The Hardest DST Challenge Ever Completed

[Guille6785]

Just felt like sharing something I achieved a couple days ago that I thought the community would be interested in seeing. I got the first ever (to my knowledge) completion of all the (major) bosses in DST in a single run without getting hit a single time. On top of that, I decided to restrict which strategies were allowed for the fights (effectively banning all cheese), I banned all characters with innate damage and speed multipliers (forcing me to do the entire run with measly 1x damage), and on top of that I set myself a personal goal of finishing the run in under 5 hours (I finished with a time of 4:50:05):

(The exact rules are in the description)

The concept of this run has been floating around ever since Don Giani brought up the idea of doing a playthrough of all the bosses without armor or healing back in 2019, and of course the challenge took shape over time until I settled on a ruleset for a proper no hit run that I thought did justice to the spirit of the challenge. I had begun routing this challenge all the way back in 2022, started grinding proper attempts late last year, and months afterwards finally achieved a successful run. Needless to say, this is by far the hardest Don't Starve/Together related challenge that has ever been attempted (and will probably remain that way for a good while).

An interesting thing to highlight from this challenge is that when I began routing it, the total time spent fighting bosses in the run was estimated to be around 2 hours, but through tons of optimizations it's barely over an hour in the final result, and this is with 10 major bosses while banning pretty much anything that could be remotely considered an exploit and without having access to damage multipliers. I want to point this out since I've seen a lot of people here on the forums misjudge many of the old bosses as being "unfair" or requiring too many "highly specific items" to beat without cheese as a single player, when this is absolutely not the case. Not only do these bosses give plenty of opportunities to capitalize on damage when you take the time to learn them, but they are just well designed in general in my opinion and give the player a ton of freedom in how they approach them.

While planning this route out was a complete nightmare as it was largely just myself with lots of trial and error, I'm actually pretty satisfied with the result and genuinely excited to see if other players will try similar challenges in the future, although the unpredictable and RNG-heavy nature of the game makes it extremely unforgiving so I also totally understand if this is too much for anyone else to grind until the end (to put it into perspective this is WAY harder than no-hitting any of the dark souls games). Still though, I'm proud of this run and wanted to gather the community's thoughts on these types of challenges as well as what other runs could potentially be done in the (far) future, and what strategies could end up being employed to optimize the fights even further. Of course, I'd like to thank all my friends who supported me and gave me motivation to pursue this challenge until the end (and especially @Third Porkus and @mr. brj for helping a bit with theorycrafting the run).

(For clarity, the run above wasn't done in a single sitting, I saved and quit and took breaks on multiple occasions, mostly due to health reasons)

[Bird Up]

good stuff. the second half of beequeen fight could be less cheesy strat 

[Cr4zyFl4mes]

Hardest DST related challenge ever attempted? No.

Hardest completed? Maybe.

As far as your gameplay and "no exploits" go, i think the limitations you've put on yourself were reasonable. The one thing i would consider an exploit was definitely the void walking though.

[Gashzer]

Walter op. Pls nerf.

Edit: should of used the slingshot on bee queen during the scream phases. 

[Guille6785]

5 hours ago, Cr4zyFl4mes said:

Hardest DST related challenge ever attempted? No.

Hardest completed? Maybe.

my challenge isn't just harder than that one, they aren't even remotely on the same league

6 hours ago, Bird Up said:

good stuff. the second half of beequeen fight could be less cheesy strat 

bee queen doesn't pursue you during phase 3-4 so it's one of the few instances in which ranged damage doesn't require actively avoiding the boss, dealing more damage isn't cheese 

[Horsheen]

Super super impressive!! 

[goatt]

Console summon items at this time stamp.

I think randomness should be part of the sport.

[Guille6785]

4 minutes ago, goatt said:

Console summon items at this time stamp.

I think randomness should be part of the sport.

read description

[goatt]

24 minutes ago, Guille6785 said:

read description

I've read your description 3 times. What did you mean?

[Guille6785]

1 minute ago, goatt said:

I've read your description 3 times. What did you mean?

why are you pointing it out as if it wasn't allowed by the rules of the challenge

[MEATGOOD]

Can I Beat The Hardest DST Challenge EVER?!? subscribe to find out....

[ChintzyGnat]

I could do better 

(No I cant) 

[Ridley]

Congratulations! I'm going to say some stuff but I don't want to give the impression I am diminishing your accomplishment.You have completed a challenge that few would try and fewer would succeed.

8 hours ago, Guille6785 said:

I want to point this out since I've seen a lot of people here on the forums misjudge many of the old bosses as being "unfair" or requiring too many "highly specific items" to beat without cheese as a single player, when this is absolutely not the case. Not only do these bosses give plenty of opportunities to capitalize on damage when you take the time to learn them, but they are just well designed in general in my opinion and give the player a ton of freedom in how they approach them.

I frequently see no hit/ no "cheese" boss fight videos or strategies used to justify a criticised boss. It ludicrous to expect what you displayed in this video, particularly the raid bosses, as practical experience for any other player. You are so good at this game you have become the exception, not the norm. There might a few hand raises that claim they could do this too and I am sure of it, but its a tiny minority of the forum goers. Forum goers are generally more aware of strategies and game mechanics than the average player will ever know.

