Strength and Quality of Life

[Edible Coal]

4 hours ago, Evelo said:

This is WHY they are op. Completely remove the downsides of the characters.

Upside 1) 1000 hp compared to base 150 from characters (if we include a single log suit then that becomes 475 hp (which costs resources, takes an Item Slot, and has durability)) which regenerates passively at a rate of 0.69hp/s compared to a Wilson's Health Regen of 0hp/s

i dont think anyone would engage in a serious combat with only one piece of armor, so 475 hp is pretty unrealistic, you would most likely have multiple pig skin helmets and log suit, so you would have 750 if you dont run out of armor and no healing ! which is almost one beefalo health

dont forget 80% reduction means you heal 5 time more effective

4 hours ago, Evelo said:

Downside? 1.6) Yes Beefalo take 4x damage from food as well, but you wouldn't feed yourself a damaging food if you needed the HP?
Downside! 1.7) Yes Beefalo can only eat Vegetable Foods. Just like Wurt, which is typically a non-issue given the prevalence of Blue Mushrooms, and how much food can be acquired from Farming.

i would say blue mushrooms are op rather then the beefalo itself 

farming on its own is already something that most non warly/wicker player never bothers consider meat healing food is far easier to access and manage 

not to mention beefalo cant eat goodies ( jelly bean) and cant drink pearl's tea ( i think they can? but they wont heal 4x that amount )  

4 hours ago, Evelo said:

Upside 2) Super easy to tame since the introduction of the Beefalo Bell. Made even easier with the introduction of feeding while mounted: Simply feed your beefalo a lightbulb every 25 seconds slowly increasing the duration over time while always riding the beefalo. Need to do stuff while not mounted? Ok! Just feed it some Steamed Twigs so its hunger isn't 0 while you do the work briefly then mount back up. It's not hard at all anymore.

Even though taming beefalo is easier then ever, you are still looking at a 20 day counter ( and this assumes you tame it perfectly with no down time)

4 hours ago, Evelo said:

Upside 3) Ornery does 50 damage which is a very VERY important breakpoint to where it can kill units with 100hp (spiders, bees, etc) in 2 hits instead of 3, while also having infinite durability. When combined with a Warsaddle (which is super easy to acquire while mounted on a beefalo) makes it do 66 damage (2 less than a dark sword and allows mounting mid combat).

are dark sword and tentacle spikes that hard to get?

also remember beefalo attack slower then players do and requires constant attack canceling to achieve the same dps as on foot with a hambat

warsaddle are arguably much harder to get then the ultimate saddle - Nightmare saddle because wooly sheeps are just too hard to spawn

5 hours ago, Evelo said:

Upside 4) Beefalo negate the downsides of many characters while not also negating their upsides. Wendy and Wes's 25% damage Reduction? Ignored. Abigail's Damage boost? Granted. Maxwell's low Health, and Wormwood's inability to heal with food? Negated. Maxwell can cast spells? You bet cha! Wormwood's Bramble Husk Skill Tree Upgrade affects beefalo attacks? Sure why the F not!

out the three character you mention , only one i really cant defend as they are the perfect match to be beefalo users ( maxwell ) 

the wendy dmg boost being much higher then her usual fighting really sounded like a bug then a indented feature ( probably fear of the raging fans of the hardcore wendy players)

and for wes, welp , guy dies to a gust of wind and has no combat ability, so i let that pass.

wormwood have much better healing method and superior lunar gear later on that i really rarely seen wormwood player use a beefalo to tank anyways

also, i really dislike when people cherry pick examples for their arguments. when you say "many", is really only that two character

why don't you mention wolfgang cant use his double dmg and +25 planar when on a beefalo?

or wigfrid the supposing beefalo rider never uses beefalo to combat because shes way better on foot with elding spear and her stun dashes?

or the fact that wortox cant teleport or heal his pet beefalo while on combat? ( not that he ever has a reason to tame one to begin with )

or the fact that walter has a much speedier woby that puts rider beefalo with butterfly saddle to shame ? 

or the fact that wx has speed circuits / electric circuits that stun enemies cannot be used while riding a beefalo?

or the fact that willow cannot use lunar flame on top of a beefalo?

or the fact that wanda cant use her signature alarming clock on a beefalo?

or woodie cant use his 90% dmg reduce fighting form on a beefalo?

