How would you rank the skin collections currently in the game

[WenericMember]

With many of the skin collections in Don't Starve Together nearing completion, how would you order them? Assume you must use the entire collection, with no substituting elements to improve them. 

I'll put Wilson's portrait, and the portrait of my personal favorite in the collection.

Sets that aren't going to be finished anytime soon, such as the Archaic, masquerade and contender sets are ignored.

My Personal rankings are:

#16: Costume Collection

Conceptually, the costume collection is among the best, with the survivors dressing as various creatures of the constant. However, the execution is mixed. Some are exceptionally good, such as Rook WX, Krampus Maxwell and Toadstool Wurt, along with some good subtle designs like Wicker & Wendy, but generally too many from this collection rely on unappealing browns and greens - Winona, Wes, Wilson, and Walter being the most egregious.

#15: Guest of Honor

I think this one's mostly a me thing, but I do not like a lot of these skin sets. There's not one thing wrong with it, but there are a lot of small issues I have with a lot of the art- Walter & Webbers expression's, Wickerbottom's Hair... WX-78...

That said most of them are generally nice enough, with Wurt, Winona and Wanda being standouts.

#14 Default

From here on out I think almost all skins are an improvement over default. I'll highlight ones that aren't. Overall, the options are exceptionally good. 

#13: The Triumphant

I don't think the triumphant goes far enough. It's a cool collection, but in the end a vast majority of the heads could be mistaken for their default counterparts. That said, this collection arguably has the best selection of clothing items, and also untriumphant Maxwell.

#12/11: The Magmatic & Gladiator

I never played the Forge, so I don't have too strong of opinions on these sets, but I really like the use of facepaint, and the barbarian style looks consistently good amongst all the survivors.

#10: The Verdant

Generally, I like the verdant collection. The one issue that stops it from being any higher is too many of the characters don't have a distinctive aspect. Basically all of the human character's outfits feel interchangeable, with the exception of Wendy's, which is an exceptionally nice change of pace from her usual subdued designs. Also not a fan of verdant Willow or Wolfgang, not sure why.

#9: The Roseate

For the most part, I think the roseate collection falls into many of the same similarity issues as the verdant, but I generally think this set does marginally better in overall quality. Roseate Wurt is adorable, and all of the characters are substantial upgrades over the default.

#8/7: The Snowfallen & Merrymaker

I'm a sucker for Christmas, so these two sets are probably slightly higher than they deserve to be. I'd argue Merrymaker Wanda & Wigfrid are the best skin sets for their respective characters, while snowfallen is bursting with unique concepts: Wigfrid, Wx-78, Wes and Maxwell all significantly deviate from the general theme of Warm winter clothing. Also adorable Webber is best Webber.

#6: The Survivor

Another one of the strongest core concepts used as a basis for a collection - how the survivors would look after an extended stay during the Constant. With the exception of the overabundance of bandanas, this idea is executed flawlessly.  Raggedy clothing, Injuries, longer hair,  I don't think there's a single aspect to this set I can criticize. Wx-78 also gets one of few sets that doesn't completely change his color, allowing individual pieces to be used without the full set, although it doesn't affect the overall scoring.

#5: The Moonbound

The moonbound collection does a lot more of what I feel the triumphant collection should have done. Much more of the moon's influence can be seen in the designs- Moonglass present on Wilson, Maxwell, Wx-78, Webber, etc. Significant physical mutations to Wickerbottom and Maxwell. Also, theres a more subdued Hero and Villain designs most present in Walter and Maxwell, that is a really interesting second design trait of the collection.

Special mention has to be given to the portrait art for Wendy & Wormwood, which I think are among the best ever.

#4: The Swashbuckler

First major set without Wilson at present huh..

Anyway, the swashbuckler set is awesome. So many different, vibrant colors, which is incredibly unique among the other collections, which usually are restricted to a single dominant colour (Red for roseate, blue for snowfallen, green for verdant). This is by far the collection I most want to see completed. Also, pirates are awesome!

#3: Hallowed Nights

The costume collection's cooler older brother. Werewolves, mad scientists, vampires, puppets and the kraken, Every character gets a trope wholly unique to them, but also fits them perfectly. The one weak link is Webber, as the "Rebel" style is fairly overused as a concept for him, present in his triumphant, gladiator, costume, verdant and Al Tigre skins. That however, doesn't do much to diminish the awesome diversity and quality of the collection.

#2: Refresh Releases

While not a defined collection persay, I'd be remiss to not include the skins each survivor got during their Refresh/Releases in don't starve together. Generally, they have some sort of reference to the character's past, though not universally. The nostalgic, Farmspider and Uncorrupted sets all excel in this regard, while the rest of them range from good to exceptional.

I also think Forlorn Doll Willow is legitimately the best skin available in game, and it isn't even close.

#1: Victorian

Going into this, I expected to have the refresh releases as #1. The sheer lack of restraint during their designs should have let it been a clean sweep. However...

