A Positive Rant - I Disagree With The Current Discourse Around DST

[HopelessBot]

15 minutes ago, Evelo said:

I am guessing around 20-30% of the total player numbers are bots just idling in solo worlds

You're right. there definitely are these kinds of bots, but 20-30% is a bit too much it'd be more like 5-10%.

I'd even argue if these bots were to dissappear we wouldn't even notice the player count drop.

[cybers2001]

Just look at the activity on a smaller timeframe. There’s no reason to afk farm drops for longer than one day per week when the cooldown resets (which, is, what? Tuesdays? Wednesdays?). If a lot of players only afk farm, then the biggest spike would be on those days, then flatline the rest of the week.

[Mike23Ua]

I can say that I have purchased copies of DST for at least over 30 people trying to find friends who I could “Together” in DST with, and out of those 30 only about maybe 3 of them still play the game. In Addition to this: I have Also tried joining random lobbies of other players who are hosting DST worlds, because I thought to myself: “Okay maybe the people I buy the game for just aren’t the type of people who would be interested in this sort of game?” So I then tried the next obvious choice: Finding people who have already bought the game and are playing it.

The results of that: A lot of these players turn out to be noobs who buy the game because it has cutesy graphics & fun character skins, but these players usually drastically drop out of the game as soon as Winter starts & they start freezing to Death, most likely starting a new world before day 18, or when they learn how much the game demands of them: Quitting the game altogether.

That last part goes double true when these players learn how many real world hours they will have to invest into playing the same gameplay loop or all the highly obscure tasks they’ll need to do until something new, different & exciting starts happening within the game. 

Which would not ever have been the case: If Klei would have designed DST like the Shipwrecked DLC where the player as early as Day 1- Can build a bamboo raft and set sail to new islands with their own unique mobs and atmosphere.

klei even added grass rafts and the freaking fully built Year of Dragon Boat Rafts into DST- But the ocean, and the islands you can find out there to explore are still highly empty and boring..

Personally: instead of needing to wait until day 70 or kill 6 different bosses before something “new” starts happening in the game, I’d much rather had just gathered my friends (or temporary acquaintances) hopped on a boat together and I don’t know: Sailed off to a Magma Biome with “Forge” Themed enemy mobs or something inhabiting it..?

Simple: fast, we can go there without investing several real world hours of our time until the game changes seasons or we complete X,Y,Z tasks first. 

[Hungry French]

On 27.08.2025 at 21:33, Uedo said:

2. Все, по большей части, понимают, что DST — это нечто особенное. Часто жалуются на то, что направление DST не очень удачное. Забудьте о DS. Большинство людей не имеют в виду это, а если и имеют, то часто просто говорят о тоне или конкретной механике — это чисто дизайнерское решение, могут быть верны оба утверждения, да, это может быть осознанный выбор в пользу отказа от эстетики, но никто не говорил, что это должно нравиться всем — некоторым не нравится. Я не понимаю, какая польза в том, чтобы говорить: «Но это же что-то своё, это не DS». Ладно? Те, кто всё ещё недоволен, недовольны? Да. Не думаю, что их сильно волнуют эти чувства.

It's hard not to remember the DS when at least 33% of the DST content was stolen from the DS.

Moreover, for many years, DST had nothing but the DLC A New Reign.

5 hours ago, oregu said:

Руины — это совсем не то же самое, что боссы. Конечно, и там, и там игрок получает награду за прохождение испытания, но способ получения награды совершенно разный.

Другими словами, это всё равно что сказать, что люди, которым нравятся игры в жанре dungeon-crawler, и те, кому нравятся игры в жанре Souls, — это одно и то же. Нет никакой гарантии, что им понравится что-то одно, если им нравится другое. Я больше люблю руины, чем победу над боссами. Единственная причина, по которой я сражаюсь с Анти-Гигантом, если мне нужно пройти руины, — это то, что в нём слишком много ценных материалов, иначе я бы, например, не стал с ним сражаться.

Ruins appeared at a time when bad boss fights were not the main feature of the original game. 
DST can't even add layer 3 of the world. Only the bad bosses in every update...

[lowercase skye]

5 hours ago, oregu said:

In other words, that''s like saying people who like playing dungeon-crawler games and those who like Soulslike games are one in the same. It's not guaranteed they will like one or the other if they enjoy one.

I see now that my wording made it sound as if I was saying that people who like the ruins should automatically like bosses, my bad. All that I meant was that bosses, like the ruins, are a survival challenge, and pointed out the similar elements that connect them. I understand personally not enjoying bosses, but to put them in their own category of things distinct from "new survival content" is what I was taking issue with, and I used the ruins as an example of something people should totally consider the same category but don't seem to.

Edited August 28, 2025 by lowercase skye

[Uedo]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

I can say that I have purchased copies of DST for at least over 30 people trying to find friends who I could “Together” in DST with

This the problem probably though, you shouldn't force people to like the same thing you do. Also, don't waste your money on 30 people for a game they won't play, that sucks :/

[Mike23Ua]

32 minutes ago, lowercase skye said:

I see now that my wording made it sound as if I was saying that people who like the ruins should automatically like bosses, my bad. All that I meant was that bosses, like the ruins, are a survival challenge, and pointed out the similar elements that connect them. I understand personally not enjoying bosses, but to put them in their own category of things distinct from "new survival content" is what I was taking issue with, and I used the ruins as an example of something people should totally consider the same category but don't seem to.

