What's the most efficient way to start a game?

[Fozzlebub]

I mean painfully specific, which and how much materials to gather and what to construct and prototype first. Character specific stuff is welcome as well (:

[AceTheMartyr]

collect all the flint on the ground get a pickaxe wail on rocks till you get  a good amount of flint and about 30 rocks if possible
make an axe and chop trees till u get 4 logs , look for gold then make a science machine, 4 logs 4 rocks 1 gold, get shovel, backpack spear logsuit 3 refine items precraft chest and an alchemy engine (using 4 gold 4 cut stone and 4 boards) at this point i usually set a forest on fire and grab 40 charcoal by chopping the burnt trees all this charcoal will go towards many crockpots, boomerangs to make koalaphant hunting easy, and drying racks and LOTS of em cause jerky is great, precraft a crockpot(3 cut stone 6 charcoal and 6 sticks for it) and use that shovel to gather all the saplings/berrybushes/grass tufts you can find 20 berry bushes 40 saplings 40 grass is good if u don't wanna leave base ever xD hope this helps a bit xD 

[ShadowDuelist]

Depends on the character and your objectives. I generally go Maxwell, Wigfrid, Wickerbottom or Wortox. My gameplay also adapts depending the situation (if there are some resources nearby or arent, the season im strating, how nice or evil are the other players, how much they know about the game, etc). But generally speaking I'll try to point out the main things I keep in mind, although this is not written in stone in any way, and adapting is part of the game:

1)Light - I try to supply myself with at least 20-30 grass and twigs ASAP, this is because this works for early light, and also to early prototype very useful items like backpacks, spears, etc. During the first day I try to get at least enough for a torch, and some food or flint.

2) Early game: I then try to find at least 2 flint. Why 2 flint? To make a pickaxe. Pickaxe lets you mine boulders which will give you more flint in return, so its usually better to make this tool first instead of an axe. Maxwell also lets you make that pickaxe of unlimited use if you summon a miner so you can get all the stone, flint and gold u want. Usually i try to get at least 10 gold, a stack of stone, 20 or 30 flint, and a stack or 2 of wood (for the alchemy and a chest or 2) In the first 2-3 days

3) Whenever I find the materials for a science machine, I just precraft it. It not only frees some inventory space, it lets you place it in a better location if you dont have many stuff by the time you precrafted it. I usually wait until having enough grass and twigs to make a backpack, and a spear. If I can I try to precraft the alchemy and a crock pot as soon as possible too, but thats only if materials are available. As a wickerbottom I wait to place the science machine when I have materials to make a lantern, a helmet and a hambat. If I found spiders on my travels, I make a top hat as soon as I make the first science machine.

4) Explore. Kill stuff on your way. Keep picking food and resources. The more you know about the world, the better. It will allow you to plan your next moves later on, if you know where to look. It also lets you decide which place is better for you to camp. I usually try to live in the desert (for the cactus which grow all year long, and the tumbleweeds for grass and twigs) or near a wormhole for fast escape. But this changes a lot with the map. If you want to feel safe from the early hounds you can also go pig village (unless you are wortox... then no..)

5) Establish a crappy survival camp to drop stuff, place your alchemy, and cook food on a crock pot so you can be away for longer. If you found gears on your travels, you can make your fridge too. If you found pig skin in your travels, make a football helmet and hambat. The more your character already knows how to make, the easier is gonna be later when you are away from base. Leave stuff that moles can eat in chests. If you didn't make a lantern yet, this is the time: Go get 2 lightbulbs to any cave, and go back to the alchemy and make a lantern.

6) Then its up to you. From here on you can continue exploring, gathering basic resoueces, rushing magic to get dark swords, or securing yourself with food for the winter. Winter survival mostly requires you to have food and a thermal stone, so if you dont have the resources yet, try to secure those 2 things at least from day 18 and on. (Winter starts at day 21).

These general things in mind usually get me a science machine by day one and the survival camp with a lantern, helmet, hambat, top hat, healing materials and cooked food by day 5 or 6. Its a good thing to keep in mind to get 8 papyrus in your travels to make a birdcage if you find some. If you got too much damage in the early days, try to  kill butterflies on your ways, and make healing poultices ASAP. Precrafting a tent for emergencies is also a good thing to have (unless you are wicker)

Hope this helps, if there was something more specific you wanted let me know. Cheers!

[Fozzlebub]

THANKS A LOT!!!!