For how seemingly restrictive this theme is at first glance, Klei really knocked this one out of the park. Same as hallowed nights, everyone gets a unique twist on the theme, a lot more challenging task when you don't have access to literally all of pop culture. Woody as a fur trader, Willow as a matchstick girl, Wes as a chimney sweep, not to mention Wurt having a reference to the Gorge. I could go on and on about the quality of Ideas, but this is the absolute best collection in terms of design cohesion and creativity.

The cohesion between all of these designs sets it apart from the disconnected refresh skins, making it, in my opinion, the best skin collection in Don't Starve Together.

[WenericMember]

Side note, what IS the difference between merrymaker and snowfallen? For the most part, Snowfallen seems to be more general winter while merrymaker is specifically christmas, but Willow, wolfgang and Wendy's snowfallen attire all seem to fit Merrymaker more so than other Snowfallen. Were they just all released before the first Merrymaker was introduced? 

[Dextops]

Victorian and verdant on top for me 

[-Variant]

9 hours ago, WenericMember said:

Side note, what IS the difference between merrymaker and snowfallen?

They are loosely defined. They ultimately boil down to another take on Winter skins, as Halloween has 2 sets, too.

Though from a quick glance, I'd reckon that Snowfallen is themed after general Winter wear, whilst Merrymaker is more so meant for Festive Winter wear.

[hoppin mandrake]

Survivor will always be my favorite because they immerse me into the whole survival experience. I wish they would make a Survivor Set 2 or something with some new interesting designs.

[Creatorofswamps]

The Survivor!

[Anthony_L3hr]

Formal Collection is my go-to. Always has been!

[Cheggf]

It depends on the character, but Victorian tends to be the best. Maxwell's best skin is still default, since he lacks his adventure mode coat.

[CaptainChaotica]

I voted Victorian, because it has elements I like from multiple other ones: fancy but not TOO fancy, old-fashioned, cool references, some of them are formal...

If I could vote for more than one, Hallowed Nights, Roseate, and Triumphant would be in there. Maybe also the Moon ones, I haven't seen much of those yet. Kind of a sucker for the "FREEDOM!!!!!" barbarian face-paint, skins, etc. from the original Forge, too.

(and you can tell by how often I tend to put those on my characters and then just forget and leave them that way for the entire run, lol)

...Notorious

[SapoLover]

I like very much Guest of Honor skins. Mostly for the character expressions that makes them look like the constant is nothing for them. They make me feel powerful. Wilson, Wes and Walter have no better skin imo (I'd mention Maxwell as well, but why did they make him wear underpants over his pants? pls Klei). I'm so sad for Wurt and the other characters that kept the same expression as the default skin.

[Primalflower]

Webber's guest of honor expression perplexes me. It changes the entire vibe of the skin. The head used to be one of my main skins whenever I played webber (sort of often) but now its like, so different. I don't really use it that much. Odd.

[chirsg]

The fact that victorian is number 1 tells you that gorge assets should be in the game in some form.

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[chirsg]

Don't shopcat me. I'm right. 

[CaptainChaotica]

I've kinda never gotten why "Shopcat" ended up being understood to actually mean "dislike" on this board. It's a kitty! Normally if I got a kitty as a reaction, I'd take it as a good thing. :P

(also you're right about the Gorge stuff.)

...Notorious

[_zwb]

24 minutes ago, CaptainChaotica said:

I've kinda never gotten why "Shopcat" ended up being understood to actually mean "dislike" on this board.

Because Klei doesn't give a downvote option, but the need of downvote is still there, naturally people use an existing symbol as the downvote, changing that symbol's meaning to downvote

[CaptainChaotica]

I get that, I've always gotten that. What I'm not sure of is how Shopcat, specifically, became the "downvote".

I guess because the cat has a vaguely disapproving expression...?

Anyway.

...Notorious

[EthanTheMime]

On 10/30/2023 at 5:02 AM, CaptainChaotica said:

I guess because the cat has a vaguely disapproving expression...?

it always makes me think of this face

[maradyne]

Definitely a tossup between Survivor and Gladiator to me, to this day. Triumphant is a runner-up.

They're both believable in-universe, as opposed to most of the other sets being...some form of wacky alternate reality. Even Magmatic strayed too far in that direction, with the fire hair and whatnot...actually, mostly the fire hair.
Don't get me wrong, the wacky stuff is ok sometimes. I run super buff Maxwell half the time I play him. But, the other half, usually when I'm playing a longer world, is with more 'believable' sets.

I would appreciate more 'lore' skins.

[Anthony_L3hr]

Manifesting Wanda to get her Victorian skin in a random update someday.

[Catteflyterpill]

I'm surprised you ranked Magmatic and Gladiator the same, I felt like the Magmatic skins were a step down in terms of concept and artwork. It just didn't feel super fitting or as creative as the the Gladiator artwork. I went with Victorian since I thought they did a really good job of letting the character's personality come through, not deviating too far form their original designs and they just all feel like they work within normal DST and the setting of the Gorge. 

[Jakepeng99]

Merry maker is the best, they all look so cute, like Willow, and Wilson.