They aren’t in the same category though? I mean there are several bosses I’ve personally never fought, I check the Wiki: I look at what fighting them offers me, I watch Twitch Streams of how annoying the fight is going to be- If the reward isn’t worth it…. That becomes an immediate SKIP for me. If the fight is too complex, obscure or hard: Also an immediate SKIP.

I need people to understand that I play with settings tuned like Solo DS- Die at all and the world is instantly deleted, no rollbacks, no retries.. it’s GG Game Over.

Now I need you to ask yourself why would I EVER go fight Crab King or any other boss that I may potentially die fighting… if the reward for doing so is not worth the risk of losing my entire world over?

I do not find optionally taking a hammer to Bee Queens hive to be a Survival Challenge, that is something I Opt into doing knowing the Risk vs Reward of doing so.

but when say for example: Gigantic Worm Boss of the Caves spawns, while I’m down in caves trying to gather lightbulbs for lanterns that’s something I either need to Run away from, or If my base is in danger of being Destroyed: I am forced to take a stand & fight..

Ive never fought King Shark, I have no need for the Shoe Portal it offers, now maybe if fighting it turned it into an Ally I could summon to help fight other bosses… that would be cool, but as it stands right now: I’m not risking entire world deletion for Medicore rewards.

Now then: If I’m out and about in the game world (Surface, Ocean, Caves) and mobs spawn in or weather hazards start happening: That is different.

Even Deadly Brightshades can pose a Survival Based challenge as those (unless exploited with the many ways of forcing them to spawn near dragonfly lava ponds) will spawn throughout the world and infest my resources, kill out beefalo herds, etc…

But I assure you: opting NOT to summon the Scrappy Werepig or Unchain the Nightmare Werepig will not ever have any negative consequences on my world, or ever pose a survival challenge: Unless I Opt myself into their Obscure methods of summoning and picking a fight with them.

[lowercase skye]

30 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

They aren’t in the same category though?

 They are a challenge you must prepare for by exerting far more resources than you would need to survive normally, and give a reward which helps with your further survival. Everything from the rest of your reply is entirely unrelated and subjective. Something does not stop becoming a survival challenge just because you personally do not think the rewards are worth it.

I would like to highlight one other thing from your reply, though...

30 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

I need people to understand that I play with settings tuned like Solo DS- Die at all and the world is instantly deleted, no rollbacks, no retries.. it’s GG Game Over.

This is an extra self-imposed challenge you opted into that the game as a whole is clearly not designed around. You are unable to use any of the revival methods that you're intended to have access to, and do not get to retry against bosses or recover from dangerous scenarios in the way the game is designed for. If I were to play Super Mario World with a restriction that I had to smash my Nintendo with a hammer if I ever die, it would be incredibly unreasonable for me to argue about the game and its design/balance online whenever all I do is play the first two levels on repeat, and refuse to leave my comfort zone because I would have to destroy my Nintendo with a hammer if I die, something that nobody is actually making me do.

Edited August 28, 2025 by lowercase skye

[Hungry French]

6 hours ago, lowercase skye said:

 Это испытание, к которому вы должны подготовиться, затратив гораздо больше ресурсов, чем потребовалось бы для обычного выживания, и получить награду, которая поможет вам выжить в дальнейшем. Всё остальное в вашем ответе совершенно не связано с этим и субъективно. Что-то не перестаёт быть испытанием на выживание только потому, что вы лично считаете, что награда того не стоит.

The reward is not worth it because most of the loot from bosses does absolutely nothing to help with survival... Killing seasonal bosses is profitable. The other bosses either have no effect at all or their benefits are weakened by the current balance. 
Dragon Fly Furnace would be a great item in DS. In the Gorenje, this is semi-garbage due to the existence of lava lakes and changes in the rate of burning of trees.

Although you can safely survive without killing any boss... Even in DS, where there was the hungriest, coldest survival compared to DST and RoG. And there were 3 bosses. The spider queen's hat is useful if you are not lazy to use it. 
Tree Guard loot is optional. 
Hoodius Shoodius in DST is full of garbage due to the strengthening of characters and the weakening of hound raids...

DST bosses don't really have a survival challenge. Survival is the encounter with inescapable dangerous environmental conditions and preparation for them. Going at a giant monster for the sake of a small convenient object is equivalent to deliberately trying to kill yourself...

Moreover, survival becomes a joke after certain moments. Beefalo hat, Eyebrella, Ice, Cactus, Flowers, Bird Cage, Honey, Luxery Fan, Ice Box + Thermal stone. At a minimum, all these things make for survival... Just a joke. You don't care about hunger, health, or even seasonal hazards...

[Popian]

Funny how we're broaching the topic of survival when it's something that they have obviously been aware of and have taken steps to address, amongst other things.

We have pillars as that thing you have to "maintain" to manage a "threat". Gas Acid rain that you need to deal with to avoid dying. A "Masque" to travel through "the caves" without getting harassed. I wouldn't call it perfect (mostly pillars (understandably)) and they are (thematically) locked behind the shadow rift, but they are fitting in this context.

Yes it would have been more fun if the threats were somehow forced upon us so we would have to scramble to deal with them, though it's clear that they have some kind of policy that wants to avoid affecting onboarding too much. (Rabid King could use minor tweaks but is that thing that chases you relentlessly.) Ironically, single player set the precedent for having strong items shortly around to well before you have to face the problem (all those things listed above as problems for DST) so the way to get the survival experience out of it is drop all that preparation and start from scratch (e.g. dying and not returning to base, which an Icker can help with).

