Are "black health"/booster shot mechanics even a thing that adds a lot to the game? I think they are outdated and discouraging to new players

[BrixGoBrrr]

1 hour ago, Cheggf said:

ok? that's from the singleplayer days, and a magical solution - we're talking booster shots 

[FreyaMaluk]

5 minutes ago, BrixGoBrrr said:

ok? that's from the singleplayer days, and a magical solution - we're talking booster shots 

amulets in single player work much differently. you don't become a ghost... you just revive.

[Cheggf]

17 minutes ago, BrixGoBrrr said:

ok? that's from the singleplayer days, and a magical solution - we're talking booster shots 

It isn't from singleplayer days. It's almost worthless in DSA for a couple reasons, but in DST it's literally exactly what you just asked for. It's a Telltale Heart, except if you haunt it you revive, and when you revive with it it doesn't incur a maximum health penalty. 

[BrixGoBrrr]

10 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

It isn't from singleplayer days. It's almost worthless in DSA for a couple reasons, but in DST it's literally exactly what you just asked for. It's a Telltale Heart, except if you haunt it you revive, and when you revive with it it doesn't incur a maximum health penalty. 

no? lol oop, been too long re: DSA 
but re: the overly-complicated non-magical LGA replica, that's kinda exactly my goal/point tho .. to give the Boosters an additional and preventative function, but also enable their use on smthng like a Telltale Heart, to intentionally provide players more ways to achieve the same result as the LGA, without having to know what the LGA is 
.. but rly it's the alter-able Telltale Heart & variety of shots i'm most interested in, where yes 1 possible alteration effectively makes it a LGA, but i want multiple possible alterations, only one of which would be making it hauntable 
(just let me stab the Heart plz, for science!)

[hyoton123]

I think the bigger problem is guiding people to find the booster shot in the menu and craft it, not really the mats. That goes for every item, but the description for the shot isn't really that clear.

[Cheggf]

2 hours ago, BrixGoBrrr said:

that's kinda exactly my goal/point tho .. to give the Boosters an additional and preventative function, but also enable their use on smthng like a Telltale Heart, to intentionally provide players more ways to achieve the same result as the LGA, without having to know what the LGA is 

I think it would be a lot easier to click on the healing tab and see the Life Giving Amulet then that's the end of it instead of trying to drag random items onto random items and hope that something happens even though that isn't a thing the game otherwise expects you to do. 

[Milordo]

16 hours ago, hyoton123 said:

I think the bigger problem is guiding people to find the booster shot in the menu and craft it, not really the mats. That goes for every item, but the description for the shot isn't really that clear.

You guys should play more the game.

[Mike23Ua]

4 minutes ago, Milordo said:

You guys should play more the game.

Klei likes to use playable characters as a means of teaching players certain features in the game. (Example: Playing as Wigfrid teaches how to survive exclusively on Meat and ignore veggies)

My “Idea” for the booster shot was to give it to Walter as a character kit item this IN YOUR FACE item that you absolutely can not under any circumstances ever miss.

What I would had done was actually make Walter “Deathly Allergic” to Bees like he claims he is, and when attacked by one it would inflict poison bleed out damage over time like the effect in Shipwrecked DLC.

His long distance slingshot, & being able to stash booster needles in Wobys storage would have made up the difference.

And while mostly used by Walter for its vital Poisoning Cure, It would also teach players how to Craft, and the uses of the Booster shot.

(this heals Walters declining health I wonder if it will work on… OMG it works!)

[hyoton123]

1 hour ago, Milordo said:

You guys should play more the game.

I am saying this is not intuitive for new players. Yes, if you go to the healing tab near the alchemy station you can prototype the booster shot. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why players would have trouble finding it.

 

And I don't think that description is as clear as something like "Removes the maximum health penalty for dying" or something like that.

 

It's hard enough to get people to make a telltale heart and that literally says what it does and does not require a station to appear.

[Milordo]

1 hour ago, hyoton123 said:

I am saying this is not intuitive for new players. Yes, if you go to the healing tab near the alchemy station you can prototype the booster shot. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why players would have trouble finding it.

