Is DST a little bloated? - A post by a Don't Starve Boomer

[SandvichSpy]

Hello everyone! I want to start this post by stating that this is not meant to be a hateful post towards Klei or it's wonderful developers. Don't Starve is a game that has brought me so much joy throughout all these years and I am forever grateful for that!

Now for the actual topic, I got into the game all the way back in 2013 shortly after the release of the Doorway to Adventure update for the original DS. My journey with this game has been a good one, I've sinked thousands of hours into both DS and DST, intensively followed the lore, I even remember how hype it was seeing all the DS characters meet each other in A New Reign. However, over the past few years I've found myself very disappointed with the direction DST is taking in both gameplay and story. Maybe I've just grown up and can't enjoys things the way I used to enjoy them but I still find myself coming back to singleplayer DS every now and then and having a blast! I think I can summarize my "complaints" into two simple topics:

1) The gameplay feels... bloated?
Despite being marketed as an "uncompromising wilderness survival game" every subsequent update seems to be pushing more towards a progression-driven type of gameplay where the goal is to slaughter raid boss after raid boss.  Reap What You Sow released almost five years ago and since then I don't think we've had another meaningful survival oriented update. I know there's only so far you can go with the original "survive four different seasons" concept but I'm sure there's some space for a husbrandy/hunting type of update in between these moon vs shadows update we've been getting. There's so much content stacked over the endgame part of gameplay that more casual players will never get to experience. There's also quite a few set pieces that seem to detract from the overall atmosphere of the game, just compare the Developer's Graveyard setpiece to the Balatro Jimbo booth, one adds a lot to the overall atmosphere while still being cheeky, and the other makes me scratch my head wondering why is Jimbo a permanent fixture of the Constant.
And as for the characters themselves, they've all been superpowered to the point where most of them no longer have a meaningful downside you need to work around, which is very fun on it's own right, but I still prefer the simplicity of DS where characters aren't as ridiculous in their strengths.

2) The atmosphere of the game is no longer what it used to be.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's only natural for things to evolve, but the original DS had so much personality and identity as this ominous and mysterious survival game. The world felt bleak, lifeless and dangerous and Maxwell's introductory lines perfectly set the tone for what comes ahead. Most of the story was figured out through theorizing, character quotes and supplementary material whereas any semblance of in-game story progression was only found in the appropriately-named Adventure Mode. I don't know how to put it into words but everything from the main interface UI changes, the lack of the iconic "Generating World" screen with the shadow hands building the world and the lack of a proper "Maxwell-like" greeting in DST makes the game feel a lot more... "sanitized" I've tried to get a friend onto the game a couple days ago and the first thing he sees upon loading into the world is the rambling of the Midsummer Cawnival bird and the Wandering Trader, these two friendly NPC's being his first impression of the world of Don't Starve is such a worse experience than Maxwell's iconic "Say pal, you don't look so good"
Art-wise, everything feels cleaner, all you have to do is compare the look of the original trailer against any short recently released by Klei. The perfect comparison between the original and new artstyle is the small glimpse of The Final Act during Wagstaff's "Projector" short. The contrast between the two is like night and day, with the classic style looking a lot more bleak and rough around the edges compared to the brighter, newer look of today. I also want to mention the disappearance of the old update posters which had this old-timey look to them that permeated the entirety of Don't Starve's identity. 

And as for the story itself, it seems the more Klei shows their hand, the less engaged I am with it. I still don't understand what was the point of the Forge and the Gorge story-wise even though I absolutely loved playing those events, but somehow we are now currently in the middle of this great war between the shadows and the moon and I can't help but feel that the story was way more interesting back in the day when things like the ancients and the shadow people were still shrouded in mystery. Nowadays, there's so much stuff going on everywhere, with Charlie, the shadows, the moon, the Forge & Gorge, the monkeys and Wagstaff hijacking the plot that I'm just a little tired. I can't help but feel that the game's initial story about a bunch of misfits tricked into a Faustian bargain that brought them to a mysterious new world has been stretched over a little too much.
Also I just want to mention how the Moon being introduced as this unfathomable god-like entity on par with the shadows that mutated mobs into nightmarish versions of themselves was so much cooler than white wispy ghosts, geometric rock golems and evil birds.

My final thoughts.
I don't really enjoy Don't Starve Together as much as I used to and that's ok, I don't expect Klei to change directions in order to satisfy people like me, nor do I need that. I still have singleplayer Don't Starve and it's DLC's in order to enjoy the type of gameplay I like. I just want to know if anyone else shares these kind of opinions besides the "I don't like Skill Trees", "I don't like the new crafting menu" types of complaints.
I hope this post isn't taken negatively as I really love Klei and Don't Starve with all my heart and I'll continue to support DST as much as I can! And I hope everyone who thoroughly enjoys the game's current direction keeps enjoying it till the very end!