( wurt , winona, webber are summoners that dont take hits directly anyways and even if they do , theres plenty of high protection armor they can choose from and dont really need a beefalo )

not everyone can fully fight on beefalos

( btw i recommend trying warly with beefalo, they are a absolute pair that are made for each other )

5 hours ago, Evelo said:

Upside 5) Beefalo can be saved from certain death simply by running away. Did you engage in a fight and fear your beefalo is going to die? Is it attached to a Beefalo Bell like a modern sane individual? Just... Run away! Your beefalo will teleport to you and be slightly injured, ready for you to remount and feed it that amazing Dragonpie! But Wait! Are you also post shadow rift content? Well then upgrade your beefalo bell so if it does die because of a big dumb dumb mistake, it will revive good as new! Plus with the Nightmare Saddle, much like the War Saddle, it can be mounted while in combat for an easy escape.

i dont really understand this upside as players can also flee from a battle to heal up , just remember that your enemies also heals and might despawn if you arnt fast enough

 

6 hours ago, Evelo said:

Downside? 5.5) "But there are plenty of knockbacks in the game that counter beefalo!" 1) In the late game, sure. But early game. No, the only 2 examples are newish content with the Werepigs. Additionally if wearing a marble suit, the knockback is severely diminished in intensity, and it doesn't take damage! 2) Relating to point #6, Beefalo are FAST. If you can't dodge, with that amount of speed, then the knockback is of lesser concern.

remounting has an animation and theres an actual risk you keep getting hit and is unable to get back on top of it, in worse cases, your beefalo got hit and starts aggroing the boss, you better pray your pet beefalo doesnt become mince meat while you try to despawn it while it takes mob damage, is just really annoying to wrangle your beefalo if things went south.

6 hours ago, Evelo said:

Upside 6) Beefalo are ridiculously fast. Especially given how easy it is to mount one early game. It makes Woby and the WereGoose look pathetic in comparison. Just smash a pig house, make a saddle, explore the entire map in 3 days, 6 days if you also do the caves. Meanwhile because you are always mounted, you are progressing your domestication.

i think beefalo are suppose to be THE universal traveling tools, and this is one thing that beefalo should excel in , walking around the constant on my two feet while dealing with horrible wormholes is just not fun in the slightest, also comparing woby ( which already beats beefalo a whole mile in the speed department ) and weregoose ( can your beefalo go on the sea???) is not suitable 

6 hours ago, Evelo said:

What really tipped beefalo from, to me, "overpowered" into "This is stupid how broken it is" was the change to allow beefalo to be fed while mounted. Having to dismount, feed your beefalo to heal it up, was actually a major risk for the safety of yourself and the beefalo. (not completely, but mostly cause, it's fast and you can just run far away enough to get in a few feeds then remount) Now, there is no risk.

ah, if you didnt knew, beefalo cannot be fed if they are aggro to something, even if you ride on them, they refuse to be fed at all, this is really common when you fight knockback bosses that has multiple attacks

[cybers2001]

45 minutes ago, Edible Coal said:

i dont think anyone would engage in a serious combat with only one piece of armor, so 475 hp is pretty unrealistic, you would most likely have multiple pig skin helmets and log suit, so you would have 750 if you dont run out of armor and no healing ! which is almost one beefalo health

dont forget 80% reduction means you heal 5 time more effective

So effective health with log suit for Wilson is 750 hp, correct. Beefalo can also get 60% reduction with the void saddle, so their effective health becomes 2500. So still 1750 hp more for the rider than the Wilson on foot (or nearly 2 beefalos worth of extra hp).

This also means that blue caps, which are effectively 100 hp for the armored Wilson, are effectively 200 hp for the armored beefalo.

And again, an ornery beefalo with a void saddle has an infinite durability dark sword + armor, and passive regen, so you don’t need to spend any resources healing or repairing after a fight.

Edited March 1 by cybers2001

[Edible Coal]

35 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

So effective health with log suit for Wilson is 750 hp, correct. Beefalo can also get 60% reduction with the void saddle, so their effective health becomes 2500. So still 1750 hp more for the rider than the Wilson on foot (or nearly 2 beefalos worth of extra hp).

This also means that blue caps, which are effectively 100 hp for the armored Wilson, are effectively 200 hp for the armored beefalo.

And again, an ornery beefalo with a void saddle has an infinite durability dark sword + armor, and passive regen, so you don’t need to spend any resources healing or repairing after a fight.

uh i dont think comparing a day 2 armor and a rift armor is fair tho.

beefalo are great at farming for materials to save on resources, and shadow saddle is super busted on a 1000 hp entity. cant deny that

[Hi.]

