Some suggestions about Webber's Skill Tree

[WeAreHungry]

Abstract: Webber, one of the earliest characters in Don't Starve, has a unique style and operational characteristics in the sandbox game. However, even after rework, the character's appearance rate in Don't Starve Together remains low. Based on thousands of hours of gameplay understanding and mod-making experience, this article offers some suggestions on the shadow and celestial skill branches for Webber.
Keywords: Webber; spider; celestial; shadow

1. Background of Skill Tree Design
Although Webber develops quickly in the early game and has a low survival difficulty, his unique appearance and detailed gameplay are not favored by most new players. Additionally, due to his low strength ceiling and difficulty in cooperating with other players, he is often abandoned by veteran players. Webber's swarm tactics can even cause server lag or crashes. These factors lead to the character being frequently kicked out of multiplayer games, and even in single-player games, his appearance rate is lower than that of Wurt, who can be considered his superior substitute. Since the character's image is hard for most new players to accept and his operational characteristics do not help new players understand the game flow, while his spiders are difficult to compete with professional characters in crafting and gathering, this article suggests positioning him as an advanced combat character. By creating powerful spider companions or completely abandoning them, Webber's ceiling can be raised, and the number of spiders reduced to solve his main dilemmas.
In the lore of Don't Starve, Webber is the youngest survivor in terms of mental age, and celestial and shadow influences may have a greater impact on him. Therefore, this article focuses on the celestial and shadow skill branches, with the basic skills aimed at improving his cooperative ability in the early game.

2. Skill Tree Design Ideas

2.1 Basic Skills
Thanks to the joint efforts of mod authors and players, suggestions for Webber's quality of life skill tree have become increasingly complete. Therefore, this article provides only three suggestions, with others available on Steam Workshop and forums, and will not elaborate further on this part.
1. Teammates can use Webber's repellent box to temporarily make wild spiders lose their target and escape.
2. After Webber's death, spider companions will fall into a long panic state, giving teammates enough time to complete battles or retreat. Spiders will also remain in a panic state for a while after being dismissed.
3. Webber will generate a package at his offline location that does not affect other players' movement and clicking, and all spider companions will hide in this package until Webber re-enters the game.

2.2 Shadow Skill Branch: The Dark Assassin Sacrificing Spiders to Strengthen Oneself
Combine two pure horror and four nightmare fuels to create a Despair Graffiti. Using it on any spider will turn it into a spider_dread (appearance like a shadow spider, cannot be dismissed, healed, picked up, or trapped) and permanently hire it, existing for up to 60s, health=100, speed=8, teleport distance=6, approaching Webber's target then teleporting to it if within 6 and self-destructing, causing fear in the explosion range, damage=200. Using the graffiti on oneself increases an upgrade slot (up to 10). When Webber has at least one upgrade slot, the spider companion limit is 12, but they gain 20% base speed and two skills:
(1) Cooldown 10s, attack_range=8, Webber jumps towards the target, and upon landing, quickly swings four shadow claws on its head within 0.5s to deal a total of 120 planar damage to targets with ranged≤1. During this period, Webber's base damage is doubled but cannot move. During the skill duration, for every 100 damage dealt, the skill's cooldown is reduced by 1 second, and for each creature killed, the skill's cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds.
(2) Cooldown=30s, Webber summons a spider_dread lasting 10s nearby.
Webber gains 25 health, 20 sanity, 25 hunger, and occupies an upgrade slot for each spider eaten. Eating a spider grants an additional summon of a spider_dread for skill 2, eating a spider_warrior increases the jump distance of skill 1 by 1 and adds 10 planar damage, eating a spider_dropper increases the 10 max sanity, eating a spider_hider increases work efficiency by 10%, eating a spider_spitter increases base damage by 10%, eating a spider_healer increases the 25 max health, eating a spider_water increases base speed by 10%, eating a spider_moon clears the upgrade slots.
Webber will drop any carried statue-type items when using any skill.
All spider_dreads belonging to the player disappear immediately after Webber leaves the server.

