What do you think of DST's difficulty?

[Nikki Darks 440]

We hear and see people arguing, discussing and memeing about this game's difficulty constantly.

Some proclaim that the game is too easy, that there needs to be more challenges, more threats and less leisure.

While some say that the game is hard enough, that the game is in no need of more difficulty spikes.

And then there's the people who think the game isn't too hard nor too easy, just perfectly balanced.

Well, what do YOU think? Is the game too hard, too easy, or perfectly balanced. Let us know your opinions.

Saying it's [opinion here] without explaining yourself is pointless, always give a deeper insight as to why you think the way you do!

[-Variant 5880]

I like Smallbirds and Sea Weeds.

[Nikki Darks 440]

Just now, -Variant said:

I like Smallbirds and Sea Weeds.

Hmmm.... But why?

[-Variant 5880]

1 minute ago, Nikki Darks said:

Hmmm.... But why?

They're overly thought provoking. They lead me into a sense of astonishment at the fact that I can function as a proper mother in this otherwise harsh and unforgiving world. Or, should I fail, I realize I am not fit for motherhood and am sent into a downward spiral until I switch to a life of giant moon mutated plant gardening and spend my nights mourning the loss of my smallbird son while staring into the empty void that is my now newborn Sea Weed.

[Nikki Darks 440]

Just now, -Variant said:

They're overly thought provoking. They lead me into a sense of astonishment at the fact that I can function as a proper mother in this otherwise harsh and unforgiving world. Or, should I fail, I realize I am not fit for motherhood and am sent into a downward spiral until I switch to a life of giant moon mutated plant gardening and spend my nights mourning the loss of my smallbird son while staring into the empty void that is my now newborn Sea Weed.

I burn stuff.

 

[WheatleyBr 16]

Well well well, the game's difficulty is interesting, if you're playing blind you'll probably have quite some trouble with it, but if you get access to any of the guides that there are the difficulty drops quite a lot, the game itself is pretty easy after you get through the unknown part of it, certain mechanics are so exploitable that it really just cuts out any challenge it has, meatballs make you not worry about hunger ever, burning stuff for warmth in winter makes cold not as dangerous, if you learn DST once, you'll never struggle with it again unless you're doing some challenge on top of it, so i think that the game is easy, should it be harder, well that's not up to me...
Also Wormwood best! don't @ me.

[Brubs 3721]

I feel like the game used to be harder. It could probably be because i learnt how to play it though (also wiki checking played a big part).

If i go back into 2020 patch notes, Sea became tougher in terms of difficulty, but i barely leave land anyways. Then there's some QoL changes that made the game a tiny bit easier imo, such as quick drop, shadow pieces and other structures showing on map, etc.

If the Ocean was more rewarding i think the overall game  difficulty would be balanced because honestly, I loved the new changes, but the drops on new mobs/ fishing seems unworthy.

[Hornete 6309]

it's fine.

[Shosuko 2586]

If this were the type of game that you play until you die, with assurance you will die inevitably within an hour or two of playing, I would be okay with a much higher difficulty.  BUT this isn't that type of game.  This is a type of game you play for hours and hours, possibly passing thousands of in-game days.  There is no way I'd want the game to constantly be at my throat all that time.  If the ambient difficulty went up much I'd probably quit the game.  Its much better to choose when you do something tedious or dangerous and when you can just sorta chill.  I think the game has the right level of difficulty right now.

My main issues with the game are bad mechanics that don't lead to interesting game play.  As far as game balance goes Klei has done pretty well.

[Mike23Ua 8579]

DST is a hundred billion times easier then DS Single Player and it’s various DLC add on’s that’s not an opinion it’s a straight up fact.

But I will list several reasons as to Why- DS Solo has these narrow bridges of land I call them (Chokepoints) and you can read all about that in one of the various threads I’ve made in the past, a Chokepoint is a pathway that the only way through is through whatever obstacles stand in your way.

In DS Solo this ranged from large Pig Torch Warriors, Over grown spider nest infestations, Tallbirds Tallbirds everywhere... to simple mazes full of Swamp Tentacle.

Then there were entire biomes that were barricaded off to the player and the only way to travel through them without dying was by having the proper gear required to be in that biome- For Angry Bee biome you needed a Beekeeper hat, for Toxic Hamlet biomes you needed a Gas Mask.. Areas that without these things there is no doubt about it you, WILL Die.

To top that off your also tasked with Questing through 5 randomly generated worlds with weird unique gimmicks- and if you happen to die in World 5.. you’ll start back in World 1.

Some Areas were walled off requiring you to reach a certain sanity threshold to travel past the obsidian pillars.. 

There are a few key things about DST however that are actually harder in DST then they are in DS- examples being that Rabbit, Bee, and Thermal Stones do not spoil or degrade over time in solo DS.