8 hours ago, Evelo said:

This is WHY they are op. Completely remove the downsides of the characters.

Now that I think about that you do have a point. Although this is only for specific characters, some characters don't need a beefalo like Wolfgang, but whenever I play Wes and I use the Beefalo I kinda forget im playing as Wes sometimes.

The word "OP" gets thrown around a lot nowadays and a lot of the time people miss use it. Beefalo are still a 20 day investment and if one dies pre rift you have to spend another 20 days. Now I do think feeding a beefalo while riding it is a little bit broken and kind of removes some of the challenge (especially if you have a mod showing the beefalo's stats) but it isn't "Over powered" it's powerful yes but I wouldn't say "Over powered". While beefalo are easier to manage you still have to wait at least 20 days.

 

Idk tho this is just my opinion and im not trying to say im 100% right but I do see where you are coming from, Beefalo CAN be op in certain situations like if your playing Wes or Maxwell or other characters like that.

Edited March 1 by Hi.

[JustAPineapple]

Beefaloo are cool and fun to play with. They're a time investment and the reward being genuinely useful in several aspects of the game is fun.

Are they powerful? Yeah! Do they synergize especially well with certain characters? Yeah! 

Does their power make the game boring? I dont think it does at all.

Often I care way more about my beefaloo dying then Me dying, because one is solved with a dirt cheap life amulet and the other costs day's of Babysitting.

 

[Evelo]

11 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

i dont think anyone would engage in a serious combat with only one piece of armor, so 475 hp is pretty unrealistic, you would most likely have multiple pig skin helmets and log suit, so you would have 750 if you dont run out of armor and no healing ! which is almost one beefalo health

dont forget 80% reduction means you heal 5 time more effective

Alright very true, I will agree there, however. Those have a material cost, while the material cost of a beefalo is Lightbulbs, Twigs, and Grass for ~22 days before it is forever free. Given while mounted on a beefalo you can collect Lightbulbs, Twigs, and grass, it isn't even slowing down your gathering speed.

11 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

i would say blue mushrooms are op rather then the beefalo itself

With the exception that blue mushrooms have a sanity drain element, something that is completely ignored by beefalo, like I mentioned.

11 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

farming on its own is already something that most non warly/wicker player never bothers consider meat healing food is far easier to access and manage

Depends on the player. I find farming MUCH easier than meat farming, Once you get a dragonfruit seed, you're immortal. (sans Wigfrid, Wormwood, and Wanda) If I am to use meat, I personally use Wobster Bisque because it heals great and is also basically free.

11 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

not to mention beefalo cant eat goodies ( jelly bean) and cant drink pearl's tea ( i think they can? but they wont heal 4x that amount )  

Jellybeans requires farming the bee queen which is far harder to do than a Dragonfruit Farm I think. So personal preference there I suppose.

11 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

Even though taming beefalo is easier then ever, you are still looking at a 20 day counter ( and this assumes you tame it perfectly with no down time)

Correct, but what are you doing in the first 25 days of the game typically? Exploring! Which the beefalo trivializes. Hell you can even go and ruins rush with ease with a beefalo, the only exception (and I wish there are more as a nerf to beefalo in general) are ranged enemies like the Bishop.

11 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

are dark sword and tentacle spikes that hard to get?

also remember beefalo attack slower then players do and requires constant attack canceling to achieve the same dps as on foot with a hambat

They are not hard to get, but you have to get them, as opposed to a 25 day side gig that already helps you explore and exploit the map of its resources with the low low cost of gathering Lightbulbs underground, twigs or grass.

11 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

warsaddle are arguably much harder to get then the ultimate saddle - Nightmare saddle because wooly sheeps are just too hard to spawn

Not that hard. Especially with the speed of a beefalo you can quickly find numerous dirt tracks, Can get enough Steel Wool by day 50 easily if you actually try.

11 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

also, i really dislike when people cherry pick examples for their arguments. when you say "many", is really only that two character

why don't you mention wolfgang cant use his double dmg and +25 planar when on a beefalo?

or wigfrid the supposing beefalo rider never uses beefalo to combat because shes way better on foot with elding spear and her stun dashes?

or the fact that wortox cant teleport or heal his pet beefalo while on combat? ( not that he ever has a reason to tame one to begin with )

or the fact that walter has a much speedier woby that puts rider beefalo with butterfly saddle to shame ? 

or the fact that wx has speed circuits / electric circuits that stun enemies cannot be used while riding a beefalo?

or the fact that willow cannot use lunar flame on top of a beefalo?

or the fact that wanda cant use her signature alarming clock on a beefalo?

or woodie cant use his 90% dmg reduce fighting form on a beefalo?

