Which characters do you think canonically or realistically make the most sense when playing solo?

[hoppin mandrake]

Wilson seems like a given but who else? I like to play DST solo so I'm curious. How would you rank the characters in terms of being able to survive on their own without any help from other characters?

[Q42]

Wilson: Barely survives everything, plays it safe and camps at base indefinitely.

Willow: Dies to freezing in winter

Wolfgang: Probably lasts a good while, but dies to something besides monsters like starvation or darkness

Wendy: Tries to die as fast as possible

WX-78: Killed by their beefalo after they physically abuse it, or by trying to communicate with clockworks

Wickerbottom: Plays it safe and smartly, probably never dies and camps at base forever. Possibly dies in the pursuit of knowledge, I.E in the lunar archives or the ruins

Woodie: Treeguard

Wes: Kills all raid bosses day 1 then starts a religion

Maxwell: Does very well, he created the place after all. He might get overwhelmed fighting Fuelweaver, but he seems like the guy who'd rather flee than die fighting.

Wigfrid: Tries to fight dragonfly very early on, spouts something about nobility, then dies. Funnily enough, this is very accurate to actual Wigfrid players.

Webber: Dies to first hound attack

Winona: Probably survives indefinitely, possibly killed by Deerclops if she's not prepared catapults

Warly: Probably survives indefinitely

Wortox: Takes a lot of risks and dies a lot, but he always has a way to revive himself.

Wormwood: Dies to first hound attack

Wurt: Survives indefinitely until her Gorge merm transformation completes, then dies to a tentacle as all merms do.

Walter: Naively dies trying to communicate with/help the first monster he finds. Which according to his short, is somehow Deerclops.

Wanda: Survives indefinitely, although according to her short she's really bad at fighting shadow creatures.

[Juanasdf]

Wanda survives "indefinitely" by just jumping to another timeline where it's still autumn. She always forgets to prepare for winter... Well she forgets a lot of stuff according to her quotes

[Jakepeng99]

Wortox, and Wurt since they are native. Same as wormwood and other native characters.

[HowlVoid]

I think lore wise they all can except for Wes. Since when the characters die they canonically are revived to learn from the previous death. Wes however was imprisoned by Maxwell and rescued just before dst by Wilson. So I don't think he has much experience surviving, plus he's Wes.

In terms of survival prowess I'd have rank them (based on lore): 

Wortox SSS

Wortox seems to know more than everyone else about the constant and isn't actually trapped there like the rest.

Maxwell S+

Knows a great deal about the constant since he had a hand in it's creation since his time on the throne. While physically he is weak he isn't easily affected by the influence of the constant.

Wicker/Woodie/Wurt S

They have a great deal of knowledge of being in wilderness. Can be one with nature or control it (in wickers case). Wicker is held back by her older age. 

Wormwood/Winona/Wilson A

Are very hardy and have some advantage when increasing their survival odds. Wormwood has braves the Hamlet jungles/lives off the land and the other two can make invent things to make survival easier.

Wendy/Webber/Walter B

Wendy and Webber an advantage for survival but lack a lot of knowledge. Walter is opposite, he has some survival knowledge but has a disadvantage when it comes to staying away from harm. However if Walter does anything too reckless Woby will pull him back and serves as Walters "common sense".

Wx-78/Wigfrid/Willow/Warly C

Will brute force a problem and have a 50/50 chance of winning or making it worse.

Wolfgang D

Works better with one other person who could make great use of his strength and point him in the right direction of where to use it. Scared of everything. When with an A or higher companion becomes S+.

Wes F

Will make a balloon sword and probably die.

Wanda ???

Will over prepare or under prepare, does something she already did or won't do something she thought she already did. She can't remember. Anywhere between C and SS rank.

[CaptainChaotica]

2 hours ago, Q42 said:

Willow: Dies to freezing in winter

...unless I'm playing her. I'm that rare Actually Responsible Willow Main, and I'm really careful about always having fire supplies on me no matter who I'm playing. (In summer, I have materials on hand for TWO types of fires...until I forget and run out of something and almost die of heatstroke.)

Spoiler

Why two fires? So I can also cook! Also, when I'm going a bit insane, it's funny to see Charlie's hand show up and be like "Uhhhh..." at which fire to grab. Heh.

I already cooked everything I was gonna cook tonight, sucka!

For me, Willow is a snarky-but-practical survivor type who lives through forest fires and keeps her fling-o refuelled, even when it pisses her off. ("I wish I'd let it burn...")

