The easiest chatacter in the game atm?

[shaurun]

I'm just browsing articles and a lot of them seem to be outdated while suggesting an "easiest" character for new or regular players. What character you have the easiest time with (both survival and boss fights) from the start of the game? Imagine  you'd like to "rush" for the rifts in 100 days and also have a base setup, all in all solo. Whom would you suggest to pick?

Also please explain your choice, e.g. Walter because he has speed boost and chest from the start + ranged combat with easy projectiles farming. If character has a skill tree, it would be nice to know what you pick and why. And for sure, if there are some difficulties with the chosen character, like for example "he is great with every boss, except for .... because ...." - it's also great to mention.

I'll start first:

To me Wurt is the easiest character. At the start she collects grass and twigs normally, as well as seeds to hire naturally spawned memrs army, These merms could be used to farm a lot of resources if needed early. Travel to lunar island asap to collect stone fruit bushes and kelp. Now simply grow an army and eliminate everything. Also spring immunity (frogs, item drop) is a nice benefit for survival. 

Edited November 23, 2025 by shaurun

[Pruinae]

If you have game knowledge, probably Wortox. He can get around so many game mechanics. You say "base setup" but for him thats like... an alchemy engine and you're good. I personally can't play him too often because farming bees gets tiring after a while (you can make a soul farm for him, but I get annoyed way before that). If you have no killer bee biome that annoyance is multiplied by like 10 times, even though it's still possible for him to do everything easily.

For new players that are being helped by someone who knows the game, Wigfrid. They need to be willing to learn how to craft and always keep the helmet on; and how to kill spiders, beefalos/koalefant, and shadow creatures, but after that they are golden. She can get away alive with a lot more than other characters, which gives the player time to understand what is happening.

And for someone that has no idea what they are doing, and have no one to help... No character can 100% help a new player learn, but they sure can help them die faster. Those would be Wanda, Warly, Walter, Wes, and to a lesser extent Maxwell and Wurt. They need to be willing to die a lot, and maybe look at wiki/guides. Wendy is probably their best bet, but she can make the player create bad habits, becoming dependent on playing as Wendy to get some things done; even then they hopefully are going to learn a lot of non-Wendy-related things while playing as her, that will help even when playing as other characters.

I recently joined quite a few servers hosted by beginners, it seems to be common to have Wendys that don't even know how to summon Abigail...

[Dingle]

15 minutes ago, Pruinae said:

If you have game knowledge, probably Wortox. He can get around so many game mechanics. You say "base setup" but for him thats like... an alchemy engine and you're good. I personally can't play him too often because farming bees gets tiring after a while (you can make a soul farm for him, but I get annoyed way before that). If you have no killer bee biome that annoyance is multiplied by like 10 times, even though it's still possible for him to do everything easily.

For new players that are being helped by someone who knows the game, Wigfrid. They need to be willing to learn how to craft and always keep the helmet on; and how to kill spiders, beefalos/koalefant, and shadow creatures, but after that they are golden. She can get away alive with a lot more than other characters, which gives the player time to understand what is happening.

And for someone that has no idea what they are doing, and have no one to help... No character can 100% help a new player learn, but they sure can help them die faster. Those would be Wanda, Warly, Walter, Wes, and to a lesser extent Maxwell and Wurt. They need to be willing to die a lot, and maybe look at wiki/guides. Wendy is probably their best bet, but she can make the player create bad habits, becoming dependent on playing as Wendy to get some things done; even then they hopefully are going to learn a lot of non-Wendy-related things while playing as her, that will help even when playing as other characters.

I recently joined quite a few servers hosted by beginners, it seems to be common to have Wendys that don't even know how to summon Abigail...

I agree with Wigfrid and Wendy. When I introduce someone new to the game, those are my top choices to recommend.

