too many of the characters just dont have a downside

[Alexx7]

downsides and weaknesses play a huge part in creating characters as different weaknesses and downsides change the way you play the game and can help characters not just be overpowered

but for dont starve together it seems that most characters just dont have impactful downsides at all, and besides a few exceptions it makes it so a lot of them play functionally identically

really the only characters i think have impactful downsides are like

wigfrid and wurt - only being able to eat one category of food is an amazing downside that affects both the survival and combat aspects of the game, (though considering most of the best crockpot dishes are meat i lowkey wish wigfrid would only eat meat from fires or raw but still great downside for early game)

warly - possibly the best downside, completely changes the way you play the game and makes the survival gameplay so much more fun and changes his combat since you cant just spam pierogis and have to learn more recipes

walter - losing a crazy amount of sanity on hit and having a .75 multiplier on his melee attacks makes it so youre pushed towards playing at a distance and on woby

wendy - same .75 multiplier making it so you have to focus on keeping abigail alive or else fights end up taking way longer 

wormwood - not being able to heal in combat means you have to use nontraditional ways to heal and gives use to all the random trash everywhere on the world after a while like rot ash and poop

winona - you eat rocks by the stack

but besides them i dont like any of the other characters really have that impactful of downsides and i think that really sucks

i think wickerbottom and wx have great downsides in theory, but they dont work in practice

for wickerbottom you can so quickly get food while playing her that it doesnt even matter that she cant eat spoiled food and not being able to sleep is fine since you can just grow green caps to get all your sanity back anyways, and as for wx, theres like 2 ways to get wet in the game and the eyebrella completely makes wetness a non issue getting rid of their main downside

as for the others they just dont have any, willows downside doesnt matter when thermal stones exist, the monster characters i feel dont aggro enough enemies i honestly think bees and beefalo should be aggressive to them, woodie and wolfgang just dont have any at all, maxwell and wanda having low hp doesnt matter when maxwell can lock enemies in place and wanda can stunlock enemies and has infinite healing

idk i just feel like klei should at some point in the future update some of the characters to have actual downsides that affect gameplay and to balance how kinda busted some of them are

heres like a few examples i thought of what these could be

wolfgang should take more damage and lose sanity the more he gets hit, hes a scaredy cat strongman so it fits him, also bring back the hunger drain while mighty, buff guys eat literally truck loads of food

woodie should have a black thumb and not be able to do things like farm or plant grass tufts and twigs, pushing him to a more nomadic playstyle relying on scavenging nature which would make his goose form more useful after exploring the whole map and make him play even better in coop, like a lumberjack, (also the goose should be able to collect grass twigs and berries) 

bring back willow becoming cold while insane and make it so using spells uses sanity as well, she can literally create fireballs now and bernie can become monstrous at higher sanity so it isnt that bad, just dont make it slow her down as much and make it so going near any fire or setting something on fire immediately pushes her to a higher temperature rather than have to stay still for a while and just watch the screen to warm up so it isnt just tedious

tldr: most characters in this game dont have significant downsides especially in the survival aspect of the game, so a lot of them end up playing the exact same way and that kinda blows

idk these are just my thoughts, what are yours and arguments for or against my thoughts? idk i like the game but man is this kinda just an issue thats been getting more and more prevalent for a while now

[Evelo]

While I agree with the majority of the post (not the suggestions, just how downsides truly affect gameplay in a positive way), the .75x damage multiplier for Wendy, Wes, and Walter really don't mean anything when a Beefalo exists. Hell most of the character downsides can be ignored while atop a beefalo. It is quite sad as you essentially just play as the beefalo instead of your character. I don't get why people love them so much unless they enjoy being an all powerful unstoppable killing machine. I find challenge fun so beefalo aren't for me.

Edited June 27, 2025 by Evelo

[GamePlayer42]

walter doesnt have any melee modifiers

[Johnny_Waffles]

I don't think Walter has a .75 dmg downside.

[Semind]

2 minutes ago, Evelo said:

I don't get why people love them so much unless they enjoy being an all powerful unstoppable killing machine.

