Fun lights out strategys

[Copyafriend]

Lights out is not a well played game mode. Probably because it adds a lot of challenge for no extra reward. But for me, its rewarding because it makes me think about the constant in a different way, and forces me to solve problems that dont exist at all in the normal mode. I want to share some information about tools you should keep on you, and what they’ll be used for. Im not going to write a general overview of how to do it, you’re smart people and can look up an actual guide for normal tips. 

Tools:

if dont starve lights out was the universe, a torch is your towel. At any stage in the game all the way to strutting around with an enlightened crown under a permanent full moon, you should keep a torch ready. Not necessarily in your most accessible slots, but you want it nearby, having to panic craft a torch can end very poorly if a single spider happens to be nearby. But the uses aren’t just as a backup light source for when your lantern has to be left behind, or cant be refueled because you’re being chased. Its an ideal early weapon against enemies, lighting up the area and allowing you to see outside of your little circle, maybe more hounds are coming, maybe theres a warrior coming at you from just offscreen. More sight is always better, and i dont know anyone who can keep moggles up 24/7. Torches are also essential for gathering resources and im not talking about pre lantern chopping and mining. You cant get bees without burning a hive, you cant get renewable pigskin without a polite incendiary eviction notice. If you’ve got a problem, the torch can make it better.

a watering can. Playing with fire IS dangerous and the watering can is a renewable mobile “hey that shouldnt be on fire” machine. It lets you light things on fire without worrying about wasting resources. Extremely early you can also just have a few pieces of ice on you, but ideally you want a watering can. An ice flingo is preferable for your base and all its sensitive doohickys, or for your pigman farm. but its no replacement for a watering can. 
 

A lantern, its a bird its a plane its… a totally normal tool. Its absolutely essential and you wont survive lights out without a lantern without making it extremely unpleasant. Miner hats are nice for resource gathering, but you should probably keep a sanity management hat on whenever possible, being harrassed by the police when you cant see very well is probably not going to end well for you, because if they spawn in front of you while you’re trying to go somewhere they can sometimes get a hit on you before you’re ready. A second one is nice, but you can just use the torch you should keep spare if you have to leave your lantern behind for any reason. 

Absolutely no one saw this coming but: lightbulbs. even if you dont have a lantern or mining hat yet, lightbulbs (and by extension glowberries) are completely usable on their own as light for travel, flickering a torch is cool, droping and picking up a single lightbulb is cooler. They are my go-to for mining before i have a lantern, and make you wonder why people talk about just using a thermal stone, when dropping a single bulb can achieve the same effect without being tied to a fire. 
 

bugnet this one isnt so much something to carry on you, but id argue its just as essential, bugnets are the difference between reviving easily at a safe spot, and dying a second time to the darkness. Capture single fireflies and put them near revive locations, they wont move and you can easily put a chest under them so you are able to get access to vital tools while simultaneously being able to defend against charlie. Lightbulb bugs are good for lighting up an area, but fireflies cant be targeted. Come back with the bulbous lightbugs later if you want to make it nicer, but the fireflies have never failed me. 

miscellaneous tips:

bunnymen and spiders are out all the time, this is both good and bad for a spider farm, there is never a safe time to collect the spoils from them fighting, and they also will be fighting constantly so more loot overall. Be very careful not to pick the monster meat up and you’ll be fine. 
to farm pigmen you will want to burn individual houses instead of letting them out and using food to bait them, food will still bait them, but just burning as you need them lets you fight them 1v1 even easier on a full moon, just make sure your flingo is set to on not emergency when you do it, or use a watering can.

bee boxes work just fine in lights out, but differently. They still produce passively while offscreen (which works year round so its safe to rely on it during winter too) burn the hive, and it will produce bees instead of killer bees (set it on fire, dont smack it) and the put it out and finish it off for everything you need for a bee box, harvesting will cause bees to come out, which is how you can get more bees if you need them.

permanent light is nice but its not really a game changer. Dont base somewhere just because it has the moon stone, you’re already lighting up the area wherever you go anyway, and if you need to put the light up you can always have a firepit or a bunch of bulbous lightbugs.
 

know where cave entrances are and where they lead, you’ll need light bulbs pretty often, so its best to know where the closest group of lightbulb plants is.

catch a bulbous light bulb yada yada you know where this is going, leave your pocket lightbug somewhere before fighting, its a long trip back to get more. 
 

biggest one: pig king might as well be my dad, and has gone to the big convenience store in the sky, or at the very least the one in his dreams. Ive heard he wakes up if you save and exit and come back in on the full moon, but dont expect him to just be available for gold. Get a bunch when he’s available or expect to live without your fifty stacks for gold tools. 

