A lengthy rant about Walter (And suggestions on how to fix him)

[Catuna_]

Walter has always been my favorite character to play, ever since I got into DST he quickly stood out to me as a character who's so different than the rest of the cast in terms of both personality and gameplay. The idea of a cheerful ignorant kid in a gloomy environment just always fits so well.

I've played this game for 875 hours by now, and most of those hours is Walter. I've beaten every boss as Walter solo and he will always be my main and go-to. But I just can't help but ignore how neglected he is in so many different fronts. I want to make this post as someone who's experienced with the character to talk about my gripes and what, in my opinion, should be done to make him a character that is both difficult to play yet rewarding and fun.

To sum it up, Walter is a character that changes the way you go about things differently, but does not reward you for it at all. He's so very under-baked, it feels an amalgamation of not both having enough time and Klei fearing that he would be too much for the game and too strong of a character (ironic considering that Wanda released after him) and he ended up being a mess. I don't mean a mess in the sense that he's "perk soup" or anything like that, I completely disagree with that. 

Here are the problems I (and people in general) have with Walter:

• Walter's stats are on the lower side in terms of health and hunger for no good reason: This is the one I mind the least, if at all. Simply put, stat-based challenges are just not very hard, as they just mean that you either have to eat healing items sooner, eat lower-hunger dishes sooner, or eat sanity items sooner. It's just weird to me that Wendy, Webber and Wurt are all younger kids but have way better stats.

 

• Walter's clothing downside: In fear of having a sanity stat that is too easy to manage, Klei made it so that Walter does not benefit in the slightest from sanity clothing. This is a huge buzzkill for Walter, a character that suffers from taking chip damage from random mobs as it procs his sanity to drop due to being at full health and the sanity from the hit itself adding up. Yet, Maxwell, a character that spawns with Tam o' Shanter sanity regeneration by default fully benefits from clothing. Wendy and Wortox also suffer 25%/50% less sanity drain from negative sanity auras respectively, but also fully benefit from clothing too. Willow is a character that is encouraged to manipulate her sanity to go down, and thus she is given a 1.1x sanity multiplier from positive sanity auras. It feels way too harsh to prevent Walter from benefitting from such a universal way of regaining sanity in my opinion. 

 

•  Sources of sanity loss that still affect Walter: With Walter's release he did not lose sanity from equipping shadow gear, this was later removed as people deemed it unfitting for a child to be able to power through the sanity drain just from being stupid. I have an issue with this regarding night armor, dreadstone armor and the dreadstone helmet. It feels unfitting for a character with such an emphasis on wearing high damage reduction armor (especially body armor with his Pinetree Pioneer hat) to be punished for using the most accessible options in Night armor and the Dread stone helmet. Maxwell, yet again, gains Tam o' Shanter sanity by default and gets to use any shadow item without loss of sanity. Middle-Aged and Old Wanda get a reduction/negation respectively for being a "fragile" character. I think Walter could absolutely benefit from at least a reduction like Middle-aged Wanda does. (PS. Walter still doesn't lose sanity from one-man band but rather regains it from having followers around him and I find that very funny.)

 

• Woby: I think Woby as a perk makes a lot of sense, she compensates for the space that Walter would want to use for ammo by giving him portable storage, and while you could argue that it could've been executed better I would argue that having a dog following you around is something you should never complain about. Big Woby, a perk that initially made sense to let Walter gain distance to use his slingshot and was a good perk for getting around, got COMPLETELY invalidated come Year of the beefalo. Because beefalo taming was made quite easy and beefalos are one of the strongest things in this game, there is no reason to constantly invest monster meat to keep her not only big, but also fast enough over taming a rider beefalo as a one-time investment. Klei tried to address this in Wickerbottom's update by making it so that Woby only bucks Walter off if he takes 8 damage in 5 seconds or less. This is not enough. Big Woby also triggers Spider webs and this has to be removed, as she runs away the moment that a mob aggro's onto Walter and you can't control where she goes, it is obnoxious in the labyrinth and atrium.

