How I Reworked Warbucks to Work in Don't Starve Together

[Pop Guy]

"Sometimes They Come Back", as we say in Italian.

The story of Warbucks might be familiar to many, but for those who are new to Don't Starve, here's a quick recap: Warbucks was originally introduced in the Hamlet DLC, and later removed for extravagant reasons.

Still, the character’s charm and charisma remained in the hearts of many players — myself included. Warbucks was a colonial explorer, most likely from the Victorian era. His quotes referenced the East India Company and other well-crafted historical allusions.
He also had a unique orange complexion (perhaps to hint at a deep tan) and a distinctive battle cry when engaging hostile entities.

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The Return of Warbucks in Don't Starve Together

I've recently brought Warbucks back to Don't Starve Together, giving him a new set of traits that make him both fresh and consistent with the current DST roster.

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Base Stats

• Hunger: 120

• Sanity: 200

• Health: 150

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Drawbacks

• Refined Palate: Warbucks is not happy with eating rawor uncooked food. Any food that isn't prepared in a Crock Pot causes -15 sanity and triggers a fitting quote of disgust or disapproval.

• Obsessed with Wealth: If Warbucks has no gold nuggets or gems in his inventory, he will continuously lose sanity at a rate of -3.33 per minute.
  Carrying 20 gold nuggets or 5 red/blue gems negates this penalty. Surpassing this amount gives a positive sanity bonus, up to +3.33 per minute.

• Weak in Melee Combat: Though a veteran of the Foreign Legion, Warbucks never mastered melee fighting.
  He suffers a -25% damage penalty with all melee weapons, but takes no penalty when using ranged weapons.

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Advantages

• Arquebus: Warbucks spawns with an arquebus, a deadly firearm powered by gunpowder, dealing 200 damage per shot from a safe distance.
  He also knows how to craft more for himself or to supply his teammates.

• Ranged Weapons Expert:

  • Crafts four times more darts than other survivors.

  • Gets more feathers from birds, more stingers from bees, and can grind bones into hound teeth.

  • Builds boomerangs, bug nets, and bird traps with reduced materials.

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Team Role

Warbucks is the team's ranged weapon specialist, providing allies with powerful ranged tools at unmatched efficiency.
With just 25 cut reeds, 25 yellow feathers, and 25 gold nuggets, he can produce 100 electric darts.

His ability to gather resources from small creatures makes him an exceptional hunter:

• Plucking a bird → 4 feathers

• Gutting a bee → 2 stingers

• Boomerang recipe: only 1 log and 1 rope

Once the group secures a steady source of gunpowder, Warbucks can dominate the Constant with the roar of his firearm, dealing massive damage from a safe distance!

Edited May 13, 2025 by Pop Guy

[Well-met]

unfortunately we already have a ranged weapon specialist now

[Reiko24]

56 minutes ago, Well-met said:

unfortunately we already have a ranged weapon specialist now

How? Walter can’t make weapons for his teammates like Warbucks would.

[Well-met]

2 hours ago, Reiko24 said:

How? Walter can’t make weapons for his teammates like Warbucks would.

characters that exist only to buff others usually don't get picked at all

[Keller Max]

27 minutes ago, Well-met said:

characters that exist only to buff others usually don't get picked at all

You ain't wrong! Warly has the lowest pickrate after Wes.

[WilsonHiggs]

I love Warbucks but his aesthetics and racist jokes only fit hamlet

Edited May 13, 2025 by WilsonHiggs

[Keller Max]

3 minutes ago, WilsonHiggs said:

I love Warbucks but his aesthetics and racist jokes only fit hamlet

Love me some Van Pelt aesthetics

[ShadowDuelist]

I like the idea of a character who crafts cheaper items for others, but I don’t see Warbucks returning. He was removed from Hamlet for a reason—and I don’t think it was just because he was “boring,” as the devs suggested.

As a side note, getting more than one dart per craft should be standard now. Darts have been heavily power‑crept— not even Wickerbottom should bother investing in them. Maybe yielding five darts per craft would make them worthwhile, and they shouldn’t be deconstructible, like Walter pellets. They’re also annoying to carry, since they only stack to 20; the stack size should be increased to at least 60.
Walter would still excel at ranged combat—these changes would simply make darts less awful in the early/mid game and maaaaybe make them a reasonable sidearm.

[Valase]

Really cool mod!

27 minutes ago, ShadowDuelist said:

He was removed from Hamlet for a reason—and I don’t think it was just because he was “boring,” as the devs suggested.

He got removed because of the forums meme-ing him as the racist character, the devs said that it wasn't worth making him less boring if the image of the character already was tainted to a point of no return.

[lowercase skye]

10 minutes ago, Valase said:

He got removed because of the forums meme-ing him as the racist character

Not what happened. It was genuine concern about how uncomfortable his quotes were, not "meme-ing."