2.3 Celestial Skill Branch: The Glorious Commander Sacrificing Oneself to Strengthen Spiders
Webber can use an extremely expensive Enlightenment Graffiti to transform a spiderqueen or moonspiderden into a BrillianceSpider and permanently hire it. Additionally, the graffiti can convert a level 3 spiderden into a moonspiderden. Hiring a BrillianceSpider reduces Webber's 40 max health, 40 max hunger, 15 max sanity, 25% base damage, and can only hire celestial faction spiders.
BrillianceSpider (can only be repaired with moon rocks and glass, cannot be picked up or trapped) has health=1800, damage(taken)=0.75×, speed=5, damage=120, and generates 4 spikes near the attack position, attack period=3. BrillianceSpider's passive skill:
After combat starts, summons a spider_gestalt (appearance like a Gestalt spider_spitter, cannot be dismissed, healed, picked up, or trapped) every 10s, existing for up to 60s, with a maximum of 3 spider_gestalts per BrillianceSpider. Spider_gestalt has health=100, speed=6, damage_ranged=10, and teleports like a terrorbeak when damaged. BrillianceSpider's active skills:
(1) Cooldown 10 seconds, attack_range=10, BrillianceSpider jumps towards the target, dealing 200 area damage and generating 12 spikes around the landing point.
(2) Cooldown=10s, fires a special moongleam at the target, slowing all targets in the explosion range.
Webber can attach in a brightshade form to his BrillianceSpider and gain control. In this state, Webber is immune to all damage and negative effects, gains a small range of night vision, and sanity is replaced by enlightenment reaching the current maximum (opposite to wearing a Nightmare Amulet), but can only control the BrillianceSpider. The attached BrillianceSpider gains 0/s-5/s health regeneration varying with the moon phase and three new skills:
(1) Command all BrillianceSpiders in range to enter defense mode, increasing damage reduction to 80%. Nearby spider_gestalt and spider_moon heal BrillianceSpider like Woven Shadow until fully restored (The healing amount for spider_gestalt is 100% of its own health, and the healing amount for spider_moon is 50% of its own health). Releasing the skill again commands all BrillianceSpiders to exit defense mode.
(2) Command all celestial faction spiders in range to move to a location.
(3) Cooldown 30s, the battle cry refreshes the skills of all Brilliance Spiders. All celestial faction spiders respond to the battle cry, gaining a small amount of planar defense and taunting hostile creatures within range for 30 seconds.
Additionally, teammates can right-click an unattached BrillianceSpider to enter defense mode and go inside, using the inventory while immune to all damage and negative effects, rapidly increasing enlightenment. Right-clicking again or moving exits and ends the BrillianceSpider's defense mode.
Teammates can right-click to place statue items on BrillianceSpider, right-click again to remove them. When BrillianceSpider is attached by Webber or uses any skill, it will drop the items on its body.
Webber does not die immediately when health reaches zero but drops all items and attaches to the nearest BrillianceSpider, recovering 1 health.
When a BrillianceSpider dies, it will explode violently, dealing 300 area damage and reducing the health of players inside its body (including Webber) to zero.
BrillianceSpider can only be dismissed with nightmare fuel, jumps to an open area and becoming a moonspiderden.
Spider_gestalt disappears immediately after Webber leaves the server, and BrillianceSpider enters defense mode.

3. Appearance of BrillianceSpider
Unfortunately, the author could not learn to draw with a mouse after a week of attempts, so a textual description is provided as a reference:
BrillianceSpider can combine artistic elements from the spider queen, moonspiderden, spider_moon, and celestial_champion. Since it doesn't produce spiders, it is not as bloated as the spider queen. The abdomen is based on moonspiderden, with claws turned into glass spikes, and white light emanating from the holes, with the rest covered in moon rock armor for a heavy feel. Six moon rock legs are of equal length and quite sturdy, with glass claws resembling a pickaxe. The head is covered in moon rock, eyes are like many slits emitting white light., and three exaggerated glass pincers on a triangular mouth. In defense mode, BrillianceSpider resembles a fortress, with a towering abdomen like an inner castle, and legs and glass spikes forming towers and walls.

Conclusion
The intention of this article is to increase Webber's gameplay and bring his strength to the average level of future versions. The shadow branch leans towards short-term saves, while the celestial branch is more suited for long-term saves. Both branches raise the strength ceiling while addressing issues of lag caused by spiders and accidental damage from leaving the game. Hopefully, one day all unpopular characters can shed their former labels, allowing players to comfortably experience the interesting content of each character. This is as far as I can help you, Webber. May you always remember the words from ten years ago: "We can overcome anything!"

 

[WeAreHungry]

Shadow Branch Plan B:

If you believe that Webber should not sacrifice its companions, you can replace the spider-eating mechanic with using the corresponding spider graffiti on itself. Additionally, when Webber uses the skill, it will automatically consume one nightmare fuel, and if the nightmare fuel is depleted, the skill cannot be used.

Lastly, to add one more point, regardless of whether you choose Plan A or Plan B, after activating the shadow branch, Webber will no longer lose sanity during dusk and night.

[Dr.Webber]

On 12/22/2024 at 7:11 AM, WeAreHungry said:

Shadow Branch Plan B:

If you believe that Webber should not sacrifice its companions, you can replace the spider-eating mechanic with using the corresponding spider graffiti on itself. Additionally, when Webber uses the skill, it will automatically consume one nightmare fuel, and if the nightmare fuel is depleted, the skill cannot be used.

Lastly, to add one more point, regardless of whether you choose Plan A or Plan B, after activating the shadow branch, Webber will no longer lose sanity during dusk and night.

 I don’t quite understand the graffiti idea could you explain it 

[WeAreHungry]

On 12/24/2024 at 9:11 PM, Dr.Webber said:

 I don’t quite understand the graffiti idea could you explain it 

Thank you for your reminder. To be precise, "Graffiti" refers to the exclusive item "Switcherdoodle" for the character Webber in the game.

[Dr.Webber]

43 minutes ago, WeAreHungry said:

Thank you for your reminder. To be precise, "Graffiti" refers to the exclusive item "Switcherdoodle" for the character Webber in the game.

So when you say graffiti, you mean the unique item the distinguishes what type the switcherdoodle is

[WeAreHungry]

On 3/4/2025 at 5:21 AM, Dr.Webber said:

So when you say graffiti, you mean the unique item the distinguishes what type the switcherdoodle is

Yes, it's some newly added switcherdoodles.

[Dr.Webber]

2 hours ago, WeAreHungry said:

Yes, it's some newly added switcherdoodles.

Wait the switcher doodles themselves or the ingredient that differentiates  the switcher doodles