That tends to be the case. Plus, bonus, you're not actually unstoppable. You still can't literally stand still and hold attack in most situations where having a beefalo makes a meaningful difference. You just have a really damn good safety net. So it injects some of the interactivity back into the game that literal godmode won't provide.

[Alexx7]

7 minutes ago, Evelo said:

While I agree with the majority of the post (not the suggestions, just how downsides truly affect gameplay in a positive way), the .75x damage multiplier for Wendy, Wes, and Walter really don't mean anything when a Beefalo exists. Hell most of the character downsides can be ignored while atop a beefalo. It is quite sad as you essentially just play as the beefalo instead of your character. I don't get why people love them so much unless they enjoy being an all powerful unstoppable killing machine. I find challenge fun so beefalo aren't for me.

to be completely honest, i think its fine that beefalo can counteract tnat downside, considering it takes like a little over 20 days and a lot of maintenance to have an ornery beefalo and since beefalo fall off once you get to the end game

5 minutes ago, Johnny_Waffles said:

I don't think Walter has a .75 dmg downside.

also oopsies idk why i thought he did but in that case i feel like he probably should

[SilverSpoon]

2 minutes ago, Evelo said:

While I agree with the majority of the post (not the suggestions, just how downsides truly affect gameplay in a positive way), the .75x damage multiplier for Wendy, Wes, and Walter really don't mean anything when a Beefalo exists. Hell most of the character downsides can be ignored while atop a beefalo. It is quite sad as you essentially just play as the beefalo instead of your character. I don't get why people love them so much unless they enjoy being an all powerful unstoppable killing machine. I find challenge fun so beefalo aren't for me.

Since most enemy after the Rift will kick you off the Beefalo, your actual DPS won't be that high than not Beefalo unless you're No-Hit.

[GamePlayer42]

yeah, beefalos are slowly getting phased out by rift mobs and other high dps items so i think its kiinda solved now, they should add some more attacks that knock you off beefalo for some pre rift fights and bosses

[Mysterious box]

1 hour ago, Alexx7 said:

wigfrid and wurt - only being able to eat one category of food is an amazing downside that affects both the survival and combat aspects of the game, (though considering most of the best crockpot dishes are meat i lowkey wish wigfrid would only eat meat from fires or raw but still great downside for early game)

Wigfrid's downside isn't real it's just an illusion her downside simply asks can you fight? Even outside of that she isn't restricted to meat as she can eat goodies as well and between meat and goodies you've covered the vast majority of viable foods even Wurt needed a special bonus hunger gain to make up for how bad on average the remaining food options are.

1 hour ago, Alexx7 said:

warly - possibly the best downside, completely changes the way you play the game and makes the survival gameplay so much more fun and changes his combat since you cant just spam pierogis and have to learn more recipes

Personally I think this downside is terrible as the game food isn't balanced to it so it just encourages you to cheese it since it feels so unsatisfying to try to use variety.

1 hour ago, Alexx7 said:

winona - you eat rocks by the stack

This is a cost rather than a downside.

[SilverSpoon]

40 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

Wigfrid's downside isn't real it's just an illusion her downside simply asks can you fight? Even outside of that she isn't restricted to meat as she can eat goodies as well and between meat and goodies you've covered the vast majority of viable foods even Wurt needed a special bonus hunger gain to make up for how bad on average the remaining food options are.

Her real downside is that she’s really not suited for sailing.
- Due to her low maximum sanity, that damn Wavy Jones shows up frequently and keeps wrecking the boat. It's a hard that she can't eat Dried Kelp Fronds for sanity.
- Due to her low maximum hunger, that doesn’t allow to stuff herself with food. Walter has a ranged weapon and can safely deal with ocean mobs.
- There are limited enemies she can effectively hit on ocean, and most of them either destroy the boat or turn you into a monkey.
- SOMEHOW, OCEAN MOBS AREN'T CONSIDERED "WET", SO THE ELDING SPEAR ISN'T EFFECTIVE ON THEM. WHY.