thats not all the tips, but they’re my favorite ones, if you think it sounds like fun being blind all the time while screaming about the shadow people coming for you, you’ll enjoy lights out just as much as me. Please let me know what you think. I hope you enjoyed this essay as much as i enjoyed writing it.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

permanent forest stalkers

[Falkenpelz]

My personal favourite way to play it: Be Willow, camp in Df desert near lavapools. Sounds and IS risky (you definitely should set up walls to keep burning tumbleweeds out of base and of course avoid Df), but still really good: Having cacti near is great for sanity management, the tumbleweeds make ressource gathering easier, especially in winter (plus you can get butterflies, seeds and birds from them) and being near lavapools as Willow is perfect for some sanity, light and heat, plus emergency solutions (if you're ill-equipped for a hound wave, get them to set themselves on fire from the pools, so they scatter)

Willow is the character of choice because: Sanity from fire, no fire damage, extremly handy lighters and Bernie to deal with the excessive amounts of shadow creatures.

Also winter is actually a decent season with lights out, since it lets you use hot thermals which will give you just a little bit of light.

[MagicalStorm]

Use Twins of Terror to murderify bosses since the night is...well, really long

[Mike23Ua]

32 minutes ago, MagicalStorm said:

Use Twins of Terror to murderify bosses since the night is...well, really long

They should have a Cooldown timer like Wanda’s Clocks- like using an Ageless clock and it immediately going on Cooldown before it can be used again..

Except- In This case the timer counts how long they STAY ACTIVE before going on an actual Cooldown Cooldown 

(play smite- use abilities that have a use period- with a time limit to use it, that goes in Cooldown again after it’s used.. same concept.)

As far as lights out tips- you can use Moggles, Be Wendy (who has a permanent 24/7 light as long as Abigail is in good shape) Be anyone who isn’t Wendy but can have followers you can feed Mysterious Plant to- They then become like Abigail for a limited time and can be used as a light source in the same way Abigail is.. Useful if eating the glow berries yourself is tanking your sanity. Pick WX78 and get a fun overcharge as being a walking light source, pick Winona and set up spotlights-

The dropping a single lightbulb method is something I had been using for many years even as Wendy with a permanent light source from Abbys ghostly glow.

Thats another thing though- you can use the ghostly glow of another dead player to guide you around in complete darkness if you need to.  all ghosts give off light.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

1 minute ago, Mike23Ua said:

They should have a Cooldown timer like Wanda’s Clocks- like using an Ageless clock and it immediately going on Cooldown before it can be used again..

Except- In This case the timer counts how long they STAY ACTIVE before going on an actual Cooldown Cooldown 

(play smite- use abilities that have a use period- with a time limit to use it, that goes in Cooldown again after it’s used.. same concept.)

As far as lights out tips- you can use Moggles, Be Wendy (who has a permanent 24/7 light as long as Abigail is in good shape) Be anyone who isn’t Wendy but can have followers you can feed Mysterious Plant to- They then become like Abigail for a limited time and can be used as a light source in the same way Abigail is.. Useful if eating the glow berries yourself is tanking your sanity. Pick WX78 and get a fun overcharge as being a walking light source, pick Winona and set up spotlights-

The dropping a single lightbulb method is something I had been using for many years even as Wendy with a permanent light source from Abbys ghostly glow.

Thats another thing though- you can use the ghostly glow of another dead player to guide you around in complete darkness if you need to.  all ghosts give off light.

man, use a flingo, is safer and lets no add annoying things to summon them. There is people who wanna just enjoy fighting them, i dont care if they can crush CC or whatever

[Mike23Ua]

4 minutes ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

man, use a flingo, is safer and lets no add annoying things to summon them. There is people who wanna just enjoy fighting them, i dont care if they can crush CC or whatever

It’s not fair though- in any normal non-lights out world it has a limited time frame it can be used within.. on lights out they stay around forever because night never ends. Both Lights out and Normal mode should have about the same “Use Window”

[ArubaroBeefalo]

12 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

It’s not fair though- in any normal non-lights out world it has a limited time frame it can be used within.. on lights out they stay around forever because night never ends. Both Lights out and Normal mode should have about the same “Use Window”

I never though someone will come with that

in lights out worlds you have a lot of downsides so why you mind 1 optional use for a thing thing that is actually more usefull in that kind of worlds that in a vanilla one. Sure, is lame and im sure it become boring pretty fast but you dont have to use it in that way if you dont like it. I dont care what they can do, my terrarium is always at base as i like it

[Copyafriend]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

As far as lights out tips- you can use Moggles, Be Wendy (who has a permanent 24/7 light as long as Abigail is in good shape) Be anyone who isn’t Wendy but can have followers you can feed Mysterious Plant to- They then become like Abigail for a limited time and can be used as a light source in the same way Abigail is.. Useful if eating the glow berries yourself is tanking your sanity. Pick WX78 and get a fun overcharge as being a walking light source, pick Winona and set up spotlights-

The dropping a single lightbulb method is something I had been using for many years even as Wendy with a permanent light source from Abbys ghostly glow.