Then there's making a new biome where you can survive off of things in the vicinity and would fare better bringing [higher tier] items from elsewhere. Judging by how much is released in an update they would probably need to dedicate maybe 3-6 of them to make it satisfying (the Grotto is a good example of a biome that often gets reduced to "that path to the Archives") which is a huge risk to take for a small part of the game. (Also it seems like they want to leave a little room for mods to add onto without overcrowding.)

[Bumber64]

22 hours ago, Tigris Nano said:

Imagine stuff like armored burger with his jumping butt slam

A juicy burger with thicc buns?

[Hungry French]

6 hours ago, Popian said:

Funny how we're broaching the topic of survival when it's something that they have obviously been aware of and have taken steps to address, amongst other things.

We have pillars as that thing you have to "maintain" to manage a "threat". Gas Acid rain that you need to deal with to avoid dying. A "Masque" to travel through "the caves" without getting harassed. I wouldn't call it perfect (mostly pillars (understandably)) and they are (thematically) locked behind the shadow rift, but they are fitting in this context.

Yes it would have been more fun if the threats were somehow forced upon us so we would have to scramble to deal with them, though it's clear that they have some kind of policy that wants to avoid affecting onboarding too much. (Rabid King could use minor tweaks but is that thing that chases you relentlessly.) Ironically, single player set the precedent for having strong items shortly around to well before you have to face the problem (all those things listed above as problems for DST) so the way to get the survival experience out of it is drop all that preparation and start from scratch (e.g. dying and not returning to base, which an Icker can help with).

Then there's making a new biome where you can survive off of things in the vicinity and would fare better bringing [higher tier] items from elsewhere. Judging by how much is released in an update they would probably need to dedicate maybe 3-6 of them to make it satisfying (the Grotto is a good example of a biome that often gets reduced to "that path to the Archives") which is a huge risk to take for a small part of the game. (Also it seems like they want to leave a little room for mods to add onto without overcrowding.)

Alas, real survival is not possible while the game indulges the desires of boss rushers and casual gamers.  This will only be possible if you completely rethink the balancing of food, armor, items, and characters. 
It's not going to happen, though. Klei won't even want to bring their survival level up to DS or even RoG.

Although even they are sometimes loyal by the strange balancing of the armor (which is still broken in the DST). A strange balancing of the HP of some creatures. A lame system of reason that doesn't punish, but can even reward.

[Maxil20]

9 hours ago, Hungry French said:

Even in DS, where there was the hungriest, coldest survival compared to DST and RoG.

 

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

Klei won't even want to bring their survival level up to DS or even RoG.

Please explain to me how vanilla DS was somehow this absurdly difficult game compared to RoG or even DST, despite being by far the simplest in terms of game mechanics and strategies and therefore the easiest of them to master.

[Hungry French]

34 minutes ago, Maxil20 said:

 

Пожалуйста, объясните мне, почему ванильная версия DS оказалась такой абсурдно сложной игрой по сравнению с RoG или даже DST, несмотря на то, что она намного проще с точки зрения игровой механики и стратегий и, следовательно, легче всего осваивается.

Oh... There's a whole book to write about it...

In short, we have added a lot of mechanics that, on the contrary, make the game easier.

RoG :

1.For example, Cactus. Such a simple plant, but it's a ton of sanity and food in winter and an ingredient for crockpot. 
2.Next comes the ice... Which can be stored up for years to come and added for anything for the sake of free satiety. 
3.Tumbleweeds... Yes , they are .  Why? Because in winter, all plants do not grow, and even vegetable gardens.  And now you don't even need to stock up on twiggs and grass. 4
4.What else? Well, indirect relief this summer.
Why? Because it's not as cruel as winter. 
Ice Flingomatic can wet dry plants. 
Well, there are many more ways to avoid heat than just freezing.

Well, cacti are now giving heal flowers for fun.

DST...

OH...

1. Canceling the attack animation and speeding up the characters' attack period. 
2. Rework the characters.
3. Skill Tree.
4. Changed generation (more food, resources, etc.)
5. 100% arrival of bosses (easy access to the best seasonal items)
6. More cool food sources from the ocean.

7. No heat in DST cave. 

Etc.

[Maxil20]

2 hours ago, Hungry French said:

In short, we have added a lot of mechanics that, on the contrary, make the game easier.

We also got a lot of mechanics that made the game harder. From spring/summer being added, to the entirety of the wetness mechanic, to the player being able to freeze/electrocuted, to player structures being able to be set on fire, to the seasons impacting the caves (prior to this, DS caves were considered eternal autumn and it was a viable way to escape freezing during the winter), to things on crockpots/drying racks spoiling, to mobs starving to death in the inventory/containers, to the ham bat losing damage when it spoils (prior to this, it stayed at 59.5 damage 24/7), to the seasons themselves being changed to be less favorable (winter’s night phase used to last 2 minutes in vanilla compared to 3 in reign of giants, and autumn used to have 6 minutes of day followed by 1 minute of dusk/night), to the Giants in Reign of giants, to deerclops actually freezing things it strikes. 
 

There is a lot Reign of Giants added that made survival difficult to a “normal” player. Boons like cactus were few compared to a vast amount of new dangers/threats to prepare for. Keep in mind, literally the only things you had to possibly prepare for in DS was winter, deerclops, and fire hounds. If you got past those 3 threats, you effectively had complete freedom for what you wanted to do in the game.

2 hours ago, Hungry French said:

2.Next comes the ice... Which can be stored up for years to come and added for anything for the sake of free satiety. 

I still don’t think ice is a great filler compared to a ton of other options you have available, especially compared to so many other options (a good chunk of which handle health/hunger). It’s so much more worthwhile to seek out and use alternative ingredients than just use ice for a bit of additional hunger and nothing else.

