Permanent Winter

[pokelvb]

Fist allow me to apologize for any grammar mistakes as english is a second language i don't exercise a lot.

Hello everybody I have been trying to survive in a world with permanent winter lately and I want to share with people how much of a chalenge it is, things I want to change in my strategy, things you should look out for if you want to do something similar etc. I invite everyone to discuss possible improvements to the strategys i will mention as well as changes to the world settings.

I am doing this in a vanilla don't starve world, no RoG because tumbleweeds completely negating any resourse scarceness and cacti grows even in winter so deserts ease the chalenge a lot. I opt to not have caves because without RoG caves always act as if it's summer so essentialy equal or bether than having a desert. I will go in to detail on the biggest dificultys one would find early game later,but pointing out here that character choice shouldn't mather too much but I so far have only been using Wes.

World Settings:

• Season: only winter;
• Cave entrance: no;
• Grass: more;
• Berry bush: more;
• Carrot: more;
• Hunt: lots;
• Killer bees: none (my computer is not very powerfull the amount of mobs lags my game especially while insane);

The first two are the premise of this self imposed challenge. Having more grass is to make the early game less draining on this resourse as it's, from my experience so far, the one that will get scarse no matter what. Twigs dont need the same treatment as spiky bushes grow in winter. Berry bushes and carrots are have been increased as to make them more avaiable at mid game as most of it probably has already been used by early game. Hunts is set to lots just so making a puffy vest and food concerns at end game are easier.

Early game struggle against the elements:

  This is the most dangerous part of this challenge as it only takes a few seconds to start freezing so a way to burn nearby resources is needed first, always taking care to burn the ones most isolated from the others and conserving the torch as much as possible, starting to gather sticks, grass and food is next on the priority list, dont bother hunting at all you freeze so fast that it's is not worth it. Make sure to have an axe ready as using a capfires during the nights and waiting for day time to continue on the move seems to be the best option as you can get more logs and resourses near the fire during the night and cook the food to use it more eficiently (cook just what you will imediatly consume this saves inventory space in the long run) also at the start of the day you also get a descent amout of time of not freezing because the campfire can get you to a body temperature higher than objects on fire.

  You should aim to explore at this time, finding enought gold for an alchemy engine is not needed yet, making a Science Machine to immediately prototype Rabbit Earmuffs is much more important, this item alone is already going to help combating the cold a lot just remember to take it off near campfires to preserve it's use. My recomendation for when you get yourself a Science Machine is to make a Backpack, Shovel and the Rabbit Earmuffs (total of 10xCut Grass 10xTwigs and 2xFlint, take note that i am not counting the materials for the axes, picks or torches you use along the way but i am counting the materials for the trap twords the Rabbit Earmuffs) if you are not short on resources by this point making a Log Suit and a Hammer can help. I recomend against a Spear as i saied about hunting engaging in combat is not recomended. Protecting yourself from spiders while camping during the night should be done with the trap and using the suit if opted for the more secure resourse intensive route. Hammering the Science Machine and pig houses along the way may help stablishing a base later but it's not needed at this point.

  The Deerclops spawn very early under this conditions, i had it spawn as early as day 7. I cannot recomend engaging with it as exploring the map takes priority but if you can lure it to Beefalo (without RoG enabled they are not frozen) or Tentacles it should be fine. If you choose to get away from it do not stop running to heat up, taking frost damage to lose it as fast as possible is preferable to have to stop and let it catch up even a little, the situation is worse if he ends up agroed to Chester and you stop.

  Willow has the easyest time during this portion as she starts with her lighter she will save up on grass and twigs because there is no need for torches and sanity management wont be a problem as you are constantly burning objects to stay warm (pure teorycrafting, as mentioned before i only played Wes under this challenge so far).

  To enter what I will consider Mid Game is to construct a Fire Pit close to a Walrus Camp or the Pig King, the camp is preferable as it will allow you to get bether winter gear and the Walking Cane.

Mid Game base building, always fun:

  This point is a balance between gathering food and expanding the base/ creating farms (nothing to do with vegetables forget they even exist). I will list the projects that should be taking in what i consider order of importance, i must point out that at this point food is probably not abundant enought to take on a chunck of these at a time so don't rush it and keep in mind the Hound attacks and Deerclops spawns.

