Rift content should be NG+ instead of a Hardmode

[SEFFT]

 

Basically, once AF/CC is defeated for the first time, any future worlds you generate would have Charlie and Wagstaff already spawned in an waiting for their respective resource, that when given to them enables Rifts to open. I think this sort of arrangement solves most of the problems people have with the new Beta and so much of the game being locked behind Rifts:

- Killing Fuelweaver / Celestial Champion for the first time now has a LOT more weight to it, since not only do you have your alignment perks unlocked, you're permanently changing every iteration of your constant

- Since the Time investment is split across Multiple worlds, it won't feel as daunting for people new to the game to attempt to reach Endgame - and Veteran players no logner have to invest tons of time into a new world to see the new content

- People who mostly play in Public servers will normally never experienece post-Rift content, since your average Pub will never be able to get to the endagame bosses - This lets them get a taste of what lies after the bosses

- Since Alignement perks are already a thing, It wouldn't be too hard to code in!

The big problems I see with this change are that nobody will go after Crab King/Celestial Champion/Shadow Pieces if they aren't forced to since they only drop stuff needed for progression, and that enlightened shards are the major resource needed for post-rift lunar route, and CC is the only way to get them. First one can be solved by giving them some more unique drops, and for the shards, either let the mutated bosses drop them or make them craftable with pure brilliance + moon shards at an altar. (TBH If there's one thing i'm hoping for from this post, it's that last one)
 

[landromat]

but you can turn rifts on in world settings, so anyone interested in quick rift content does this

[Erathia]

I feel like people completely forget that Don't Starve Together offers a wide range of options that let you customize nearly every aspect of the game to fit your needs and expectations. People like you try to force a single "correct" way to play the game. Don’t like a mechanic? Turn it off. Can’t deal with a boss? Play Wurt and let the merms handle everything for you. But don’t expect that your lack of skill or willful ignorance should result in consequences for every other player. That’s just absurd. There’s nothing wrong with learning to play on your own terms, or even choosing to ignore some mechanics, but suggesting what you’re proposing makes no sense and is completely out of touch with the game’s design.

I get what you’re aiming for, but your idea sounds like a band-aid solution that completely undermines the entire point of progression in Don't Starve Together.

Let’s start with this: "permanent changes in future worlds" directly contradicts the core design of DST. This isn’t a roguelite where meta-progression is the goal. Each world is meant to be a fresh sandbox, with its own rhythm and challenges. Turning it into a checklist of "have you beaten this boss at least once?" destroys the survival identity of the game and turns it into a shallow FOMO-driven task list.

You claim this would “make it easier” for new players. No, it wouldn’t. If someone hasn’t even seen Fuelweaver or Celestial Champion, throwing them into a world with Rifts already open would be a guaranteed disaster. No context, no preparation, no tools. And if you say they’d have to beat those bosses first to “unlock” Rifts in future worlds… how exactly is that less discouraging? We're still talking about two of the hardest bosses in the game. You’re not simplifying anything — you’re just shifting the barrier elsewhere.

Also, your argument about public servers is shortsighted. If your average pub server never gets to the endgame, what makes you think those players are ready for post-Rift content? Forcing those mechanics into the world won’t make it more accessible — it will just make it more chaotic and confusing. That’s not "making endgame more available"; it’s just making a mess.

And seriously — “it wouldn’t be hard to code”? Really? That’s not how game design works. Just because alignment systems already exist doesn’t mean you can lazily stretch them to fit everything else. You’re ignoring the entire systemic consequence of turning bosses into permanent unlocks.

Finally, you even admit that no one would bother fighting Crab King, CC, or Shadow Pieces if they weren’t required for progression. And your solution is… better loot? That doesn’t fix the design. That just puts shiny stickers on a mechanic players already don’t care about. If bosses aren’t compelling or meaningful enough to make players want to fight them, that’s what needs fixing — not the rewards.
One last thing: nobody is stopping you from setting up a private server, killing Fuelweaver and Celestial Champion with admin commands, activating the Rifts, and then inviting your friends or “casual” players to join in. You already have full control over when and how post-Rift content appears. The fact that someone can’t beat the game legitimately doesn’t mean the entire foundation of the game should be changed. DST already gives you the tools — just use them, instead of demanding meta-progression that ruins the structure of the game for everyone else.