2 hours ago, Hungry French said:

Because in winter, all plants do not grow, and even vegetable gardens.  And now you don't even need to stock up on twiggs and grass.

Plants stay grown across the map, and winter only lasts for 15 days. Preparing for excess resources in winter is as simple as going slightly farther away than normal and harvesting the resources. If that isn’t enough, the caves in vanilla DS can keep resources growing all year long due to the mentioned eternal autumn.

2 hours ago, Hungry French said:

2. Rework the characters.
3. Skill Tree.

Most players that played DS usually flocked to the 3-4 characters that had powerful perks compared to playing Wilson with X. It’s also important to note most of these perks are combat oriented, when in DS you can fall any boss with like half of a dark sword and armor stack your way to victory.

 

Edited August 29, 2025 by Maxil20
Forgot to mention Winter night, oops

[Uedo]

On 8/28/2025 at 1:35 AM, hyoton123 said:

I think I’m the only person who likes the sawhorse and chair being locked behind ocean exploration and ruins exploration? You should want to explore. It’s good for you! You might even like it!

I don't mind it, I think it's like a little adventure too - Actually went toward doing it this time and it was nice little treat on the usual route of doing things.

[Hungry French]

1 hour ago, Maxil20 said:

Мы также добавили множество механик, которые усложнили игру. От добавления весны / лета до полной механики влажности, от возможности замораживания / поражения электрическим током игрока, от возможности поджога строений игрока, от сезонов, влияющих на пещеры (до этого пещеры DS считались вечной осенью, и это был реальный способ избежать замерзания зимой), от порчи вещей в горшках / сушилках, от голодной смерти мобов в инвентаре / контейнерах, от потери урона ham bat при порче (до этого он оставался на уровне 59,5 урона 24/7), от смены самих сезонов чтобы быть менее благоприятным (зимняя ночная фаза обычно длилась 2 минуты в vanilla по сравнению с 3 в reign of giants, а осенью обычно было 6 минут дня, за которыми следовала 1 минута сумерек / ночи), для the Giants в Reign of giants, для deerclops, фактически замораживающих предметы, на которые он наносит удар.

Yes, these are good additions, but why weaken other aspects of survival...

 

1 hour ago, Maxil20 said:

Было добавлено много нововведений, которые усложнили выживание для «обычного» игрока. Таких бонусов, как кактусы, было мало по сравнению с огромным количеством новых опасностей/угроз, к которым нужно было готовиться. Имейте в виду, что буквально единственное, к чему вам нужно было готовиться в DS, — это зима, оленьи клешни и огненные гончие. Если вы справлялись с этими тремя угрозами, то фактически получали полную свободу действий в игре.

In fact, these bonuses are huge and significant. So much so that most players only stay on cactuses and ice...
and if they don't. Hunger and the consequence of stupid mistakes in the search for food. 
And these new developments have killed the value of resources in the world, because you have no motivation to collect food along the way.

1 hour ago, Maxil20 said:

I still don’t think ice is a great filler compared to a ton of other options you have available, especially compared to so many other options (a good chunk of which handle health/hunger). It’s so much more worthwhile to seek out and use alternative ingredients than just use ice for a bit of additional hunger and nothing else.

Mini Glacier/DST  6-8 ice drops. And unlike other food, it does not spoil. And there's a lot of ice. Very, very much ice...

Do you need treatment? Sleep is the best treatment. It is especially strong in DST.

1 hour ago, Maxil20 said:

Plants stay grown across the map, and winter only lasts for 15 days. Preparing for excess resources in winter is as simple as going slightly farther away than normal and harvesting the resources. If that isn’t enough, the caves in vanilla DS can keep resources growing all year long due to the mentioned eternal autumn.

But they don't grow, they persist.
And by the way, in DS, RoG and Shipwrecked winter and summer last 16 days. This was done in DST for 15 days. What would... It made even less sense to use a thermometer, because 15 is a more convenient number for calculations.

 

1 hour ago, Maxil20 said:

Большинство игроков, проходивших DS, обычно выбирали 3–4 персонажей с мощными перками, а не Уилсона с X. Также важно отметить, что большинство этих перков ориентированы на бой, в то время как в DS вы можете победить любого босса, имея при себе лишь половину тёмного меча и доспехов.

The DS has an experience system so they can't get a stronger character than Wilson. And unlike DST, he's really strong there. Meat Effigy can sleep beginners dozens of times.

The old characters were close in strength to Wilson or even weaker. 
And the new ones... oh... Compared to Wilson, they're just gods.

Yes. The armor stack in the DS is broken. Although the armor is still unbalanced in DST.
Also, teammates can't help you in DS. 
And the way the bosses' DS was changed to DST...
hp was added, but other characteristics were weakened. 
This is very clearly seen in Bearger. In DS, he has 3000 hp, but the fight with him is longer, because the character has less attack speed, the attack cannot be canceled, you cannot go behind his back, the splash attack is shorter, and the damage is slightly less.

The changes in the combat system are really bad... The character began to attack ridiculously quickly and remains unpunished for mindless spam attacks.  Not to mention the animation of the attack, which would nullify the meaning of slow weapons.

What a cool old Willow was... The only character for whom sanity was particularly dangerous, and now... On the contrary, she became a character with almost no disadvantages... And she loves one shoot tree guardians...

Winona is the first and last rework where they at least tried to compensate for the new advantages with a disadvantage.

Wortox was +- normal... At the time of the exit... Now... The god who killed the Deerclop  in the trailer with 1 hit...