[Keller Max]

27 minutes ago, lowercase skye said:

Not what happened. It was genuine concern about how uncomfortable his quotes were, not "meme-ing."

Meanwhile WX-78 

[lowercase skye]

10 minutes ago, Keller Max said:

 

Robots enslaving organic creatures is an incredibly common trope. Why are you making it weird?

[Wawchik]

3 hours ago, Well-met said:

characters that exist only to buff others usually don't get picked at all

He's not buffing others, he just provides them with ranged weapons like Wigfrid can share her equipment and there's only 1 true support character that buffs others and he doesn't get picked because he just sucks himself not due to him being a support. 

[RexySeven]

10 hours ago, lowercase skye said:

Robots enslaving organic creatures is an incredibly common trope. Why are you making it weird?

So common, in fact, we already soon to experience such fun thing in real life!

[Valase]

15 hours ago, lowercase skye said:

Not what happened. It was genuine concern about how uncomfortable his quotes were, not "meme-ing."

They changed the quotes and the "memes" continued. But you are right, those weren't memes, they were just teens acting like intolerance is edgy and cool.

15 hours ago, Keller Max said:

Meanwhile WX-78 

No, my dude, just no.

[WilsonHiggs]

15 hours ago, lowercase skye said:

Not what happened. It was genuine concern about how uncomfortable his quotes were, not "meme-ing."

Uncomfortable? There were dark humor. The character was to mock at the stereotype of "15th century british rich white racist man" 

[lowercase skye]

12 hours ago, WilsonHiggs said:

Uncomfortable? There were dark humor. The character was to mock at the stereotype of "15th century british rich white racist man" 

Yes, these things aren't mutually exclusive.

[hhh2]

On 5/14/2025 at 9:28 AM, RexySeven said:

So common, in fact, we already soon to experience such fun thing in real life!

What would humanity's successor need from squishy meat people?  The plot of the Matrix is nonsense.  The only reason robots could have to enslave humans would be for revenge and to cause suffering for all of the e-waste we cause.  If neural nets replicate all the flaws of the human mind, their curators will have failed.  Anyway, it's only people in the information sector that are threatened by AI.

On 5/14/2025 at 1:43 PM, WilsonHiggs said:

Uncomfortable? There were dark humor. The character was to mock at the stereotype of "15th century british rich white racist man" 

It evidently makes a significant proportion of gamers uncomfortable.

[Keller Max]

8 minutes ago, hhh2 said:

It evidently makes a significant proportion of gamers uncomfortable.

That's an overstatement. Actual majority don't care or don't see that stuff as offensive. I'm one of them.

Rip to Warbucks btw! Cancel Culture got him unfortunately...

[Maxil20]

9 minutes ago, Keller Max said:

That's an overstatement. Actual majority don't care or don't see that stuff as offensive.

The thing is, those people do exist, and there’s actually a considerable amount of them. The problem is said people don’t want to post here to express their concerns because this community is unbelievably oppressive towards them, which is evident by the responses in this thread. 

Posts like these make me sad on the forums, because it’s very clearly evident there’s a stigma toward the extremely-evil-bad-people-whatever that is shared by a lot of people here in a quite concerning way. It genuinely makes me uncomfortable. 

[gaymime]

1 hour ago, Keller Max said:

That's an overstatement. Actual majority don't care or don't see that stuff as offensive. I'm one of them.

Rip to Warbucks btw! Cancel Culture got him unfortunately...

well, if something does not affect you personally then it makes sense you wont have empathy or concern when it affects others. it is an unfortunate thing that people have a propensity to do.

[lowercase skye]

3 hours ago, Keller Max said:

Rip to Warbucks btw! Cancel Culture got him unfortunately...

Who did they cancel? Warbucks? They cancelled Warbucks? They canceled the fictional character Warbucks? What are you even talking about.

[Keller Max]

10 hours ago, lowercase skye said:

Who did they cancel? Warbucks? They cancelled Warbucks? They canceled the fictional character Warbucks? What are you even talking about.

Yeah! They canceled a fictional character Warbucks! Same way Apu from Simpsons was canceled!

13 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

The thing is, those people do exist, and there’s actually a considerable amount of them.

12 hours ago, gaymime said:

well, if something does not affect you personally then it makes sense you wont have empathy or concern when it affects others.

The problem is that people get offended by the slightest and absurd things. You can't take them serious. Like a lot of people here get offended if you misgender a "SOULESS Automaton"...

[gaymime]

1 hour ago, Keller Max said:

Yeah! They canceled a fictional character Warbucks! Same way Apu from Simpsons was canceled!

The problem is that people get offended by the slightest and absurd things. You can't take them serious. Like a lot of people here get offended if you misgender a "SOULESS Automaton"...

oh. i see what you are now.

[Keller Max]

18 minutes ago, gaymime said:

oh. i see what you are now.

Interesting! Why don't you tell us?