I don't think I'd recommend Wortox to a new player as easiest+generally best. You get the most out of him if you have a lot of experience with the game, particularly if you are comfortable with rift content. Otherwise, he doesn't have combat bonuses or easy farming. And if you run out of souls (a new player will), you're Wilson.

Wolfgang is really easy and straightforward, and gets giant advantages to combat, and the lucky chop/mine talents. He no longer even gets a food penalty.

The main thing is that you need to know two things as a new Wolfgang player:

1. Ignore the gym.

2. Get gold or marble dumbbells as soon as possible.

[Pruinae]

8 minutes ago, Dingle said:

I don't think I'd recommend Wortox to a new player as easiest+generally best. You get the most out of him if you have a lot of experience with the game, particularly if you are comfortable with rift content. Otherwise, he doesn't have combat bonuses or easy farming. And if you run out of souls (a new player will), you're Wilson.

The "If you have game knowledge" is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in my post, maybe I should've been clearer on what I meant, but we basically agree. I just included him because OP's post asks the reader "What character you have the easiest time with (both survival and boss fights) from the start of the game?", for an experienced player, that would probably be the answer.

[Dingle]

11 minutes ago, Pruinae said:

The "If you have game knowledge" is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in my post, maybe I should've been clearer on what I meant, but we basically agree. I just included him because OP's post asks the reader "What character you have the easiest time with (both survival and boss fights) from the start of the game?", for an experienced player, that would probably be the answer.

I main Wortox, and this is true for me. He's definitely in my top 3. But I also rush rifts.

Pre Rift and Post Rift Wortox are almost different characters. He gets most of his combat power from his affinity.

We are saying the same thing. I just wanted to emphasize that I wouldn't claim Wortox as a strong, easy Boss kill character for either a new player, or someone that hasn't mastered opening up a rift reliably.

[Sapientis]

The easiest would still be Wolfgang in my opinion. Double damage on demand with little to no cost just makes everything easier. You waste half the usual armor, you waste half the usual food and healing, you don't farm any souls/embers/glories or whatever else, just pump the bicep for 10 seconds idle and WOW, you're now double Wilson!

No special gimmick, no hidden mechanic and you can move and work faster on top of that.

There's no skilltree understanding or theory, because he has so little options that are actually even viable, but they all make you better, unconditionally.

Your setup is a Hambat, Football Helmet and Mag, which can all be acquired day 3-5.

For a regular player, that wants to easily "finish the game", Wolfgang is the way to go, because he's simply a beardless Wilson with cheats on.

In return:
 He's boring and stereo-typically dummy thicc and the clap from his butt cheeks keeps alerting the shadow creatures...

 

He's also the only character which I, as a veteran 10kh newbie myself, could play through the Uncompromising Mod.

[Mike23Ua]

I use to would have easily voted for Wendy, but after her rework & skill tree Klei actually managed to make her playstyle more cumbersome and slower (with an Xbox controller) to issue even the most basic of commands to Abigail.

I guess you can say all the tampering they did to the character made her less playable for me? I dunno..

After those changes I would actually go so far as to say that Wolfgang & Wigfrid are the two powerful “Controller Friendly” Playstyles now.

Whoever thought it would be a good idea to put the most basic of Abigail functions on to a command wheel obviously does not even play their own game, and if they do: They sure as hell don’t play it with a game controller.

For other characters this is not such a big issue, because those characters entire playstyles do NOT revolve around giving commands to an AI Follower that without said AI Follower: Makes playing that character dish out damage like playing as Non-Reworked Wes.

Honestly I actually would probably prefer playing as Wes over Wendy now. 😂🤦🏻

Edited November 23, 2025 by Mike23Ua

[AliceShiki]

Easiest... Well, that depends, let's start from a new player perspective.

Wendy is definitely an easy choice. Trivializing combat makes things a lot easier overall.

