Would you perfer if wes is an actual playable character?

[Cheggf]

5 minutes ago, shaurun said:

You graph for some reason doesn't include Wormwood. Wormwood has pretty high pick rate, so I believe your words were based on some old pre-skills statistics. Warly currently doesn't have much fun in his kit to be picked - his challenge is countered by 2 meat stews at the hungliest pick, and to have some other benefits you simply have to farm a lot. So I don't think he's very fun to play personally.

Wormwood was included in the graph he just didn't have his name shown since he was one of the even characters and the names on the left are the odd characters. Wormwood & Warly are both unusually high right now.

But either way, even with their unusually high pick rates, they're still some of the bottom characters. Wendy is at 205. Wigfrid is 131. Woodie is 113. Wilson is 110. Then all the way at the bottom you have characters like Wormwood at 31, Wickerbottom at 16, Warly at 12, and Wes at 4. There is very little difference between the single digit pickrate Wes and these other characters who are doing barely better than him. You can not use Wes' pickrate as an example to say that random things you personally don't like about him are the reason nobody plays as him. Nobody plays as a lot of characters, it's not just Wes.

Anyone who requires effort to play as has a low pickrate. Wes, Warly, Wickerbottom, Wanda, Wormwood, Wurt. Every single one of the bottom 5 is notably more difficult and requires more effort. The highest picked characters are tons of easier and lower effort characters like Wendy, Wigfrid, Wortox, and Woodie. Effort is the thing that correlates with pickrate. Don't Starve players do not like characters that require effort, so there is no possible rework for Wes that will make him popular unless you completely do a 180 and make him the easiest and strongest character in the game.

[shaurun]

2 hours ago, Cheggf said:

Anyone who requires effort to play as has a low pickrate. Wes, Warly, Wickerbottom, Wanda, Wormwood, Wurt. Every single one of the bottom 5 is notably more difficult and requires more effort. The highest picked characters are tons of easier and lower effort characters like Wendy, Wigfrid, Wortox, and Woodie. Effort is the thing that correlates with pickrate. Don't Starve players do not like characters that require effort, so there is no possible rework for Wes that will make him popular unless you completely do a 180 and make him the easiest and strongest character in the game.

But that depends on a thought, what you consider to be "effort".

For example, to me Maxwell requires effort to be played with comfort - he needs beefalo, and craft magic, and to reach it's full potentical he should deal with Fuelweaver. 

Winona has to mine a lot to have her catapults setup, then probably she wants to deal with Klaus or Bee Queen for bundlings wraps, and to make her catapults safe she wants Scrappy Werepig, and she also wants to travel to Moon Quay island for docs. 

Wigfrid most likely wants to start moon storms which is also not an easy task since you have to do the whole Crab King questline.

So I don't think effort correlates a lot - at least because we might have different opinions on what effort is.

Quote

so there is no possible rework for Wes that will make him popular unless you completely do a 180 and make him the easiest and strongest character in the game.

Why "strong" is an argument if you were talking about effort? Wendy is not strong, she just has easy time with spiders. Wigfrid simply has cheap armor which allows players to not care about pigs and stay protected and healthy against low level threats (like Wendy). Wortox has teleportation and healing, Woodie has cheap low-level combat/investigation - but there's nothing in these characters which makes them really feel strong. I feel strong with Maxwell, Willow, and I feel OP with Wurt. Do I want to increase Wes popularity by overpowering my listed characters? No. I want Wes to have unique features which will make his gameplay attractive despite his low stats, and I want other people to stop consider him "weaker and less effective". That's all. He has things which are conceptually interesting, like craft with sanity (Wormwood has craft with it's health). So this feature could be improved with the skill tree (e.g. crafting imaginary walls).

Again, if you're fan of old Wes - his base kit could stay same, we're talking about skill tree improvements here.

Edited November 20, 2025 by shaurun

[gaymime]

2 hours ago, AliceShiki said:

Then I still don't get your complaints. If your problem is pubs, then that's a pubs problem, not a character problem. You can just play with friends or find a discord server or whatever to bypass the pub problem.

Don't be silly. There are way more than that.

sweetie, i can't make you see something that you are actively trying not to see. if you are not capable of seeing why it would be bad to not be able to play a social game with other people then i am not going to be capable of showing you the problem. we are at an impasse in communication here.

