Now that Hostile Takeover part 2 has concluded, What are your thoughts?

[Exuante]

the title im curious about yalls thoughts on this update

personally i surprisingly dont have a lot to say but im happy they finally added the drying rack changes

and im a little scared for what the shadow updates gonna be like, i feel like the thing that charlie transformed into in the forgone short might be tenebrau taking over her?

Edited August 1, 2025 by Exuante

[Cassielu]

one of the best update.

It's a pity that Metheus seem just merely a binary villain of light and dark who wanted to release tenebrau to kill the other side.

Edited August 1, 2025 by Cassielu

[Szczuku]

Still hate what Klei has done to Pearl

[Well-met]

everything's cool except ruining pearl's island.

[Evelo]

Not a fan. The rifts aren't fully realized, too many bosses of which 100% are optional, the one survival addition of Lunar Hail has been removed and replaced so no new survival challenges. Brightshades are a survival addition I suppose so we did get that. Wish they were neutral to Wormwood because they are both Alter's Children Plants... The addition of skill trees outside of Wilson I still feel was a huge mistake, but Pandora's Box has already been opened. 

I have no hope for the other half (the shadow portion) to be much different. My optimism for the future of DST gets lower and lower with every update. I hope the next 'season' of Don't Starve will actually focus on survival instead of bosses and a 3rd set of character updates.

[POOH_LY]

I think overall changes are good, but can the Bright-Beaked Birds attack the player? I haven't seen any real game footage that show they can do so.

[lowercase skye]

1 hour ago, Evelo said:

too many bosses of which 100% are optional

Every single boss in the game is optional.

[Lovens]

I'm struggling to figure out which part of the update did more harm to the game I once loved. The first part forever destroyed one of the greatest landmarks of the Constant. The second one absolutely butchered one of my favourite characters, making her a griefer for simply using her unique hard earned weapon on brightshades, now she's a threat worse than Willow once was. Oh, and apparently your lureplant farms can now set your entire base on fire if a moonstorm happens over your base. Great work, Klei, you really outdone yourself this time. 

[reddocc]

I don't truly believe anybody likes pearl. now that you can have her near your base insead of the other corner of the world people somehow are more upset

[Pet Rock]

1 hour ago, Lovens said:

The second one absolutely butchered one of my favourite characters, making her a griefer for simply using her unique hard earned weapon on brightshades, now she's a threat worse than Willow once was.

I'm sure the elding spear still has applications outside of using the dash attack on the 2 plant based creatures that actually pose a threat. 

Not to mention just using a torch to grief is far more effective for griefing than getting volt goat horns to craft the elding spear and then finding a plant-based creature to use it on

Edited August 1, 2025 by Pet Rock

[reddocc]

11 minutes ago, Pet Rock said:

I'm sure the elding spear still has applications outside of using the dash attack on the 2 plant based creatures that actually pose a threat. 

Not to mention just using a torch to grief is far more effective for griefing than getting volt goat horns to craft the elding spear and then finding a plant-based creature to use it on

the elding spear is the ultimate weapon, speed boost, planar damage, dodge, it repairs itslef and now stun even bosses. this weapon is better than the alarming clock.

 

Edited August 1, 2025 by reddocc

[Pet Rock]

5 minutes ago, reddocc said:

the elding spear is the ultimate weapon, speed boost, planar damage, dodge, it repairs itslef and now stun even bosses. this weapon is better than the alarming clock.

I'm not sure if this is an argument for or against the elding spear burning plant-based creatures, but for me the fact that the elding spear is such a universal solution to everything is a negative since it disregards the previous design of dst where players are usually expected to utilize a variety of resources, incentivizing exploration and experimentation (granted, brightshade gear does this too to some extent, but that is a separate issue).

[Jakepeng99]

Lunar hail changes currently are a massive downgrade since they now have no threat which is confising

[Lovens]

1 hour ago, Pet Rock said:

I'm sure the elding spear still has applications outside of using the dash attack on the 2 plant based creatures that actually pose a threat. 