[Mike23Ua]

4 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

 

Please explain to me how vanilla DS was somehow this absurdly difficult game compared to RoG or even DST, despite being by far the simplest in terms of game mechanics and strategies and therefore the easiest of them to master.

I think they are just being delusional, single player don’t starve was only harder when it came to additional elements that are not yet present within DST (most namely gameplay mechanics from Story Mode, Shipwrecked & Hamlet) but outside of certain modes: Don’t Starves Sandbox was actually far far FAR easier than DST ever was.

I can back that with facts too: In Solo DS you could capture creatures in your inventory, but those creatures did not have a spoil timer, you did not need to ever feed them.

The Bundling Wrap (one of the most OP things in both DS & DST) wasn’t tied to a 27,500hp raid boss who’s health fully recovered if you left the Area, nope you only needed to murder a few bee hives and this precious crafting recipe will drop!

Thermal Stones also had no durability whatsoever, so you could craft one and never have to craft another again.

That said: the Story Mode & the Two DLCs DID bring in more interesting challenges.. such as for example the huge heavily fortified Pig Warrior Chokehold points that you would need to wear armor to progress through to the other side, or “poison” and more randomized mob encounters (such as being attacked by a scorpion after just trying to chop down a tree for wood) OR having strong winds blow dropped items off the edge of the map to perish forever after a pesky pog threw your items out your storage box and all over the ground for the wind to take off with.

[Maxil20]

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

In fact, these bonuses are huge and significant. So much so that most players only stay on cactuses and ice...
and if they don't. Hunger and the consequence of stupid mistakes in the search for food. 
And these new developments have killed the value of resources in the world, because you have no motivation to collect food along the way.

What are you talking about? Cactus and ice don't magically invalidate every other source of food in the game, that's extremely silly. 
Players should be aware of their options and act upon what they have available. If players can't survive outside of using cactus and ice, then they aren't very skilled at using what they have around them very well and they need to learn how to utilize the areas around them more effectively. There are many food sources out there that only require a bit of knowledge to get. There are other sources of food in the game that aren't just cactus and ice.
 

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

Mini Glacier/DST  6-8 ice drops. And unlike other food, it does not spoil. And there's a lot of ice. Very, very much ice...

Do you need treatment? Sleep is the best treatment. It is especially strong in DST.

It's 3-8 in DST, not 6-8. In RoG it's 3-4, which is the one I was referring to. 

Glaciers only really work during winter. Their value decreases dramatically outside of the season, especially if you are using mass ice filler to get by. By comparison, most other food sources work in every season that isn't winter, and some like pig houses work year round, and often result in better dishes than ice can give. It might not give as many food items compared to ice initally, but it being available more often evens out the playing field.

Sleeping is an effective way to recover stats, but in cases where you need rapid stat restoration outside of the base (such as the ruins, or during boss fights), then you'll probably desire a way to recover them via other methods. There's a lot of crock pot foods to get that done, many with ingredients that are reliable to farm.

 

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

But they don't grow, they persist.
And by the way, in DS, RoG and Shipwrecked winter and summer last 16 days. This was done in DST for 15 days. What would... It made even less sense to use a thermometer, because 15 is a more convenient number for calculations.

You still can get by pretty comfortably in an average world. There are a lot of grass/twigs/berries to use in a map for ~15-16 days. If you know what you're doing, this is a pretty easy challenge to overcome and shouldn't be something that most players will have issues with.

I can't comment much on the season length because it technically fluctuates due to a weird way DS handles seasons and changing them. The season lengths are identical in DS/T's code actually, but due to how DS handles seasons via temprature-based approximations compared to DST using flat days like it should, it leads to errors where some seasons last one more day than intended. This actually impacts Hamlet as well (all of Hamlet's seasons are meant to last 10 days instead of 11, but due to said issue causes them to gain an extra day pretty consistently).  This code is pretty infamous for relating to bugs like the season skips, so it's not too surprising it leads to minor quirks like this.

 

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

The DS has an experience system so they can't get a stronger character than Wilson. And unlike DST, he's really strong there. Meat Effigy can sleep beginners dozens of times.

Wolfgang takes 16 days (slightly more than 2 hours) to unlock with experience, and Wickerbottom (the character I used to main for power purposes) takes 64 days (or around 8 and a half hours). Assuming a player is playing for the long haul, that is not a terribly long amount of time to unlock a character. You don't even need to die for it; using the teleportato in either base DS/Adventure will also give you credit.
 

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

This is very clearly seen in Bearger. In DS, he has 3000 hp, but the fight with him is longer, because the character has less attack speed, the attack cannot be canceled, you cannot go behind his back, the splash attack is shorter, and the damage is slightly less.

The part of the splash attack where it deals damage to players/mobs was not changed, only it's destruction radius was. It's identical between the two. The swipe was adjusted, but you can still perform the traditional kiting window without much difference (and at roughly the same time, half health is a huge boon even if you factor the other quirks). It's also important to note that because most people usually rely on farming wood with bearger and that the treeguards that result from that will kill both DS and DST bearger identically, there isn't much of a difference between the two in terms of that aspect.
 

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

The changes in the combat system are really bad... The character began to attack ridiculously quickly and remains unpunished for mindless spam attacks.  Not to mention the animation of the attack, which would nullify the meaning of slow weapons.

They made you attack slightly faster by a few frames. Attack canceling helps, but only results in minor DPS gains with normal weapons + the risk of mistiming a cancellation will considerably drop the DPS you dish out. 