I think Wigfrid too, but beginners may struggle with the meat restriction, at least until you show them the Crockpot. After that it should be smooth sailing for as long as they know some simple ways of getting Meatballs (or better stuff, but Meatballs are simple)... And well, not only x1.25 dmg dealt, but also x0.75 dmg taken is fantastic for a beginner. Not to mention strongish weapon/armor that is easy to craft and has good durability (Hambats and Football Helmets are not that easy to get for new players, because they might not know that it's a good idea to kill pigs and destroy/reposition their houses).

I still stand by the fact that Wilson is a great character to start with. The lack of complexity will help, and the beard will help them survive the first Winter.

Willow is also fairly simple and straighforward.

Also... Woodie, maybe? The main thing to be wary of are the transformations, but once the player picks the perk of not going to 0 hunger after transforming, I feel like Woodie can be quite convenient to play with. From my experience, new players also love cutting trees when they don't know what to do, and Lucy would help them a lot in making this process much more efficient so that they can spend their time doing something else.

If I had to choose one of those... Probably Wendy. Trivializing combat really is the main thing that would make the new players' life easier. But I think Wigfrid and Woodie would both be solid runner ups.

Now, easiest for an experienced player... I think it's Wolfgang without much to be talked about. Damage x2 is just hard to compare to.

Sure, other characters can be stronger, but the question is "easiest", and it's easy to maintain mighty form, and dmg x2 is a very noticeable buff.

[Uedo]

Wendy if I want them to like the game, Wig if I want them to learn how to be useful.

[Evelo]

Initially I was torn between Willow and Wurt, but thinking about it more, Wurt hands down. Merms just do everything and you have have unlimited (well capped by your processing power) of them. 

[Echsrick]

wendy sadly still the "noob trap"

[Radicaljoe]

6 minutes ago, Echsrick said:

wendy sadly still the "noob trap"

I don't think you're using that word correctly. Noob trap is something that looks cool, but is a actually bad. Like Webber looks awesome, but I'm sure with the incredibly small sanity pool and hostile bunnymen and pigs, they are certain to die.

Wendy is what would he considered a "crutch" which is what a tutorial character would be best for. Giving you the ability to ignore 1 aspect (crowd fighting or small fights) to allow you to learn the other harder parts of the game, survival of temperature, bosses, and hunger management.

[reddocc]

Wx if you want to experiment and learn different game mechanics

[ForbiddenHat]

1 hour ago, Radicaljoe said:

Noob trap is something that looks cool, but is a actually bad. Like Webber looks awesome, but I'm sure with the incredibly small sanity pool and hostile bunnymen and pigs, they are certain to die.

Can confirm. I know this because I fell onto this trap too and gaslighted myself into believing webber is the best character for hunger. (cus you know, the literal title of the game is named "Don't Starve") Most notably his control to kill his own befriended spiders for easy health and hunger--maybe sanity. Plus, he looks awesome. But of course, he is definitely NOT a choice to pick when rushing the rifts or speedrunning just in general. He gets VERY underwhelming since the vast majority (not including wes) of characters are just simply better than him and offering FAR more of a fruitful playstyle. And even worse it tricks newer players to have more spider friends instead of killing them for harvest and having absolute server control, PRAYING that the server won't shutdown from the spider lag--which is all the more reason to get excited for his long awaited skilltree. (This is secretly a webber rant mwahaha I'm so evil >:))

But Moving that aside.... 
Walter and Wortox are pretty handy when it comes to rushing things like managing a base or rushing through rifts or maybe even both. He goes from a character that almost no one touches to a pretty well rounded character. A very own pet that is better than a beefalo + teleportation or speed depending on which affinity you've chosen. Personally I choose teleportation since escaping world gaps is very useful when it comes to speed and farming with the use of the slingshot. This also means being hit is almost never a problem.
Wortox is the same, he is fast and has no problem with hunger or managing bosses, only he can skip through most game mechanics a basic character would struggle with, as one mentioned earlier. 

[Bumber64]

11 hours ago, Radicaljoe said:

Like Webber looks awesome, but I'm sure with the incredibly small sanity pool and hostile bunnymen and pigs, they are certain to die.