There is always resistance to boss changes because some players are able to kill it, as if the boss dying suddenly makes the fight fair/good. My favourite example is the old pre-nerf Toadstool defenders:

Quote

"We've killed it with 7 people, and no wolfgangs. We even had a wendy, who has reduced damage. In spring we went down to the caves to kill it using the wetness to our advantage and we used Morning stars. Make no mistake, just because it's impossible for you doesn't mean its impossible for everyone."

Source:

 

[goatt]

29 minutes ago, Guille6785 said:

why are you pointing it out as if it wasn't allowed by the rules of the challenge

I gave me reason, I said "I think randomness should be part of the sport."

You get skills to counter all kinds of random maps, bad loot table luck, bad unexpected accidents. They are all valid factors in a game. Assuming you get what you want from the first try and assuming you have all the good luck is not random and not realistic gameplay.

If we are talking about challenges, or breaking records, or being competitive, those are valid factors for all sports in the world.

 

You make your own rules and think you didn't break any, well, it's your rules.

I came for sport, I commented on sport, I thought it was more sporty, and I left it there. I admire your effort, and I didn't attack you. It was nothing personal.

[Guille6785]

9 minutes ago, Ridley said:

Congratulations! I'm going to say some stuff but I don't want to give the impression I am diminishing your accomplishment.You have completed a challenge that few would try and fewer would succeed.

I frequently see no hit/ no "cheese" boss fight videos or strategies used to justify a criticised boss. It ludicrous to expect what you displayed in this video, particularly the raid bosses, as practical experience for any other player. You are so good at this game you have become the exception, not the norm. There might a few hand raises that claim they could do this too and I am sure of it, but its a tiny minority of the forum goers. Forum goers are generally more aware of strategies and game mechanics than the average player will ever know.

There is always resistance to boss changes because some players are able to kill it, as if the boss dying suddenly makes the fight fair/good. My favourite example is the old pre-nerf Toadstool defenders:

Source:

 

I don't understand your argument, because a few people defended a bad boss my positions aren't valid? I've gone into extreme detail in previous threads explaining why many of the bosses are amazingly designed, they're just unintuitive and have a steep learning curve, but that can be fixed without dumbing down the fights

[Tranoze]

9 hours ago, Guille6785 said:

without getting hit a single time.

Now try that again but getting hit every single time, with Wes. All bosses. You have to tank all hit from boss without dodging.
Sound harder?

[Mike23Ua]

I don’t understand the point of this topic, if you’re wanting a reward, congratulations I guess, you did good & you deserve your cookies! But if your using this thread to try and justify that bosses don’t need any changes to become more enjoyable or more accessible to a wider variety of players then this is absolutely not the way it should be looked at.

For me personally when I play with my group of significantly less skilled friends my view point is this, They’re trying to play and enjoy content that requires a steep learning curve which by all means COULD and SHOULD be made more enjoyable by becoming more accessible.

Now let me explain that I’ve played bullet hell shooters where on hard or sometimes even default mode, enemy projectiles would fly across the screen very fast and deal significant damage to you should you end up caught in the line of fire, however… that very same game also has options to significantly lower the skill threshold by doing things such as reducing the amount of projectiles, the speed on which they travel (giving more time to less skilled players to see & Dodge) and of course not insta killing you on hit.

What you’re showing here is someone who has become so familiar with the game and it’s mobs that they can literally avoid taking damage from the mobs.

But that does not automatically equal that those mobs are fair or even balanced.

I can proudly say I once held #4 on the global world wide leaderboard scores for Arkham Knight (the 3 scores above mine were hacked and couldn’t be beaten) I successfully could string together a flawless 450 hit combo without ever being hit or missing an attack, but again….

That didn’t mean the game didn’t need balance changes and difficulty adjustments for less skilled players.

So please don’t try and use this topic as a way of exclaiming bosses are fair and don’t need changes.

That’s pretty much all I’ve got to say, and again congratulations on your self imposed challenge or whatever. <3

[El Harry]

1 minute ago, Mike23Ua said:

I don’t understand the point of this topic, if you’re wanting a reward, congratulations I guess, you did good & you deserve your cookies! But if your using to try and justify that bosses don’t need any changes the become more enjoyable or more accessible then this is absolutely not the way it should be looked at.

For me personally when I play with my group of significantly less skilled friends my view point is this, They’re trying to play and enjoy content that requires a steep learning curve which by all means COULD and SHOULD be made more enjoyable by becoming more accessible.

Now let me explain that I’ve played bullet hell shooters where on hard or sometimes even default mode, enemy projectiles would fly across the screen very fast and deal significant damage to you should you end up caught in the line of fire, however… that very same game also has options to significantly lower the skill threshold by doing things such as reducing the amount of projectiles, the speed on which they travel (giving more time to less skilled players to see & Dodge) and of course not insta killing you on hit.