 

And I don't think that description is as clear as something like "Removes the maximum health penalty for dying" or something like that.

 

It's hard enough to get people to make a telltale heart and that literally says what it does and does not require a station to appear.

It's exactly the opposite. It is intuitive and players don't have trouble finding it. The description is clearier than water. New people are not stupid, in 2-3 hours they have all of this figure out.

[FreyaMaluk]

6 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

Klei likes to use playable characters as a means of teaching players certain features in the game. (Example: Playing as Wigfrid teaches how to survive exclusively on Meat and ignore veggies)

My “Idea” for the booster shot was to give it to Walter as a character kit item this IN YOUR FACE item that you absolutely can not under any circumstances ever miss.

What I would had done was actually make Walter “Deathly Allergic” to Bees like he claims he is, and when attacked by one it would inflict poison bleed out damage over time like the effect in Shipwrecked DLC.

His long distance slingshot, & being able to stash booster needles in Wobys storage would have made up the difference.

And while mostly used by Walter for its vital Poisoning Cure, It would also teach players how to Craft, and the uses of the Booster shot.

(this heals Walters declining health I wonder if it will work on… OMG it works!)

I think giving this to Wilson would be more conducive to reaching more new people. Walter is pretty low in the line up and there is a reason why a lot newbies choose Wilson. When presented with a lot of choices people will tend to pick the first ones.

[Cheggf]

16 hours ago, hyoton123 said:

I am saying this is not intuitive for new players. Yes, if you go to the healing tab near the alchemy station you can prototype the booster shot. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why players would have trouble finding it.

You're acting like you need to hammer the marble sculptures, bring the pieces to them, break them down on a new moon, smash stalactites in the caves, kill the ancient guardian, assemble a skeleton in the atrium, and give the shadow heart to the odd looking skeleton in order to access the science menu.

If someone doesn't get the idea of crafting items in the survival crafting game they are going to die in 7 minutes when the sun sets. They are not going to be able to do anything except pick grass for no reason because they don't understand that picking grass is for crafting, and then they are going to die. This theoretical person is too dumb to even get the health penalties in the first place.

[Crazy Gorilla]

11 hours ago, FreyaMaluk said:

I think giving this to Wilson would be more conducive to reaching more new people. Walter is pretty low in the line up and there is a reason why a lot newbies choose Wilson. When presented with a lot of choices people will tend to pick the first ones.

I think the meat effigy already kind of serves this purpose because wilson is an easy source of beard hairs. Its not his exclusive craft but its an advantage he has over other characters, especially if we are talking about new players.

[hyoton123]

14 hours ago, Cheggf said:

If someone doesn't get the idea of crafting items in the survival crafting game they are going to die in 7 minutes when the sun sets. They are not going to be able to do anything except pick grass for no reason because they don't understand that picking grass is for crafting, and then they are going to die. This theoretical person is too dumb to even get the health penalties in the first place.

 

On 6/7/2025 at 2:51 PM, Milordo said:

It's exactly the opposite. It is intuitive and players don't have trouble finding it. The description is clearier than water. New people are not stupid, in 2-3 hours they have all of this figure out.

Yes y'all, I am saying that based on actual experience with people, the booster shot is not well documented. This is a basic item that players shouldn't have to look hard for. Put it on the default crafting shortcut if you need to.

 

And you know I was holding off here, but since you're interested: I simply don't think the description is as clearier as it couldier be. Obviously there's SOME confusion new players are having about booster shots, or it wouldn't exist.

[AliceShiki]

Some time ago I was playing with some friends that were pretty new to the game (not like I was very experienced either), and when one of them died and lost max HP and asked what to do about it, we all decided to just pause the game and look it up on the wiki.

To be quite frank, none of us even considered looking up the health tab and trying to see if there was any specific option that could restore lost HP. And the crafting menu had already been reworked by then.