I've never felt the sanity pool was a major issue, personally. Some other characters have downsides that drain their sanity faster. Webber drains at the same rate as Wilson, you just need to learn about sanity food before the nights get too long to endure. (Maybe you could also plant butterflies? IDK if you could get enough during the day.) Edit: Obviously, Webber can also just sleep in a T3 spider den.

Other newbies are going to die to spiders while trying to get silk. Webber gets to die to deerclops for thinking basic spiders can handle the hard work for them.

Edited November 24, 2025 by Bumber64

[ShadowDuelist]

9 minutes ago, Bumber64 said:

I've never felt the sanity pool was a major issue, personally. Some other characters have downsides that drain their sanity faster. Webber drains at the same rate as Wilson, you just need to learn about sanity food before the nights get too long to endure.

Other newbies are going to die to spiders while trying to get silk. Webber gets to die to deerclops for thinking basic spiders can handle the hard work for them.

Webber can also sleep inside Tier 3 dens, which—for a new player who has managed to gather a lot of monster meat—can almost completely solve the issue of long nights (albeit with some boring idle time). You don’t really need crock pots or much crafting either. Webber is still a great character to “learn the game until the first winter.”
 

As for the easiest characters I also lean towards Wendy, followed closely by Wigfrid and Wolfgang.
 

Wortox, Maxwell, Walter etc are not easy IMO, just characters that get to be very powerful in skilled players hands and make the game look “easy”, but def not easy to learn or start the game with.

 

[Edible Coal]

the easiest character is wes by a long shot

 

hes the easiest to die

[benfroyobro9381]

17 hours ago, Evelo said:

Initially I was torn between Willow and Wurt, but thinking about it more, Wurt hands down. Merms just do everything and you have have unlimited (well capped by your processing power) of them. 

Wurt is strong but she's kinda divorced from a lot of game mechanics like pigs, trading for gold, eating meat, not basing in the swamp, and almost every other follower. Also setting up the Merm King and a proper Merry kingdom would definitely be out of the way for a lot of newer players. 

For me I'd say Wendy, Wigrid, and Wolfgang. None of these characters take any significant departures from game mechanics or traditional gameplay like Wortox, Wanda, Wormwood, or Walter. The aforementioned characters will definitely trip newer players since they either completely remove or significantly discourage traditional play styles. 

• Wendy satisfies a lot of early game struggles like spiders, hounds, or aoe encounters. However, a newcomer will still definitely fear Deerclops and Wendy's new skill tree adds  more control and complexity to the character. 
• Wigfrid fulfills a tanking fantasy with her accessible helmets and life/sanity steal. She's pretty helpful in getting players more comfortable in killing or hunting for meat. 
• Wolfgang's double damage makes everything faster and means less gear to farm, less chances to take damage, etc. His other abilities aren't too complicated, like moving statues faster or harvesting faster, and work seamlessly in the traditional gameplay loot. 

[hyoton123]

I only picked wendy because I thought we were picking one character, but wendy and wigfrid are my picks for new players. For rushing rifts (which new players are not doing), wortox or wolfgang.

Edited November 24, 2025 by hyoton123

[Cuernito.]

You need to be more specific cause there is no character that is the easiest in everything, that's why DST is so fun, some characters are great at combat but they are different like wigfrid is one of the easiest, and Wanda is harder to use. In this games there are characters with good farming perks, others with great exploring skills, however there is not a single character that can do all in the best way or the easiest way.

But to answer your post and using my subjectivity i would say Winona. She is so easy to use for me cause i main her so i have a lot of experience using her. She is the strongest character in late game, she can make a teleport network with no cooldowns to use, she can have infinite lights in her base and those lights can warm you during winter, she can make strong base protection (catapults), she can make the strongest automatic farms in the game and good semiautomatic farms, she can trivialize all bosses with a strong set up of catapults, and unlike wurt she is not restricted to any content of the base game(she can use PK and she can eat meatballs) and her stats are ok, so in my opinion she is the easiest to use if you are creative and know a lot about some game mechanics.