Wolfgang: Dies from his own GODDAMN SIZE-CHANGING ANIMATION WHEN ALREADY ON LOW HP BECAUSE WINTER GODDAMMIT darkness, sure, why not.
Wendy: Wants to die, is ironically pretty good at staying alive because Abigail and her (Wendy's) propensity for mUrDeRing small creatures.
WX: Tries very hard to get struck by lightning to restore his health; underestimates the damage that takes on his _sanity_ and dies to shadow monsters. Rip.
Wickerbottom: Your idea makes sense, yeah. For me I might die of something else, since I never full-on turtle, but...
Woodie: Modern version: Treeguard. Oldschool DST Woodie: (In)Sanity because of what his transformations do to it. Source: MUCH experience with an old Steam friend who used to always pick Woodie.
Wes: Meme lore? Sure, kills all bosses, starts cult, whatever. IRL? If a veteran player who picked him on purpose, pretty good. If picked by a noob because they think he looks funny: Makes it TO but not through the first winter. TOPS.
Maxwell: Yeah, I agree with you here too. Except for the fact that his low max HP makes him...interesting, to actually play...
Wigfrid: VALHALLA AWAITS!!
Webber: Dies to catcoon, because he wasn't expecting the cute thing to hate him right away. "Aww, aren't you cute, c'mere little fella OW OW OW stopit that hurts ow OW..."

Winona: Another tough, no-nonsense, practical-type character. In gameplay terms, people might die playing her because they were fascinated by the crafting menu of cool stuff only she can make...and forget to fuel their firepit in time. Riperoni in pepperoni.
Warly: "What do you MEAN, I have to eat this meatball or I'll literally die? Nonsense, I'm sure there's SOME more interesting cuisine around here" (dies)
Wortox: Yeah, I'll agree with your asessment on this one again.
Wormwood: Withering because summer.
Wurt: Builds a big beautiful swamp empire and then gets sloppy one day and dies to a tentacle.
Walter: Is an actual Boy Scout, so he'd probably be like "Hey, a chance to try out my training! Awesome!" How well/long that help, however, is up for debate.
Wanda: Will definitely die, but when exactly is questionable. Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey.

...Notorious

 

[Spino43]

5 hours ago, Q42 said:

Wanda: Survives indefinitely, although according to her short she's really bad at fighting shadow creatures.

Interesting since she can decimate a horde of them easily in game. (I once managed to kill 20+ creatures aggroing on me all at once during a ruins clear with her, clock whip OP)

[WenericMember]

Wendy getting disrespected pretty hard here. After all,

Also no, Wendy is not not going to jump into a swarm of hounds at the nearest convenience. Despite what she says, a few of her descriptions actually describe her with a fierce desire to live, to preserve Abigails memory.

Now to actually answer the question...

18 hours ago, hoppin mandrake said:

Wilson seems like a given but who else? I like to play DST solo so I'm curious. How would you rank the characters in terms of being able to survive on their own without any help from other characters?

To the title of the thread? Wormwood. his title is "the lonesome" and considering the firewood short he (they?) probably don't spend as much time around the other survivors as everyone else.

As for ranking them?

Maxwell, Wanda, Wes, Winona and Walter are the only survivors who have NOT spent an excessive time surviving alone, due to joining during or post creation of the florid postern so they probably are on the lineup for least likely to survive. Of those, Wes, Wanda and Maxwell seem like the frailest and least raw survival skills.

In terms of most? Native denizens of the constant have a natural advantage (Wormwood, Wurt and Wortox), so they'd probably be the best.

Other than that though, I'd say Wendy, Warly, Wilson, WX-78 and maybe webber have the right mixture of not being unhinged enough to get themselves killed while having the ability to survive. (Wicker comes close but delecate stomach and insomnia are two of the biggest possible drawbacks, realistically).

The remaining few are either "You are mentally unhinged to try to take on a dragonfly day 1, solo" and "You are too physically compromised to survive out here without risk"

[mr. brj]

14 hours ago, HowlVoid said:

 

My man straight up forgot Warly exists, what a chad.

I would put him besides WX-78, Wigfrid and Willow on the list because I feel like he would risk a lot for a good meal. I would also swap Wickerbottom and Maxwell because while Maxwell created a lot of stuff, Wickerbottom actually studied the Constant even before arriving there. Also Maxwell is overconfident when it comes to his own powers while Wickerbottom always seems to prefer the company of others despite her knowledge which is most probably a calculated decision for the sake of her own survival.

