New survival aspects?

[AndroidSpice536]

Recently, I have been noticing a lot of people complaining about the new endgame content, and wishing for new survival based updates and gameplay changes. However, whenever Klei added things like this, such as boulders falling in caves after rifts, acid rain, lunar hail, etc. people just kept complaining saying they were more nuisances than increased difficulty. 
 

I have a genuine question, what do people actually want when they say “survival based content”? Because anything that destroys structures is off the table due to megabasing (see the many angry threads about the moongleams causing fires), anything that is boss related is off the table because there are “too many combat focussed updates”.

I just don’t really understand what the community wants, aside from everyone wanting Klei to stop updating entirely it seems. 

[POOH_LY]

I can't say for others, but as for me, I think it might be due to the fact that I don't see DST as a survival game anymore. (Some people might be the same, even if they don't know it.) My focus is mostly about combat (specifically bosses and stuff), so anything that makes this goal harder is just gonna be nuisances. (Monkeys stealing my items, freezing, acid rain, etc.)
And perhaps because of prior experiences? Like, you used to traverse caves easily, but now one day, acid raid is introduced making it harder/more annoying. I think it's the idea of taking things that they used to have away that makes the experience bad. Imagine if one day, they make it so that light bulbs are very limited / take a really long time to regrow, sure it'll make the game harder, but it'll also make the experience worse because you're used to them being easily available.

Personally, I don't have any problems with those kinds of things, though. But it's true that I find them annoying.

[Cruvimaster]

The people here have lost their sanity in The Constant. One minute they want survival, and the next they want a character or weapon to become even stronger to "make the survival game even easier."   

"Fight" is the first word in the game's description, but players complain about fights, whether bosses (Scion) or mobs (Wrathful Rabbit King). 

[Maxil20]

IDK about some aspects, but I thought acid rain fulfills its goal as a survival challenge pretty well: the effect doesn’t destroy mobs, it forces the player to come up with unique methods to counter it to feel fair, causes various world events that don’t feel unfair like rapid spoiling of food on the ground,and effects mobs in distinct ways (again, without destroying them). It also gives unique incentives such as the nitrate ponds, or exploiting mobs that get weaker/take more damage due to the rain’s effects. I think its a perfectly fine survival mechanic that doesn’t really have many issues, at least to me.

[Edible Coal]

they want more hound waves

[finnrose]

I have trouble understanding this as well. What is there to survival other than keep warm/cool and don't starve? Well it's fighting predators usually, but if you don't want more combat, it's really difficult. 

I have seen some mention more low-levels wildlife such as catcoons ect. More food variety. But to me, that's not really about "survival", but just wanting more variety of the same things we already have. 

[cybers2001]

I want new biomes and new world shards

Edited August 13, 2025 by cybers2001

[SilverSpoon]

I’d gladly welcome survival that isn't forced toward to player. For example, special new survival islands or biomes, where it’s scorching by day and freezing by night, where nicking a plant even a little gets you punished, or where standing in the light draws attacks reversing the usual rule, and if you survival there, you earn special rewards.

Ironically, modders are already doing this cleverly and successfully.

Edited August 13, 2025 by SilverSpoon

[Bellium]

4 hours ago, Cruvimaster said:

mobs (Wrathful Rabbit King). 

Ngl I've only ever seen this mob in the context getting snipped returning from the ruins after an earthquake. The way it's encountered could def use some work

[Mike23Ua]

New biomes, new seasons, new non-boss mobs with unique gameplay mechanics.

Hell as just one example out of many: the Hamlet DLC had Piko Squirrel, tiny, fast running, slightly annoying to catch… Squirrels, who’s ONE and only programming job was when you chop down a tree.. was to fall out of said tree and quickly snatch up the tree seeds that fall stash them in their mouth and run off.

Sounds small, but it made gathering food from trees and re-planting tree seeds slightly harder than just chop tree, reap rewards.

[hyoton123]

4 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

they want more hound waves

The children yearn for the hounds!

 

5 hours ago, AndroidSpice536 said:

I have a genuine question, what do people actually want when they say “survival based content”? 

I think the answer is they really want exploration (ie, optional risk, all reward). I personally think that the caves post rift updates did a great job of adding survival content (even (sigh) ickers) and i’d like to see more of that.

[Uedo]

5 hours ago, Cruvimaster said:

The people here have lost their sanity in The Constant. One minute they want survival, and the next they want a character or weapon to become even stronger to "make the survival game even easier."   

"Fight" is the first word in the game's description, but players complain about fights, whether bosses (Scion) or mobs (Wrathful Rabbit King). 

