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Warly appreciation & discussion


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So I've been returning to DST after not playing for quite a while (a couple of years I think?). Tons of interesting changes and new characters.

Someone that caught my eye is Warly. I liked him right off the bat since Shipwrecked.
Unfortunately there is a bit of a "not worth the trouble"-type of character in terms of pure efficiency and the upside is the challenge rather than him being uniquely powerful in a way.

However this is quite different in DST. His downsides are still rather severe, as he is the character that tries his hardest to actually starve, but he comes with upsides that are definitely worth doing additional work for:

* His crockpot and pouch are nice addtions but a bit more of a necessity rather than a big payoff.
* Some of the additional recipees are really nice and very efficent or provide unique, powerful utility.
* Seasonings are insanely powerful, last for about half a day, are reasonably accessible/affordable.

Interestingly he also alters the typical playstile that you'd follow with some of the more versatile characters.
With some of the fighters you can pretty much go *ham* right off the *bat* and most of the characters can afford to explore for much longer than Warly. His downside(s) are so severe that you are almost forced to quickly work towards his upsides, by increasing food production both in terms of value and diversity. This makes Warly uniquely interesting.

Warly is quite obviously right up there with some of the best support characters such as Wickerbottom, Wormwood (living logs!) et al. However I would even say he surpasses them by a significant margin (in terms of supporting a group) if the required setup is met.

I think it is pretty much undebatable whether Warly is a great character to have in a group, which can mitigate his early game weakness with some coordination. But I think if we focus on solo play in this discussion, we get to find the most efficient lines of plays and weigh possible decisions and trade-offs with more consideration.

## Strategies

I think the optimal line of play in the early game is to explore the surface as much as possible, as with most non-combat focused characters, but you are more time constrained, since you cannot simply munch mushrooms, berries and the occasional cooked meat to sustain until most of the map is explored.

As for food, it is interesting to kind of branch out so early in the game and cook some of the otherwise underused dishes that are typically a bit less efficient on other characters. However, since meatballs are so cheap and easy to make, you're going to cook relatively often regardless even if triggering the debuff one or two times. It is the first meal to make for sure (before making a potato dish) to space it out as much as possible.

Typically a sufficent survival base has a crockpot, campfire, alchemy engine, birdcage, maybe a couple of berry bushes, drying racks, a freezer and some chests. This kind of setup goes a long way and can be extended with some protection against hazards along the seasons. But Warly wants to have more of a sophisticated base than most characters so he can cook a greater and more powerful variety of dishes and he wants or rather needs to start earlier with that than most.

Gladly farming has become more accessible and efficient now, so it isn't just a cherry on top anymore but an efficient way to produce foods regardless of having unique benefits through Warly. On top of that, the other, alternative ways of food production like bee boxes, fishing et al that people kind of did for fun now become actually powerful features.

With all that said, I think the tension or rather challenge a Warly player faces is *where to base*, moreso than most other characters. Exploration has to be efficient/fast enough to make a good decision relatively early on. Because all of these food production factors have to be weighed in much more with this character.

I think some of the best contenders for biomes are the following:

The Oasis Desert is an obvious choice. It is by default a good place to be for several reasons. For Warly specifically you get access to vegetables, which are key ingredients in several recipees. Volt Goats and Bone Shards are a nice bonus as well. The latter can be used to make a high hunger soup.

A Decidious Forest often has access to several mushrooms and ponds can be found there as well, while Pigmen can be hunted for meat.

A third location that one might consider is the Ruins entrance. Again you might find ponds but also lichen which are a veggetable. The issue there is that the food diversity is smaller in the ruins caves as far as I know, but maybe I haven't looked into it enough?

As for things you want to have nearby otherwise I think a Beefalo herd might come in handy. They are the most efficient meat source (requiring the least work per big meat) and with Warly you want to cook Meaty Stew regularly to fend off his high hunger and to make the recipee rotation easier for you.

Then, the Marshes come to mind as they are a quick source of fish, froglegs and often monster meat as well.

## Conclusion so far

I'm excited to play Warly more as he turns the game around significantly, while also being a powerful character if played right. Currently I'm in a solo run, trying out different things and getting into the new farming features as I think this is ultimately a key element for the character, while before it was just something you did just for the hell of it rather but didn't really had to.

