything around me, and me.
I had a really, really nice camp set up and lightning torched all the berry bushes I had dug up elsewhere and re-planted in my camp.
Gaps in tree lines and berry fields are now part of my regular planting patterns.

That's some good advice that I should have incorporated on my own.

What are items that are worth making/not worth making that I might not be thinking about?

I haven't played around with the weapons too much beyond the spear and axe. I made a ham bat and was pleased with what a punch it packed, but disappointed with its short lifespan. I like things measured by use rather than days, I guess. My favorite weapon so far has been the tentacle spike, but I'm scared of fighting tentacles to get them.

I think I'll try making a lightning rod, which I'd never thought would be all that useful until my bushes burned up.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 12:56 pm

My play time is from before the DLC and before many, many patches. I wouldn't have a clue what to do today.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 1:21 pm

I think a lightning rod is a good idea. I put one in my settlement area.
The current character (who found beefalo on day 2) survived winter. I've also found four "thing" pieces but not the place where you have to take them to travel to another world, so I've been exploring. I was running around in a huge woods and there was a thunderstorm. At night! (I found that if I run around all night with a torch, the map will show anything near where you were, even if you couldn't see it at the time - good for finding resources and things to avoid). I ran and ran and eventually the fire burned itself out. I haven't decided yet if I should go back and collect many dozens of charcoal.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:44 pm

Damn. Died. I was being chased by a horde of spiders (spawned by a queen) and decided to lead them to a lureplant (with its attendant eyeplants) but ran a little too close to the eyeplants.

Lyno · Post by **Lyno** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:51 pm

Bad Demographic wrote:Damn. Died. I was being chased by a horde of spiders (spawned by a queen) and decided to lead them to a lureplant (with its attendant eyeplants) but ran a little too close to the eyeplants.

Carry 3 box traps with you at all times. You can use those to kill off spiders, frogs and any other small ground animals (like rabbits). Just lead the spiders past your trap and it'll be caught and killed.

Tentacles, Pigs and spiders don't like each other. Not sure about Tallbirds and spiders/pigs.

Make multiple permanent campsites so you're not caught in the dark if you stray too far. One to two main campsites near beefalo/rabbits/pigs. And a bunch of smaller satellite campsites that has a firepit and some logs.

-Lyno!

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 12:08 am

What's a box trap?

I made it to day 79 and was feeling pretty good. I survived two winters (was at the end of the second one), killed three MacTusks and finally found the bridge to the "island" I could barely see from multiple locations. Unfortunately, the way was blocked by a row of Killer bee hives (I lured a MacTusk family there) and I got a bit impatient, attacked a hive to try to lure out the bees, hit some wrong keys and ran right back into the hive area. Boom! Dead. Sigh. Oh well, now I know what Killer Bee Hives look like and know that I can defeat the MacTusk things.