PvP

[Bugsworth]

PvP is kind of a forgotten mechanic of DST and I feel like it could work really well. Its honestly a shame that there's no official servers that have PvP enabled because the interactions you can get with other players would be so unique. Throughout a server there wouldn't just be one main base, there would probably be groups who have separate bases. A player encounter would be completely different because instead of working together, there is a constant threat of them betraying you. Having a dedicated server with PvP would create a whole new experience to don't starve and I feel like there is so much untapped potential. Maybe it's just me though.

[GimplyGoose]

Honestly, I've thought about PvP in DST and I think that it would just be a crappy experience. You would likely need to play with the wilderness respawn mode to prevent spawn camping, but important resources in the world would quickly get depleted. There also isn't really a way to 'win' in any meaningful way. You could go smash up someone else's base, but you don't get much out of it and honestly it wouldn't even be challenging to do.

I would have no interest in playing DST this way...

There are other games with PvPvE and designed more around that concept. V Rising comes to mind. I think playing games like that would be way more enjoyable.

[GetNerfedOn]

saw this on a discord server somewhere but the real DST PVP is the Klei Forums

[Echsrick]

technically the pvp in dst is who gets the good stuff first, found stone road? you almost get panflute, found chester? NEVER LEAVE HIM ALONE! walrus spawn spots? dont tell anyone about the triple walrus...clearly that is pvp right? mental warfare to the mortals

[Well-met]

it's forgotten because it's a novelty for a game that was never designed for it.

[hyoton123]

1 hour ago, GetNerfedOn said:

saw this on a discord server somewhere but the real DST PVP is the Klei Forums

I voted yes just to see this. the official klei forums PVP server.

[Edible Coal]

Pvp requires so much overhaul to the game in general that base game pvp would never work....

-needs a storm mechanic to force people to fight

-seasons would have to be really short (5 days)

-some early day of grace period to collect resouces

-some options like panflute and wicker sleep book has to be nerf ( two cast to make you sleep)

-character that has easy access to planar dmg in skill tree ( willow) have to remove planar 

-walter long range

-just balancing in gereral

 

however, i do think a good pvp server is fun and there are some really rare tactics and items that you dont really use in normal gameplay can be use in this mode. but i doubt klei has the energy/effort/care to make it good

[Radicaljoe]

DST combat isn't in depth enough for pvp I believe. I've played a bit, and it always boils down to "who has the better ping gets the first swing and stunlock."

The only interesting fights are ones where the opponent uses their brain to assure your death, like freezing you with an ice staff and walling you in under a couple gun powder.

[Frosty_Mentos]

PVP in DST needs tuning or player intervention to balance it out. Now that skill trees are a thing it'll take a very long and hard time to do any type of PVP balancing, because that requires a lot of attention from developers on how to deal with the content the game has, the RNG of generation as well as the speed characters scale in power.

Besides that, PVP Klei servers likely would be dead more often than not. Noone likes losing their progress that fast and hard.

[Flarezen]

yeah pvp currently is just boring, it would need to be something like a arena game mode where everyone locked to one area. maybe the pig king and pigs cheering and jeering while watching the survivors fight it out. sometimes throw stuff in the arena lol

[Hollow soul 3]

*yes, but

There should be a safe zone by portal, or set to random spawn point.

[Maxil20]

18 hours ago, GetNerfedOn said:

saw this on a discord server somewhere but the real DST PVP is the Klei Forums

[lowercase skye]

19 hours ago, Well-met said:

it's forgotten because it's a novelty for a game that was never designed for it.

Weirdly enough, it absolutely was designed for PvP at one point. Really early on, like pre-ANR early, a lot of the big streamers of the time would exclusively play PvP, and so the game would get patches and minor additions designed around it. For example moon rock walls take 25 hammer hits and only receive 75% of damage dealt by players, so that they were a sort of PvP wall. More infamously, Willow's fire immunity first being removed was actually due to PvP: a big part of PvP combat was to set the other player on fire, so they took a sort of "piercing" damage from the fire which ignores their armor, and this meant that Willow was always the best choice since she could dish it out but never had to take it.

That being said, I agree it was a novelty more than anything, and I always find it interesting when people discuss it and all come up with way cooler ideas as to how it would function than how it actually did in its heyday. Basically PvP goes like this: Everyone spawns in during the first couple days and all have a mutual understanding that it's uncool to kill each other without time to prepare, so you're left alone at the portal/during any early encounters while everyone's still setting up. Then you all separately rush to try to get the best gear possible, with another mutual understanding that going down to the ruins minimizes your encounters with other players to such a small chance for such a long time that you shouldn't do that, so the "best gear" is just football helmets, dark swords if you rush a shadow manipulator, ice staffs, blue caps, and the panflute if you manage to get it first or take down whoever did. Around day 4-8 once everyone's supposed to be decently geared up, that honor system from earlier is shelved, and now any encounter with another player, unless you choose to team with them (with an understanding you'll have to duel each other 1 on 1 after the rest of the server is dead), is an encounter where you MUST fight to the death, or get chased for as long as you can go without having to stop and tend to your stats. Once the server's down to 2 alive players, they generally meet up at the portal and then have one final fight to the death which, considering they're probably the best geared players, either means a ping battle of who can stunlock first, or comes down to who has the panflute. Once everyone dies, you reset the server so the next session can happen back on day 1 again.

Oh also you'd usually want to be insane so that your opponents end up attacking your shadow creatures with F rather than you, and additionally so you get hit and woken up by those tiny little crawling horror bites if your opponent puts you to sleep, so that's where the "always stay insane" playstyle originated and was inexplicably still followed by many players for the next several years. Also digging up all the blue mushrooms on the map, that was to stop other players from having access to blue mushrooms.

Basically it was lame as hell and sucked a lot, maybe it would be better nowadays without these unspoken rules that everyone followed back in 2016, but yeah. It was kinda lame. I wish it had actually involved making and raiding bases but unfortunately the game just isn't designed for that.

[Well-met]

there's also a funny bonus where beaver does more damage to wood or grass armors

[Cheggf]

14 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

Pvp requires so much overhaul to the game in general that base game pvp would never work....

-needs a storm mechanic to force people to fight

-seasons would have to be really short (5 days)

-some early day of grace period to collect resouces

-some options like panflute and wicker sleep book has to be nerf ( two cast to make you sleep)

-character that has easy access to planar dmg in skill tree ( willow) have to remove planar 

-walter long range

-just balancing in gereral

 

however, i do think a good pvp server is fun and there are some really rare tactics and items that you dont really use in normal gameplay can be use in this mode. but i doubt klei has the energy/effort/care to make it good

PvP doesn't freaking mean Fortnite lol

[Harrowick]

I just don't think this is the kind of game where PvP has a place, but then again I'm a co-op game player at heart so I just don't find enjoyment in it. Plus, DST has a lot of character mechanics that just don't mesh well with PvP.

(looking at you, Maxwell, and your ability to shadow prison someone nearly indefinitely while they get helplessly attacked by shadow duelists!)

[Edible Coal]

6 hours ago, Cheggf said:

PvP doesn't freaking mean Fortnite lol

i really cant see how pvp work in other way, theres no way you can build bases without them getting looted

[Bugsworth]

On 4/3/2025 at 10:13 PM, Edible Coal said:

i really cant see how pvp work in other way, theres no way you can build bases without them getting looted

That's kinda the point is for bases to have massive fights because its not like youre gonna run away from your base