Bought some furniture skins not realizing you needed a sawhorse to use them.

[finnrose]

I play on relaxed. I am a BAD fighter. Yes, this is a skill issue, but I've come to terms with the fact that I am an old lady and you cannot teach me new tricks. With that said, I don't go to the ruins. I have never been in 200 hours of play because I am scared. I can barely beat Deerclops when I have the boss scaling mod enabled. 
 

I wish the skins would let you know when you purchase them that you first need to go on a long side quest to find a blueprint before you can make them. I know hand-holding is not Klei's thing and they are not into tutorials ect, but having paid items locked behind end-game content without warning kind of stinks. I feel like I'm going to have to go into godmode just so I can build some furniture, though that won't even be possible on my Switch version. 
 

Just a little vent. Please refrain from telling me to "get good". I am a mom in my 40s, my reflexes suck, and I don't see me memorizing how to kite every boss in the game. I'm just bad at it and I've come to terms with that. 

[POOH_LY]

Sawhorse being locked behind pearl sucks a bit, I agree. I think those decorative furniture should be craftable from the get-go. I was disappointed when I fount out about it at first as well.

Not sure if this will help but you can get in the ruins during the calm phase, find the resting nightmare, and get out without having to fight anything. Miner hat or Moggles help a lot. (The latter might be a bit harder since you need a glow berry.)

[SilverSpoon]

I think it's fine and fair to make that furniture can be crafted by default and Pearl unlock "Bunch o' Boards", Moon Glass Saw Blade unlock "Bunch o' Stone".

[hyoton123]

Ruins are about finding them, a light source, having some way to go insane when you find a chair (for your blueprint), and knowing when not to hang around (spooky noises, vents opening, etc). Go on a beefalo and youll do great.

 

I am a staunch anti kiter unless i have to, and i dont even have the excuse of playing on the switch. I learned combat by facetanking to begin with, and most stuff in the game can be facetanked if you set up right. (deerclops for example becomes much easier with heat sources and holding attack) 

 

EDIT: it’s not really about gitting gud, but it’s a lot more intimidating than it seems, and i think it’s fun to figure out what you can and cannot do

Edited August 13, 2025 by hyoton123

[Well-met]

well you're in luck then, klei has been making the game easier and simpler non-stop for years now.

[finnrose]

6 minutes ago, hyoton123 said:

Ruins are about finding them, a light source, having some way to go insane when you find a chair (for your blueprint), and knowing when not to hang around (spooky noises, vents opening, etc). Go on a beefalo and youll do great.

 

I am a staunch anti kiter unless i have to, and i dont even have the excuse of playing on the switch. I learned combat by facetanking to begin with, and most stuff in the game can be facetanked if you set up right. (deerclops for example becomes much easier with heat sources and holding attack) 

 

EDIT: it’s not really about gitting gud, but it’s a lot more intimidating than it seems, and i think it’s fun to figure out what you can and cannot do

Yeah, I prefer to tank everything I can. If I can't tank it, I pretty much run away screaming. I hate using cheats, but I am definitely NOT one of those players that don't like being OP. I love taking down bosses without much effort... as long as  I'm not cheating. Unfortunately, even with log suits and a football helmet, I die to most things. Especially shadow creatures. Which is one of the reasons I'm very intimidated by this particular mission. 

[hyoton123]

3 minutes ago, finnrose said:

Unfortunately, even with log suits and a football helmet, I die to most things. Especially shadow creatures. Which is one of the reasons I'm very intimidated by this particular mission. 

Who do you use for characters?

For learning fighting i think the easiest way is to literally just hold attack and see how long things take to die. For example, a basic crawling horror (far shadow monster), if you each traded 6 hits using a tentacle spike (randomly naming a decent weapon), it does 120 damage, 24 of which goes through armor. You shouldnt die to one, but you might die to several if you dont heal, etc.

 

The beauty of the ruins is that you wont have to fight much as long as you stay in safe areas during the very specific time periods when it is dangerous. You can get the blueprint and get out fighting only the blueprint monster (which doesnt fight back).

[gaymime]

3 hours ago, finnrose said:

I play on relaxed. I am a BAD fighter. Yes, this is a skill issue, but I've come to terms with the fact that I am an old lady and you cannot teach me new tricks. With that said, I don't go to the ruins. I have never been in 200 hours of play because I am scared. I can barely beat Deerclops when I have the boss scaling mod enabled. 
 

I wish the skins would let you know when you purchase them that you first need to go on a long side quest to find a blueprint before you can make them. I know hand-holding is not Klei's thing and they are not into tutorials ect, but having paid items locked behind end-game content without warning kind of stinks. I feel like I'm going to have to go into godmode just so I can build some furniture, though that won't even be possible on my Switch version. 
 

Just a little vent. Please refrain from telling me to "get good". I am a mom in my 40s, my reflexes suck, and I don't see me memorizing how to kite every boss in the game. I'm just bad at it and I've come to terms with that. 

i am not sure if it helps but i have found it isnt impossible to find people on here who don't mind helping with later-game stuff ^^ i have a disability that greatly reduces my fine motor skills and so when it comes to this stuff i just invite people in to do the hard stuff. a couple gift-wraps of food, char-specific fuel and armour is generally enough

[Bellium]

The shop could use a minor overhaul as to seeing what items the skins you purchase effect. It's better than it was but a little more clarity could go a long way.