What you’re showing here is someone who has become so familiar with the game and it’s mobs that they can literally avoid taking damage from the mobs.

But that does not automatically equal that those mobs are fair or even balanced.

I can proudly say I once held #4 on the global world wide leaderboard scores for Arkham Knight (the 3 scores above nine were hacked and couldn’t be beaten) I successfully could string together a flawless 450 hit combo without ever being hit or missing an attack, but again….

That didn’t mean the game didn’t need balance changes and difficulty adjustments for less skilled players.

So please don’t try and use this topic as a way of exclaiming bosses are fair and and don’t need changes.

That’s pretty much all I’ve got to say, and again congratulations on your self imposed challenge or whatever. <3

Relaxed mode exists now, If you are playing with a group that doesn't want to learn the curve you can always play on that dificulty to make it more accessible.

[Guille6785]

40 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

But that does not automatically equal that those mobs are fair or even balanced.

if their attacks weren't fair I wouldn't have been able to have a response for every single one of them

[DVGMedia]

8 hours ago, Cr4zyFl4mes said:

Hardest DST related challenge ever attempted?

I think what guile did was very difficult. Thank you for quoting mine But But mine is actually not as hard in term of difficulty. Since The wes challenge Is more in the terms of how much do you know about the game. How do you acomplish tasks when you cant personally do the tasks yourself. So its more of a triva type of challenge than a skill challenge.

So my challenge is much easier in the Concept of player skill and application compared to what guile did here.  As once you know how to take advantage of the disadvantages and circumvent them. Means The only difficult part of my challenge is needing to eat every 30 seconds and maintaining sanity.

[benfroyobro9381]

Has anyone tried "beating" the game without crafting anything? You can bring other players to help or have them give you their starting items though only as a last resort. No mods that impact gameplay though things like geometric placement or health bar mods are fine. Bugs and exploits are fine. As for beating the game I think beating either fuelweaver or celestial champion are both valid options. 

I think this challenge could very well be possible with help from other players and it'd be fun to watch. I'm interested if this would be possible with just one player and no starting items from other players. 

[AliceShiki]

Gz on clearing the challenge!

1 hour ago, Guille6785 said:

if their attacks weren't fair I wouldn't have been able to have a response for every single one of them

This isn't much of an argument though. Saying, "if you're good enough at the game, you can beat everything without getting hit, therefore it's fair" doesn't make much sense because the game isn't balanced solely around the best players.

Not saying that bosses need nerfs or whatever. I have no opinion on most bosses because I'm too new to the game to have experienced them. I'm just saying the argument is flawed at its core because your skill level is too high to matter for game balance.

2 hours ago, El Harry said:

Relaxed mode exists now, If you are playing with a group that doesn't want to learn the curve you can always play on that dificulty to make it more accessible.

Relaxed mode removes all the interesting mechanics of the game... Does anybody play that? I mean... It sounds about as boring as it could get (well, obviously someone does play it, otherwise Klei wouldn't have bothered with implementing it... Still, the mode that removes all the interesting mechanics of the game doesn't sound like a good recommendation for newbies and/or bad players).

Endless is a better option for newcomers. Basically makes your friends not need to stop everything they're doing and search for spiders whenever someone dies (assuming they haven't found a place with a bazillion spider nests yet, of course), but still keeps the interesting mechanics of the game in place

[lowercase skye]

The 1 person in the world who beat The End is Nigh deathless would look quite silly if they tried to argue that them doing so means the level design is never unfair.

[Guille6785]

8 minutes ago, benfroyobro9381 said:

Has anyone tried "beating" the game without crafting anything? You can bring other players to help or have them give you their starting items though only as a last resort. No mods that impact gameplay though things like geometric placement or health bar mods are fine. Bugs and exploits are fine. As for beating the game I think beating either fuelweaver or celestial champion are both valid options. 

I think this challenge could very well be possible with help from other players and it'd be fun to watch. I'm interested if this would be possible with just one player and no starting items from other players. 

the current fuelweaver seeded speedrun WR doesn't craft anything AFAIK

7 minutes ago, AliceShiki said:

Gz on clearing the challenge!

This isn't much of an argument though. Saying, "if you're good enough at the game, you can beat everything without getting hit, therefore it's fair" doesn't make much sense because the game isn't balanced solely around the best players.

except that wasn't my argument, my argument was that the attacks were fair because there was a consistent and reasonable enough response to all of them, because an "unfair" attack would either not let you dodge it consistently or would require something highly specific and unreasonable to obtain without viable alternatives

[benfroyobro9381]

5 minutes ago, Guille6785 said:

the current fuelweaver seeded speedrun WR doesn't craft anything AFAIK

that's cool! do you happen to have a link or know where it is? i can't imagine between fuelweaver in a reasonable amount of time without crafting(i meant everything including non science items), which wouldn't be optimal. i can't find anything without crafting on speedrun.com. 

also celestial champion would be impossible unless you get both a star caller staff and deconstruction staff from ag or the ruins. and killing crab king would require a boat. i think fuelweaver is the only way.