[Mike23Ua]

My biggest problem with rifts content is that Klei expects you to be able to check off a quite exhaustive list of fetch and collect quests and at minimal 4 large raid bosses before you can reach rifts content.

And because of this expectation: Klei chooses to make the actual rift content itself some “Hard Mode” with harder to kill beefed up mobs, and more frequent boss encounters (undead Varg, Deerclops etc..)

However speaking strictly from my personal experience and observations of friends playing in my worlds when I choose to enable rifts to “On” it introduces new content into the world for them to enjoy, and some of it (such as Brightshades or the Shadow Mimics) aren’t even that “hard mode” level of difficulty and are in actuality easier to fight and deal with then some of even the most beginner level content (I can legit fight a group of Brightshades better than I can kite Pigmen..)

This leads me to believe that Klei has been designing DSTs content updates the wrong way, to appeal to the wrong group of “Late Game” players when there’s huge appeal to making this content available to everyone at lower entry levels & less difficulty.

AND should Klei choose to opt into going this route: They can even “beef them up” After the original unlock requisites are achieved.

But the current issue is that cool content like the above mentioned easy to deal with rift mobs are locked behind late game tasks (unless rifts are turned on in settings) while some early game content (like the stupid demon bunny overlord and probably also the giant tremors worm) should be the stuff locked behind late-game.

TL:DR Some Late Game Content should be Early Game, Some Early Game should be Late Game and the whole game is awfully off point in this particular aspect.

Edited May 28, 2025 by Mike23Ua

[AuRuS]

8 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

My biggest problem with rifts content is that Klei expects you to be able to check off a quite exhaustive list of fetch and collect quests and at minimal 4 large raid bosses before you can reach rifts content.

And because of this expectation: Klei chooses to make the actual rift content itself some “Hard Mode” with harder to kill beefed up mobs, and more frequent boss encounters (undead Varg, Deerclops etc..)

However speaking strictly from my personal experience and observations of friends playing in my worlds when I choose to enable rifts to “On” it introduces new content into the world for them to enjoy, and some of it (such as Brightshades or the Shadow Mimics) aren’t even that “hard mode” level of difficulty and are in actuality easier to fight and deal with then some of even the most beginner level content (I can legit fight a group of Brightshades better than I can kite Pigmen..)

This leads me to believe that Klei has been designing DSTs content updates the wrong way, to appeal to the wrong group of “Late Game” players when there’s huge appeal to making this content available to everyone at lower entry levels & less difficulty.

AND should Klei choose to opt into going this route: They can even “beef them up” After the original unlock requisites are achieved.

But the current issue is that cool content like the above mentioned easy to deal with rift mobs are locked behind late game tasks (unless rifts are turned on in settings) while some early game content (like the stupid demon bunny overlord and probably also the giant tremors worm) should be the stuff locked behind late-game.

TL:DR Some Late Game Content should be Early Game, Some Early Game should be Late Game and the whole game is awfully off point in this particular aspect.

Champ, you gotta remember that you got hundreds if not thousands of hours spent in this game and you could propably recite some dst wiki pages if woken up at 4AM, believe it or not but I PROMISE YOU that actual new players struggle with making it past day 3 and I can see Klei's vision of not making the game more convoluted for those people right off the bat. I absolutely agree that dst should be nearly exclusevely expanded upon on the late game so that new players can explore the game and veterans might have something to come back to, if it was up to me I would only expand the endgame as there is no point in doing anything else frankly, by adding this type of content you basicially please both new and old players.

