New player here, in what expansion should I start?

[sahx_94]

Hello, I bought Klei's survival bundle and want to start playing Don't starve but don't know where to start. I've never played DS before. Where should I start? Hamlet? RoG? SW? I was going to start on hamlet, but there is a warning and hit cancel. What do you guys suggest?

[ToSoublaki]

You start either with vanilla Don't Starve (without selecting any expansion) or with RoG. RoG is the base game world with a (lot) more content. It is more difficult than vanilla Don't Starve but still manageable. Shipwrecked and Hamlet take place in different settings (islands/city) and are generally considered more challenging.

[imsomony]

I would suggest playing vanilla Don't Starve, without any of the expansions enabled, while you get the hang of gameplay and how to survive. Just learning the crafting menu can take time, let alone what's good to craft and what's rarely ever needed. Once you're able to live through the first Summer and Winter successfully, then consider enabling RoG and work on surviving all 4 seasons. RoG is definitely a tougher experience than the base game, some folks do like to jump right into it though. If you tend to like "hard mode" on games that offer it, you could always start with RoG, and if it feels too difficult to get the hang of, go back to vanilla while you get your bearings.  

 

As you play the game and die, you'll earn character XP, and that will allow you to try playing as other characters. Each character will have pros and cons that differentiate them from one another. We all have our favorites, but Wilson is steady and reliable as you're learning.

 

SW and Hamlet are harder than both vanilla and RoG. They're basically entirely new experiences of playing Don't Starve, using mechanics from vanilla/RoG but in entirely different ways (I'm being vague so I don't spoil things for you). If you don't already have a good feel for surviving, crafting, fighting monsters, and resource management, they'll likely feel overwhelming and off-putting.

 

Oh! One last thing. If you find a structure that offers to let you try "A Doorway to Adventure", you can enter without worry of losing your current progress. That's what we call "Adventure Mode", and it's sort of like a side-quest, with extra challenging levels of gameplay. There are 2 "prizes" you can obtain by playing and/or completing Adventure Mode (again, no spoilers  ). If you die in Adventure Mode, you'll come right back to your normal game without consequence or penalty.

[zzKratoszz]

One thing I would change is to not get stuck playing vanilla. I suggest playing vanilla for ~2-3 hours or a play session. Then immediately moving to rog. Then probably sw to hamlet depending on preference.