Edited June 27, 2025 by SilverSpoon

[Chewabacca]

38 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

Wigfrid's downside isn't real it's just an illusion her downside simply asks can you fight? Even outside of that she isn't restricted to meat as she can eat goodies as well and between meat and goodies you've covered the vast majority of viable foods even Wurt needed a special bonus hunger gain to make up for how bad on average the remaining food options are.

Going to have to disagree with this. Having a meat-only food restriction on top of only having 120 hunger hurts. Either she sticks close to base or she has to keep getting into fights for longer trips, when on any other character she could just pick some carrots and be fine. Sure, Wigfrid is perfectly fine getting into fights all the time, but it’s a layer of inconvenience that other characters don’t have to deal with. It does its job.

[Well-met]

downsides have left the building years ago, friend

[GimplyGoose]

I think meaningful downsides are a good thing overall, but I don't think a major effort should be applied in adjusting existing characters downsides.

I think in DST, the main thing downsides accomplish is the encouragement of different styles of play. Downsides aren't the only mechanic that does this, though. Character perks also do this. Personally, I think it feels better to have a perk that allows a new way to play rather than a downside that discourages/prevents an existing way to play. Sometimes the downside is necessary to really cement that new playstyle, but I don't think it is always necessary.

One other thing is that as player knowledge grows, some downsides become more or less impactful. It would probably be pretty difficult to balance character downsides for both experienced and inexperienced players.

Edited June 27, 2025 by GimplyGoose
Grammar

[Dwight34]

27 minutes ago, Chewabacca said:

Going to have to disagree with this. Having a meat-only food restriction on top of only having 120 hunger hurts. Either she sticks close to base or she has to keep getting into fights for longer trips, when on any other character she could just pick some carrots and be fine. Sure, Wigfrid is perfectly fine getting into fights all the time, but it’s a layer of inconvenience that other characters don’t have to deal with. It does its job.

This. People always consider a Wigfrid staying at base when talking about her "non-existent downside" when she has a much harder time feeding herself when going on expeditions than most other characters. She has low max hunger at only 120, raw meat sucks and you don't have a lighter to cook on the fly, and she can't pick any of the stuff other characters pick constantly to feed themselves. Getting meat may not be necessarily hard per say, but it takes a lot of time and requires you to carry around resources for multiple fires or tank your sanity for meager food gains.

Going from a Wigfrid who can only reach enough hunger to last ~1.6 days, to a Wurt with King who lasts 3.3 days and can pick stuff off the ground to feed herself, is night and day.

[Mysterious box]

57 minutes ago, SilverSpoon said:

Her real downside is that she’s really not suited for sailing.
- Due to her low maximum sanity, that damn Wavy Jones shows up frequently and keeps wrecking the boat. It's a hard that she can't eat Dried Kelp Fronds for sanity.

Webber has lower sanity with Willow having equal sanity to her and dried small jerky does just as well of you want to manage it with dried food.

57 minutes ago, SilverSpoon said:

Due to her low maximum hunger, that doesn’t allow to stuff herself with food.

This isn't relevant unless you carry absolutely no food on you.

57 minutes ago, SilverSpoon said:

Walter has a ranged weapon and can safely deal with ocean mobs.

What does he have to do with Wigfrid?

 

57 minutes ago, SilverSpoon said:

There are limited enemies she can effectively hit on ocean, and most of them either destroy the boat or turn you into a monkey.
- SOMEHOW, OCEAN MOBS AREN'T CONSIDERED "WET", SO THE ELDING SPEAR ISN'T EFFECTIVE ON THEM. WHY.

This applies to most characters this isn't Wigfrid exclusive.

 

47 minutes ago, Chewabacca said:

Going to have to disagree with this. Having a meat-only food restriction on top of only having 120 hunger hurts. Either she sticks close to base or she has to keep getting into fights for longer trips, when on any other character she could just pick some carrots and be fine. Sure, Wigfrid is perfectly fine getting into fights all the time, but it’s a layer of inconvenience that other characters don’t have to deal with. It does its job.