These Character Reworks and the content Klei has added with Return of Them has been mostly just aimed toward casual players, Fishing, Helping Pearl, More Fishing.. I mean- I have to be honest a lot of what I LOVED about the original DS and it’s DLC expansions are completely absent here-

Chopping Trees in Hamlet or Shipwrecked has a chance to spawn a hostile or annoying mob (Treeguardians don’t count sorry) I’m talking more specifically- Snakes, Scorpions, and evening the Piko Squirrels who ARENT hostile (Piko aren’t hostile.. mostly) but what they DO manage to do is quickly eat the tree seeds you wouldve gathered when chopping down the tree making your life a little less easy going.

(I’m not ashamed to say I’ve died to a Hamlet guard pig while chasing a Piko to kill it and get the seeds it ate back because I was starving.. only for it to run under the guards feet and I smack the guard instead.)

The ONLY thing that makes DST have any degree of difficulty is the completely optional bosses designed for multiple players to fight together.

With character reworks getting new abilities making them even more powerful then they already were.. the game just keeps getting easier and easier.

BUT... I fully trust in Klei’s work and I know that what is easy for now... won’t always be so easy.

DST is a steep learning curve when first picking the franchise up... BUT it doesn’t hold a candle to DS and it’s Expansions.. not even by a mile.

When I get some blocked off areas requiring specific gear to travel through, and some hostile or mildly annoying mobs that have a percent chance of spawning FROM THE TREES I Chop... THEN we can start talking.

[Frashaw27 1296]

The games difficulty has remained the same since our initial experience, but has been dulled by our intensifying skill. Since the difficulty is reliant on player skill and unknowingness, it is hard to pin down how to balance this game because this can very so much. While the game can go into a somewhat RnG route to make the game more interesting, this will devalued skill and confuse players as they are dealing with more and more problems that they don't know how to combat while they appear sometimes but not always. What I always liked about rouge-lites is that the player retains some control over what they are dealt, like a hand of cards in Poker, while still having to rely on what the game gives them. DST seems to give this perfect, lightning in a bottle, way of giving players a decently consistent experience while also providing enough RnG, like Biome Placements and Set Pieces, to make each world fell unique enough so that starting over doesn't feel as repetitive. In short, the difficulty in the game is hard to pin down, but I feel that the game provides a unique enough experience to allow players to gradually grow in skill and overcome that difficulty, which makes it rewarding as you can see visible improvements between worlds. While the game may seem to get easier as you play it, the game didn't get easier but you got better at it's bulls**t. It's as difficult as the first time, but you were able to be that factor that made it easier.

In terms of comparing DS to DST, there are about the same. While it is a bit easier then DS, it's not by much as any problem you would have in DS would gladly transfer over, to DST. Can't survive Winter? Guess who is freezing DST! Starving in DST? You're going hungry in DS! I do feel that with every *** of difficulty decreasement, there is always a tat for something that makes it harder. More grass, twigs, and berries? Now we have disease(please don't start a discussion about disease)! We now have Op Boss rewards? Now we also have lower durability for almost every armor! We now have renewable gems via Dragonfly? We also can't amass Nightmare Fuel for free from the ruins. Yes, while most of these are quite petty, it shows how there are somethings that are easier in DS and some that are easier in DST and it makes it so that they both have their own unique benefits and challenges from playing both versions, which adds to both games uniqueness. Comparing the too games is like comparing apples to slightly different apples, so may have a part that you like more then the other and the other may have a part that you found lacking in the first apple, but they still grew from the same core of being a apple. You can compare them all you want, but at the end of the day the changes between the two are miniscule at best until you get to exclusive features which is a entire topic in it's own right.

[Theukon-dos 2832]

Difficulty in Don't starve is in a really... Weird spot. To put simply, 90% of the game's difficulty comes purely from the player's lack of knowledge.

 

To a new player, food is this rare, difficult resource that you need to perfectly manage. But any player who's learned how the crockpot works will tell you that you can instantly solve your food problems just by living nexto a spider den and transplanting some berry bushes. Hunger is a challenge that is entirely dictated by the player's knowledge of the game.

 

And this is a repeating pattern in the game aswell. Health is easy to get once you learn to skip healing salves and go for food such as Trail mix or Pierogi, Combat is (fairly) easy once you learn kiting patterns and that Armor is cheap to get and that even basic helmets quintuple your effective HP, Winter is easy once you learn that all you need to do to stay warm is light an occasional tree on fire, and the list just goes on and on.

 

This however leads to a few problems. 

First of all, Despite Knowledge being the main driving factor in the game's difficulty, Is often very poorly conveyed to the player. While some things are fairly self-explanitory, Many item's functionality are extreamly hard to discern and either require downright excessive amounts of experimenting, or pure luck. For example, As far as I know, the only character who alludes to bird cages being used as a trading station is Wagstaff, meaning that the average player won't even be able to figure out how to use this incredably useful structure.