[Cpt. KatKit]

Get Pickaxe find rocks biome get a ton of gold and stuff. Now you can most likely have an alchemy engine by day 2-3 unless your world is messed up and you can't find gold early in it. Go to caves and make a lantern from light bulbs. Now you can do whatever you want (Recommend making a bird cage next, then you are set for food for life, unless you disabled spiders from your world for some reason).

I don't think I chop a single tree nor shovel things like grass bushes, imo that just makes them an easy target for mobs to ruin. People always have way too much grass anyway and berries have many alternatives that don't involve wasting time finding fertilizer. If am gonna fertilize might as well make farms and hope for a dragon fruit. 

[Fozzlebub]

15 hours ago, ShadowDuelist said:

Depends on the character and your objectives. I generally go Maxwell, Wigfrid, Wickerbottom or Wortox. My gameplay also adapts depending the situation (if there are some resources nearby or arent, the season im strating, how nice or evil are the other players, how much they know about the game, etc). But generally speaking I'll try to point out the main things I keep in mind, although this is not written in stone in any way, and adapting is part of the game:

1)Light - I try to supply myself with at least 20-30 grass and twigs ASAP, this is because this works for early light, and also to early prototype very useful items like backpacks, spears, etc. During the first day I try to get at least enough for a torch, and some food or flint.

2) Early game: I then try to find at least 2 flint. Why 2 flint? To make a pickaxe. Pickaxe lets you mine boulders which will give you more flint in return, so its usually better to make this tool first instead of an axe. Maxwell also lets you make that pickaxe of unlimited use if you summon a miner so you can get all the stone, flint and gold u want. Usually i try to get at least 10 gold, a stack of stone, 20 or 30 flint, and a stack or 2 of wood (for the alchemy and a chest or 2) In the first 2-3 days

3) Whenever I find the materials for a science machine, I just precraft it. It not only frees some inventory space, it lets you place it in a better location if you dont have many stuff by the time you precrafted it. I usually wait until having enough grass and twigs to make a backpack, and a spear. If I can I try to precraft the alchemy and a crock pot as soon as possible too, but thats only if materials are available. As a wickerbottom I wait to place the science machine when I have materials to make a lantern, a helmet and a hambat. If I found spiders on my travels, I make a top hat as soon as I make the first science machine.

4) Explore. Kill stuff on your way. Keep picking food and resources. The more you know about the world, the better. It will allow you to plan your next moves later on, if you know where to look. It also lets you decide which place is better for you to camp. I usually try to live in the desert (for the cactus which grow all year long, and the tumbleweeds for grass and twigs) or near a wormhole for fast escape. But this changes a lot with the map. If you want to feel safe from the early hounds you can also go pig village (unless you are wortox... then no..)

5) Establish a crappy survival camp to drop stuff, place your alchemy, and cook food on a crock pot so you can be away for longer. If you found gears on your travels, you can make your fridge too. If you found pig skin in your travels, make a football helmet and hambat. The more your character already knows how to make, the easier is gonna be later when you are away from base. Leave stuff that moles can eat in chests. If you didn't make a lantern yet, this is the time: Go get 2 lightbulbs to any cave, and go back to the alchemy and make a lantern.

6) Then its up to you. From here on you can continue exploring, gathering basic resoueces, rushing magic to get dark swords, or securing yourself with food for the winter. Winter survival mostly requires you to have food and a thermal stone, so if you dont have the resources yet, try to secure those 2 things at least from day 18 and on. (Winter starts at day 21).

These general things in mind usually get me a science machine by day one and the survival camp with a lantern, helmet, hambat, top hat, healing materials and cooked food by day 5 or 6. Its a good thing to keep in mind to get 8 papyrus in your travels to make a birdcage if you find some. If you got too much damage in the early days, try to  kill butterflies on your ways, and make healing poultices ASAP. Precrafting a tent for emergencies is also a good thing to have (unless you are wicker)

Hope this helps, if there was something more specific you wanted let me know. 

How about for Wickerbottom, which  books do you use for what and when and how do you manage sanity?

[AceTheMartyr]

12 minutes ago, Fozzlebub said:

How about for Wickerbottom, which  books do you use for what and when and how do you manage sanity?