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I didn't see any mention of Warly's Chef's Pouch. With two less slots than a backpack, it keeps your food fresh about half as well as an Ice Box or Insulation Pack. With this, you can carry a stack of big meat, monster meat, and then filler like carrots as you explore. You don't need to make dishes at base, take them adventuring, and then return for more food. Instead, with these three ingredients always with you, you can make a huge variety of dishes. By grabbing an additional ingredient or two as you pass by (like honey, frog legs, turkey legs, butterflies), you can make even more!

The only downside of the 6 slots (3+ of which are dedicated to food) is the inventory management issues before you make your first chest. I usually try to follow the brick road and find Chester to help with this.

The ability to always be next to a crockpot (I always, always carry one on me) really opens the world to what you can do. When passing through a swamp, you no longer just leave the fish on the ground thinking they take up too much space, and spoil too quickly. You scoop them up and make surf n' turf, fishsticks, and meatballs right then and there. You don't really have to plan ahead as much with the Chef's Pouch, and having the core ingredients on you at all times, you just need to think on your feet and cook the world around you!

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Warly being hard to feed is a bit of a misconception. Because of the way Warly's restriction works it is actually better binge eat. You can absolutely eat only meatballs but you just have to wait until he is almost starving and eat them all at once. By the time he is hungry again he will have forgotten meatballs and you can redo the process.  With this in mind Warly can base anywhere really.

Early game binge eat meatballs

In the ruins binge eat surf n turf

Get snurtle armor to kill beequeen with minimal healing required

Late game binge eat moqueca (however its spelled) and meaty stew. Get bones by hammering eels

Spend a summer farming eels and you'll have enough food for years.

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14 minutes ago, HowlVoid said:

Warly being hard to feed is a bit of a misconception. Because of the way Warly's restriction works it is actually better binge eat. You can absolutely eat only meatballs but you just have to wait until he is almost starving and eat them all at once. By the time he is hungry again he will have forgotten meatballs and you can redo the process.  With this in mind Warly can base anywhere really.

Early game binge eat meatballs

In the ruins binge eat surf n turf

Get snurtle armor to kill beequeen with minimal healing required

Late game binge eat moqueca (however its spelled) and meaty stew. Get bones by hammering eels

Spend a summer farming eels and you'll have enough food for years.

Oh dammit what you're saying is that actually a day needs to pass for Warly to get the debuff? So if I'm just munching 3 meatballs quickly, I don't get a penalty?

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7 minutes ago, clickrush said:

Oh dammit what you're saying is that actually a day needs to pass for Warly to get the debuff? So if I'm just munching 3 meatballs quickly, I don't get a penalty?

If you eat for example 2 meatballs one immediatly after the other, sure the second meatball gives 90% value, but the timer is still only at 2 days (the same as eating only one meatball). I try to double up on any dishes I eat, so that by the time I'm hungry again the timer is close to expiring. With that you just need to swap between two or so high hunger dishes.

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3 minutes ago, Warpspeed10 said:

If you eat for example 2 meatballs one immediatly after the other, sure the second meatball gives 90% value, but the timer is still only at 2 days (the same as eating only one meatball). I try to double up on any dishes I eat, so that by the time I'm hungry again the timer is close to expiring. With that you just need to swap between two or so high hunger dishes.

Right, this makes sense. 10% is not too much of an issue at all, considering that food is generally abundant. So, what you're saying is not to tunnelvision too much on the downside but just mitigate it reasonably well on cheap dishes.

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57 minutes ago, clickrush said:

Oh dammit what you're saying is that actually a day needs to pass for Warly to get the debuff? So if I'm just munching 3 meatballs quickly, I don't get a penalty?

So Ill actually eat 4 meatballs when Im starving to get back to 201 hunger. Warly will lose 199.5 hunger in 2 days (time to forget) so you can eat only meatballs.  If you can get a meaty stew in there than that helps but early game I need the inventory space. I may try and eat a buttermuffin or trailmix (healing) but I try to only carry ingredients for meat balls so carrots+ monster meat. 

Surf n turf is harder because it has less hunger so try to throw some meatballs in there. I usually wait until I'm badly hurt and eat 3-4 surf n turf. 

Edit: you can even eat a 5th if you dont want to be precise. Dont stress on needing variety, it will open up the character to feel less restricting.  

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13 minutes ago, HowlVoid said:

So Ill actually eat 4 meatballs when Im starving to get back to 201 hunger. Warly will lose 199.5 hunger in 2 days (time to forget) so you can eat only meatballs.  If you can get a meaty stew in there than that helps but early game I need the inventory space. I may try and eat a buttermuffin or trailmix (healing) but I try to only carry ingredients for meat balls so carrots+ monster meat. 