[GimplyGoose]

I'm definitely torn on Wigfrid VS Wendy, but I think overall Wigfrid is probably easier for new players. The extra HP and damage resistance goes a long way to let you make mistakes and you have access to easy armor and you start with some when you spawn in.

Abigail is super useful for threats that new players fall victim to (hounds, etc), but she can't help with shadow creatures and Wendy has a harder time than Wilson fighting them.

Regarding Wurt: while Wurt might be the easiest character for an experienced player, I think she might be a challenge pick for a new player simply because of her diet restrictions. A new player wouldn't know about easy veggie sources and might have a hard time keeping Wurt fed.

[shaurun]

On 11/23/2025 at 7:51 PM, Dingle said:

I main Wortox, and this is true for me. He's definitely in my top 3. But I also rush rifts.

Pre Rift and Post Rift Wortox are almost different characters. He gets most of his combat power from his affinity.

I've played pre-rift Wortox only, so could you please share if the reaper really makes him super powerful?

[Echsrick]

18 hours ago, Radicaljoe said:

Noob trap is something that looks cool, but is a actually bad

so she pretty much is just that

[shaurun]

On 11/23/2025 at 8:00 PM, Sapientis said:

The easiest would still be Wolfgang in my opinion. Double damage on demand with little to no cost just makes everything easier. You waste half the usual armor, you waste half the usual food and healing, you don't farm any souls/embers/glories or whatever else, just pump the bicep for 10 seconds idle and WOW, you're now double Wilson!

I a bit confused with his skill tree. Mighty Weapons seem to buff planar damage but if you just start the game (pre-rift), it's useless. I like his Chore Workout skills since they really save time but sometimes it feels like you have to collect more sticks because tools are destroyed fast. Heavy Hitter could potentially be fun but it's slow (especially if you plan to pick up your dumbells) and destroys dumbells in few throws. 

Plus like a Wilson, he has to go into melee, which with some bosses is pretty hard like CC or BQ, and FW is also impossibly annoying so sometimes Wilsom with his "amass gun powder" perks is better.

22 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

Honestly I actually would probably prefer playing as Wes over Wendy now.

So you are the one who voted for Wes? 😄

21 hours ago, Uedo said:

Wendy if I want them to like the game, Wig if I want them to learn how to be useful.

Well when I saw new players on Wolfgang, they didn't understand what to do with dumbells and were always running in his weakest form, also struggling with sanity 🙃

18 hours ago, Radicaljoe said:

Wendy is what would he considered a "crutch" which is what a tutorial character would be best for. Giving you the ability to ignore 1 aspect (crowd fighting or small fights) to allow you to learn the other harder parts of the game, survival of temperature, bosses, and hunger management.

Wendy has also a sanity buff which is great for new players

[benfroyobro9381]

21 minutes ago, GimplyGoose said:

I'm definitely torn on Wigfrid VS Wendy, but I think overall Wigfrid is probably easier for new players. The extra HP and damage resistance goes a long way to let you make mistakes and you have access to easy armor and you start with some when you spawn in.

Abigail is super useful for threats that new players fall victim to (hounds, etc), but she can't help with shadow creatures and Wendy has a harder time than Wilson fighting them.

Regarding Wurt: while Wurt might be the easiest character for an experienced player, I think she might be a challenge pick for a new player simply because of her diet restrictions. A new player wouldn't know about easy veggie sources and might have a hard time keeping Wurt fed.

This. Wendy actually makes sanity and seasonal bosses, two significant hurdles for newer players, an even greater challenge. Wurt also makes Winter far more difficult and the best part of her kit requires a lot of mid/late game set up, which many newer players may not be able to address since they're more focused on survival over thriving/growth.