Not to mention just using a torch to grief is far more effective for griefing than getting volt goat horns to craft the elding spear and then finding a plant-based creature to use it on

Look at it from another angle. You work hard to obtain a powerful weapon, not just any but a character specific weapon only usable by this character and no one else. You spend a whopping 5 skill tree points to even unlock it in the first place (unlike Wanda or Walter who have their unique weapons as base kit). You have to progress through ~90% towards CC quest which is a lot of work simply so you could upgrade the weapon and achieve its full potential (unlike Walter who starts with his, and Wanda who can craft hers at Shadow Manipulator). As Wigfrid you can't even have this weapon until your first winter if you're playing solo, just because of how much you need to do in order to obtain it!

Previously all this hassle rewarded you with a universal weapon, a jack of all trades. It was very sustainable, powerful and fun to use on ALL mobs and bosses. It even has planar damage incorporated in it via additional skill on the skill tree, meaning it was intended for post-rift battles. And now one of the most common and most invasive regularly coming at you mobs cannot be fought with this weapon. Now you have to either go out of your way to carry a second weapon simply to fight brightshades (also: treeguards, lureplants, mushgnomes, sea weeds), and means to either repair or re-craft that second weapon when its durability runs out. The whole purpose of character specific unique weapons is that they are viable against ALL enemies in the game, that you don't ever need to carry another weapon ever again and can have your inventory slightly more free of clutter to craft or repair them with. Just imagine for a second that Wanda or Walter got their weapons nerfed so they can't use them on a certain enemy type and are forced to fight them with a different weapon, that wouldn't be fair or fun. 

Also correct me if I'm wrong but it's not just the dash that sets them on fire. The elding spear is an electric weapon, not just its dash attack. When I hit a volt goat with a regular elding spear attack, it gets charged. Which means the regular hits will set brightshades on fire as well (and burn the resources under them, the structures or trees near, and brightshade drops as well). And before you tell me fires can be put out - not only it would be obnoxious af to do it after every attack, but you'd have to go out of your way to carry a fire solution with you everywhere in all seasons, not just in summer, and waste an additional inventory slot on that. Not to mention how most fire solutions have either no AoE or a bad radius which requires you to basically stand on top of the flaming object or near it, making it not a viable strat against brightshades in general. And you can't cover your entire world with flingomatics either. 

[Edible Coal]

12 minutes ago, Lovens said:

Look at it from another angle. You work hard to obtain a powerful weapon, not just any but a character specific weapon only usable by this character and no one else. You spend a whopping 5 skill tree points to even unlock it in the first place (unlike Wanda or Walter who have their unique weapons as base kit). You have to progress through ~90% towards CC quest which is a lot of work simply so you could upgrade the weapon and achieve its full potential (unlike Walter who starts with his, and Wanda who can craft hers at Shadow Manipulator). As Wigfrid you can't even have this weapon until your first winter if you're playing solo, just because of how much you need to do in order to obtain it!

Previously all this hassle rewarded you with a universal weapon, a jack of all trades. It was very sustainable, powerful and fun to use on ALL mobs and bosses. It even has planar damage incorporated in it via additional skill on the skill tree, meaning it was intended for post-rift battles. And now one of the most common and most invasive regularly coming at you mobs cannot be fought with this weapon. Now you have to either go out of your way to carry a second weapon simply to fight brightshades (also: treeguards, lureplants, mushgnomes, sea weeds), and means to either repair or re-craft that second weapon when its durability runs out. The whole purpose of character specific unique weapons is that they are viable against ALL enemies in the game, that you don't ever need to carry another weapon ever again and can have your inventory slightly more free of clutter to craft or repair them with. Just imagine for a second that Wanda or Walter got their weapons nerfed so they can't use them on a certain enemy type and are forced to fight them with a different weapon, that wouldn't be fair or fun. 