/s Btw Klei, with all the new bosses we're getting I think it's finally time to add the Pelontrix as a shadow-alligned boss 😉 

[Hungry French]

Unfortunately, DST releases bosses from year to year that don't always look cool in a game where there are a lot of them. In my opinion, the bosses started going in the wrong direction after DS. Starting from the strange balance of hp and the design that makes bosses passive...

What were Deerclops, Old Ancient Guardian, Old Dragon Fly. Dangerous and dynamic bosses that give very small windows to attack. And what's in the DST? 
Celestial Champion who... It's just standing there... He stands and watches you beat him 10 times...
or bosses with stun mechanics...

And survival... It just gets simplified. Or by relaxing something or adding cool new options and recipes...

The atmosphere? It is difficult to talk about it with the current state of the caves and ruins...  Half of the old DS atmosphere was in world generation and lighting. The atmosphere was also indirectly complemented by Maxwell and the absence of pet taming and Beefalo. Only Chester could be your constant partner. And a strange fly, if you still took her flower. And now... you could have an army following you... And it's weird.

About the story... Where is DLC's characters lol...

[POOH_LY]

1) The gameplay feels... bloated?
I don't personally have this feeling since I started from DST not DS, but I totally get your point. Maybe the reason you're feeling this way is because the current ark "From Beyond" seems to really focus on this kind of theme (Terraria-like progression.) After this ark, it's possible that we might get to see other kinds of content.

2) The atmosphere of the game is no longer what it used to be.
I've said this in an older post, but I'm gonna say it here again. Yes, DST is totally different from the original game, from the vibe to the gameplay itself. That might be why they make a separate game. (Hamlet comes out after DST, but I still think it still captures the vibe of the original DS quite well.)
 

3 hours ago, SandvichSpy said:

And as for the story itself, it seems the more Klei shows their hand, the less engaged I am with it.

Totally agree with this, but on the other hand, I think it's also fun to see the world of DST evolve as the story progresses. (Ocean changes, new biomes appearing because of Wagstaff, etc.)

3 hours ago, SandvichSpy said:

And as for the characters themselves, they've all been superpowered to the point where most of them no longer have a meaningful downside you need to work around, which is very fun on it's own right, but I still prefer the simplicity of DS where characters aren't as ridiculous in their strengths.

I believe that part of the reason this is a thing could be because it allows players to reach the end game quicker so that they can experience end-game content. (I might be wrong.) And it gives newer/casual players more chance to fight raid bosses. Before all the reworks and updates, fighting Bequeen, Klaus, DF, etc. is quite out of the picture for newer/intermediate players. Now that the characters are stronger, there's more chance that they will get to experience those kinds of content. But I do agree that a lot of the characters seem to lack meaninful downsides.

3 hours ago, SandvichSpy said:

Btw Klei, with all the new bosses we're getting I think it's finally time to add the Pelontrix as a shadow-alligned boss

Please fill me in this myth, lol.

[lowercase skye]

3 hours ago, SandvichSpy said:

And as for the characters themselves, they've all been superpowered to the point where most of them no longer have a meaningful downside you need to work around

That was basically never a thing. The most meaningful downsides in DS were, like, a bit of damage in the rain, or slightly harsher penalties for stale food.

[Frashaw27]

There's a very clear reason for this, they've been constantly adding stuff for 10 years. If you think back to DSA, there was substantial content, but it was split between the 3 worlds, making it feel a lot more spacious. DST doesn't have that luxury. Sure, the developers can retrofit anything into the game but there is still only so much they can do to accommodate existing worlds, which would make people angry if they couldn't play on the world they've cultivated over the past couple of years with the new content. They also can't really make a unique map with both how jumbled up it is in terms of branches and how the server code is always struggling with 2 maps, much less anymore. Because of this, they only have a limited area to add stuff. I bet DSA would also feel bloated if Reign of Giants, Shipwreck, and Hamlet all were stacked on top of each other in the world from the offset. 

2 hours ago, SandvichSpy said:

And as for the characters themselves, they've all been superpowered to the point where most of them no longer have a meaningful downside you need to work around, which is very fun on it's own right, but I still prefer the simplicity of DS where characters aren't as ridiculous in their strengths.

I never really understood this argument tbh. While I'm not blind, playing the game with most of the insighted characters doesn't feel like they've gained a substantial power buff. Wilson isn't becoming godly with his beard snacks and turning Cutstone into Marble, Wolfgang can't use most of his kit before the endgame or on specific enemies (he's still strong but I feel like it's overblown a lot), Wendy remained relatively the same unless you prepare with the new potions and can 400 iq using the new commands, Wortox has way better mapping abilities and a dark sword esc weapon at the cost of needing to do a lot more maintenance to use these abilities more, etc. The only truly supremely powerful character imo is Maxwell, with the others mostly just having high potential once you start properly playing into their strengths, albeit some more then others. I'm not trying to dismiss the idea that the DST cast is stronger then the DSA cast, but I feel like most of the discussion hypes them up a lot more then they should be. This is alongside the fact that a lot more DST characters are more complex in design compared to somebody like Warbucks who was mostly "Gain money for Sanity Regen and don't eat raw foods". There is nuance in that they've become stronger but that said power isn't as cookie cutter to get to.