Thats another thing though- you can use the ghostly glow of another dead player to guide you around in complete darkness if you need to.  all ghosts give off light.

Its better to feed the glow berries to a bunny in your inventory, they’ll provide a glow just fine (i had forgotten this tip or i would’ve included it, very useful for ruins, helmet weapon and glowbunny). And abigail is good for that, i agree that dropping a bulb is better though. As for characters good at LO, warly can make glowberry mousse which provides two full days of light, which is good for the same reason, and wx can always just abuse a teleportation staff for temporary light.
as for the ghost… i guess it can be, but honestly most alternative light solutions are pre day five type stuff, and unless they just ran into the darkness and died immediately, or spawned after you left and died from a lack of resources, they should be alive and with you. But it definitely is a workable option in a pinch

[ArubaroBeefalo]

2 minutes ago, Copyafriend said:

Its better to feed the glow berries to a bunny in your inventory, they’ll provide a glow just fine

now you can also feed eye or twin gear to get the glow

[Copyafriend]

2 minutes ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

now you can also feed eye or twin gear to get the glow

Wow thats sick! A fantastic addition from klei, thank you for letting me know that

[Mday]

you can get seed/bird from catcoon.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

21 minutes ago, Mday said:

you can get seed/bird from catcoon.

and carrot seeds in the grotto

[Copyafriend]

1 minute ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

and carrot seeds in the grotto

Without a star callers staff seeds are worthless except as wormwood (I actually love wormwood for lights out, its interesting). And if you do have a starcallers staff, catcoons can barf birds, which can be fed veggies if you grab them out the cage and put them back in and feed them before they fall back asleep. Seeds are best obtained from tumbleweeds (2% x3) so close to a whole five percent per tumbleweed, the most common item outside of twigs n grass. Failing a catcoon (you probably will) the best way to get a bird is by the moonstorm event. Farming is not for the faint of heart in lights out, honestly next to useless, carrots probably are your best option, just so you can get four seeds without WAY too much babysitting. And carrots are preeetty lackluster as far as farm crops go. But i guess thats good for pierogis. (But also just grow mushrooms underground if you’re that desperate for a veggie filler)

[ArubaroBeefalo]

1 minute ago, Copyafriend said:

Without a star callers staff seeds are worthless except as wormwood (I actually love wormwood for lights out, its interesting). And if you do have a starcallers staff, catcoons can barf birds, which can be fed veggies if you grab them out the cage and put them back in and feed them before they fall back asleep. Seeds are best obtained from tumbleweeds (2% x3) so close to a whole five percent per tumbleweed, the most common item outside of twigs n grass. Failing a catcoon (you probably will) the best way to get a bird is by the moonstorm event. Farming is not for the faint of heart in lights out, honestly next to useless, carrots probably are your best option, just so you can get four seeds without WAY too much babysitting. And carrots are preeetty lackluster as far as farm crops go. But i guess thats good for pierogis. (But also just grow mushrooms underground if you’re that desperate for a veggie filler)

you are forgeting the true use of farms

Spoiler

waxed giant veggies

 

[Copyafriend]

Just now, ArubaroBeefalo said:

you are forgeting the true use of farms

  Hide contents

waxed giant veggies

 

You got me there. Also my BIG recommendation for a lights out run challenge, wurt. Crazy hard crazy fun. At least you can get seeds from the merm king.

[HumanBean150]

Sea Weeds will always be harvestable in lights out, as a minor one.

[Mike23Ua]

1 hour ago, Copyafriend said:

You got me there. Also my BIG recommendation for a lights out run challenge, wurt. Crazy hard crazy fun. At least you can get seeds from the merm king.

Wait how?? A single top hat and a fish will keep her from suffering negative sanity drain ever- I NEVER need to plant gardens as Wurt I just eat the loose veggies on the map for her- she has pretty high health and can actually eat 2 raw red caps for hunger at the cost of health before she starts taking serious downsides from it.

Wormwood can eat the raw redcaps without the health lost at all so he is even better in that scenario.

I wish lights out mode was like Chapter 5-5 Darkness in single player Don’t Starve, no caves.. no light bulbs, no lanterns.. You made it this far- but Good Luck finishing the final challenge of the game.

(it would be cool if lights out also had a few Maxwell torches in it too)

Hopefully someday they will revisit and improve lights out to be more like the single player chapter that inspired it.