[_mylilsunshine_]

late to the party but did anyone talk about wes' personality and lore and design yet? i think those are pretty big reasons why people would pick a character, regardless of their strengths or shortcomings

i was a pre-tree walter main so i would know a thing or two about dookie characters and choosing design > practicality

[AliceShiki]

2 hours ago, gaymime said:

sweetie, i can't make you see something that you are actively trying not to see. if you are not capable of seeing why it would be bad to not be able to play a social game with other people then i am not going to be capable of showing you the problem. we are at an impasse in communication here.

"Being unable to play on certain pubs" is different from "being unable to play on multiplayer", I already suggested some alternatives to trying to find a pub that doesn't kick you instantly.

Also, DST is not a Social Game, it's a Sandbox Survival game that has a multiplayer component to it, those are very different things.

If you wanna talk about a social game, you should be talking about stuff like VR Chat, not DST.

[Popian]

9 hours ago, Cheggf said:

Can you do it more efficiently than someone who just picked up the character 5 seconds ago?

Yes. By managing your activities and holding the dumbbell you can avoid doing this altogether. It may not give instant gratification and it can be exhausting to dynamically plan your next 30 minutes forever so it's okay to take a break and go wimpy. You might think it is trivial, but there are plenty of people who have trouble managing the bar and end up fighting hound waves as normal or even wimpy.

9 hours ago, Cheggf said:

Can you choose not to become mighty, allowing better decision making than someone who just picked up the character 5 seconds ago? No, you automatically gain mightiness for doing actions so if you aren't maximum mightiness you're going to stun yourself and possibly die if you don't become mighty before doing anything.

Yes. This is how to use Leg Day and the whistle effectively. Either get more buffer by getting to the lower end of the threshold ahead of time or stop and let the drain offset your gains. Move with the dumbbell to maintain.

 

2 hours ago, gaymime said:

if you are not capable of seeing why it would be bad to not be able to play a social game with other people then i am not going to be capable of showing you the problem.

The problem is that many players like to do things their way and that can conflict with another's way. This topic labels it as "not cooperating". The proposed solution is to limit their options so whatever they choose will be "cooperating".

There is the observation that having it in the skill tree is fine because you can opt not to use it. This does not achieve the desired effect because they will be "not cooperating" again, but perhaps it would be good enough at reducing the number of "non-cooperators" to a more tolerable level.

2 hours ago, gaymime said:

we are at an impasse in communication here.

This is a good example of another strategy to achieve cooperation. Because no one is obligated to follow your recommendations, you can increase the chance others will cooperate by increasing their willingness to.

Manage both of your expectations with communication (which can be difficult when someone can pick a character immediately after joining (if you are hosting, the server title and description can get your intentions across)). Sometimes it doesn't work out, and that's okay.

Edited November 20, 2025 by Popian

[Cheggf]

16 minutes ago, Popian said:

Yes. By managing your activities and holding the dumbbell you can avoid doing this altogether.

Holding a dumbbell is less efficient than holding a walking cane and then lifting weights. 

[Popian]

1 hour ago, Cheggf said:

Holding a dumbbell is less efficient than holding a walking cane and then lifting weights. 

Is this always true? Longer trips I would agree, Beefalo I would not agree. I think there could be an in-between where it is negligible either way.

[Cheggf]

1 hour ago, Popian said:

Is this always true? Longer trips I would agree, Beefalo I would not agree. I think there could be an in-between where it is negligible either way.

The length of the trip doesn't matter. You always lose either 0.1 mightiness per second if you're holding a walking cane or 1.5 units of distance per second if you're holding a dumbbell.

[Kehvran]

The topic about wes is somewhat transformed into other characters... yeah, he does need some love from klei

[Nikki Darks]

So many replies "self reporting" on this post, lol.

Wes is not "unplayable", Wes is difficult to play... There is a difference.

People who play Wes play him for the difficulty spike, why take that away from them?

What's this weird obsession with taking away every bit of difficulty from this game... At this point do you even enjoy the game and its characters if you want to change everything so drastically....?

Wes is fine, he isn't for everyone, not every character is for everyone.