Do you just not use crockpots? Even then meat is the most filling food type even as pieces.

Edited June 27, 2025 by Mysterious box

[Mike23Ua]

To be honest, I think harsh crippling character downsides was a feature that was very “Solo DS” because in a Multiplayer game, a character like Wes who intentionally hits weaker than every other character in the game.. is just annoying to see someone playing as.

Even if they are GOOD at playing as him, he still does less damage and uses more weapon/tool durability faster.

I just bought the new TMNT Roguelike game Splintered Fate & despite being a Roguelike… none of the characters have “Downsides” because the game is a 4 player cooperative game.

TL:DR- Downsides drag down Multiplayer.

[Dwight34]

Just now, GimplyGoose said:

I think meaningful downsides are a good thing overall, but I don't think a major effort should be applied in adjusting existing characters downsides.

I think in DST, the main thing downsides accomplish is the encouragement of different styles of play. Downsides aren't the mechanic that does this, though. Character perks also do this. Personally, I think it feels better to have a perk that allows a new way to play rather than a downside that discourages/prevents an existing way to play. Sometimes the downside is necessary to really cement that new playstyle, but I don't think it is always necessary.

One other thing is that as player knowledge grows, some downsides become more or less impactful. It would probably be pretty difficult to balance character downsides for both experienced and inexperienced players.

The downside is also often simply the execution of the downside. "Woodie/Maxwell don't have a downside if you play very well" cool, but beginner and intermediate players will mess up in trying to execute their upsides and suffer punishment because of it. The upside itself being not as easy to use as just unleashing Bernie/Abigail can be an effective downside.

2 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

 uses more weapon/tool durability faster.

That one isn't true, Wes uses up tools at 75% the normal rate, so his tools last as long as anyone else's, he's just slower. For weapons I think you're right though.

[Radicaljoe]

I disagree with Warly wholeheartedly. The concept WAS to do as you said. Making a character that incentivises you to have a diverse food rotation. However, its way more resource efficient to just eat 2 meaty stews every ~3 days.  There's not a particularly high benefit to actually being diverse in food. However, the thing that really affects Warly is sanity/health. Health can be handled similarly to how Wormwood handles it by using poultice or healing salves. Sanity is harder, though, can't eat jerky or cooked cactus. I guess you can sleep in a tent, but that would require just more basic food (so like 2 meatballs because the repeat debuff isnt that insane.) But watching a tent bob up and down for 3 minutes isn't exactly fun gameplay, so I'll agree his sanity management is harder than most characters. 

The big issue I have with it is there's no way to mend his downside. Like, what fun is it when you can't progress through a world and make leaps of progress to make survival easier? from day 1 to day 10000 warly is stuck with the same old annoying hunger mechanic (with not that great of depth) and with no real way to minimize it. (technically, you could argue the cc crown/tam minimize the sanity downside, but that's able to be said for every character)

(insert the argument that Warly also benefits from his upsides the least here yadda yadda)

[Random Guy000]

3 hours ago, Alexx7 said:

walter - ...having a .75 multiplier on his melee attacks...

Huh? First time hearing about this

[Dwight34]

3 minutes ago, Random Guy000 said:

Huh? First time hearing about this

Because it's not true. Only Wendy and Wes.

[reddocc]

my thoughts is that this dude doesn't play all characters and only bases his opinions on vibes

[Random Guy000]

I think that the problem with most downsides in DST is that every character has a solution to their downside baked into their base kit. You never have to think about playing around it, because the game has already done all the thinking for you

You lose sanity when hit / have low health? Here's a ranged weapon! Problem solved

0.75x damage multiplier? Well that's no fun! Here's a ghost that makes you deal Wigfrid level damage instead!

And 2 characters literally having no downsides to begin with (Wolfgang Woodie)

It's not a problem if people enjoy them I guess, but they could definitly use some improvements

[Cruvimaster]

I understand that existing downsides work well for novice players. Downsides are not a problem for experienced players in a particular character they are experts. If Devs put a disproportionate disadvantage on a character, the effect will be for people to play with other characters. Reworks and Skill Trees are to prove that downsides only push players away from the characters.