Also correct me if I'm wrong but it's not just the dash that sets them on fire. The elding spear is an electric weapon, not just its dash attack. When I hit a volt goat with a regular elding spear attack, it gets charged. Which means the regular hits will set brightshades on fire as well (and burn the resources under them, the structures or trees near, and brightshade drops as well). And before you tell me fires can be put out - not only it would be obnoxious af to do it after every attack, but you'd have to go out of your way to carry a fire solution with you everywhere in all seasons, not just in summer, and waste an additional inventory slot on that. Not to mention how most fire solutions have either no AoE or a bad radius which requires you to basically stand on top of the flaming object or near it, making it not a viable strat against brightshades in general. And you can't cover your entire world with flingomatics either. 

i think only the dash does it

[Maxil20]

25 minutes ago, Lovens said:

Also correct me if I'm wrong but it's not just the dash that sets them on fire. The elding spear is an electric weapon, not just its dash attack. When I hit a volt goat with a regular elding spear attack, it gets charged. Which means the regular hits will set brightshades on fire as well (and burn the resources under them, the structures or trees near, and brightshade drops as well).

The base attack in normal conditions will not set the mob on fire, but when the mob is wet, it will proceed to burn them. Makes it a bit more lenient, but you will still struggle in spring (unless you use the umbralla, I keep forgetting about that for some reason, oops).

Edited August 1, 2025 by Maxil20
Thank you grem6

[Edible Coal]

also not to mention, just place a weapon next to your farming area , you dont really need to care about wild lure plants on fire so just light away

[grem6]

18 minutes ago, Lovens said:

Also correct me if I'm wrong but it's not just the dash that sets them on fire.

If they're dry, it's just the dash, but if they're wet, it's every attack. Although you can deploy and activate an umbralla near them to make them dry, as well as free up the rain coat/eyebrella slot for yourself.

[Pet Rock]

25 minutes ago, Lovens said:

Look at it from another angle. You work hard to obtain a powerful weapon, not just any but a character specific weapon only usable by this character and no one else. You spend a whopping 5 skill tree points to even unlock it in the first place (unlike Wanda or Walter who have their unique weapons as base kit). You have to progress through ~90% towards CC quest which is a lot of work simply so you could upgrade the weapon and achieve its full potential (unlike Walter who starts with his, and Wanda who can craft hers at Shadow Manipulator). As Wigfrid you can't even have this weapon until your first winter if you're playing solo, just because of how much you need to do in order to obtain it!

But this is comparing the time it takes to get Walter's base slingshot to Wigfrid's upgraded elden spear. It's not like Walter has all the ammo and gear he will ever need from the beginning. Besides, Walter has sanity loss on damage, so he is more reliant on his slingshot to make him viable as a character than Wigfrid is on the elden spear. Wanda's alarming clock is a better comparison as it can be very powerful (although it is harder to craft than the base elding spear), but this weapon also plays off of Wanda's innate low health and healing potential, turning her into a glass cannon. You can't compare character-specific weapons in isolation since they often play off of the other perks of characters. And Wigfrid has perks that benefit her in combat already, in stark contrast to the other 2 character mentioned here.

 

30 minutes ago, Lovens said:

The whole purpose of character specific unique weapons is that they are viable against ALL enemies in the game, that you don't ever need to carry another weapon ever again and can have your inventory slightly more free of clutter to craft or repair them with. Just imagine for a second that Wanda or Walter got their weapons nerfed so they can't use them on a certain enemy type and are forced to fight them with a different weapon, that wouldn't be fair or fun. 

Once again, I feel like this depends on the character. Bernie and Willow's lighter are not always useful in combat and Abigail gets destroyed by some bosses even after Wendy's skill tree, while Walter's slingshot and Wanda's alarming clock are pretty essential to their characters (but once again plays off of their base combat disadvantages). The viability of character-specific weapons vary greatly between characters, and that is because their purpose is to play into each characters' other perks.

 

29 minutes ago, Lovens said:

Also correct me if I'm wrong but it's not just the dash that sets them on fire. The elding spear is an electric weapon, not just its dash attack. When I hit a volt goat with a regular elding spear attack, it gets charged. Which means the regular hits will set brightshades on fire as well (and burn the resources under them, the structures or trees near, and brightshade drops as well). And before you tell me fires can be put out - not only it would be obnoxious af to do it after every attack, but you'd have to go out of your way to carry a fire solution with you everywhere in all seasons, not just in summer, and waste an additional inventory slot on that. Not to mention how most fire solutions have either no AoE or a bad radius which requires you to basically stand on top of the flaming object or near it, making it not a viable strat against brightshades in general. And you can't cover your entire world with flingomatics either. 