Surf n turf is harder because it has less hunger so try to throw some meatballs in there. I usually wait until I'm badly hurt and eat 3-4 surf n turf. 

Edit: you can even eat a 5th if you dont want to be precise. Dont stress on needing variety, it will open up the character to feel less restricting.  

I guess it all makes sense. Considering Wolfgang, who I played quite a bit also doesn't have food problems and he has a similarly high hunger drain overall, probably a bit lower, but still.

Not being able to eat non-crockpot food and being awkward to heal up seems to be the much bigger downside than the variety debuff.

Ty for this advice :)

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25 minutes ago, clickrush said:

being awkward to heal up seems to be the much bigger downside than the variety debuff.

Variety healing food can be easier to come by than you might think. Take the bee queen biome for example. In this biome, you've got froggle bunwich (20), butter muffin (20), honey nuggets (20), turkey dinner (20), spicy chilli (20), trail mix (30), honey ham (30), fishsticks (40), surf n' turf (60).

You can double up on these just fine too for most of the health benefit.

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I'm playing Warly right now on my server with friends. We chose characters we knew we'll struggle with to have a change of pace, and I tried to play him before so I knew it'd be a pain. It truly is- but the moment I started a farm things are FINALLY looking up. 

I keep trying to make Warly specific foods in normal crockpot tho, and it hurts everytime, especially the Crepes... My precious butter :(

keeping his sanity up is impossible. We'll have to invest in a tent really soon if we want to stop fighting shadow creatures for a second XD but with previous lack of food we couldn't afford it. 

As hard as it is for me to play him, he is super enjoyable. And his personality and quotes, my god, he's just pure husband material. Shame I'm aro. 

Truly a great character, and we didn't even start using spices yet. 

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Ah, finally. I've been waiting for a warly thread.

To add onto this and actually contribute to the discussion in a meaningful way, I'd like to share a warly insulated  pack layout I like to use.
Food goes in the top 4 slots, and in the bottom four I keep a portable spicer, 2 portable crockpots, and a bundle of the four spices. If I'm not heading into combat soon, I replace the second crockpot with 1 bundle of meat, monster meat, cactus, and a hambat. You could also carry pre-cooked dishes, I just like to carry  meat for any extra hambats.
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35 minutes ago, Grim the said:

Ah, finally. I've been waiting for a warly thread.

To add onto this and actually contribute to the discussion in a meaningful way, I'd like to share a warly insulated  pack layout I like to use.
Food goes in the top 4 slots, and in the bottom four I keep a portable spicer, 2 portable crockpots, and a bundle of the four spices. If I'm not heading into combat soon, I replace the second crockpot with 1 bundle of meat, monster meat, cactus, and a hambat. You could also carry pre-cooked dishes, I just like to carry  meat for any extra hambats.
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Is there any benefit of having the kitchenware in the insulated pack or is this more of an organizational thing?

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10 hours ago, Grim the said:

Ah, finally. I've been waiting for a warly thread.

To add onto this and actually contribute to the discussion in a meaningful way, I'd like to share a warly insulated  pack layout I like to use.

I might be reading too much into it but this comment seemed a bit passive aggressive. If I or others have contributed wrong information its better to point it out.

Quote


Food goes in the top 4 slots, and in the bottom four I keep a portable spicer, 2 portable crockpots, and a bundle of the four spices. If I'm not heading into combat soon, I replace the second crockpot with 1 bundle of meat, monster meat, cactus, and a hambat. You could also carry pre-cooked dishes, I just like to carry  meat for any extra hambats.
unknown.png

I think its also important to point out that Warly can make good use of the piggbyack and use a beefalo to lessen the strain on his hp. Especially since you start with a potato (rush a potato farm) and they heal beef for 80 hp. In this case its better to invest in ice chester 

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4 hours ago, Warpspeed10 said:

With two less slots than a backpack, it keeps your food fresh about half as well as an Ice Box or Insulation Pack.

It does it a third as well. 25% slower = 33% longer, while 50% slower = 100% longer. Chef's puch sacrifices 2-6 inventory slots so your food lasts like 10 minutes longer, allowing you to make one more meal with it than you normally would be able to.

4 hours ago, Warpspeed10 said:

With this, you can carry a stack of big meat, monster meat, and then filler like carrots as you explore. You don't need to make dishes at base, take them adventuring, and then return for more food.