• Making an Alchemy Engine and Thermal Stone;
• Crock Pot (food naturaly spoil slower so a Chest near it should be fine no need for ice box I will also have recomended recipies further down);
• Planting 2 sets of trees one close to the base so that you are not idle during nights and one isolated a little further away for charcoal (you will need a lot later for Drying Racks);
• If based near Pig King maping Worm Wholes and trying to find the Walrus Camp (there are mods to mark the Worm Whole pairs i personaly use items that show up on the map like Backpaks, Signs or Chests). Farm the Mc Tusk whenever possible;
• Making Pig Houses at some distance of the base (don't forget to wall off a some food near, the walls can be of grass or wood there is there is no rain in winter) it can be just a single one the may purpose of it is to make Ham Bats on demand;
• Relocate tier 3 Spider Dens closer to the base for easier Monster Meat and Silk farming;
• Drying Racks 3 or 4 at this point should be fine;
• If you want Bee Boxes make the Presthatihatitator all you need from it is the Ice Staff(I will explain a methoed to destroy the Beehive with minimal conflict on the notes at the end);
• Gathering Honey, the destroyed Beehives drop 3 get as much as you feel like and then make Bee Boxes out of the Honeycombs (make the boxes far from the base, honey won't be produced at all if you are near);
• If based near the Walrus Camp maping Worm Wholes and trying to find the Pig King;
• Relocate some Spike Bushes to the base;

End Game let's push it to the next level:

  At this point food isn't a problem or is close to not be, you can work on expanding the pig farm, Drying Racks area or Bee Boxes as needed as an Ice Box so that the food that you have spoils at an even slower rate. Getting grass might be hard as the grass closer to the base and points of interest have probably been picked so for the worst case scenario the Teleportato should be built. The scaryest things are the Hound attacks getting out of hand but if you have a Cane you can probably just run away and Deerclops. It would be fine if tooth traps were easy to make but with how little grass there is easily avaiable going to the next world and trying to set up again there but now started with some good equipment making for stablishing a permanent (or at least until grass runs out again) much easier.

A screenshot from one of my more rescent attempts. In this attempt i started missing grass at about this date but was able to survive until day 48 when i died by the hands of a deerclops i recklessly tried to kite but failed miserably.

Just some Crock pot Recipies to keep in mind

• Meatballs: 1xMeat 3xFiller - This is a good recipie early - mid game as you probably still have some berrys and carrots from the exploration. One of the more well know recipes so i wont go in to detail about the filler;
• Bacon and Eggs: 2xMeat 1xTallbird Egg 1xStick or 2xMeat 2xEgg - Since it can be done with a stick there's no risk of making Monster Lasagna and is resource efficient. One of the meats can be of the small variety. One of the meats can be Monster Meat but no more than that in the second recipie;
• Honey Ham: 2xMeat 2xHoney or 1xMeat 2xSmall Meat 1xHoney - to preserve resourses at least one of the meats should be Monster Meat but no more than that. Using 3 meats of the larger variety will waste potential hunger gain, i explain it in a note;
• Fishsticks: 1xFish 1XStick 2xFiller - If you come across merms being killed the fish droped can be converted in to this good health restoring meal. The filler can be 2 monster meat, this isn't very eficient but if you have no small meat or vegetables leftovers it's a bether alternative to using higher value ingredients.

Producing jerky alongside these recipies to recover sanity and health should be all you need to feed yourself once a base has been stablished.

Notes

- The Ham Bat is extremely potent in this scenario, not only it's damage doesn't degrade over time but it also lasts longer than usual;

- During early game it's is a good idea to quickly planting a few sappling near the burned objects as to make sure you have somewhere to turn back to if needed;

- Seeds do not appear during winter because of this a Bird Cage and Wickerbottom's Applied Horticulture cannot be made;

- A quick reminder that in vanilla Don't Starve the Alchemy engine uses 2 less Cut Stone but 2 more Gold Nugget;

- In regards to the ingredients in the Honey Ham, when we add together the hunger recovered by the ingredients we want it to be lower than the value recovered by the cooked meal. Using a single Monster Meat to not end up with Monster Lasagna, we have a total of 62.5 and 53.125 hunger recovered by eating the ingredients of the recomended recipes while the cooked meal recovers 75 hunger so we get improved recovery not just in the health and sanity department but in hunger as well. If used 3 meat instead the ingredients would add to 78.125 wich means you are wasting ingredients.

- By leaving seting an item on fire near a Beehive all of the bees inside it will leave as workers without agroing onto you, you can extinguish the fire with an Ice Staff and safely destroy the Beehive without being attacked. A total of 6 Bees will flee the flaming Beehive that can be killed for a small chance at getting extra honey or captured with a Net for Bee Box production.

- I wished to test if regular Sapplings could grow in winter however long it takes, in the screenshot there is one picked near chester, i did so at dusk of day 14 i stoped keeping track of it day 41 still no growth so i advise that expecting Sapplings and Grass to naturaly regenerate not to be a tactic

 

This is all. I hope i was able to convey how this little challenge goes and can get a few people interested. I will be starting a new attempt at this once i have a good chunk of free time as i prefer to do the early game in one sitting, any suggestions to improve the my strategy or experiments to determine if something i haven't tested is usefull are apreciated.

[Maxposting]

What about SW and Hamlet?

[pokelvb]

On 02/11/2019 at 5:18 PM, __IvoCZE__ said:

What about SW and Hamlet?

I am sorry i don't usually world hop i am not even sure what season it would be in the other world. That said sounds like a nice endgame goal instead of using teleportato I will definetly try aiming for this and see the results.