As Maxil20 said, the base attack only burns plant-based creatures when they are wet (I swear it was different when I tested it in the beta sorry). In my testing I also tried to fight brightshades during rain, and the fire isn't really an issue since it takes so long to smolder and burn that the brightshades will already be dead before anything actually is destroyed by fire. So without rain, the elding spear without the dash attack is perfectly viable against brightshades, and during rain both attacks can be used as long as the fires are extinguished after the battle is over. It is true that this requires a fire solution. But cases where you are fighting brightshades while it is raining and you are not at base where you would presumably have a fire solution at hand (I usually leave watering cans by my garden) are probably so niche that it doesn't take away from the elding spear or Wigfrid's character as a whole

[Mysterious box]

1 hour ago, Lovens said:

Look at it from another angle. You work hard to obtain a powerful weapon, not just any but a character specific weapon only usable by this character and no one else. You spend a whopping 5 skill tree points to even unlock it in the first place (unlike Wanda or Walter who have their unique weapons as base kit). You have to progress through ~90% towards CC quest which is a lot of work simply so you could upgrade the weapon and achieve its full potential (unlike Walter who starts with his, and Wanda who can craft hers at Shadow Manipulator). As Wigfrid you can't even have this weapon until your first winter if you're playing solo, just because of how much you need to do in order to obtain it!

Previously all this hassle rewarded you with a universal weapon, a jack of all trades. It was very sustainable, powerful and fun to use on ALL mobs and bosses. It even has planar damage incorporated in it via additional skill on the skill tree, meaning it was intended for post-rift battles. And now one of the most common and most invasive regularly coming at you mobs cannot be fought with this weapon. Now you have to either go out of your way to carry a second weapon simply to fight brightshades (also: treeguards, lureplants, mushgnomes, sea weeds), and means to either repair or re-craft that second weapon when its durability runs out. The whole purpose of character specific unique weapons is that they are viable against ALL enemies in the game, that you don't ever need to carry another weapon ever again and can have your inventory slightly more free of clutter to craft or repair them with. Just imagine for a second that Wanda or Walter got their weapons nerfed so they can't use them on a certain enemy type and are forced to fight them with a different weapon, that wouldn't be fair or fun. 

Also correct me if I'm wrong but it's not just the dash that sets them on fire. The elding spear is an electric weapon, not just its dash attack. When I hit a volt goat with a regular elding spear attack, it gets charged. Which means the regular hits will set brightshades on fire as well (and burn the resources under them, the structures or trees near, and brightshade drops as well). And before you tell me fires can be put out - not only it would be obnoxious af to do it after every attack, but you'd have to go out of your way to carry a fire solution with you everywhere in all seasons, not just in summer, and waste an additional inventory slot on that. Not to mention how most fire solutions have either no AoE or a bad radius which requires you to basically stand on top of the flaming object or near it, making it not a viable strat against brightshades in general. And you can't cover your entire world with flingomatics either. 

To be fair Wigfrid and Walter have a similar kind of progression Walter starts with the slingshot but Wigfrid also starts with the battle spear. You don't start with a fully upgraded slingshot nor do you have all the ammo types unlocked to reach the peak potential you have to overcome bosses and open the rifts. What I feel they should do is give a better shield option for post rift fights where the spear isn't the best option.

I won't speak much for Wanda as she's still pre skill tree but for now her weapon does fall off post rift.

As for the update I really enjoy it especially the electricity change as I actually enjoy stunning enemies with it but overall the other changes are pretty wonderful with my only gripe being how lunar hail ended up I feel like even if the debris doesn't come back it should bring some kind of threat rather than just being a random boon.

[Maxil20]

For a post in terms of the question, I still feel a bit mixed about the update overall.