Wolfgang, yeah I'll give him that, he is better combat wise off a beefalo.
Wigfrid, requires a spear, that has to be crafted, and you have to activate the altars to unlock the electrical portion so it can stun and self repair. What about all of the time prior? Really use the resources crafting spears, or darkswords, or whatever? Given she can also domesticate them faster, and has a unique saddle, why not utilize it. And as much as I detest it you can reselect your talents at the Celestial Portal (Blegh, hate that)
Wortox, last I checked, can teleport and heal his beefalo with souls while in combat. So that is wrong? Need to double check to clarify but pretty sure it is.
For Walter - What on EARTH are you doing to make Woby better than a Rider+Gossamer Saddle beefalo? (Genuinely I want to know cause idk how you are doing it!) Not to mention Woby bucks you off if she takes damage, while beefalo do not (good on you to intentionally not mention that)
WX - Yeah. There are also plenty of other circuits to use? It's still amazing compared to not using a beefalo.
I know nothing about Willow - Can she use the Shadow Flame? Can she use her other fire spells? Is it really only Lunar flame? In which case, holy crap an actual downside! (Good!)
Wanda has unique health situation and benefits from not taking damage like Wormwood and Maxwell. Just going to 'cherry pick' that out of the equation too?
Woodie is woodie. I have my own issues with him as a whole but yeah, you can't be a moose while on a beefalo. I will give you that.
So that's 2 characters (maybe 3 with Willow, idk) that are better than a beefalo right at the start of the game. Which is when beefalo are the easiest to acquire as you don't have to go out of your way to utilize since you are going to be exploring anyway.

Wurt, Webber, Winona, Warly, Wilson, etc - Wurt can make use of her merms on or off a beefalo. Webber can use his spiders the same way on a beefalo. Winona can use her (should be baseline) button masher to command her catapults while on a beefalo. All three, and adding on every other character, can make use of the extra HP and Healing Received of a Beefalo because, unlike armor, it doesn't take an inventory slot(s), has unlimited durability, can be healed at 4x the rate while suffering no sanity drain, gives passive movement speed, does between 25 (Rider) and 66 (Ornery + Warsaddle) damage, and has a low investment cost.

11 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

i dont really understand this upside as players can also flee from a battle to heal up , just remember that your enemies also heals and might despawn if you arnt fast enough

Yeah, I made this 'upside' mostly because of Mike, who struggles to keep beefalo alive somehow. It's not really an upside, yeah I was just being a buttmunch toward someone in particular.

11 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

remounting has an animation and theres an actual risk you keep getting hit and is unable to get back on top of it, in worse cases, your beefalo got hit and starts aggroing the boss, you better pray your pet beefalo doesnt become mince meat while you try to despawn it while it takes mob damage, is just really annoying to wrangle your beefalo if things went south.

See the original comment. If you are worried your beefalo will die, run away and it will most likely survive. Like I said though, early/mid game (pre-rift) the only knockbacks are from the two Werepig fights.

12 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

i think beefalo are suppose to be THE universal traveling tools, and this is one thing that beefalo should excel in , walking around the constant on my two feet while dealing with horrible wormholes is just not fun in the slightest, also comparing woby ( which already beats beefalo a whole mile in the speed department ) and weregoose ( can your beefalo go on the sea???) is not suitable 

I would like to know how woby beats a beefalo in speed. Cause Idk how to do it. I forgot weregoose can run on the water, that's my mistake! That is actually a big deal, yeah. I would be okay with beefalo being the default traversal method if they didn't also have all the upsides associated with combat. I feel like they need to be more specialized that way for balance. But the fact they can do both, is my biggest reason why Beefalo are "this is dumb" levels of overpowered.

12 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

ah, if you didnt knew, beefalo cannot be fed if they are aggro to something, even if you ride on them, they refuse to be fed at all, this is really common when you fight knockback bosses that has multiple attacks

Why am I able to then? I don't have any mods that affect beefalo. Was this adjusted in a later patch and is no longer the case at the moment? If that is true, great news!