3 hours ago, SandvichSpy said:

Despite being marketed as an "uncompromising wilderness survival game" every subsequent update seems to be pushing more towards a progression-driven type of gameplay where the goal is to slaughter raid boss after raid boss.  Reap What You Sow released almost five years ago and since then I don't think we've had another meaningful survival oriented update. I know there's only so far you can go with the original "survive four different seasons" concept but I'm sure there's some space for a husbrandy/hunting type of update in between these moon vs shadows update we've been getting. There's so much content stacked over the endgame part of gameplay that more casual players will never get to experience.

It is quite ironic how before most of the Return of Them arc stuff, people were generally asking for things to do after reaching stuff like Fuelweaver, and now it has shifted to how the late game has gotten too much focus. Anyways, I feel that the reason why the survival aspects have mostly been left untouched is because it's actually really hard to implement meaningful changes, especially with the newfound interest of having next to little destruction. It just seems to me that Klei has been sort of stuck from implementing impactful changes because it mess with people's builds. I am sympathetic to people not wanting their hard work to go to waste, but at the same time, it does feel like changes that could be slightly destructive are also heavily mass panned until it's made basically obsolete. Like the pre-rework version of Lunar Hail essentially being surface earthquakes and the post-rework being as non threatening as possible except to my frames. This is not to mention how seasons like Spring also have limited things they can do with being entirely rain based. I would love to have my gameplay experience shaken up. I recently fought the great depths worms and it was invigorating to fight something I never did before, but I also don't think that's to possible with how the ideas are relatively low stake. Not to mention how adding stuff to the seasons might make it more difficult for people to get into the game. The survival elements are ones I always thought was easy to point out problems with, but never ideas or solutions.

2 hours ago, SandvichSpy said:

The contrast between the two is like night and day, with the classic style looking a lot more bleak and rough around the edges compared to the brighter, newer look of today. I also want to mention the disappearance of the old update posters which had this old-timey look to them that permeated the entirety of Don't Starve's identity. 

That's because the entire game is night and day between the two. It's hard to really immerse yourself in a dark and lonely atmosphere when you have your friend Alex making phalluses with spider eggs. And with that change, they shifted into making it feel like the world was more alive with things all over the place. Sure, the mid summer carnival is a bit awkward in hindsight, but the rest of it fits a lot more into the world. It's natural to think that just like the playable cast, people have managed to survive in the constant. The cleaner style of art could also be attributed with the idea that they are trying to tell an actual story. A messy artstyle is a lot more unique but is a lot difficult to maintain as you both get new people to do the art and have to do more story trailers. While the posters are indeed iconic, I'll also say that it would be a lot more difficult to make them with how the game updates grew in size. I always attributed the change in style and tone was because it was a different project that had it's own goals. A lot of things like the art shifted naturally out of response from how the game also changed from it's predecessor.

 

[cybers2001]

For the first time in 7 years, I’ve been craving a new DS DLC.

[SandvichSpy]

20 minutes ago, lowercase skye said:

That was basically never a thing. The most meaningful downsides in DS were, like, a bit of damage in the rain, or slightly harsher penalties for stale food.

Yeah, I don't know what I was on but while you're right that a lot of characters had negligible downsides like WX-78 rain damage and Wickerbottom's stale food penalty. The most meaningful downsides were Willow burning your entire base to the ground and Woodie's werebeaver being an actual curse rather than a tool. 

[POOH_LY]

12 minutes ago, Frashaw27 said:

Wendy remained relatively the same unless you prepare with the new potions and can 400 iq using the new commands

If you take their reworks into account, they're totally different (much stronger). I think that might be what the OP is talking about. And by "superpowered," they might mean something like dealing near Wolfgang level of DPS or having insane abilities in their kit. (Willow, Maxwell, etc.) Wilson is probably the only character where his "rework" isn't as impactful as others'.

2 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

For the first time in 7 years, I’ve been craving a new DS DLC.

I wish I had that feeling when Hamlet was in the beta again. Everything was so new. New biomes, mobs, secrets. Barely any guides. Figuring out what was going on with the community is the best gaming experience for me in any game.

[SandvichSpy]

30 minutes ago, POOH_LY said:

Please fill me in this myth, lol.

It was the Herobrine of Don't Starve. The original forum post is long gone but from what I remember someone got scared after supposedly seeing a mysterious monster in the game named "Pelontrix". It was obviously fake and I think it was just a transforming werepig behind a boulder but the rumor somehow gained a little bit of traction after one of the devs, Kevin mentioned that the Pelontrix should no longer be in the game. Most renditions of the Pelontrix either describe it as a black furry creature or as the Shadow Wilson that showed up in the original game's title screen from time to time.