Crock pot foods like bacon and eggs, honey ham, etc, will last longer in a backpack than the ingredients you're carrying in a chef pouch. Meat is 6 days raw, 10 days cooked, so 8 or 13 days in the pouch, while bacon and eggs are just 20 days on their own and honey ham 15.

4 hours ago, Warpspeed10 said:

When passing through a swamp, you no longer just leave the fish on the ground thinking they take up too much space, and spoil too quickly.

But the chef's pouch adds less than 8 minutes to the lifespan of fish.

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I think I slept on the Chef Pouch. It's pretty much instantly craftable and adds at least one, typically several days of storability to ingredients and foods. You'll probably want to wear a backpack once you've settled for winter until you have access to a insulated pack but it really prolongs and eases his exploration capabilities early on. This is so powerful paired with his crockpot since you can just plug it down and let it cook, while you kill a bunch of spiders/pigs or gather food/stone/gold etc.

The character has much more mobility and freedom early on than I assumed. Still, I think some of the points I made above are quite valid, such as wanting to build a bit more of a sophisticated food production in your base than most to really exploit his cooking/buff capabilities. It's actually quite fun to have a real reason to make farms and such. I always found those things to be a bit of a chore/distraction but made them anyways when I played with friends.

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7 hours ago, Cheggf said:

Crock pot foods like bacon and eggs, honey ham, etc, will last longer in a backpack than the ingredients you're carrying in a chef pouch. Meat is 6 days raw, 10 days cooked, so 8 or 13 days in the pouch, while bacon and eggs are just 20 days on their own and honey ham 15.

This is spot on. I have been playing Warly quite a bit lately and never bother with the chefs pouch or the insulated pack. Slamming meaty stews every 2.7 days to combat the  90 hunger loss/day and overcome his food memory debuff is easy even in the early game. Plenty of pigs, catcoons  an tall birds in the world to allow me to explore for 10-12 days. If meat is scarce, an occasional meatball or ratatouille can bridge the gap. 
 

Ultimately I camp in the oasis to farm as many volt goat horns as possible in an attempt to be ready for bee queen in the spring. Once you get a bundling wrap blueprint your food worries are just a distant memory. 

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Something that’s kind of been turning me off from Warly is how his game play seems to revolve around bundling and unbundling food. And I’m not a fan of that, just because of my playstyle. But I think Warly is a great character and I am looking for any suggestions on how to enjoy him late game without relying on bundles.

I think I would be fine with just always wearing a belt of hunger or hibearnation vest.

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41 minutes ago, Friendly Grass said:

Something that’s kind of been turning me off from Warly is how his game play seems to revolve around bundling and unbundling food. And I’m not a fan of that, just because of my playstyle. But I think Warly is a great character and I am looking for any suggestions on how to enjoy him late game without relying on bundles.

I think I would be fine with just always wearing a belt of hunger or hibearnation vest.

Mushcap helps too and lets you wear backpack

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I generally don’t mind giving up the backpack but it might be more needed as Warly for inventory space and food spoilage with an insulated pack. By the way, the fun cap spoilage effect doesn’t apply to the backpack, right?

Or maybe I could go hibearnation vest + fun cap and keep my food in ice Chester. I like that, it covers everything!

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I feel like at the point where you get belt of hunger, food becomes almost a non-issue. At least on non-combat focused characters. On a Wolfgang/Wigfrid/WX you'll be spelunking much earlier, but on a Warly I think you want to stay on the surface longer. It still might be a good item to have regardless though for times where you stay around your base just to save that extra little bit of time. But an additional crock pot or two have almost the same effect IMO.

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7 hours ago, Friendly Grass said:

Something that’s kind of been turning me off from Warly is how his game play seems to revolve around bundling and unbundling food. And I’m not a fan of that, just because of my playstyle. But I think Warly is a great character and I am looking for any suggestions on how to enjoy him late game without relying on bundles.

I think I would be fine with just always wearing a belt of hunger or hibearnation vest.

How Warly revolve around bundling wrap more than other character ?

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33 minutes ago, kuroite said:

How Warly revolve around bundling wrap more than other character ?

What (I think) most people do late game as Warly is just make a big bundle of meaty stew + one other thing. And unbundle whenever you are starving and eat to max hunger. That way you don’t have to deal with the food memory downside.

Eating from a food bundle is a common strat as any character but as Warly it seems especially helpful. I’m just personally averse to the bundle play style for my own reasons so I avoid it. 

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