[Nikki Darks]

On 2/27/2026 at 3:33 AM, DegenerateFurry said:

Nerfs to player abilities are a tricky thing in games like this. Nerfing a fun mechanic in a way that either removes it or makes it useless for the sake of "balance" in a co-op game isn't going to be fun for anyone, it takes options away and that sucks. That's one thing to keep in mind: Don't Starve Together isn't a competitive PVP game with tournaments, it's a sandbox survival game with bosses. Balance matters only in the sense that the game is fun for the majority of players. It's okay to have a Wolfgang character who's just flat-out overpowered for the sake of it if playing him is optional and not a detriment to other players; Wolfgang doesn't need to be fair because this game's meant for co-op and what he's fighting isn't other players, it's mobs.

Do not idealize balance for the sake of balance, the point of a game is to be fun.

All of this. It's way healthier for the game if characters are strong yet fun, rather than balanced and mediocre in enjoyment. HOWEVER, if a character flat out replaces another character that actively kills the fun for the person who enjoys the character who is getting replaced.

 

On 2/28/2026 at 5:04 PM, Naifxoxo said:

still maxwell must be nerfed or avoid giving him more qol

Only nerf Maxwell needs is to no longer be able to read Wickerbottom's books. It is ludicrous that there is objectively no benefits to playing Wickerbottom over swapping out to Maxwell and just using her books.

[DegenerateFurry]

4 hours ago, Nikki Darks said:

All of this. It's way healthier for the game if characters are strong yet fun, rather than balanced and mediocre in enjoyment. HOWEVER, if a character flat out replaces another character that actively kills the fun for the person who enjoys the character who is getting replaced.

 

Only nerf Maxwell needs is to no longer be able to read Wickerbottom's books. It is ludicrous that there is objectively no benefits to playing Wickerbottom over swapping out to Maxwell and just using her books.

Fully agree here. I do think that in an ideal world, Maxwell would have a more impactful downside, but the real problem with him is that he makes Wickerbottom a swap character and that's what Klei needs to address. 

[Jakepeng99]

On 3/1/2026 at 12:14 PM, Edible Coal said:

i dont think anyone would engage in a serious combat with only one piece of armor, so 475 hp is pretty unrealistic, you would most likely have multiple pig skin helmets and log suit, so you would have 750 if you dont run out of armor and no healing ! which is almost one beefalo health

dont forget 80% reduction means you heal 5 time more effective

I think you forget beefalo costs nothing and only takes one inventory slot.

On 3/1/2026 at 12:14 PM, Edible Coal said:

would say blue mushrooms are op rather then the beefalo itself 

Uh? No they are not? They are only “op” with a beefalo. This is a lot of coping.

Beefalo doesnt suffer the sainity downside.

Also there are millions of healing foods. 
 

On 3/1/2026 at 12:14 PM, Edible Coal said:

Even though taming beefalo is easier then ever, you are still looking at a 20 day counter ( and this assumes you tame it perfectly with no down time)

It can often be around 16.

Also, even when untamed, beefalo are still really useful and powerful. They are the opposite of a burden in the training process, just sort of annoying since you can’t leave them alone without a salt lick. Other than that, spending some twigs or petals for 60% faster speed, infinite armour and an infinite weapon is insane value that id still spend that even if tamed beefalo still needed it.

On 3/1/2026 at 12:14 PM, Edible Coal said:

are dark sword and tentacle spikes that hard to get?

also remember beefalo attack slower then players do and requires constant attack canceling to achieve the same dps as on foot with a hambat

warsaddle are arguably much harder to get then the ultimate saddle - Nightmare saddle because wooly sheeps are just too hard to spawn

Darkswords take resources to get, have downsides, and take inventory space. Beefalo doesnt.

Tentacle spikes are worse.

Also saying they attack slower means nothing when the increased movement speed lets you hit bosses more on average since kitting them is really easy.

 

Warsaddle is only good for tanking, glossmar saddle is better for combat.

 

On 3/1/2026 at 12:14 PM, Edible Coal said:

or the fact that walter has a much speedier woby that puts rider beefalo with butterfly saddle to shame ? 

Mentioning this is silly. Beefalo is overall better, but they compete. I only see shadow dash Woby used in niche scenarios.

Walter on a Beefalo suffers zero sainity lose, and can utilise both a slingshot and a melee attack.

On 3/1/2026 at 12:14 PM, Edible Coal said:

not everyone can fully fight on beefalos

Only really Wortox, Wolfgang, and Wanda are not worth fighting on them. 
 

Every other character benifits a lot from them. For WX, you don’t need speed circuits much anymore and can use stuff like Sainity, hunger and ect. You can have night vision and spend the other circuit on QOL. I think the electric circuit works on beefalo but I can’t remember. If it doesn’t it doesn’t matter.