Would we have figured out if Booster Shot was the right item based on the description if we had actually looked for it? I dunno, but uhn... Yeah, I can see why some people feel like Booster Shot is not as intuitive as it could be. It's not really something you naturally stumble upon in the first place, and it's not like Telltale Heart that actually tells you very explicitly that it is a revival item.

[Cheggf]

39 minutes ago, hyoton123 said:

 

Yes y'all, I am saying that based on actual experience with people, the booster shot is not well documented. This is a basic item that players shouldn't have to look hard for. Put it on the default crafting shortcut if you need to.

 

And you know I was holding off here, but since you're interested: I simply don't think the description is as clearier as it couldier be. Obviously there's SOME confusion new players are having about booster shots, or it wouldn't exist.

Or what wouldn't exist? The description? Literally everything has a description lol

[Bleksmits]

When Im dying on pubs, mostly not turning attention to hp penalty just continuing enjoy fun. Even 1 soldier in battle field is a warrior, even 1 hp makes you kicking and well. Im sorry if people getting distracted by max hp penalty, tell your friend, its only beginning.

[FreyaMaluk]

1 hour ago, Bleksmits said:

When Im dying on pubs, mostly not turning attention to hp penalty just continuing enjoy fun. Even 1 soldier in battle field is a warrior, even 1 hp makes you kicking and well. Im sorry if people getting distracted by max hp penalty, tell your friend, its only beginning.

I think you have missed my point completely. I am not talking about experienced players, I am talking about BRAND NEW PLAYERS to the game. Particularly, people playing BLIND. I think it would be useful to make this feature more intuitive for new players so they can learn to be self sufficient and not camping at base waiting for rot and could still recover a bit better on their own. 

I think making this a better feature doesn't take away from the overall difficulty of the learning curve for new players. The game is hard enough when you begin you journey into DST from scratch. 

18 hours ago, Crazy Gorilla said:

I think the meat effigy already kind of serves this purpose because wilson is an easy source of beard hairs. Its not his exclusive craft but its an advantage he has over other characters, especially if we are talking about new players.

I can assure having hair doesn't really incentivize new players to build effigies either. They are bombarded with so many things at the beginning that they have way more pressing concerns to deal with. Besides, you need to craft a presti to craft it. Do you in all honesty think that a brand new player would from the get go understand they have to catch 4 bunnies, make a top hat and make boards to do that? There is a reason why Wilson is basically noob main. And they die... a lot....  

[Milordo]

 

4 hours ago, hyoton123 said:

 

Yes y'all, I am saying that based on actual experience with people, the booster shot is not well documented. This is a basic item that players shouldn't have to look hard for. Put it on the default crafting shortcut if you need to.

 

And you know I was holding off here, but since you're interested: I simply don't think the description is as clearier as it couldier be. Obviously there's SOME confusion new players are having about booster shots, or it wouldn't exist.

I'm too based on actual experience with people, it's the fourth time I wrote it here in this post. More than 50+. More than anyone here I have experience with this thing.

However I'll say it, putting it on the default crafting shortcut is something I didn't thought about and I like it.

3 hours ago, AliceShiki said:

Some time ago I was playing with some friends that were pretty new to the game (not like I was very experienced either), and when one of them died and lost max HP and asked what to do about it, we all decided to just pause the game and look it up on the wiki.

To be quite frank, none of us even considered looking up the health tab and trying to see if there was any specific option that could restore lost HP. And the crafting menu had already been reworked by then.

Would we have figured out if Booster Shot was the right item based on the description if we had actually looked for it? I dunno, but uhn... Yeah, I can see why some people feel like Booster Shot is not as intuitive as it could be. It's not really something you naturally stumble upon in the first place, and it's not like Telltale Heart that actually tells you very explicitly that it is a revival item.

This is a MEGA fallacy argument. Guys you could say about these things for ALLLL Don't Starve. Tooth traps, life giving amulets, the 4 science machines, fencing sword, all the plot farms, winter and summer clothing, ecc...

Literally your argument is making holes in the water when you talk even about Telltale Heart, an item that a portion of people can't found and can't use it for a long time before discovering it. 