[Maxil20]

I’m gonna start off my reply with a common misconception that a lot of people have: that DS and DST should be treated as the “same” in terms of aspects, when they absolutely, in no way, should be.

I’m going to assume given your status, you were not here during a forum thread that a dev responded with an insightful comment to (I would recommend reading it in full, its a good read), but the general gist is Don’t Starve Together, by just existing, would break several fundamental aspects of the original game, particularly the dark and lonely atmosphere. In addition, in a game with only 1 “world” compared to DS with the option of several different worlds, you need ways for players to remain engaged to a world long term, hence why they seem to focus on raid bosses and renewability of various content.

To me, I don’t really see anything inherently wrong with this. As you mentioned, DS is right around the corner, and it still holds up well! I just feel trying to compare the two for the same content isn’t exactly the greatest idea with how distinct both have become, especially in their gameplay loops.

I also feel its important to note that while they have been focusing on end game content, its mostly because the early game is, well, extremely stacked in terms of things to do, especially when compared to base DS/RoG. You could try exploring the world, rush the lunar island/ruins/moon quay, rush down a specific boss like nightmare werepig/dragonfly, do quests for Pearl, or work on making a massive garden as soon as possible. There is much, much more variety on how you can tackle the beginning stages of a map. Compare this to the pre FB loop, which was mostly mass killing Celestial champion for lights and weaver for ruins while expanding a base, and its why they leaned so heavily at the theme of this arc being things for endgame players to strive and achieve.

I can’t inherently say much on the story, as admittedly I am not too dragged by it. I play DS/T much more for the general gameplay, and couldn’t really care about the story otherwise on a day to day basis. The only exception is if they ever drop any ancient lore ever again, which I imagine they will do in 12 years : P

Lastly, in terms of characters, I feel like I’m going to do a hot take, but I feel the original cast of ~80% couldn’t possibly be any more boring. Most characters were Wilson with X “he does this thing better than Wilson!” and X “he does this thing worse than Wilson!”, and that was their whole playstyle. This worked in DS, because there was only one player, but it really didn’t work in DST, where I mostly saw most players play the 20% that did do things more dynamically. Before reworks and trees, the only character I would seriously want to play is Wicker for perks, and otherwise played Webber for funzies. Nowdays, there are like 7-8 different characters I would reasonably want to pick throughout various stages of the game. I get for some people its a turnoff, but in a multiplayer setting its very important for different players to encourage unique strats and methods to solve challenges, and I feel like it accomplishes that goal!

 

[Capybara007]

thank you for actually making a sensical and coherent complain to the new era of dont starve instead of "old good new bad" i agree with most of you points, DST really is a game i dont play for inmersion anymore , klei is gonna make WX78 a mecha in his their skill tree, something out of a hero shooter, and i will be wondering how does that affect the pigman farm economy

Edited August 13, 2025 by Capybara007

[Uedo]

Yes. That's all that needs to be said, it is bloated.

10 hours ago, POOH_LY said:

1) The gameplay feels... bloated?
I don't personally have this feeling since I started from DST not DS, but I totally get your point. Maybe the reason you're feeling this way is because the current ark "From Beyond" seems to really focus on this kind of theme (Terraria-like progression.) After this ark, it's possible that we might get to see other kinds of content.

2) The atmosphere of the game is no longer what it used to be.
I've said this in an older post, but I'm gonna say it here again. Yes, DST is totally different from the original game, from the vibe to the gameplay itself. That might be why they make a separate game. (Hamlet comes out after DST, but I still think it still captures the vibe of the original DS quite well.)
 

Totally agree with this, but on the other hand, I think it's also fun to see the world of DST evolve as the story progresses. (Ocean changes, new biomes appearing because of Wagstaff, etc.)

I believe that part of the reason this is a thing could be because it allows players to reach the end game quicker so that they can experience end-game content. (I might be wrong.) And it gives newer/casual players more chance to fight raid bosses. Before all the reworks and updates, fighting Bequeen, Klaus, DF, etc. is quite out of the picture for newer/intermediate players. Now that the characters are stronger, there's more chance that they will get to experience those kinds of content. But I do agree that a lot of the characters seem to lack meaninful downsides.

Please fill me in this myth, lol.

They didn't necessarily compare DS to DST, they stated they have played both and started with DS. DST did not used to be 'totally different from the original game' it was near identical, eventually it got new content. 

I would agree that early dev, mid dev and up to only a year or two ago, iterations of DST felt similiar, with each update pushing further from it. 

Modern DST is not the same game as earlier DST, in tone and motif and it's obvious.

[Hungry French]

10 hours ago, lowercase skye said:

По сути, такого никогда не было. Самыми значительными недостатками DS были, например, небольшой урон от дождя или чуть более суровые наказания за несвежую еду.

But there were no HUGE GIANT BUFFS.

[finnrose]

I think the great thing about this game is that almost all the mechanics are optional and you can choose to interact with it or not. That combined with world gen customization gives accommodation to a variety of play styles. 
 