PS: So many people here saying Wes is not "fun". Okay...? Fun is subjective, what's not fun for you might just be the most fun thing for someone else. Get a grip.

[Mike23Ua]

40 minutes ago, Nikki Darks said:

So many replies "self reporting" on this post, lol.

Wes is not "unplayable", Wes is difficult to play... There is a difference.

People who play Wes play him for the difficulty spike, why take that away from them?

What's this weird obsession with taking away every bit of difficulty from this game... At this point do you even enjoy the game and its characters if you want to change everything so drastically....?

Wes is fine, he isn't for everyone, not every character is for everyone.

PS: So many people here saying Wes is not "fun". Okay...? Fun is subjective, what's not fun for you might just be the most fun thing for someone else. Get a grip.

Wes isn’t actually difficult though, and every character pretty much becomes identical the moment they become beefalo riders. And if DST was a single player game I can understand the concept of wanting Wes to be the challenge mode character. But when thrown into a Multiplayer Situation you always always and I mean ALWAYS have to pose the Question of: What does Wes bring to a Team?

to put this into easy to understand context: If you have ever played Smite I use to Main Aphrodite, but Aphrodite alone by herself was Squishy & Easy to Kill, Aphrodites “Power” came from being linked up with other players- Both for higher damage, and for faster healing.

So I ask the question again: What does WES offer in a TEAM? Because from my point of view he dies faster, burns through tools faster, and takes longer to complete tasks.

Now then: If Abigail could Haunt Wes for some crazy supernatural power buff or if Maxwell could mumble a few words from the Codex & Cover him in Nightmare Armor, With Wes being the ONLY character compatible with this Synergy then Wes just effectively became Aphrodite, Squishy & Easy to kill alone, Yet at the same exact time: The singular biggest threat when working with a Team.

[AliceShiki]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

Wes isn’t actually difficult though, and every character pretty much becomes identical the moment they become beefalo riders.

In case you aren't aware, not everyone plays while riding Beefalos.

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

burns through tools faster

This is false. Wes tools are consumed 75% slower to compensate for his 75% efficiency, so he uses the same durability of an axe as everyone else to chop a tree.

[Nikki Darks]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

Wes isn’t actually difficult though, and every character pretty much becomes identical the moment they become beefalo riders. And if DST was a single player game I can understand the concept of wanting Wes to be the challenge mode character. But when thrown into a Multiplayer Situation you always always and I mean ALWAYS have to pose the Question of: What does Wes bring to a Team?

to put this into easy to understand context: If you have ever played Smite I use to Main Aphrodite, but Aphrodite alone by herself was Squishy & Easy to Kill, Aphrodites “Power” came from being linked up with other players- Both for higher damage, and for faster healing.

So I ask the question again: What does WES offer in a TEAM? Because from my point of view he dies faster, burns through tools faster, and takes longer to complete tasks.

Now then: If Abigail could Haunt Wes for some crazy supernatural power buff or if Maxwell could mumble a few words from the Codex & Cover him in Nightmare Armor, With Wes being the ONLY character compatible with this Synergy then Wes just effectively became Aphrodite, Squishy & Easy to kill alone, Yet at the same exact time: The singular biggest threat when working with a Team.

First of all.. Don't compare a dying MOBA with a sandbox/survival game please... 

Aaaalsooooo... Wes DOES bring MULTIPLE things to the table for his team, like come on!

Wes can: Chop, mine, fight, forage, explore... Basically all of the things almost any other survivor can do???

Why do people like to pretend like Wes literally can't do anything? You're making yourselves look so silly.

[Mike23Ua]

38 minutes ago, Nikki Darks said:

First of all.. Don't compare a dying MOBA with a sandbox/survival game please... 

Aaaalsooooo... Wes DOES bring MULTIPLE things to the table for his team, like come on!

Wes can: Chop, mine, fight, forage, explore... Basically all of the things almost any other survivor can do???

Why do people like to pretend like Wes literally can't do anything? You're making yourselves look so silly.

The thing is that Wes is long past the point of being whatever your wanting him to be, ever since his rework he got things that *Hardcore* players would see as being an insult to hardcore playstyle, things- Such as Confetti Party. 

And before Woodie got the superior Walking Cane, Wes’s Speedy Balloons were semi useful to craft & hand out to other players for temporary speed boosts. 
 