In the end is Klei's fault for not writing and advising people in the game that you should play the game blind without any help and try to discover and experiment with it.

[FreyaMaluk]

4 hours ago, hyoton123 said:

 

Yes y'all, I am saying that based on actual experience with people, the booster shot is not well documented. This is a basic item that players shouldn't have to look hard for. Put it on the default crafting shortcut if you need to.

 

And you know I was holding off here, but since you're interested: I simply don't think the description is as clearier as it couldier be. Obviously there's SOME confusion new players are having about booster shots, or it wouldn't exist.

I completely agree. I think this is a great suggestion. Putting them in the default items in the crafting tab would be super useful. Maybe the heart and the booster shot right under it. Also I hope Klei adds more items to restore it and rework it. Maybe even giving brand new players one booster shot in their inventory might be a nice way to introduce them to this mechanic or giving them the items to craft it. 

Edited June 9, 2025 by FreyaMaluk

[Milordo]

30 minutes ago, FreyaMaluk said:

 Do you in all honesty think that a brand new player would from the get go understand they have to catch 4 bunnies, make a top hat and make boards to do that? There is a reason why Wilson is basically noob main. And they die... a lot....  

YES????? It happened and it exists??? Why are we addressing new people as stupids without the capacity and ability to learn and adapt themselves? 

Hair incentives building meat effigies because it's the only thing you can craft with it and one of the first things you encounter in the magic tab. 

New people getting confused and killed a lot in the first 2-3 hours is the custom in Don't Starve and we can't change that.

[Bleksmits]

18 minutes ago, FreyaMaluk said:

Maybe even giving brand new players one booster shot in their inventory might be a nice way to introduce them to this mechanic or giving them the items to craft it.

Set-piece skeletons with jabs could do the job.

[FreyaMaluk]

52 minutes ago, Milordo said:

YES????? It happened and it exists??? Why are we addressing new people as stupids without the capacity and ability to learn and adapt themselves? 

Hair incentives building meat effigies because it's the only thing you can craft with it and one of the first things you encounter in the magic tab. 

New people getting confused and killed a lot in the first 2-3 hours is the custom in Don't Starve and we can't change that.

People playing blindly? I am sure this is not the case. I am not saying new people are stupid. I am saying it would be useful to make this mechanic more intuitive and adding other items or other ingredients to restore it. That's all. 

I think adding it to the crafting table defaults like @hyoton123 mentioned would be a great step so the watch out for that.

And since we cannot change people dying a lot in noobland, wouldn't be useful to intro this mechanic a bit better to them which is where it makes the more sense to learn about it? The game won't be less uncompromising because of it. They will STILL die a lot. The only difference us that they will learn how to manage this mechanic better so they can keep on learning.

44 minutes ago, Bleksmits said:

Set-piece skeletons with jabs could do the job.

I like this idea but those a few set pieces in the world. I personally would prefer if this was a bit more frontally introduced to brand new players. 

Edited June 9, 2025 by FreyaMaluk

[Milordo]

11 minutes ago, FreyaMaluk said:

People playing blindly? I am sure this is not the case.

It absolutely is. Sorry, it is real. People do find meat effigies blind. All of them? No. But it's the same story for tell tale hearts, booster shots and more. Of which at this point tell tale hearts AND booster shots are easier to found and more intuitive.

For the rest I already said I agree with all.

[FreyaMaluk]

30 minutes ago, Milordo said:

It absolutely is. Sorry, it is real. People do find meat effigies blind. All of them? No. But it's the same story for tell tale hearts, booster shots and more. Of which at this point tell tale hearts AND booster shots are easier to found and more intuitive.

For the rest I already said I agree with all.

That was my precisely my point. A lot won't. Intro this when people need to learn it the most, which is at the beginning of the game, would be a great for ALL new players. Ik you disagree and that is fine. Moving on. 

Another idea I had was maybe adding RED CAPS as an alternative. I like the idea that they could both kill you and replace something rotten, cuz they kinda are, and also it could add more uses to red caps which are notorious for being underused. 

Edited June 9, 2025 by FreyaMaluk