 

• Walter's slingshot: Walter's slingshot as a concept is quite a revolutionary item. It is the first instance of ranged combat that is as cheap and as accessible as it can get. Ranged combat has never been this game's focus and this explains why blow darts are either completely useless, are too expensive or both. However, Walter's slingshot just falls flat. It is just not a good item, it's still too expensive for the reward of dealing half the damage of Wes using a Dark sword or Hambat at best. Walter being unable to move makes it unusable as a general option for most weaker mobs, its only saving grace is the amount of cheese you can pull off with it, which is just not a good thing to have an item be only useful for. The first shot of the slingshot is also extremely slow for some reason.

 

• Walter's slingshot ammo and the illusion of variety: Walter has 8 ammo types. Of these 8 ammo types, only two are generally good. Let me go over every ammo type and the issue with them. Pebbles are completely useless, with a DPS matching that of swinging the fishing rod. Gold rounds' DPS matches that of a Walking cane being swung, and the only good thing they are good for is killing birds for feathers and morsels, this is subpar utility as there's way better means of getting gold in the game and Walter is completely outdone as a bird farmer by Wickerbottom. Poop pellets are an item that used to aggro more mobs than you deaggro when shot, only fixed in Wickerbottom's refresh update, an item so situational that you never end up needing it as mobs re-aggro too quickly for it to be genuinely useful and the cast time is abysmally slow as the first shot of the slingshot is extremely slow, de-aggroing bishops is better done with a torch. Slow-down rounds are useful for bosses like Dragonfly and Celestial Champion yet fall short for everything else as they are way too expensive. Freeze rounds are good for enemies with an even ice resistance otherwise ice staves are better and are also more on the costly side. Marble rounds are "good" except that farming them takes several pickaxes worth of mining, which takes up so much time when you don't have Woodie, Wurt or Maxwell and by the time Bearger comes in second autumn you'd already have no need for them over cursed rounds ever. Melty marbles are a a slingshot ammo... I don't have to talk about them. Cursed rounds are by far the best yet Walter is deprived of them outside of going to the ruins despite still being mediocre, the nightmare fuel cost is also extremely obnoxious for the reward as beating any mob will take up too much ammo which really adds up the nightmare fuel cost.

 

• Walter's crafts almost all have to be protoyped: It is so strange to me that a character needs tier 1 science to scoop up poop and roll it into a ball, and that a boy scout doesn't know how to make a tent without science. Why is this relevant? It feels quite bad, it's not as seamless as other characters who focus on a single crafting station like Wickerbottom or spawn with the crafts learned like Wanda. Having to have to plop down an alchemy engine just to make marble rounds while I'm on the go, and the worst part is that I can't even prototype his BEST AMMO and that I have to be down in the ruins to craft them. Wolfgang and Wanda both have crafts that require thulecite, with Wanda's also being integral to her watches and unique weapon yet they spawn with the recipe learned. This feels so bad, even if it isn't the end of the world.

 

• Walter's sanity and allergy downsides, and how this affects his boss fights: Walter's downside is too harsh. His sanity penalty on hit being 2x is extremely punishing for a character that doesn't even have anything rewarding to balance such a downside. His sanity starts draining starting at 90% and it feels extremely bad to want to wear a helmet and keep a backpack on, and the Pinetree pioneer hat cutting it to 1x isn't cutting it so he has to resort to high damage reduction body armors to be at a comfortable spot. This doesn't just extend to bosses, as chip damage from regular enemies or environmental causes (earthquakes, freezing, overheating, burning, starvation etc.) will also add up to cause insanity that's extremely uncomfortable to have to go through forcing you to slow down to a halt to restore your sanity and then to heal up either with healing food or sleep in a tent. This is heavily remedied with Jellybeans, but he is by far the worst character for Bee Queen (And Ancient Fuelweaver) as bosses that require tanking when he is the worst character at that job, to rub salt in the wound he is completely helpless against Bee Queen and has to spend 4 days poking her with 442 (yes that's the number you need) cursed rounds/marble rounds or cheese her by summoning phase 2 twins on her for example. Having to use the Lazy explorer, being incentivized to tank and wearing the nightmare amulet are things that make Walter feel extremely miserable against Fuelweaver as he is susceptible to nightmares spawning and being mind controlled, which incentivizes using the bee queen crown which again, is a royal pain to get. 