I am a terrible fighter. And I mean terrible. I have 200 hours in the game and haven't touched any of the end game content and only went in the caves for the first time last week. I play on relaxed and like to focus on base building and farming. I am delighted by the huge crafting menu because it forces me out of my comfort zone when I need a rare ingredient, and that is usually the only time I seek out new bosses. Having such a variety and challenge-locking a lot of the ingredients keeps the game fresh. 
 

I'll be honest, the art style wasn't what drew me to this game. I was indifferent to it at the beginning, but have learned to appreciate it more over time. But I think that most of what takes away from that original feeling is optional or late game content. You can choose to not engage with it if you don't want to. I feel like a ton of players would get really bored if they were stuck with the basic DS vanilla mode.

[NSAiswatchingus]

This is a good conversation for the health of the game. Long rant short, I'm pretty sure most games like this start getting some bloat at this point on their lifespan. Anything that has a business model on keeping players engaged in the same game to buy the skin packs as they come out will eventually add so much "for fun" or filler content over the years, that without proper long term design philosphy or planning, it starts feeling bloated without enough of the "good" content in the balance. 

It feels like DST is more of a live service game getting random updates rather than a cohesively designed game with a clear path of new content/plot. 

That said, I'm part of the problem and still have enjoyed all the content that's come out, buy skin bundles I like, and have a longterm world I don't want ruined by new content. 

I think the only way out is a fresh new Don't Starve game from Klei that we all support the hell out of. I mean, how much longer can DST really carry on after the Shadow update? We HAVE to be at the end. 

[Well-met]

I'm a ANR player but I have no problem with any of these things nor with the artistic direction of the game.

Feeling overwhelmed could be just a reminder that you aren't preparing yourself or paying attention enough

[lowercase skye]

5 hours ago, Hungry French said:

But there were no HUGE GIANT BUFFS.

Wolfgang could kill a beefalo in 4 hits and Wigfrid could survive a hit of 1000 damage in her base state. WX-78 could run around with a constant speed boost, infinite light, and 400 health. Nothing has changed, the abilities are just more visually impressive now.

Edited August 13, 2025 by lowercase skye

[Jakepeng99]

19 hours ago, SandvichSpy said:

Hello everyone! I want to start this post by stating that this is not meant to be a hateful post towards Klei or it's wonderful developers. Don't Starve is a game that has brought me so much joy throughout all these years and I am forever grateful for that!

Now for the actual topic, I got into the game all the way back in 2013 shortly after the release of the Doorway to Adventure update for the original DS. My journey with this game has been a good one, I've sinked thousands of hours into both DS and DST, intensively followed the lore, I even remember how hype it was seeing all the DS characters meet each other in A New Reign. However, over the past few years I've found myself very disappointed with the direction DST is taking in both gameplay and story. Maybe I've just grown up and can't enjoys things the way I used to enjoy them but I still find myself coming back to singleplayer DS every now and then and having a blast! I think I can summarize my "complaints" into two simple topics:

1) The gameplay feels... bloated?
Despite being marketed as an "uncompromising wilderness survival game" every subsequent update seems to be pushing more towards a progression-driven type of gameplay where the goal is to slaughter raid boss after raid boss.  Reap What You Sow released almost five years ago and since then I don't think we've had another meaningful survival oriented update. I know there's only so far you can go with the original "survive four different seasons" concept but I'm sure there's some space for a husbrandy/hunting type of update in between these moon vs shadows update we've been getting. There's so much content stacked over the endgame part of gameplay that more casual players will never get to experience. There's also quite a few set pieces that seem to detract from the overall atmosphere of the game, just compare the Developer's Graveyard setpiece to the Balatro Jimbo booth, one adds a lot to the overall atmosphere while still being cheeky, and the other makes me scratch my head wondering why is Jimbo a permanent fixture of the Constant.
And as for the characters themselves, they've all been superpowered to the point where most of them no longer have a meaningful downside you need to work around, which is very fun on it's own right, but I still prefer the simplicity of DS where characters aren't as ridiculous in their strengths.

2) The atmosphere of the game is no longer what it used to be.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's only natural for things to evolve, but the original DS had so much personality and identity as this ominous and mysterious survival game. The world felt bleak, lifeless and dangerous and Maxwell's introductory lines perfectly set the tone for what comes ahead. Most of the story was figured out through theorizing, character quotes and supplementary material whereas any semblance of in-game story progression was only found in the appropriately-named Adventure Mode. I don't know how to put it into words but everything from the main interface UI changes, the lack of the iconic "Generating World" screen with the shadow hands building the world and the lack of a proper "Maxwell-like" greeting in DST makes the game feel a lot more... "sanitized" I've tried to get a friend onto the game a couple days ago and the first thing he sees upon loading into the world is the rambling of the Midsummer Cawnival bird and the Wandering Trader, these two friendly NPC's being his first impression of the world of Don't Starve is such a worse experience than Maxwell's iconic "Say pal, you don't look so good"
Art-wise, everything feels cleaner, all you have to do is compare the look of the original trailer against any short recently released by Klei. The perfect comparison between the original and new artstyle is the small glimpse of The Final Act during Wagstaff's "Projector" short. The contrast between the two is like night and day, with the classic style looking a lot more bleak and rough around the edges compared to the brighter, newer look of today. I also want to mention the disappearance of the old update posters which had this old-timey look to them that permeated the entirety of Don't Starve's identity. 