Pearl has been talked a lot so I won’t tread on that, but my biggest gripe is how little the boss offers in exchange for killing it. They did thankfully remove the active determent of the inimical gestalt from enlightenment after scion is down, but it still spawning from the crown bothers me a lot in terms of how much of an active threat it is to yourself and farming builds to the point I actively run a mod to disable it (I personally wish there was just another item to induce their spawning). This isn’t accounting how it also still has the issue of having the visual/audio enlightenment filters, which does not feel good on an item you preferably want to wear most of the time. It’s unfortunate, since past those issues the crown is a really solid endgame item/glass cannon piece, and it’s unfortunate things like this weigh it down a lot. I’m still eh on the terramites, but I might try to run them in builds where they don't wear out to see how they go.

The hail changes are pretty neat. I think adding a threat similar to hail as a projectile based thing would be nice, but otherwise I really like the changed with the hail visually piling up on structures and the bright beaked bird being an interesting solution to farming brilliance.

The changes to the lunar items, particularly the glass axe and cutter being prototypable, was not something I expected at all but greatly appreciate them adding.

Tingle Fences are a neat alternative to sculpture walls. I don’t think one outclasses the other (which I do think is a good thing!), as sculptures feel much more consistent/have more options for decor while the fences are much quicker to setup and straightforward to use.

The shock changes are a neat concept, though I am very on the fence with it lighting plants and especially things like moongleams doing it.

The post Wagstaff changes are pretty neat. My only real gripe is how crafting spark arcs needs a restrained static. Everything else is pretty reasonable in terms of cost, especially remaking WARBOT/the static restrainers.

Triple drying racks are a neat QOL. I do like how they respect a lot of the world’s ambient effects, which can both be good or bad given the situation.

Edited August 1, 2025 by Maxil20
Typo/punctuation fixes

[Uedo]

To be frank - I think this is the worst update in a long time. Each individual element is kinda fine, but combined it just feels so off. It's just such a tired game now :/

[Evelo]

10 hours ago, lowercase skye said:

Every single boss in the game is optional.

Well partially, but not entirely. Deerclops, Bearger, Antlion, and Greater Depths Worm are more active in their approach where they go after the player indirectly by causing destruction. While they can be avoided, they still must be engaged with unless the player is okay with the consequences of ignoring them truly.

[This14Real]

Quite sad to see how out of touch things have gotten. The best thing out of this update was the rework of drying rack.

[Pumking7]

The TINGLE fences, drying rack slots and prototypable glass cutters and axes are great. Its always very enjoyable when Klei isn't afraid to directly buff or add fun items to spice up how you play the game (that don't require you to switch to a specific character to utilize). 

The electric buffs in general feel interesting? Like they are cool but don't really feel like they tackle electric weapons issues in general (which is the fact that are very weak unless in very specific situations). I guess buffing volt goat jelly more is cool though. (Also it feels interesting that electric weapons are barely used but every creature needed a stun state for the niche condition, maybe that's a bit of a negative outlook though). 

Lunar hail just feels a bit disappointing. While it was already a longer more boring version of earth quakes, which the shadow umbrella countered 100% of, now it doesn't even do anything. I thought we were going to get a more thorough version of the acid rain mechanic, ie a lot of creatures getting buffs from it. Now the rain just gives more moon glass which lunar resources are barely used in any recipes so I don't see a reason for this.

I'm surprised the WARBOT/Scion doesn't have at least one extra drop for the jewels at the end of the questline. I know bosses getting mediocre loot has been sorta constant since RoT, but not having more than one use for an endgame item besides buffing another item feels just like a let down. I remember when it was amazing when fuelweaver dropped three great items and reset the ruins on death. The two endgame lunar bosses instead drop a sorta ok headpiece initially then drop an upgrade to then actually make that item great.

I hope this doesn't sound petty but I also dislike the direction that the lunar mobs have gone in from the few that existed previously. The lunar hounds, pengulls and birds had a charming grotesque look to them, which might have been a little overkill. Now every lunar mob added has to have a neon blue color with shimmering crystals adorned around them. Now instead of seeing the moon as an actual threat creeping over the constant, it feels a little bit like the holidays when these mobs show up in this glistening colors.