Also like, DST doesn't have many slow weapons...? The only one I can think about that any character can use is the tail o three cats, which most people skipped. Pretty much every other weapon has an identical swing speed. The only ones otherwise are character specific/beefalo, which by themselves encourage different means of play (which, in a multiplayer game, is a very important distinction to have).
 

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

What a cool old Willow was... The only character for whom sanity was particularly dangerous

Most people skipped her for that because the risk of burning down your entire base >>>>>>>> anything else. That's an immeasurable downside and absolutely doesn't fly in a multiplayer context, which is why she got reworked when she initially entered DST.
 

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

The god who killed the Deerclop  in the trailer with 1 hit

Trailers are the last thing you should take Canon in the context of DS/T. By this logic quacken should instantly break boats in one hit, moslings should kidnap catcoons, and Wanda has a watch that can go to literally any era of DS/T that exists.

 

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

such as for example the huge heavily fortified Pig Warrior Chokehold points that you would need to wear armor to progress through to the other side

I feel like a lot of people overrate the danger of the pig guardian check in adventure mode. Assuming you are planning ahead, you really only need to go through that once or maybe twice, and armor like the football helmet/log suit are readily available in AM to help dampen the damage. You can even use the pan flute if you get quite lucky with one. The walls they use are wooden, which also means they are pretty susceptible to being lit with a torch as well. A more realistic threat to me would be the clockwork biomes (the ones in Two Worlds are Darkness, not the small setpieces), where things like the bishops are much harder to casually avoid and you need to do considerable planning to traverse the area (particularly the darkness one)
 

 

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

having strong winds blow dropped items off the edge of the map to perish forever after a pesky pog threw your items out your storage box and all over the ground for the wind to take off with.

It's important to note that Hamlet has a lot of simple interiors like the temples/caves a player can shove items in with relatively little penalty, and given the nature of the DLC and how heavily you are encouraged to explore the various interiors, means that a player is usually incentivized to stash items in said interiors to avoid the downsides of things like harsh wind or (most) mobs going through and eating various items.
 

Edited August 29, 2025 by Maxil20

[Popian]

4 hours ago, Hungry French said:

The god who killed the Deerclop  in the trailer with 1 hit...

If it must be canon, the scene only shows that Wortox got the last hit. Wigfrid was also with him and could have done most of the work.

Spoiler

 

 

[Crestwave]

On 8/29/2025 at 4:36 AM, lowercase skye said:

I see now that my wording made it sound as if I was saying that people who like the ruins should automatically like bosses, my bad. All that I meant was that bosses, like the ruins, are a survival challenge, and pointed out the similar elements that connect them. I understand personally not enjoying bosses, but to put them in their own category of things distinct from "new survival content" is what I was taking issue with, and I used the ruins as an example of something people should totally consider the same category but don't seem to.

The ruins are completely different from bosses. You're surrounded by a hostile environment with a variety of threats that will kill you and you have to explore and interact with it to survive. And it has its own gameplay loop with FW resetting the dungeon.

The latest bosses are the opposite. You prepare in a completely neutral environment and craft 200 LGAs. The fight is just in one spot anyway. I don't feel pressured or stressed or experience anything remotely like being in the ruins and gathering lichen for survival while your sanity is shot and the nightmare phase is approaching, I just feel annoyed that the boss is taking so long.

It doesn't even feel like the boss is trying to kill you and that's because it isn't. It's just chilling and doing its own thing and you're the one who summoned it to try to kill it. If you walk a few meters away it will happily never see you again, unlike the ruins creatures which follow you to the ends of the earth until the phase ends.

But you're forced to kill the boss if you actually want to get something out of your 999 thingamajig grind, while the ruins is a heist of sorts—you can totally use survival mechanics like freeze rounds or sleep clouds to steal from under the clockworks' noses. You can utilize the rooks to help you wreck the place or use abilities like shadow servants. It's just plain fun.

Not to mention that the new content has infinite durability drops that trivialize survival content to make up for the grind. It's endgame MMORPG syndrome. There's no gameplay loop of going back to reset the ruins or conserving your strong item or even interacting with anything at all. Moonstorm removes darkness from the entire surface; the entire mechanic of darkness is not just trivialized, it's literally not there anymore.

Anyway, this got a bit longer than expected. Just want to end this by saying that I would loooove more dungeoneering/spelunking/survival content. Give us a dungeon that we can descend further and further into. We can choose to portal out at the end of each floor but that would mean having to start at floor 1 in the future, while the best rewards are deeper. Or a forge-like wave survival mode where we stave off wave after wave of enemies (moonstone does not count because statues exist).

[Frosty_Mentos]

I'm one of older (relaxed veteran with 10k hours at this point) who played this game through it's ups and downs and I've seen mostly ups for the past 5 years of DST's development. We got a whole new ocean, treasures, many animations, bosses, resources, character updates, scrapbook for progress tracking, ocean fishing, farming - etc. 

We've gained more updates than many games could ever wish to have. This game has been going in it's golden age for this many years and this high of 50k daily player base means only more future exciting possibilities. 

While likely 80-90% of them didn't even finish the whole game yet/most scrapbook (that's my wildest estimation), people seem to enjoy the game quite a bit and that tells something.

Older players that vary in their skill level might not like where DST is going currently have their own personal vision clashing with Klei's where it's going and are going to be loudest in forums regardless. Klei can't please everyone, so we can only express our opinions on what we think where the game should be pushed towards.