[SilverSpoon]

Overall, this is my subjective opinion based on my experience with Wigfrid.

1 hour ago, Mysterious box said:

Willow has lower sanity and dried small jerky does just as well of you want to manage it with dried food.

Dried Kelp restores as much sanity as Morsel, but Kelp dries out 4 times faster. Anyway, if I rely on Dried Kelp for sanity, I only need one Drying Rack on my boat, but It can't when playing Wigfrid.

1 hour ago, Mysterious box said:

This isn't relevant unless you carry absolutely no food on you.

Fish spoils twice as fast as meat, so I has to look for food that much more often. That's where her low hunger limit comes to problem. I can also go fishing and put fish in your Tin Fishin' Bin, but if I do that while also managing her sanity it tend to become a hand to mouth.

1 hour ago, Mysterious box said:

What does he have to do with Wigfrid?

Walter's hunger limit is also only 110, but he can safety kill Cookie Cutters, Sea Weeds, and Gnarwails, which are hard to turn into food with Wigfrid to, so it's not too much of a problem.

1 hour ago, Mysterious box said:

This applies to most characters this isn't Wigfrid exclusive.

When I play Wigfrid, I rely on her combat healing to forced playstyle to make up for her downside, but this playstyle doesn't work on the ocean because there are no mobs to fight, and her low stats become a heavy burden.

2 hours ago, Chewabacca said:

Going to have to disagree with this. Having a meat-only food restriction on top of only having 120 hunger hurts. Either she sticks close to base or she has to keep getting into fights for longer trips, when on any other character she could just pick some carrots and be fine. Sure, Wigfrid is perfectly fine getting into fights all the time, but it’s a layer of inconvenience that other characters don’t have to deal with. It does its job.

1 hour ago, Dwight34 said:

This. People always consider a Wigfrid staying at base when talking about her "non-existent downside" when she has a much harder time feeding herself when going on expeditions than most other characters. She has low max hunger at only 120, raw meat sucks and you don't have a lighter to cook on the fly, and she can't pick any of the stuff other characters pick constantly to feed themselves. Getting meat may not be necessarily hard per say, but it takes a lot of time and requires you to carry around resources for multiple fires or tank your sanity for meager food gains.

Because I compensate for her weaknesses with a “forced playstyle,” I’ve not really considered her food issue a downside. When I play Wigfrid, eating raw meat or raw monster meat are viable option, and I cover health and sanity penalties by her combat healing.

Especially after got the Elding Spear, Wigfrid’s food problem will stop bothering me, if anything, Wigfrid becomes one of characters who are easy to maintain hunger:
- The Elding Spear consumes no durability during Dash attacks, even when it isn’t charged with Restrained Static; durability is only spent on regular attacks.
- The Dash attack can kill birds. This lets me slaughter like a psycho, birds, rabbits, butterflies(for cooking), and Krampus, yielding a huge stockpile of food.
- Shadow creatures are hardly an issue in the face of the Dash attack also even if they spawn mid-fight. a Crawling Horror restores 4 HP and 19 Sanity, while a Terrorbeak restores 10 HP and 43 Sanity, and help fill your Inspiration meter.

Edited June 27, 2025 by SilverSpoon

[Radicaljoe]

1 hour ago, Random Guy000 said:

And 2 characters literally having no downsides to begin with (Wolfgang Woodie)

Wolfgang's downside is the hunger drain i think, the buff/weak animations can also be counted I believe, I have taken damage/been annoyed by the animation locking me in place several times. 

Woodie's downside is most notably the moon, atleast until you defeat Celestial Champion and get the lunar skill. The tree guard chance I believe is also supposed to be a downside, but most players actually want tree guards so it's an upside/downside deal. But woodie was mediocre for so long after his rework I think it's okay for his downside to be mediocre, he suffered long enough already.