I think it's probably that people have multi-facetted opinions and generalising doesn't take their concerns into account. It's defo deeper than 'THEY SAY THEY WANT THIS, THEN THEY WANT THAT, WHAT WACKY PEOPLE'

[Hungry French]

6 hours ago, Cruvimaster said:

В The Constant люди здесь потеряли рассудок. В одну минуту они хотят выжить, а в следующую — чтобы персонаж или оружие стали ещё сильнее, чтобы «сделать игру на выживание ещё проще».  

«Сражение» — первое слово в описании игры, но игроки жалуются на сражения, будь то с боссами (Scion) или мобами (Wrathful Rabbit King).

The complaints about bosses are that they are bad.

[oregu]

On 8/13/2025 at 6:43 AM, AndroidSpice536 said:

What do people want when they say “survival-based content”?

I think they usually mean one of the following:

More content revolving around nature, world-building the Constant in ways that don't have to do with the storyline (probably leaning on the more harmless side of things). I think Moon Quay was one of the only examples of somewhat harmless creatures being added to typical gameplay since the lunar update (crustashines, except that's entirely reserved to ocean content). I feel like hostile creatures are pushed way more than harmless creatures in the past updates. Originally, Don't Starve had a balance of both non-hostile and hostile creatures to make the world feel more alive. If you want to be technical, the sitting nightmare creature is technically not hostile, but it's unmoveable and you have to be insane to see it, which makes it unsafe.

More biomes (however, that's hard to retrofit). The next best thing would be reworking world gen as mainland hasn't been altered since the DST Together preset was made (which was who knows how long ago)

More seasonal/environmental conditions that can be managed and make sense (not in a realistic sense, but in-universe sense. Frankly, I don't see lunar hail making sense unless it's late-winter or early-spring.). Lunar hail is like a constant cave earthquake, it's not fun to manage or challenging, per se, nor does it benefit the player in any way like the other weather conditions often do.

Granting the survivors more tools or methods to survive is probably the most straightforward answer. It is hard to imagine since we have been under the same system for survival for so long, but maybe we don't have to be completely original. Making weaker items more viable by adding new mechanics to them is a good start. Give the players more ways to control their world past using the world settings. I think Klei has done a good job making ocean content more enjoyable with small changes here and there, now they can do that with regular survival as well. (Unrelated but I think I speak for a lot of us when I say this, but give all players way to stop precipitation and not just bookreaders. It doesn't matter how expensive it is, it will be used.)

And lastly, this is kind of a bonus idea, but I think it makes sense. Give the players who enjoy fighting/more intense gameplay something past a boss or new enemy, maybe a gauntlet of sorts they can participate in to defeat various foes (kind of like the trial chambers in Minecraft, but better? doing something better than trial chambers is not hard tho tbh). I have kind of grown tired of the whole "new update, new boss" shtick, and I wonder if others have the same sentiment. Something like the gorge/forge, but in-game. It doesn't have to be as fleshed out as the gorge/forge obviously. Give players something to do that diverts from the typical gameplay loop that isn't event content, you know?

Edited August 14, 2025 by oregu

[Evelo]

I want base destruction, but I want them to be toggleable for megabasers. By default they are on. 
I am okay with bosses so long as they aren't mere prey, I want a reason to kill a boss (eg. Deerclops, Antlion, Bearger, Greater Depths Worm)
Acid Rain and Lunar Hail weren't good because they simply were just reskinned dangerous rain. I want something new or less trivial than "hold Umbrella"

For example I love that the Angry Rabbit is difficult to escape. It's awesome! I hate it, but I am glad it is there because I hate it. I am inconvenienced by it. This is a hostile world that should wants me dead. I shouldn't be allowed to skip merrily wherever I want without threat of my own survival. It's a survival game after all. People who complain about things being annoying or an inconvenience, imo, don't want a survival game, what they want, idk, but it isn't survival.

[Captain_Rage]

7 hours ago, Cruvimaster said:

The people here have lost their sanity in The Constant. One minute they want survival, and the next they want a character or weapon to become even stronger to "make the survival game even easier."   

"Fight" is the first word in the game's description, but players complain about fights, whether bosses (Scion) or mobs (Wrathful Rabbit King). 

Yeah. When a boss without remarkable loot is added:

"OMG WoRthLeSS boss, I will nEVER EVER FIGHT IT EVER BECAUSE IT IS POINTLESS"

When a boss with remarkable loot is added:

"OMG STOP GATEKEEPING CONTENT Klei YOU CAN*t expect everyONE to be able to defeat it ELITISM AND I DON't HAVE TIME TO PLAY I JUST WANT THE LOOT"

 

It's basically how it goes these days, yes. 