But what should a Wes SKILL TREE change, add or improve to make Wes’s playstyle more deeply defined & at the same time: Make the exclusive items Wes can craft actually be useful to himself or others.

 

[shaurun]

13 hours ago, AliceShiki said:

This is false. Wes tools are consumed 75% slower to compensate for his 75% efficiency, so he uses the same durability of an axe as everyone else to chop a tree.

Basic calculations on weapons show:

Darksword with base 68 damage and 100 hits = 6800 total damage

Wes Darksword deals 68*0.75=51 damage and 100/75*100=133 his = 6800 damage total damage.

Since I was calcuting it wrong at first, I thought @Mike23Ua is right about burn out, but seems nope, Wes is just slower.

 

Edited November 21, 2025 by shaurun
edited to fix wrong calculation

[Cheggf]

23 hours ago, Kehvran said:

The topic about wes is somewhat transformed into other characters... yeah, he does need some love from klei

Don't play Wes if you don't like him. I don't spam the forums about how Klei needs to change all the boring characters you like just because I don't like them. 

[Debruh]

Don't really see the idea of him being "uncooperative"

A character like Webber pretty much offers just as much to the team. Except with lag.

Skill tree adding more cooperative aspects to him would be cool, but every character is naturally cooperative off the 'can gather basic resources' alone.

Making characters compete for which is more cooperative is pretty toxic imo. 

[Kaioh]

Honestly, yeah, I want Wes to be a serious character rather than just a gag from single player. Wes, Warly and maybe even Wilson deserve a bit of extra strength to justify their existence. Wes being a challenge character should not detract from the fact that DST is a multiplayer game and as such, Wes should have actual benefits to his character. Warly is a more properly executed challenge character than Wes is, since his downside of not being able to eat normal food and suffering from eating repetition penalties for the foods he can actually eat is a significant inconvenience, and unlike Wes, Warly can at least contribute significantly with items like Volt Goat Chaud-Froid, Chili Flakes, Garlic Powder and more, the only issue is it makes him more desirable as a swap character so you don't have to interact with his weaknesses at all. Wes' punishments primarily lie in lower stats, which just makes the usual gameplay loop slower and boring, and his contributions are questionable, I guess being a target for hounds and lightning strikes is valid.

When people play Wilson in public lobbies, I get the impression they try to play things safe, are dedicated Wilson fans or that they are new to the game. When people play Warly, I get the impression that they are trying to make the game worse for themselves for some reason but they still want to contribute to the team meaningfully, or they wrongfully assumed Warly is a new player friendly character due to his powerful support potential. When people play Wes, I get the impression that people are just trolling and looking for plausible deniability to be unhelpful (Basically by using the excuse that Wes is too weak and with few advantages to be tremendously helpful), also potentially trying to grief

[hyoton123]

I think he should be funnier.

[Cheggf]

On 11/26/2025 at 11:38 AM, Kaioh said:

Honestly, yeah, I want Wes to be a serious character rather than just a gag from single player. Wes, Warly and maybe even Wilson deserve a bit of extra strength to justify their existence. Wes being a challenge character should not detract from the fact that DST is a multiplayer game and as such, Wes should have actual benefits to his character. Warly is a more properly executed challenge character than Wes is, since his downside of not being able to eat normal food and suffering from eating repetition penalties for the foods he can actually eat is a significant inconvenience, and unlike Wes, Warly can at least contribute significantly with items like Volt Goat Chaud-Froid, Chili Flakes, Garlic Powder and more, the only issue is it makes him more desirable as a swap character so you don't have to interact with his weaknesses at all. Wes' punishments primarily lie in lower stats, which just makes the usual gameplay loop slower and boring, and his contributions are questionable, I guess being a target for hounds and lightning strikes is valid.

When people play Wilson in public lobbies, I get the impression they try to play things safe, are dedicated Wilson fans or that they are new to the game. When people play Warly, I get the impression that they are trying to make the game worse for themselves for some reason but they still want to contribute to the team meaningfully, or they wrongfully assumed Warly is a new player friendly character due to his powerful support potential. When people play Wes, I get the impression that people are just trolling and looking for plausible deniability to be unhelpful (Basically by using the excuse that Wes is too weak and with few advantages to be tremendously helpful), also potentially trying to grief

I guarantee you that 99% of people who pick Wes sincerely are going to be over 10x more useful than 99% of people who pick what they think the "strongest" character is.