 

Second, There are several items that are often percived as "Noob traps". These are Items or structures that are extreamly weak in function. And weather intentional or not, serve nearly no other purpose other than Slowing the progress of the new player. The two worst offenders of this are Walls, Which are expensive to build and mantain and are VERY easily destroyed by creatures. And Farm plots, which are extreamly expensive to build, and who's utility I belive is best described by comparing Fishsticks and Fish tacos

Spoiler

                                  takes an ear of corn                                                                             Takes a stick

 

 

As anyone who uses these forums can tell you, This difficulty difference is causing a massive rift in the playerbase, And I don't know how much longer it'll last if Klei keeps favoring one side over the other

[Cheggf 1527]

Overall difficulty is fine, I see no issue with it being really easy for experienced players. I'd like to see some items get tweaks, though. Some are too strong, some are too weak.

[Owlrus 3965]

I just want something later on after hundreds of days that is engaging, fun, and not tedious/unrewarding activities like chopping trees are.

TL;DR - My full thoughts on difficulty and how I think it would correlate to "fun".

Spoiler

Honestly I don't personally think difficulty by itself would make the game more interesting or fun; I think that, in order to make the game more fun, more variety and end-game content would be pretty nice. If, after I reach triple digits in days, all I have to look forward to are harder hound waves, rebuilding my base because of things that destroy it often, predictable challenges with no variety, and me having to leave my base for extended periods of time to deal with constant repetitive threats that aren't fun I'd rather just reset the world. On the other hand, having some new stuff (game altering) available starting after a certain day count, alternating non-predictable late-game content, and non-optional engaging activities that aren't devastating or boring would also be nice to liven up the game after you reach triple digits in days or more.

[__. 497]

Klei should stop focusing in the meta players and add fun stuff , this is not about difficulty.

[gaymime 4306]

'difficulty' really just boils down to boredom in many instances. when someone says the game is too easy what they mean is they are bored doing things the way they've been at it and wish for more novel content.

 

not really sure what i could say about that without coming off as taking a side, you know?

[Pinegrove 1381]

I think that the game is quite balanced overall as of now! Not difficult enough to make you rage quit all of the time, but not easy enough to get way too boring. There are plenty of gamemodes and challenges you can try if the game has gotten too repetitive, including mods like Uncompromising Mode. There is always room for improvement, though, and sometimes you just have to pick up another game for a while (Klei has lots of other games that are just as cool) and that's okay. 

[Notecja 1082]

Difficulty is fine I think. I'm more for optional challenges than anything forced - like optional hard areas, optional treasure hunting, optional sailling... I would love to get more late game optional hard content, but I wouldnt change anything about starting or mid game difficulty.

[Canis 13050]

DST's difficulty falls flat when nothing is unknown to the player. The lack of RNG in places like combat and general exploration leaves stuff repetitive sometimes. When you look past that, DST becomes a sandbox, which is arguably what it was always meant to be?

[Charlie Dark 5089]

It's not as hard as you may think.

[Cailu95 211]

The difficulty of Don't Starve is inversely proportional to your gaming experience, the more you master the mechanics of survival and combat the easier the game will become to the point of being very difficult for a beginner and extremely easy for someone experienced, that said  what is lacking in the game are long-term challenges, something that can challenge more experienced players in longer worlds.

[ArubaroBeefalo 6297]

Has a huge learning curve so new players will die of numerous way (i wish i could see how many different deaths i have since i started playing) but when you know the game the years are easier. The only difficult can come from ruins, raid bosses and mistakes.

Food is a joke and world editing is a mess to balance it for 1 player, 2 players, etc

Season are countered by few items

Seasonal bosses are from rog so they are simple when you learn

 

So, imo, for a new player is so difficult but for a experience player can be just rutine (some people like this because of being his confort place) and this without taking in count the many food farms, ways to cheese bosses (just copy a youtube video and win...) 

 

I think klei should focus on making the game the game more complete for every public with more content like they are doing with RoT and when the amount of content that new players can enjoy become enought they could focus on doing something in late game/post fw

[Hornete 6309]

4 hours ago, Pedrito said:

Klei should stop focusing in the meta players and add fun stuff , this is not about difficulty.

I know this is a topic about the games difficulty but how so do you think Klei has been focusing on "meta" players? If anything I find it's been the opposite. Klei ignoring "meta" players and just adding what they feel is fun.

[ArubaroBeefalo 6297]

5 hours ago, Pedrito said:

Klei should stop focusing in the meta players and add fun stuff , this is not about difficulty.

Klei made an entire deep mechanic for fishing ignoring bunnymen/pigs autofarms

Also this game can be perfectly played without following the meta 

[PandoPon 125]

I find it being okay for the most part. The only thing that bothers me is amount of health some bosses have, like - usually i end up playing Solo and fighting a bee with 22k hp just makes me use Health Scaling mods. And maybe hounds after 100 days are a bit too numerous and too often...