[Popian]

3 hours ago, finnrose said:

log suits

Make Marble Suits to tank, it reduces the damage by 4x. Wilson can craft them out of rocks, you can accumulate them from moles in a cave base, or growing around 4-6 (ymmv) per person could be enough for everyday use.

Try out different sources of healing like poultices, tents (can be prebuilt), cooked farm crops, jerky, etc. and find what is accessible for you.

5 hours ago, finnrose said:

I've come to terms with the fact that I am an old lady and you cannot teach me new tricks.

I'm sure you can, it may take some overpreparing to get comfortable enough to dip your toes in the water.

[lowercase skye]

It's okay, you don't actually need to be skilled in combat to get the sawhorse blueprint! While the inside of the ruins gets scary quick, you can think of the outer layers more like an ecosystem to be careful around, rather than waves of enemies to fight. All you need to do is prepare some simple sanity foods like cactus flesh, observe the muddy lichen-y outskirts enough to feel out the cycles it goes through, then run in during the calm blue phase, find a chair (there should basically always be one at the first "building" before you see any clockworks) and then lower your sanity enough to make the sitting shadow tangible juuust long enough to hit it and get the blueprint for the stone chair. After that, it's a simple and safe trip over to Pearl (tip: the first bottle you read will ALWAYS point directly to her island) to build the chair and get your sawhorse blueprint.

It sounds complex, and it'll definitely be a bit of a task to pull off the first couple times, so it's very understandable if it still sounds like too much trouble. But I say this as someone who hated combat in this game for the longest time: there are ways to experience the majority of its content without actually needing to engage in it much at all.

[Mike23Ua]

This is one of those types of things that Klei made too late game just for annoyance sake.

Meanwhile you have actual early game things that are far more game breaking than a few silly cosmetic chairs.

If you want my personal opinion: Klei needs to add chairs to Charlie’s Stage Play Setpiece, let us hammer those and get a stupid chair blueprint from it.

Having to rush the ruins and fight shadow creatures/DepthWorms/Cave Threats is kinda… Meh.

But in classic Klei logic I suppose the “Quest to get Chairs” is why people would venture down into these dangerous locations in the first place.

[Lovens]

43 minutes ago, lowercase skye said:

It's okay, you don't actually need to be skilled in combat to get the sawhorse blueprint! While the inside of the ruins gets scary quick, you can think of the outer layers more like an ecosystem to be careful around, rather than waves of enemies to fight. All you need to do is prepare some simple sanity foods like cactus flesh, observe the muddy lichen-y outskirts enough to feel out the cycles it goes through, then run in during the calm blue phase, find a chair (there should basically always be one at the first "building" before you see any clockworks) and then lower your sanity enough to make the sitting shadow tangible juuust long enough to hit it and get the blueprint for the stone chair. After that, it's a simple and safe trip over to Pearl (tip: the first bottle you read will ALWAYS point directly to her island) to build the chair and get your sawhorse blueprint.

It sounds complex, and it'll definitely be a bit of a task to pull off the first couple times, so it's very understandable if it still sounds like too much trouble. But I say this as someone who hated combat in this game for the longest time: there are ways to experience the majority of its content without actually needing to engage in it much at all.

I second this. You don't need to actually fight any enemies or bosses there, just kill one nightmare that doesn't even fight back. Being insane is scary but if you wear armor you will be fine. I recommend Wendy for cave exploration. She has lower sanity drain in the darkness, and Abigail can protect you from splumonkeys if you get caught in the wilds during the nightmare phase. Once you get the blueprint, learn it, raise your sanity and run back where you came from. To easily manipulate your sanity you can bring green caps and precraft a fire. Raw green caps can lower your sanity quickly for when you need go insane, and cooked will raise it back. 

You can try making a few practice runs where you make yourself a goal to find that chair blueprint within the first few days of the world. Get alchemy engine, hambat, lantern and a football helmet, a stack of carrots for food, some greencaps and lightbulbs, and backup armor materials. Find the muddy biome first (brown turf with lots of lightbulbs), explore its edges and head towards the lichen plants and pillars when you see them - that's the general direction of the ruins. With some practice you will start noticing patterns in map generation, and even if you die in those practice runs you won't lose much. Another good character recommendation would be Wortox if you have him unlocked. Just bring some souls with you (easy to get by killing butterflies and bees on the surface) and you can easily backtrack and speed up cave exploration. Once you go where you need you can just teleport past the wilds on your way back. 

I agree it's a bit unreasonable to put pretty purely decorational items behind this lengthy and unwelcoming quest. But I see why they made it this way - they likely wanted to add some challenge to that Pearl's task, and it fits thematically with the chairs already existing in the ruins. Also they already made the chair easier to get (the old way of getting this blueprint required venturing deeper into the ruins, clearing the bishops around the dangerous fully repaired station, and putting a whole bunch of different items in a specific order in the chest near it).