For Wurt and Webber, having a beefalo doesnt hurt them it just makes it easier for them to direct their followers around.

[Mike23Ua]

Obviously Klei support the Beefalo as being a key part of DST, they literally have skin cosmetics for head, horns, body, feet & tail.

And I bet you 1 billion dollars (which I don’t have but anyway) that if Beefalo had some BETTER Cosmetics (cough cough Catmando skin for Halloween 2026? 🥺) I bet that if there were cool skins for the Beefalo even the Anti-Beefalo haters would become Pro Beefalo.

Also: It’s important to note that taming Beefalo isn’t just a core part of DST, it is now ALSO a core part of the original DS as well.

Games Evolve, they adapt new gameplay mechanics, some liked.. some disliked. But to keep 2013 DS relevant in 2026 it was inevitable that some core changes would be made somewhere along the way.

Beefalo can also become completely and totally extinct within a game world, with (currently..) no way of EVER repopulating them (unlike volt goats).. not even the Wandering Trader will sell you an item to bring them back once fully extinct.

So yeah there’s that one MAJOR Downside.

[DegenerateFurry]

45 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Obviously Klei support the Beefalo as being a key part of DST, they literally have skin cosmetics for head, horns, body, feet & tail.

And I bet you 1 billion dollars (which I don’t have but anyway) that if Beefalo had some BETTER Cosmetics (cough cough Catmando skin for Halloween 2026? 🥺) I bet that if there were cool skins for the Beefalo even the Anti-Beefalo haters would become Pro Beefalo.

Also: It’s important to note that taming Beefalo isn’t just a core part of DST, it is now ALSO a core part of the original DS as well.

Games Evolve, they adapt new gameplay mechanics, some liked.. some disliked. But to keep 2013 DS relevant in 2026 it was inevitable that some core changes would be made somewhere along the way.

Beefalo can also become completely and totally extinct within a game world, with (currently..) no way of EVER repopulating them (unlike volt goats).. not even the Wandering Trader will sell you an item to bring them back once fully extinct.

So yeah there’s that one MAJOR Downside.

Yeah, I think the beefalo gaming haters tend to discount just how much time you can lose if you let your beefalo die? It takes 20+ days as anyone but Wigfrid to tame if you don't have a brush and ride them constantly, and they can die pretty quickly if you're not careful while fighting a boss. When they die, if you don't have the post-rifts upgrade for the bell, that's it, you have to start over. 

[Evelo]

4 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

And I bet you 1 billion dollars (which I don’t have but anyway) that if Beefalo had some BETTER Cosmetics (cough cough Catmando skin for Halloween 2026? 🥺) I bet that if there were cool skins for the Beefalo even the Anti-Beefalo haters would become Pro Beefalo.

3 hours ago, DegenerateFurry said:

Yeah, I think the beefalo gaming haters tend to discount just how much time you can lose if you let your beefalo die? It takes 20+ days as anyone but Wigfrid to tame if you don't have a brush and ride them constantly, and they can die pretty quickly if you're not careful while fighting a boss. When they die, if you don't have the post-rifts upgrade for the bell, that's it, you have to start over. 

As the self-described #1 Beefalo Hater, I 1) will still hate beefalo even if they have awesome skins, because they, fundamentally, are a problem for game balance in how I personally perceive the game. Sure Klei supports Beefalo tremendously, as do so many players. I am in the minority. I think they trivialize the game. I think the game would be better if they had more drawbacks. It's my subjective opinion about a game I love. 
2) I don't discount the time investment. It's just that the time investment is basically nothing because of just how easy they are to domesticate. If you aren't careful while fighting a boss, that's just player stupidity. Why are you not careful during a boss fight of all things? I get not being careful against spiders or bees or other farm creature, but a boss? Seriously?

4 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

Beefalo can also become completely and totally extinct within a game world, with (currently..) no way of EVER repopulating them (unlike volt goats).. not even the Wandering Trader will sell you an item to bring them back once fully extinct.

So yeah there’s that one MAJOR Downside.

So being stupid is a downside? Well yeah, of course it is.
Lastly, I think there are very very very few true "beefalo-haters" I think I may be the only one and I don't even hate beefalo. I just want them to not replace the player character's downsides. That's literally it! If Wendy's beefalo do 25% less damage, I am thrilled! If Beefalo mounted/domesticated by Wormwood become a plant being that can't heal from food, that would be awesome! Downsides make Don't Starve really unique and fun compared to other survival games, I disdain homogenization of characters in all games and it's been happening for years with Don't Starve, more so with the skill trees making most characters excel in combat when they didn't need to before.