And as for the story itself, it seems the more Klei shows their hand, the less engaged I am with it. I still don't understand what was the point of the Forge and the Gorge story-wise even though I absolutely loved playing those events, but somehow we are now currently in the middle of this great war between the shadows and the moon and I can't help but feel that the story was way more interesting back in the day when things like the ancients and the shadow people were still shrouded in mystery. Nowadays, there's so much stuff going on everywhere, with Charlie, the shadows, the moon, the Forge & Gorge, the monkeys and Wagstaff hijacking the plot that I'm just a little tired. I can't help but feel that the game's initial story about a bunch of misfits tricked into a Faustian bargain that brought them to a mysterious new world has been stretched over a little too much.
Also I just want to mention how the Moon being introduced as this unfathomable god-like entity on par with the shadows that mutated mobs into nightmarish versions of themselves was so much cooler than white wispy ghosts, geometric rock golems and evil birds.

My final thoughts.
I don't really enjoy Don't Starve Together as much as I used to and that's ok, I don't expect Klei to change directions in order to satisfy people like me, nor do I need that. I still have singleplayer Don't Starve and it's DLC's in order to enjoy the type of gameplay I like. I just want to know if anyone else shares these kind of opinions besides the "I don't like Skill Trees", "I don't like the new crafting menu" types of complaints.
I hope this post isn't taken negatively as I really love Klei and Don't Starve with all my heart and I'll continue to support DST as much as I can! And I hope everyone who thoroughly enjoys the game's current direction keeps enjoying it till the very end!

/s Btw Klei, with all the new bosses we're getting I think it's finally time to add the Pelontrix as a shadow-alligned boss 😉 

PREACH PREACH I fully agree with your post and everything in it.

i never realised how much of a problem Crovus is in the games design, and the cawnavil in general. Winters feast and hallowed nights are so mysterious the way they work, things just happen.

[Mike23Ua]

I strongly feel like a lot of people are being biased to solo DS for Nostalgic purposes only… And if we’re looking for dark creepy grim tones, no where in the original Dont starve did I ever see literal Zombiefied Reanimated Dead Corpses. That’s very much exclusively a DST thing..

Also nowhere in solo DS did we get an animated short where Wagstaff straight up steals a camera projector leaving a man behind to be crushed to death, again that dark plot only came from DST.

So sure you can love DS for Nostalgic purposes.. but be damn honest about it too.

[GrapeVruit]

44 minutes ago, lowercase skye said:

Wolfgang could kill a beefalo in 4 hits and Wigfrid could survive a hit of 1000 damage in her base state. WX-78 could run around with a constant speed boost, infinite light, and 400 health. Nothing has changed, the abilities are just more visually impressive now.

I dunno about Wigfrid surviving 1000 damage. Doing some math, her battle helm paired with her innate DR reduces the damage to 200, the exact amount of health Wigfrid has.

Edit: NVM, I'm dumb, forgot to subtract damage after applying DR values.

Edited August 13, 2025 by GrapeVruit

[ssbb]

I think people get too hung up on the "uncompromising wilderness survival" portion of the game. Of course with the increasing difficulty in the bosses, as well as retaining/capturing the interest of older and newer players, we have to understand that the game will get stronger and stronger items. If it's not stronger, then there is little point in getting the new item.
If you want to feel a challenge, Wes is here, and will likely always be here. 

To go off your "atmosphere" critique, I see where you're coming from, but I really see it differently. As someone who's started playing OG Don't Starve around 2012 (purchased Dec 2012) it began to lose it's dark vibe that a lot of people look back at with nostalgia around the time Shipwrecked came out, and Hamlet shortly after that. Before that, it was somewhat barebones in terms of content. Once you learn how to survive all the seasons, manage food somewhat decently, and how to kill all the different mobs in the game, there wasn't much else to do. You can only clear out the ruins so many times to stockpile different thulecite gear until the gameplay loop wears off. After that, you make a big base and likely start all over once that's done.
So, bloated? Hmm, I think my perspective is that it's a lot more rich in content. Some people are amazing at fishing or amazing at farming. Others haven't touched these parts of the game and are totally laser-focused on boss killing. You can choose how you want to enjoy the game. Some people totally avoid rifts and others try to get rifts online before day 30.
You did mention that they could expand on animal husbandry. Volt Goats do feel somewhat incomplete still. They're just kind of there; maybe they get made into an automatic goat slaughter farm. Beefalo just constantly multiply. No one in their right mind would actually raise a Tallbird from egg to adulthood. (/lh)