 

• Walter's campfire story-telling is a terrible perk: I understand the inclusion of flavor perks, but this is a perk that could genuinely be practical. +10 sanity/min during a night just isnt enough to cut it, Wendy's sisturn is a structure usable by anyone at any time to get +25 sanity/min, Walter himself has to stop to a halt to tell a story at night (anytime in the caves), for less than half the sanity gain. I get that his stories are bad and that this is just a flavor perk, but still.

So what does this mean? What does Walter need?

All in all, this makes Walter a pretty underwhelming underpowered character. Even worse, a pretty clunky character. A character that's a kid with something to prove that just falls short on everything, yet mandates an insane amount of consistency and care compared to literally other character. He is the most punished for taking damage, yet his perks are nowhere near good enough to address this. His sanity snowballs as you get hit once to become a massive avalanche yet he is deprived of sanity clothing and is only provided with more efficient tent usage and a small sanity boost from being near trees. I have a firm belief that it's better to make a character overpowered and feel good to play than a balanced character that feels bad to play. And unfortunately, in Klei's attempt at handicapping Walter in every way so that he doesn't turn out broken, they have achieved both evils of underpowered and clunky. 

Here's what I suggest for his skill tree:

• More ammo types, make him craft bullets faster, make him craft more bullets (15 instead of 10), and focus his ammo on utility rather than damage as cursed rounds already fulfill that niche.
• Potentially faster firing speed, but in such a way that ranged combat is still slower than melee combat.
• Make the first shot not horridly slow.
• Buff Big Woby to either become cheaper to sustain, and to provide value that competes with beefalos like making her match a rider beefalo's speed with items, instead of a very slightly being faster than a basic saddle ornery beefalo at best. Decrease the interval of time for Woby's bucking or make her tolerate more damage and/or make her give Walter passive damage reduction that acts like her taking some of the hit.
• A bravery badge that reduces Walter's sanity penalty on hit to 1.7x/0.85x.
• A way to make Walter not as actively punished from using shadow gear as he is incentivized to wear high damage reduction body armor, which aside from the thulecite and marble suit are shadow gear with harsh sanity penalties.
• Potentially more ways of passive sanity generation whether that he benefits half as much from sanity clothing, or something like that. In turn you wouldn't be wearing the pinetree pioneer hat, in which case you'd only be stopping the sanity loss if you're not at full health.
• More campfire stories, with a stronger sanity aura because why not? I'd love to hear him make more terrible stories.

But in my opinion, just a skill tree isn't enough, I think Walter needs a bunch of long overdue QoL changes to go alongside it. Some include:

• Big Woby no longer triggering spider webs.
• Big Woby running a shorter distance away from Walter, or becoming slower when Walter wants to mount her the same way a Tumbleweed slows down when you click on it.
• Cursed rounds should move down from the ancient pseudo-science station to tier 2 magic, or Walter should start with all his crafts already learned.

Thank you for reading, I hope that Walter's skill tree ends up making him the character that he was always meant to be, a character that offers extremely unique punishing gameplay and rewards you for it with a strong kit. 

[GetCloverIt]

hi catuna

 

 

 

[Catuna_]

Just to clarify, my comparisons with Maxwell are only there as he is a character with a different relationship with sanity with it frequently decreasing. It is not to compare how strong Maxwell is and how weak Walter is.

[Horsheen]

Really good thread, the issues you laid out here are sentiments that I personally agree with. You laid bare all of the character's flaws and issues in a way that really highlights how downright punishing he feels to play and the lack of consistency and overall smoothness that he has in his kit.

Definitely agree with your suggestions for changes and the fact that a skilltree just simply isn't enough, the character is flawed at the core of his gameplay and that needs to be addressed.

I feel like for cursed rounds in particular, keeping them as a ruins-craft is fine so long as you can actually craft them elsewhere afterwards

[NoKrampusSack]