Edited March 3 by Evelo

[Mike23Ua]

Why would a Beefalo dealing 25% less damage for Wendy make any sense? She’s the Weak one.. not the Horse.

Now if you want to go “crazy” with “Horse” designs, well uhhh I kinda want to see wormwood riding around on a gigantic pumpkin with vines for legs, or Webber riding a Spider Queen looking thing.

At its Core: it’s still a Smelly FurCow, it has no additional gameplay effects beyond being a smelly FurCow.. but NOW they have extremely desirable skins so you can ride your Beefalo/Thing, in style!

Kinda like how my car in Fortnite is now permanently the 1989 Batmobile. It does exactly the same thing the non-skinned car does, now it just looks way cooler.

THAT is my beefalo pipeline dreams..

But I don’t think these qualify as QOL more of Skin Set ideas to go with.

[Evelo]

48 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Why would a Beefalo dealing 25% less damage for Wendy make any sense? She’s the Weak one.. not the Horse.

Why does abigail's buff work with the beefalo at 40% damage bonus instead of the 10% that other allies receive? She's the sister to Abigail... not the horse.

[DegenerateFurry]

3 hours ago, Evelo said:

Why does abigail's buff work with the beefalo at 40% damage bonus instead of the 10% that other allies receive? She's the sister to Abigail... not the horse.

Because Wendy's the one controlling the "horse" and is just as in sync with her sister as she normally would be, so she can still use the buff to its maximum regardless. Using a beefalo isn't affected by Wendy's damage penalty because she's ordering it around instead of hitting something with it, but because she's ordering it around, she can still take advantage of Abigail's ghostly boon better than anyone else.

[flamboyant wolf]

4 hours ago, Evelo said:

2) I don't discount the time investment. It's just that the time investment is basically nothing because of just how easy they are to domesticate. If you aren't careful while fighting a boss, that's just player stupidity. Why are you not careful during a boss fight of all things? I get not being careful against spiders or bees or other farm creature, but a boss? Seriously?

Stupidity isn't the only reason why someone would play unoptimally. People make mistakes, and it's not exactly unheard of for something to go wrong, whether it be because you made a bad on-the-spot judgement in a boss fight/tricky situation, or did an eventual misplay during many hours that dst worlds&sessions can take up. I feel like disregarding the risk cost with "just don't be stupid and play well" is at best silly.

[Naifxoxo]

On 3/2/2026 at 4:01 AM, Nikki Darks said:

All of this. It's way healthier for the game if characters are strong yet fun, rather than balanced and mediocre in enjoyment. HOWEVER, if a character flat out replaces another character that actively kills the fun for the person who enjoys the character who is getting replaced.

 

Only nerf Maxwell needs is to no longer be able to read Wickerbottom's books. It is ludicrous that there is objectively no benefits to playing Wickerbottom over swapping out to Maxwell and just using her books.

ya , insane how ppl still begging for maxwell skilltree or qol ,

[Mike23Ua]

Speaking of QOL the newest update (year of the clockwork horse) changed bishops in way that shows a visible on screen “attack” AOE the player can Dodge out of the way of to avoid taking damage of.

I want to politely request that the entire game gets this overhaul, fighting Eye of Terror for example feels “Cheap” when it swipes towards you with no cue warnings that’s what is about to happen. Or when it face plants the ground leaving behind a crater.

If Clockworks can now have an AoE warning prior to delivering the AoE, why can’t the rest of the game? (Players can toggle off in settings like grid placement)

[Bumber64]

21 hours ago, DegenerateFurry said:

Because Wendy's the one controlling the "horse" and is just as in sync with her sister as she normally would be, so she can still use the buff to its maximum regardless. Using a beefalo isn't affected by Wendy's damage penalty because she's ordering it around instead of hitting something with it, but because she's ordering it around, she can still take advantage of Abigail's ghostly boon better than anyone else.

Saying the beefalo gets it from being ordered around is post hoc rationalizing a boon that not even beefalo skill Wigfrid gets. We can as much say Wendy's weakness multiplier is due to depression, and the beefalo should pick up on that.

I can't recall if character planar buffs even apply to nightmare saddle.

Edited March 4 by Bumber64

[DegenerateFurry]

2 hours ago, Bumber64 said:

Saying the beefalo gets it from being ordered around is post hoc rationalizing a boon that not even beefalo skill Wigfrid gets. We can as much say Wendy's weakness multiplier is due to depression, and the beefalo should pick up on that.