[Hungry French]

20 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

О чём ты говоришь? Кактусы и лёд не делают все остальные источники пищи в игре волшебным образом бесполезными, это крайне глупо.
Игроки должны знать о доступных им возможностях и использовать то, что у них есть. Если игроки не могут выжить без кактусов и льда, значит, они не очень хорошо умеют использовать то, что есть вокруг них, и им нужно научиться более эффективно использовать окружающую среду. Существует множество источников пищи, для получения которых нужно лишь немного знаний. В игре есть и другие источники пищи, помимо кактусов и льда.

Yes, but many players, especially beginners, really like to use only one tactic. That's why no one wants cactus and ice to weaken. Because few people want to try for another food source. 
What could you eat in DS in winter? Maybe the supplies you left for later. And meat from other creatures... The rest of the food resources either didn't recover or didn't exist at all. That's why the winter was so unpleasant. Because it was necessary to constantly get meat and mix it with what was there.

 

20 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

В DST это 3-8, а не 6-8. В RoG это 3-4, о чём я и говорил.

I looked... Well. We were both wrong. 
DST ice gives 3 + 2 + 2 = 7 ice  ( tall mini glacier )

There were times when every other season was winter... And the food was harder...

21 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

Чтобы разблокировать Вольфганга, нужно 16 дней (чуть больше 2 часов) опыта, а чтобы разблокировать Уикерботтома (персонажа, которого я использовал в качестве основного для повышения силы), нужно 64 дня (или около 8 с половиной часов). Если игрок настроен на долгосрочную игру, то это не такой уж большой срок для разблокировки персонажа. Вам даже не нужно умирать для этого: использование телепорта в базовой игре DS/Adventure также принесёт вам очки опыта.

Wolfgang DS is much weaker than in DST. The same applies to Wickerbottom.

21 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

Та часть атаки с эффектом взрыва, которая наносит урон игрокам/мобам, не была изменена, изменился только радиус поражения. Они одинаковы. Удар был скорректирован, но вы по-прежнему можете использовать традиционное окно для кайтинга без особых изменений (и примерно в то же время половина здоровья — это огромное преимущество, даже если учесть другие особенности). Также важно отметить, что, поскольку большинство людей обычно заготавливают древесину с помощью бергера, а защитные барьеры, которые при этом образуются, одинаково убивают как DS, так и DST бергера, особой разницы между ними в этом аспекте нет.

In DST, you can dodge Bearger and land 6-7 punches behind his back.
There are only 2 in DS.
That's a huge difference.
I don't care about abusive Berger's tactics. Klei should have been removed a long time ago and possibly farmed a tree with it.

 

21 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

Они заставили вас атаковать немного быстрее на несколько кадров. Отмена атаки помогает, но приводит лишь к незначительному увеличению урона в секунду при использовании обычного оружия + риск несвоевременной отмены значительно снизит наносимый вами урон.

Not significantly ? 
In DS, the character's attack amplitude is 0.5. In DST, 0.4 
In DS, a character can make 10 attacks in 5 seconds. 
In DST 10 for 4. This is a 25% increase in damage compared to DS.
In addition, you can dodge earlier, which adds to the damage. 
For comparison, the Dragon fly DST can be hit stably 6 times. Although I saw a video on YouTube where a guy hits 8 times. 
With DS attack speed and animations, you can make a maximum of 5 hits. Only five. 
5 -100% - 6 - 120% - 7- 140% - 8 - 160%. 
These are significant differences in damage.

In DST, animation cancellation occurs all the time. Therefore, the system of evading any attacks feels too simple. 
The same shadow creatures in DST can be attacked immediately, not just after a bite byte.

21 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

Большинство игроков пропускали её из-за этого, потому что риск сжечь всю свою базу был намного выше, чем риск сделать что-то ещё. Это огромный недостаток, и он совершенно не подходит для многопользовательской игры, поэтому её переделали, когда она только появилась в DST.

Good. I don't care about multiplayer. I'm a solo player and I want to see a NORMAL Willow, not this almighty misunderstanding.

[Mike23Ua]

5 hours ago, Frosty_Mentos said:

I'm one of older (relaxed veteran with 10k hours at this point) who played this game through it's ups and downs and I've seen mostly ups for the past 5 years of DST's development. We got a whole new ocean, treasures, many animations, bosses, resources, character updates, scrapbook for progress tracking, ocean fishing, farming - etc. 

We've gained more updates than many games could ever wish to have. This game has been going in it's golden age for this many years and this high of 50k daily player base means only more future exciting possibilities. 

While likely 80-90% of them didn't even finish the whole game yet/most scrapbook (that's my wildest estimation), people seem to enjoy the game quite a bit and that tells something.

Older players that vary in their skill level might not like where DST is going currently have their own personal vision clashing with Klei's where it's going and are going to be loudest in forums regardless. Klei can't please everyone, so we can only express our opinions on what we think where the game should be pushed towards.

Here’s the thing: Klei devs have often expressed fatigue when it comes to working on DST, and the fans of the game are often quick to throw up the fact that because it is getting free updates we should be grateful for any mediocre update this decade old game still gets at all.

But that has NEVER been my opinion: My opinion is a simple one: If the future of the Dont Starve Franchise is more DST then Klei needs to treat the game as if it were a brand new released title & actually deliver some big and exciting updates for it.

If the future of the franchise is to Abandon DST and actually release a new Dont Starve game: then Klei needs to quit dragging DST on and on with updates & actually move forward with the franchise.

Klei can not just simply add whatever they want into DST, they have to also take into account how well the game runs on peoples decade old platforms & the updates that they push out: Can’t exceed that older Hardware.

Last Gen Consoles are quite literally holding back Next Gen Content Updates.