[Copyafriend]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

Wait how?? A single top hat and a fish will keep her from suffering negative sanity drain ever- I NEVER need to plant gardens as Wurt I just eat the loose veggies on the map for her- she has pretty high health and can actually eat 2 raw red caps for hunger at the cost of health before she starts taking serious downsides from it.

Wormwood can eat the raw redcaps without the health lost at all so he is even better in that scenario.

I wish lights out mode was like Chapter 5-5 Darkness in single player Don’t Starve, no caves.. no light bulbs, no lanterns.. You made it this far- but Good Luck finishing the final challenge of the game.

(it would be cool if lights out also had a few Maxwell torches in it too)

Hopefully someday they will revisit and improve lights out to be more like the single player chapter that inspired it.

Sanity drain is a fairly minor part of lights out, but yes, sanity is a bit easier with her. Food doesnt grow in winter, good luck surviving on berries without any berries. No carrots dont grow either. Also healing isnt so easy, more like wormwood without fertilizer healing.
turn caves off and you’re literally there. And maxwell torches are just free light, if you want the same effect set guardian pigs to more and wall them off, they’ll keep the torches lit.

Ngl you sound like you’ve never played lights out, its a different experience never having a safe time to fight, and having to stay in the circle of a lantern or being defenseless, or having to run around jn the dark to circle back to grab your lantern, you get hurt a lot. You cant just keep backing up. Every fight is the hounds coming at night, and theres no running till day. Deerclops is a fight in the dark, bearger is a fight in the dark. Its all doable, but staying in the circle of a campfire or a couple lanterns or whatever can get you hurt very easily. 
 

also also, living the no caves experience of lights out would just suck. You can try it if you want. But you’d probably have to either scour the world for enough grass to survive the first winter on torches or lead an entirely boring winter staying close enough to a fire to keep your thermal stone warm enough to take a short trip to get more wood for the fire. Either that or just make a bunch of bugnets and keep a miners hat fueled. And kill all the fireflies and 3 respawn a year at one location. But you’ll probably be able to get grass geckos after the first winter. stick trees will naturally spawn everywhere after a short duration, grass geckos are VERRY iffy. You could also stockpile stacks of grass for the first winter but it still sounds terrible and boring.

[Dextops]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

Wait how?? A single top hat and a fish will keep her from suffering negative sanity drain ever- I NEVER need to plant gardens as Wurt I just eat the loose veggies on the map for her- she has pretty high health and can actually eat 2 raw red caps for hunger at the cost of health before she starts taking serious downsides from it.

red caps aren't renewable and you need ruins gear to grow crops and i don't think you can get honey and berry bushes don't regrow iirc 

[Copyafriend]

2 minutes ago, Dextops said:

red caps aren't renewable and you need ruins gear to grow crops and i don't think you can get honey and berry bushes don't regrow iirc 

Berry bushes do regrow, but you’re in the right ballpark, you can get honey but v slowly (its in the post) honestly i ended up hunting for kelp to stay alive and making ratatouille with kelp and 3 ice

[Mday]

1 hour ago, Dextops said:

red caps aren't renewable and you need ruins gear to grow crops and i don't think you can get honey and berry bushes don't regrow iirc 

In a way it is renewable. Just need to kill toad lol.

joke aside, you can use spores from cave to grow caps.

Quote

Misshapen Birds and Moonblind Crows can only produce Rotten Eggs or Rots

 

[Mike23Ua]

All the things you mentioned arent renewable actually are in Endless Mode, only in Survival Mode will they not renew.

Hence the whole reason it’s named Survival Mode- you survive until your no longer able to, I actually have played lights out several times- But with changes like Skitter Squid dropping Lightbulbs when killed it allows even “Caves-less” worlds to create lanterns eventually- which just wasn’t an experience available at all in Maxwells 5-5 Darkness you had to rely on miners hats, bug nets and fireflies to complete that.

Caves also can’t be disabled at all on Xbox, sure I could resist busting open a sinkhole and going into a cave, but that’s not going to make all other players in the server with me also follow the same rule.

The mode could use a TLC re-looking into with a future QoL is all I’m saying.

[Szczuku]

Afaik Wobsters are also available all the time since there's no day for them to sleep durring. A wobster and ice is great healing food. 4 wobsters give you surf'n'turf which is good for sanity. I've defeated Klaus year 1 in my lights out world thanks to them.

[Falkenpelz]

If you want to pit in some more effort, you can get a moth pet for light, as long as you feed it. And do mushroom planters need light? I thpught they didn't... Also for early game a cave base now is easier than a surface base, since you actually have some light in the caves, plus constant access to lightbulbs and an auto-sanity-regen from the lunar biome.