Applied horticulture You'd use it when you want to mass harvest a ton of self planted resources like saplings/grass/berries 
Sleepytime stories Would effectively substitute the pan-flute effect for stunning bosses like Dragonfly to not deal with it's enraged fire phase
On tentacles is useful to set up a tentacle field to MELT Bee Queen or even Moosegoose, you can use it for Deerclops but he kinda attacks and freezes in aoe attacks...
End is night as far as i know is only useful for overcharging Wx-78 players buffing them with speed and light for a long time (its a big help if they intend to explore the map, the caves, or rushing ruins)
I wasn't gonna mention Birds of the world since its the most useless one but i mean if you combine it with sleepy time stories you can murder mass quantities of birds farming feathers for darts or getting enough naughtyness for some Krampi to give you a visit

The best way to recover sanity imo is to go to one of the 2 deserts and eat cooked cactus for 15 sanity each 
 

[Bobert216]

5 hours ago, AceTheMartyr said:

The best way to recover sanity imo is to go to one of the 2 deserts and eat cooked cactus for 15 sanity each 

Although this is true it may be worth it to wear some armor while harvesting im not sure 100% about the stats but some people i know said that its better since you only lose 1 hp instead of 5 (I think its 5) and if im wrong then, thats fine, i learn something new from someone correcting me

[Well-met]

Grass.

It's always about grass. anywhere, anytime.

[Datanon]

23 hours ago, AceTheMartyr said:

collect all the flint on the ground get a pickaxe wail on rocks till you get  a good amount of flint and about 30 rocks if possible
make an axe and chop trees till u get 4 logs , look for gold then make a science machine, 4 logs 4 rocks 1 gold, get shovel, backpack spear logsuit 3 refine items precraft chest and an alchemy engine (using 4 gold 4 cut stone and 4 boards) at this point i usually set a forest on fire and grab 40 charcoal by chopping the burnt trees all this charcoal will go towards many crockpots, boomerangs to make koalaphant hunting easy, and drying racks and LOTS of em cause jerky is great, precraft a crockpot(3 cut stone 6 charcoal and 6 sticks for it) and use that shovel to gather all the saplings/berrybushes/grass tufts you can find 20 berry bushes 40 saplings 40 grass is good if u don't wanna leave base ever xD hope this helps a bit xD 

i do everything here until the "boomerangs". something worth noting too is to explore the whole edge of the map and make two or three shovels instead of one with the science machine, and dig stuff while exploring. bonus points if you manage to find chester and clockworks

[Lemonsnoot]

It usually takes me a looong time to find my base, and i siphon load and loads of resources into me while i do it. Stacks of logs and sticks and grass, rocks and gold. Ill make a science machine and use it to prototype firepit chest, alchemy engine, etc. make a backpack asap. Then once i base (mostly oasis, cuz i dont like base fires) i go out and start bringing things to me. Mole worms inserted into nearby biomes, bee boxes, bushes and tufts. Them right before winter i use the magic of violence to turn beefalo into beef hats. 

[Cytryn7]

This is how I used to start:

1) Get those items: Find 2 flints for pickaxe, about 20 grass and twigs, 4 logs. Try to find 11 gold (Alchemy engine + Birdcage) and 10 silk (top hat + bird's trap). Find about 8-10 Pig skins, and at least 4 big meats.

2) Explore: every time you find cave entrance go under and check what biom is below and grab 2 light bulbs. Try to find the best base location - I prefer DF desert.

3) If you found good base location, drop your stuff. Build Alchemy engine and bird cage (if you were lucky enough to find swamp). Prototype football helmet (make 4), ham bat, lantern. Preparo for Ruin Rush

4) Ruin Rush: Get about 20 lightbulbs. Try to find blue mushroom biom and get above 20 of them. Try to find muddy biom and head ruins. Explore until you find pseudoscience machine. Don't leave ruins w/o magiluminescence amulet and few crowns.

I hope I didn't forget anything

 

[AdventZen]

10 hours ago, Cytryn7 said:

This is how I used to start:

1) Get those items: Find 2 flints for pickaxe, about 20 grass and twigs, 4 logs. Try to find 11 gold (Alchemy engine + Birdcage) and 10 silk (top hat + bird's trap). Find about 8-10 Pig skins, and at least 4 big meats.

2) Explore: every time you find cave entrance go under and check what biom is below and grab 2 light bulbs. Try to find the best base location - I prefer DF desert.

3) If you found good base location, drop your stuff. Build Alchemy engine and bird cage (if you were lucky enough to find swamp). Prototype football helmet (make 4), ham bat, lantern. Preparo for Ruin Rush

4) Ruin Rush: Get about 20 lightbulbs. Try to find blue mushroom biom and get above 20 of them. Try to find muddy biom and head ruins. Explore until you find pseudoscience machine. Don't leave ruins w/o magiluminescence amulet and few crowns.

I hope I didn't forget anything

 

nice try Joeshmocoolstuff, but you forgot to mention rushing Fuelweaver on day 25