Before, there was tons of criticism that the cast of characters were not very unique. (i.e. a bunch of reskinned Wilsons with maybe a small perk here or there) Now that there are a bunch of skill trees and interesting perks that many of the characters can utilize, now there is criticism that they may be too strong. Sure, for day-to-day survival, some of the perks that the skill trees provide may be super jacked, but let me tell you something: The grind for many of the late game items and day to day things that you need kind of gets old after a while. The fact that there are now many different tools to work around the tedium of day to day so that we can focus more on the creative portion and making a good base is super welcome. This doesn't even consider that OP stuff is fun, especially when it requires a bit of finesse and seeing how truly amazing players play the game like a piano (just two examples are Ameslarii [his mastery on bosses is unbelievable] and Walik [extraordinary speedrunning] on YouTube)

As for lore and UI, you're totally right on that. It's evolved completely, which I'm fine with. The Tim Burton style is somewhat dated anyway, and they've made their own unique style for this game.

[Echsrick]

the amount of bosse are bloated but i would not mind if we make caves better

[Popian]

Corvus could always be moved to one of the grassland or forest biomes.

[Pumking7]

On 8/13/2025 at 6:11 PM, lowercase skye said:

Wolfgang could kill a beefalo in 4 hits and Wigfrid could survive a hit of 1000 damage in her base state. WX-78 could run around with a constant speed boost, infinite light, and 400 health. Nothing has changed, the abilities are just more visually impressive now.

I feel like this is an over exaggeration of how good old characters upsides were. Wolfgang could kill a beefalo in 4 hits but you won't often do this unless you had a lot of food to spare, now he can keep a 2x damage multiplier up all the time. Surviving a 1,000 damage is impressive but her improved weapons and kit allow her to kill most things before she could even receive 1,000 damage. WX-78 "could" be the best character in the game, but without Wicker they were basically a Wilson with a bottomless pit for gears now they are completely self-reliant on their own circuits (this meant a lot more before celestial portal, as you were stuck as a character for the whole run).

Also its important to note how none of the DST cast is (unintentionally) weak anymore they definitely buffed everyone in the cast. Its incorrect to say that DSA characters were at the same power level as their reworked/skilltree counterparts as its clear the power level increased. I think its fine that the entire cast was buffed and made more powerful, most of them feel a lot more fluid after their reworks. (I just don't like when fun mechanics/powers are gatekept behind playing a certain character when they probably should be made available to the whole cast).

On 8/12/2025 at 10:49 PM, SandvichSpy said:

Nowadays, there's so much stuff going on everywhere, with Charlie, the shadows, the moon, the Forge & Gorge, the monkeys and Wagstaff hijacking the plot that I'm just a little tired. I can't help but feel that the game's initial story about a bunch of misfits tricked into a Faustian bargain that brought them to a mysterious new world has been stretched over a little too much.

Honestly despite this not being a story game the lunar sides presence and story has been pretty disappointing in my opinion. 

What does Wagstaff want with the moon? Power. That's literally the only point he wants to collect the lunar energy. Its not some greater story about how the moon's power corrupted him or it somehow showed him a prosperous world without shadows. Its literally only power despite in DSA Wagstaff is very keen to just start using nightmare fuel to try and bring it back to the regular world. It also feels odd that Wagstaff wants the moons power despite it barely being present in game. I mean we have about 2 items and like Crab king to show us the moon's power (pre-rift), when there are like a million pieces of shadow gear. There are absolutely no traces of the moons magic or influence on most things in the constant, so why should I or Wagstaff be so interested in trying to conceal its power. Also the questline feel so dragged out like it took us 3 years for Wagstaff to get the moon power, then the questline 3 years after consumes which barely feels imposing since Wagstaff was messing around too much. I mean this can't beat the feeling of beating fuelweaver who is strapped to the ground and cries out that we can't stop what's coming.

So what does the moon do on its own. It has the gestalts which don't really show us anything besides the fact they "talk to us". (The moon is alluded to talking to us, but for some reason only shadow weapons can talk despite the shadows usually being mentioned as watchers not intefering?)The gestalts dislike the shadows just because? I guess its supposed to be a turf war, but the moon just hid away all the game so I don't see why it should care about attacking shadows. The moon seems to like having friendly plants and protecting them which is actually pretty cool, especially with the brightshades acting as a defense. But with the undead mobs I feel like I'm less interested in. I feel like the original thought behind hounds and pengulls becoming hostile when kept alive by the moon's influence was a great contrast between how it treated plants. But now with how all of the new lunar mobs are controlled by gestalts I feel like they lost their autonomy. Its just a gestalt controlling the mob now, so it sorta feels like fighting a machine (which is also hostile to other rift gestalt mobs for some reason). I also don't really like the new designs of new lunar mobs, like how they look super upgraded despite being dead (also some minor things like bearger and varg losing their fur/teeth but keeping it with varg even growing larger teeth), how everything looks sorta the same now being super blue, but this is my personal preference so its just how I feel.