Just let people explore the game on their own and then look stuff up on wiki and read how to get to more content since there is no way to figure some puzzles out on your own

[Mike23Ua]

14 minutes ago, AuRuS said:

Champ, you gotta remember that you got hundreds if not thousands of hours spent in this game and you could propably recite some dst wiki pages if woken up at 4AM, believe it or not but I PROMISE YOU that actual new players struggle with making it past day 3 and I can see Klei's vision of not making the game more convoluted for those people right off the bat. I absolutely agree that dst should be nearly exclusevely expanded upon on the late game so that new players can explore the game and veterans might have something to come back to, if it was up to me I would only expand the endgame as there is no point in doing anything else frankly, by adding this type of content you basicially please both new and old players.

Just let people explore the game on their own and then look stuff up on wiki and read how to get to more content since there is no way to figure some puzzles out on your own

Your not even listening to me though and that’s kinda been the issue this whole time, Klei has been adding new early game content that makes the game much harder on new players, while the actual late game stuff is way too damn easy to be “Late Game”

Heres a few examples: Muarduers (otters) can be found as early as day 1, and they will chase after and attack the player stealing food out their inventory, this is a new threat that doesn’t require rifts opened first that new players have to deal with.

the evil bunny rabbit overlord can be summoned on day 1 as well by just shoving 10 carrots down a rabbit hole, your reward is being relentlessly pursued by not just a Chuck Norris Rabbit but his 3 much more dangerous (and endlessly respawning) BeardOverlord minions, and unlike even the END GAME Bosses like Undead Possesed Deerclops and Bearger who will eventually grow bored and walk away from you, Chuck Norris rabbit will continue to pursue you.

My conclusion is that the games difficulty and pacing is way off course.

[Bumber64]

14 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Heres a few examples:
[marotters]

[rabbit king]

Oh, no! Le frog 2.0! Le moon quay!

Then don't stick carrots in the den while carrying meat? Imagine entering caves right into a bunnyman village, but you can see it coming.

The real issue is that mimicreeps are all upside. Gives you free uses of items. Dies into NMF just from being stepped on.

Edited May 28, 2025 by Bumber64

[Beetrice]

On 5/28/2025 at 4:05 PM, Erathia said:

I feel like people completely forget that Don't Starve Together offers a wide range of options that let you customize nearly every aspect of the game to fit your needs and expectations. People like you try to force a single "correct" way to play the game. Don’t like a mechanic? Turn it off. Can’t deal with a boss? Play Wurt and let the merms handle everything for you. But don’t expect that your lack of skill or willful ignorance should result in consequences for every other player. That’s just absurd. There’s nothing wrong with learning to play on your own terms, or even choosing to ignore some mechanics, but suggesting what you’re proposing makes no sense and is completely out of touch with the game’s design.

I get what you’re aiming for, but your idea sounds like a band-aid solution that completely undermines the entire point of progression in Don't Starve Together.

Let’s start with this: "permanent changes in future worlds" directly contradicts the core design of DST. This isn’t a roguelite where meta-progression is the goal. Each world is meant to be a fresh sandbox, with its own rhythm and challenges. Turning it into a checklist of "have you beaten this boss at least once?" destroys the survival identity of the game and turns it into a shallow FOMO-driven task list.

You claim this would “make it easier” for new players. No, it wouldn’t. If someone hasn’t even seen Fuelweaver or Celestial Champion, throwing them into a world with Rifts already open would be a guaranteed disaster. No context, no preparation, no tools. And if you say they’d have to beat those bosses first to “unlock” Rifts in future worlds… how exactly is that less discouraging? We're still talking about two of the hardest bosses in the game. You’re not simplifying anything — you’re just shifting the barrier elsewhere.

Also, your argument about public servers is shortsighted. If your average pub server never gets to the endgame, what makes you think those players are ready for post-Rift content? Forcing those mechanics into the world won’t make it more accessible — it will just make it more chaotic and confusing. That’s not "making endgame more available"; it’s just making a mess.

And seriously — “it wouldn’t be hard to code”? Really? That’s not how game design works. Just because alignment systems already exist doesn’t mean you can lazily stretch them to fit everything else. You’re ignoring the entire systemic consequence of turning bosses into permanent unlocks.