[Mr Giggio]

Wolfgang/Maxwell/Woodie in respective order

[Evelo]

19 hours ago, HowlVoid said:

In terms of survival prowess I'd have rank them (based on lore):

I feel Wurt and Wormwood would both be SSS along with Wortox because they are native inhabitants of the constant. That alone makes them both significantly further ahead of everyone else in terms of surviving. (Ok yes Wormwood isn't native but he isn't alien either. A child from an emigrated celestial parent.)

Wurt can always just go home to her Swamp and continue living life. Wortox is well Wortox. Finally Wormwood is pretty much ignored by everyone and everything he just vibes with plant friends.

Also screw Warly I guess. (D or C tier for him, his need to cook full meals and eat varieties of food would lead to his death.)

[HowlVoid]

13 hours ago, Evelo said:

I feel Wurt and Wormwood would both be SSS along with Wortox because they are native inhabitants of the constant. That alone makes them both significantly further ahead of everyone else in terms of surviving. (Ok yes Wormwood isn't native but he isn't alien either. A child from an emigrated celestial parent.)

Thing about Wortox is his teleporting is like an op broken ability lore wise. He's just in a league of his own.

If you think of S as being 100% survival rate, then SSS is just 150%. It's not to to say they aren't both great at survival, it's just that wortox can do that and more. 

Then thing that separates Wurt and Wormwood imo is that Wurt has an entire community at her disposal. And Worm does too but it's more of a passive thing, where they're just not willing to harm each other. I think Wormwood is super smart for a 1 year old but he is a little naive. There is more room for accidents to happen, but A is still guaranteed survival except for the occasional accidents.

13 hours ago, Evelo said:

17 hours ago, mr. brj said:

My man straight up forgot Warly exists, what a chad.

 

Also screw Warly I guess. (D or C tier for him, his need to cook full meals and eat varieties of food would lead to his death.)

Sorry I forgot warly (also idk why these quotes merged like this), but I agree with you guys. He'd be a C rank where he also would be his own worst enemy due to his unique cravings. 

17 hours ago, mr. brj said:

I would also swap Wickerbottom and Maxwell because while Maxwell created a lot of stuff, Wickerbottom actually studied the Constant even before arriving there. Also Maxwell is overconfident when it comes to his own powers while Wickerbottom always seems to prefer the company of others despite her knowledge which is most probably a calculated decision for the sake of her own survival.

Only thing about Wicker is her old age is a factor in the lore where in some shorts you see her slouching and placing a hand on her back.

While Wicker may have gained a lot of knowledge about the constant I don't think it surpasses what Maxwell gained through the codex umbra. I think Maxwell being able to read wickers books but not vise versa is a big hint that Wicker isn't quite at that level when it comes to shadow magic. I can only imagine the reading material wicker has gained may actually be bits and pieces of the codex but never the full picture. 

I agree that Maxwell doesn't have the best demeanor, but he was able to set his ego aside a bit to work alongside Wilson to construct the juryrigged portal. Still, knowledge on how things like how tall birds and hounds behave is pretty important.

Maybe I'd demote him to S+.

Edit: Also given the influx of how time work in the constant (and given he turned to dust without the power of the throne) I think its not entirely impossible for Maxwell to have had decades to study the constant.

[Dragonboooorn]

On 11/5/2023 at 7:47 PM, Q42 said:

Wigfrid: Tries to fight dragonfly very early on, spouts something about nobility, then dies. Funnily enough, this is very accurate to actual Wigfrid players.

Thats gotta be the most realistic wigfrid player mindset Ive ever seen

[ShadowDuelist]

Wurt would probably be the best at it, since this place is all she knows of life. She’s a warrior and her tribe seems to always be around her. She could get into trouble by following the other survivors too much.

Warly has been surviving since shipwrecked so he is probably a good sailor too. He seems strongly motivated to leave the constant too.

Woodie and Walter are pretty outdoorsy, they probably fare well in this environment. Walter being somewhat careless seems compensated by Woby’s survival instincts.

Webber would probably do well living like a monster among spiders.

I wouldn’t say any of the others wouldn’t do well, these are just the ones I’d highlight 

As an exception I don’t think Maxwell would do great, he is powerful still but he seems to be generally mean, clumsy, stubborn, and overall frail. I know In game he is one of the best characters, but just judging by the lore and quotes I’think he’d be mediocre at best. I also think he’d be forced to rely on the other survivors despite not liking them and would probably prove helpful to the team when it comes to deal with shadow magic threats.
 

[Dragonboooorn]

21 hours ago, HowlVoid said:

Wolfgang D

aint no way youre telling me this guys is not in S++++ tier, but in D!!!