[Hungry French]

2 minutes ago, Captain_Rage said:

Да. Когда добавляется босс без примечательной добычи:

«Боже мой, никчёмный босс, я НИКОГДА не буду с этим бороться, потому что это бессмысленно»

Когда появляется босс с ценной добычей:

«О боже, прекрати прятать контент. Клей, ты не можешь ожидать, что каждый сможет победить его. Это элитизм, а у меня нет времени играть, я просто хочу получить добычу».

 

В общем-то, в наши дни так и происходит, да.

Friends or mods. Klei say no for solo

[Cuernito.]

This is still a hard survival game for all the new players, if you want to made it to end game or just kill the optional bosses like klaus or df you have to understand how to survive all seasons easily, hound waves, etc first. And about the people that complain well it is like this in any game, there's always people that dont enjoy the game anymore usually people with more than 4k  hours. They need to take a break to miss the game isntead of complaining about everything.

[SilverSpoon]

If people are having more fun gatekeeping or inquisitio than playing the game, the game might isn't in a great place.

You’re not an ambassador, a developer, or any official capacity at Klei, so please don’t gatekeep or drive customers away from game on just only your own initiative.

Edited August 13, 2025 by SilverSpoon

[Queron81]

58 minutes ago, oregu said:

More biomes (however, that's hard to retrofit).

New biomes for the mainland could always retrofit as islands on the ocean.

[oregu]

7 minutes ago, Queron81 said:

New biomes for the mainland could always retrofit as islands on the ocean.

That does make sense, I think. It could be generated on mainland in a fresh world but added into the ocean on older worlds.

[Well-met]

you're very much correct, the contradictions of the DS playerbase are endless, and they're only getting more and more bolstered because klei 100% designs around those complaints.

[Mike23Ua]

41 minutes ago, Well-met said:

you're very much correct, the contradictions of the DS playerbase are endless, and they're only getting more and more bolstered because klei 100% designs around those complaints.

That’s not even remotely true in the slightest bit, Klei just for whatever reason chooses to absolutely waste interesting new gameplay mechanics on new bosses or boring small set pieces instead of making some actual decent sized biomes out of them.

One such example is FrostJaw Shark, his fight takes place on a slippery Icey Surface where if the player is not careful they’ll slide about uncontrollably.

This type of gameplay may be new to the Dont starve franchise and perhaps maybe even to the DS Dev Teams, but it’s been in gaming for as long as I can recall. Just the simple concept of slippery ice can have fun dynamics added to the game that was not there before…

Such games that display this excellently are Carto, & Block Quest Maker, where just maneuvering your character or objects in the world can become a puzzle you need to solve what’s going to slid across the ice and land where.

Now Imagine either a large set of biomes always frozen in ice (think an island out at sea the same size as the current mainland) OR imagine Harsher Winters where the surface can ice over like that.

Theres a lot Klei can do with the game besides yet another end game boss only 15% of their players will ever actually reach.

[ChintzyGnat]

9 hours ago, AndroidSpice536 said:

Recently, I have been noticing a lot of people complaining about the new endgame content, and wishing for new survival based updates and gameplay changes. However, whenever Klei added things like this, such as boulders falling in caves after rifts, acid rain, lunar hail, etc. people just kept complaining saying they were more nuisances than increased difficulty. 
 

I have a genuine question, what do people actually want when they say “survival based content”? Because anything that destroys structures is off the table due to megabasing (see the many angry threads about the moongleams causing fires), anything that is boss related is off the table because there are “too many combat focussed updates”.

I just don’t really understand what the community wants, aside from everyone wanting Klei to stop updating entirely it seems. 

Once you know how to tackle hunger and the seasons, I dont think any survival added challenge will ever make a veteran struggle. Hence why it inconveniences them.

More hound waves doesn't make the game harder it just means the player has to drop everything and deal with it instead of fighting the boss they want or decorating their base.

Boulders where a huge issue as they added virtually no challenge and simply broke a structure you now have to replace.

Same with hail being intended to damage mobs. I dont want to get new slurpers just because the hailstorm happened. The only difficulty that can be added really is the bosses.

Some people just don't like that content which is fine, but you can't get more survival mechanics imo.

[Popian]

Survival is about overcoming restrictions with limited resources.

The current mainland is the greatest offender to the survival aspect, giving too much freedom and low effort resource acquisition. The ocean actually provided a good survival experience, except adjacent and compared to the mainland it's as if you are taking something away.

There are some good island and archipelago mods that bring back that impact to your decisions, but bringing something like that to vanilla treads into dangerous FOMO territory. Thematically it could be a part of progression where you flip a reversible switch to move everyone to a V2 world with challenges that scale better, though that would be a big undertaking.