[Mike23Ua]

On 11/24/2025 at 3:08 AM, Debruh said:

Don't really see the idea of him being "uncooperative"

A character like Webber pretty much offers just as much to the team. Except with lag.

Skill tree adding more cooperative aspects to him would be cool, but every character is naturally cooperative off the 'can gather basic resources' alone.

Making characters compete for which is more cooperative is pretty toxic imo. 

Webber got several changes when he got his rework that made playing “cooperative” more manageable: not only can he shave down a spider den tent to safely lower its tier level for Nearby Non-Webbers, but he can also decorate those spider dens so they do not become higher tier levels and now produce “Happy” Spiders.

In Addition to this he can also sleep in any random tier 3 spider nest as a free tent. 
and this is before he even gets a skill tree!

Wes’s skill tree should involve more “Balloon”O”Mancy” abilities that he can unlock that are actually useful toys and gadgets to himself or his coop companions.

If Klei can make a Bernie Doll that dances to distract Nightmares for Non-Willow players I’m sure they’ll come up with something cool for Wes.

But then again IDK… Wes Rework > Wilson’s Rework AND Skill Tree.

And sadly no… I’m not joking.

[Nikki Darks]

12 hours ago, Cheggf said:

I guarantee you that 99% of people who pick Wes sincerely are going to be over 10x more useful than 99% of people who pick what they think the "strongest" character is.

This is because typically the people who pick Wes are better at the game.

They actually fight and help, unlike the person who picked Wendy or Willow just because the character is cute.

Also there's a tendency with people who pick "useful" characters where they only use the character's perks, and forget that those characters can also do other stuff instead of waiting for a chance to use Bernie, Books, Catapults, etc, etc....

Wes has nothing to rely on, hence the players actually end up doing actual work.

[Kaioh]

13 hours ago, Cheggf said:

I guarantee you that 99% of people who pick Wes sincerely are going to be over 10x more useful than 99% of people who pick what they think the "strongest" character is.

This is misleading. Same could be said for Warly, since most players who play him are experienced players who know what they are doing, save for a few exceptions who mistakenly believe Warly is beginner friendly due to his strong culinary support focus. The only reason those Wes and Warly players are doing stuff well is because little to no newer players would pick these characters, creating the perception they are "more useful" characters than the others when they aren't (well, Warly is very useful when played right, but that downside is rough).

The point here is that Wes has almost no redeeming qualities that would actually help his team, which invites trolls to play him so they can waste everyone's time and/or resources. Those experienced players who play Wes earnestly would support their team much better had they played a different, more powerful character, but they don't do that because they selfishly want to challenge themselves by playing almost completely useless character in a multiplayer world, Wes' current gimmicks only make sense for singleplayer setting where playing him doesn't inconvenience anyone else, which is why I'm saying he is deserving of a rework that would make him more multiplayer oriented. Even playing Warly would be more supportive towards the team due to Warly's powerful cooking arsenal

[Cheggf]

13 minutes ago, Kaioh said:

This is misleading. Same could be said for Warly, since most players who play him are experienced players who know what they are doing, save for a few exceptions who mistakenly believe Warly is beginner friendly due to his strong culinary support focus. The only reason those Wes and Warly players are doing stuff well is because little to no newer players would pick these characters, creating the perception they are "more useful" characters than the others when they aren't (well, Warly is very useful when played right, but that downside is rough).

The point here is that Wes has almost no redeeming qualities that would actually help his team, which invites trolls to play him so they can waste everyone's time and/or resources. Those experienced players who play Wes earnestly would support their team much better had they played a different, more powerful character, but they don't do that because they selfishly want to challenge themselves by playing almost completely useless character in a multiplayer world, Wes' current gimmicks only make sense for singleplayer setting where playing him doesn't inconvenience anyone else, which is why I'm saying he is deserving of a rework that would make him more multiplayer oriented. Even playing Warly would be more supportive towards the team due to Warly's powerful cooking arsenal

More trolls pick Willow, Wurt, Wickerbottom, and Webber than Wes.