Finally, you even admit that no one would bother fighting Crab King, CC, or Shadow Pieces if they weren’t required for progression. And your solution is… better loot? That doesn’t fix the design. That just puts shiny stickers on a mechanic players already don’t care about. If bosses aren’t compelling or meaningful enough to make players want to fight them, that’s what needs fixing — not the rewards.
One last thing: nobody is stopping you from setting up a private server, killing Fuelweaver and Celestial Champion with admin commands, activating the Rifts, and then inviting your friends or “casual” players to join in. You already have full control over when and how post-Rift content appears. The fact that someone can’t beat the game legitimately doesn’t mean the entire foundation of the game should be changed. DST already gives you the tools — just use them, instead of demanding meta-progression that ruins the structure of the game for everyone else.

I agree, but this is too rage filled.

[Mike23Ua]

1 minute ago, Beetrice said:

I agree, but this is too rage filled.

I disagree, you can not understand the context of words on the internet, they can easily be misconstrued & misinterpreted. The things that I post for example may sound like angry rants if you read it and think “Angry Rant” but in real life: I’m actually shy, don’t talk to people much and just have this real I don’t know.. chill vibe going I guess? As a writer one of the hardest things to convey into words is emotions.

So when you read online texts and stuff try not to jump immediately to angry rant thoughts, instead consider several different ways of reading it.

[Bumber64]

3 hours ago, milsonmeow said:

Alas, sometimes the lucky rabbit can fall unprompted during earthquakes in caves, so if you're really expecting players to not bring any meat down there then that's just low faith don't you think.

Separate issue from what was described. Bunnymen can (or could?) kill you before you even finish loading in. You don't need meat for that, just be Webber. (You used to be a ghost by the time the load screen finished. IDK how much the invincibility time fixed the issue for low performance.)

Marotters and carrot den are clearly avoidable. A longer delay before being detected by the earthquake version is a matter of tweaking things. (Or only chasing a certain distance from spawn point, etc.)

Edited June 2, 2025 by Bumber64

[Semind]

5 hours ago, milsonmeow said:

Alas, sometimes the lucky rabbit can fall unprompted during earthquakes in caves, so if you're really expecting players to not bring any meat down there then that's just low faith don't you think.

Don't you have to deliberately interact with the lucky rabbit to make the Rabbit King spawn?

[Mike23Ua]

On 5/28/2025 at 6:06 PM, Bumber64 said:

Then don't stick carrots in the den while carrying meat?

There are several ways to spawn the evil rabbit overlord, even if you are not carrying any meat, at this stage of the early game your practically guaranteed to still be carrying around pig skin for Hambats and Football Helmets.

And like I said if they toned the SoB down just a bit (like maybe not endlessly spawning 3 minions or actually dropping aggro and going away instead of following you everywhere) he feels like “late game” content that can be summoned within the first 2 minutes of joining a game world.

Edited June 2, 2025 by Mike23Ua

[Semind]

9 hours ago, milsonmeow said:

No.

As you can see here, just by the fact they guy had meat during the earthquake when the lucky rabbit fell (aka not being touched), the damn thing instantly aggroes into the dude.

Cool, thanks for confirming what I thought. Because I actually watched the clip and saw that he interacted with the lucky rabbit at 1:05:37. That doesn't happen without the player input (notice the lucky rabbit sliding off to the inventory at the bottom of the scree like when you pick up items).

[Semind]

No, they're fine. I doubt a ton of people know what the lucky rabbit's interactions look like (on account of it not only being rare but for people to want to interact with it). For instance, you don't get the "slides to the inventory like a picked up item" visual effect when you use the bespoke right-click interaction on the lucky rabbit. That specifically only happens if you do the generic interact input (i.e. pressing spacebar), which is pretty much only liable to happen when the lucky rabbit is stunned (such as when falling from an earthquake).

[dzzydzzy]

17 hours ago, milsonmeow said:

No.

As you can see here, just by the fact they guy had meat during the earthquake when the lucky rabbit fell (aka not being touched), the damn thing instantly aggroes into the dude.

This Just happened to me in an Uncomp Mod world in ruins.... they destroyed my armor, then the worms came. Day 17