I'm sad about the lunar presence in DST when I actually really like what they are doing with Charlie and Metheus on the shadow side. I like the depth of the story they give to Charlie and how she is just a bigger fool being promised greatness in Metheus's game of returning to power when compared to the survivors (from stage play), it fleshes out Charlie while giving us a bit more backstory on her.

Edited August 15, 2025 by Pumking7
WX-78 Pronouns

[Uedo]

17 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

I strongly feel like a lot of people are being biased to solo DS for Nostalgic purposes only… And if we’re looking for dark creepy grim tones, no where in the original Dont starve did I ever see literal Zombiefied Reanimated Dead Corpses. That’s very much exclusively a DST thing..

Also nowhere in solo DS did we get an animated short where Wagstaff straight up steals a camera projector leaving a man behind to be crushed to death, again that dark plot only came from DST.

So sure you can love DS for Nostalgic purposes.. but be damn honest about it too.

You're not talking about what others are talking about, you're on about specific actions. People are discussing the artistic rendering, ambience and tone, not zombies or crime.

8 hours ago, Pumking7 said:

I feel like this is an over exaggeration of how good old characters upsides were. Wolfgang could kill a beefalo in 4 hits but you won't often do this unless you had a lot of food to spare, now he can keep a 2x damage multiplier up all the time. Surviving a 1,000 damage is impressive but her improved weapons and kit allow her to kill most things before she could even receive 1,000 damage. WX-78 "could" be the best character in the game, but without Wicker he was basically a Wilson with a bottomless pit for gears now he is completely self-reliant on his own circuits (this meant a lot more before celestial portal, as you were stuck as a character for the whole run).

Also its important to note how none of the DST cast is (unintentionally) weak anymore they definitely buffed everyone in the cast. Its incorrect to say that DSA characters were at the same power level as their reworked/skilltree counterparts as its clear the power level increased. I think its fine that the entire cast was buffed and made more powerful, most of them feel a lot more fluid after their reworks. (I just don't like when fun mechanics/powers are gatekept behind playing a certain character when they probably should be made available to the whole cast).

Honestly despite this not being a story game the lunar sides presence and story has been pretty disappointing in my opinion. 

What does Wagstaff want with the moon? Power. That's literally the only point he wants to collect the lunar energy. Its not some greater story about how the moon's power corrupted him or it somehow showed him a prosperous world without shadows. Its literally only power despite in DSA Wagstaff is very keen to just start using nightmare fuel to try and bring it back to the regular world. It also feels odd that Wagstaff wants the moons power despite it barely being present in game. I mean we have about 2 items and like Crab king to show us the moon's power (pre-rift), when there are like a million pieces of shadow gear. There are absolutely no traces of the moons magic or influence on most things in the constant, so why should I or Wagstaff be so interested in trying to conceal its power. Also the questline feel so dragged out like it took us 3 years for Wagstaff to get the moon power, then the questline 3 years after consumes which barely feels imposing since Wagstaff was messing around too much. I mean this can't beat the feeling of beating fuelweaver who is strapped to the ground and cries out that we can't stop what's coming.

So what does the moon do on its own. It has the gestalts which don't really show us anything besides the fact they "talk to us". (The moon is alluded to talking to us, but for some reason only shadow weapons can talk despite the shadows usually being mentioned as watchers not intefering?)The gestalts dislike the shadows just because? I guess its supposed to be a turf war, but the moon just hid away all the game so I don't see why it should care about attacking shadows. The moon seems to like having friendly plants and protecting them which is actually pretty cool, especially with the brightshades acting as a defense. But with the undead mobs I feel like I'm less interested in. I feel like the original thought behind hounds and pengulls becoming hostile when kept alive by the moon's influence was a great contrast between how it treated plants. But now with how all of the new lunar mobs are controlled by gestalts I feel like they lost their autonomy. Its just a gestalt controlling the mob now, so it sorta feels like fighting a machine (which is also hostile to other rift gestalt mobs for some reason). I also don't really like the new designs of new lunar mobs, like how they look super upgraded despite being dead (also some minor things like bearger and varg losing their fur/teeth but keeping it with varg even growing larger teeth), how everything looks sorta the same now being super blue, but this is my personal preference so its just how I feel.

I'm sad about the lunar presence in DST when I actually really like what they are doing with Charlie and Metheus on the shadow side. I like the depth of the story they give to Charlie and how she is just a bigger fool being promised greatness in Metheus's game of returning to power when compared to the survivors (from stage play), it fleshes out Charlie while giving us a bit more backstory on her.

Youuuuuuu've been paying attension, great post, this hits on pretty much my entire issue with the plot. It feels like the next plot beat is decided at each weekly Klei team meeting. 

'Anyone got any ideas for next patch guys?'