What that would translate too in DST terms: Larger player counts, bigger worlds, more character & world animations, more content rich biomes, the small stuff like wind blowing through trees and little leaves blowing away in the wind or waves rippling in the sea, etc..

Look at Minecraft as an example: they eventually (& understandably) abandoned Xbox 360 versions of the game: only adding new content to the X/S version.

The biggest question I have at this moment for Klei is: Is the future of the franchise going to be the same with DST or will there eventually be a “Next Gen” Don’t Starve game?

Edited August 30, 2025 by Mike23Ua

[Maxil20]

58 minutes ago, Hungry French said:

Yes, but many players, especially beginners, really like to use only one tactic. That's why no one wants cactus and ice to weaken. Because few people want to try for another food source. 
What could you eat in DS in winter? Maybe the supplies you left for later. And meat from other creatures... The rest of the food resources either didn't recover or didn't exist at all. That's why the winter was so unpleasant. Because it was necessary to constantly get meat and mix it with what was there.

Then those players are not very skilled, then...? I don't even think cactus and ice are that good, especially compared to other options. Keep in mind things like meat offer some incredibly powerful options, and you have a myraid of meat sources at your disposal, especially in winter. 

Even in DS, you could still get by with things like berries/mushrooms/carrots for winter as long as you were open to exploring around. There's a lot of sources to keep yourself fed at your disposal, and they are more than enough to keep you alive, especially when there's only one player like in DS
 

55 minutes ago, Hungry French said:

I looked... Well. We were both wrong. 
DST ice gives 3 + 2 + 2 = 7 ice  ( tall mini glacier )

Sigh,

DST glaciers roll 1-3 in their tall and medium states, and 1-2 in their small state. That means you can get between 3-8 ice. It is not consistently 7, like you say.

Here's a screenshot of me mining several fully formed glaciers. Notice how there were several glaciers that gave considerably less than 7 ice, with some giving 4 ice each.

 

 

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

Wolfgang DS is much weaker than in DST. The same applies to Wickerbottom.

Wolfgang and Wicker both arguably have better benefits/niches in DS. Wolfgang's mighty form gains a movement speed buff, which stacks with other movement speed options like roads and the cane, alongside having up to 300 max HP. His speed boost was removed in DST, by comparison, and he only has 200 HP when mighty.

Wickerbottom's best book, applied horticulture, was heavily nerfed in DST. DS horticulture costs a seed and manure, and insta grows every single thing on screen, including food plants. Not only does the base version cost 5 times as much seeds and manure, but also only grows up to 10 plants at a time. She also lost 25 max health in DST, as well.
 

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

In DST, you can dodge Bearger and land 6-7 punches behind his back.
There are only 2 in DS.
That's a huge difference.

This is factually wrong. You get get up to 3-4 hits on bearger in DS with normal speed boosts available in RoG.

I didn't even play that well, and I still managed to kill bearger in roughly a minute with common gear which included making mistakes like having to pick up the hambat/cane. Having gear like the magi/dark swords would make this even quicker. The time to kill is roughly the same between the two versions.

Things like this make me wonder if you even play Don't Starve. I haven't played the game in a long while since DST is more suited for my experience, and I still know several game mechanics specific to this version that you are misrepresenting and that I go and fact check with video evidence.

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

I don't care about abusive Berger's tactics. Klei should have been removed a long time ago and possibly farmed a tree with it.

Why? Because you think using bearger for farming is an "Abusive tactic" and isn't intended to be used to your advantage by the developers? What prompts this? Is it because to you it's meant to be destructive to only the player and nothing else, and your proof of this is because you say so?
 

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

Not significantly ? 
In DS, the character's attack amplitude is 0.5. In DST, 0.4 
In DS, a character can make 10 attacks in 5 seconds. 
In DST 10 for 4. This is a 25% increase in damage compared to DS.
In addition, you can dodge earlier, which adds to the damage. 
For comparison, the Dragon fly DST can be hit stably 6 times. Although I saw a video on YouTube where a guy hits 8 times. 
With DS attack speed and animations, you can make a maximum of 5 hits. Only five. 
5 -100% - 6 - 120% - 7- 140% - 8 - 160%. 
These are significant differences in damage.

It's important to note that in DS, the amount of hits to kill a mob is drastically less than in DST. You can comfortably kill clockworks in 5 hits with a dark sword in 6 with a hambat, which most of the time ensures they will never hit a player more than once. Compare this to DST, where you cannot reasonably do something like this even with animation canceling. Even with the slower attack speed and lack of animation canceling, you will get through most combat encounters considerably quicker, especially with characters like Wolfgang. This also doubles as a considerable cost save for weapons, because you get through many more encounters with one weapon in DS than you do in DST, unless it's the ham bat.

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

In DST, animation cancellation occurs all the time. Therefore, the system of evading any attacks feels too simple. 
The same shadow creatures in DST can be attacked immediately, not just after a bite byte.

The alternative would be having considerable lag frames when attacking, which feels especially bad on ping connections. I already don't like how you can't end attacks in DS, but at least it's consistent with how much end lag I get when attacking. Having it in DST would be a whole others level of annoyance to players, especially ones that don't have good connections in the first place
 

1 hour ago, Hungry French said:

Good. I don't care about multiplayer. I'm a solo player and I want to see a NORMAL Willow, not this almighty misunderstanding.

I'm sorry to tell you that Don't Starve Together doesn't conform to the whims of every solo player. She's different in DST to be suited to a multiplayer environment and to encourage variety that doesn't actively destroy the base. If that doesn't interest you, you are free to choose another character that does.