I can't recall if character planar buffs even apply to nightmare saddle.

What you're missing is that it's not the beefalo getting it. It's Wendy getting it via the beefalo. It's like how when Warly eats volt goat jelly, his hits are still electrified even if he's riding a beefalo (the power extends from him and through his mount). 

[Bumber64]

On 3/3/2026 at 11:13 PM, DegenerateFurry said:

What you're missing is that it's not the beefalo getting it. It's Wendy getting it via the beefalo. It's like how when Warly eats volt goat jelly, his hits are still electrified even if he's riding a beefalo (the power extends from him and through his mount). 

So how come it doesn't work for chili flakes?

Chili in the beefalo, volt jelly in the Warly. Science can't explain that.

[WendyHater9000]

On 2/27/2026 at 3:51 AM, aidancode said:

And just to be clear, I don't want to say these people are totally wrong! It's true that QoL can often be seen as a buff. DST is often seen as an easier game compared to DS due to all of the QoL features. But at the end of the day, QoL does improve the game.

Bet you never played ds after playing dst.

Most ds creatures have 1/2 health or even 1/3 health. You can even get 96% dmg protection just from wearing football helmet+ logsuit.

 

[aidancode]

11 hours ago, kevindaze said:

Bet you never played ds after playing dst.

Most ds creatures have 1/2 health or even 1/3 health. You can even get 96% dmg protection just from wearing football helmet+ logsuit.

 

I have played DS after playing DST, as it so happens. I'm not sure what your point is. DS is an interesting experience for sure. The whole armor stacking thing was "balanced" by requiring a lot of inventory space and resource gathering to maintain. Especially in adventure mode! (pretend bundling wraps didn't break that gamemode)

But uh are you saying DST enemies having more health and armor stacking being removed to be related to QoL or fun value? I don't think it has anything to do with that.

[Mike23Ua]

11 hours ago, kevindaze said:

Bet you never played ds after playing dst.

Most ds creatures have 1/2 health or even 1/3 health. You can even get 96% dmg protection just from wearing football helmet+ logsuit.

 

Enemies in DST have more health because the developers intended for a bare minimum of 4 total players to be hitting them in the face (4 is the max player count for Nintendo switch) 6 if your in Xbox or PlayStation. They said a long time ago that health was adjusted to account for more than one player.

However my problem with DST is that many many MANY other games such as Left 4 Dead, Borderlands, Dead Island, Gotham Knights, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredders Revenge, TMNT Splintered Fate, etc etc etc… these all have CONTENT SCALING, which is to say…. That the game adjusts its difficulty (how many mobs spawn, how many bullets or hits it takes to kill them, more difficult variations, etc) based on how many players Join or Leave.

DST honestly at this point? Is just an ancient relic from 2015 that hasn’t adapted a more flexible play session.

There are people out there who will tell you “Git Gud” and that they enjoy trying to Solo Fight bosses that go down in laughably short fashion when 6 players are hitting it… but there are other people who wish the game actually balances itself out like so many other games like it.

[DegenerateFurry]

2 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

Enemies in DST have more health because the developers intended for a bare minimum of 4 total players to be hitting them in the face (4 is the max player count for Nintendo switch) 6 if your in Xbox or PlayStation. They said a long time ago that health was adjusted to account for more than one player.

However my problem with DST is that many many MANY other games such as Left 4 Dead, Borderlands, Dead Island, Gotham Knights, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredders Revenge, TMNT Splintered Fate, etc etc etc… these all have CONTENT SCALING, which is to say…. That the game adjusts its difficulty (how many mobs spawn, how many bullets or hits it takes to kill them, more difficult variations, etc) based on how many players Join or Leave.

DST honestly at this point? Is just an ancient relic from 2015 that hasn’t adapted a more flexible play session.

There are people out there who will tell you “Git Gud” and that they enjoy trying to Solo Fight bosses that go down in laughably short fashion when 6 players are hitting it… but there are other people who wish the game actually balances itself out like so many other games like it.

Yep, the way DST is set up fails to deliver a good experience for solo and for group play.

Six players? Like you said, every boss goes down so fast that they barely seem like a boss. 

One player? Now the raid bosses are unreasonably time-consuming and difficult, needing what amounts to cheese strats and resource-dumping to beat most of them (armies for BQ, walls for dragonfly, etc, pond positioning abuse for Toadstool, etc) as normal characters.

Boss HP scaling would fix this. It wouldn't even be hard to implement, modders have done it. Just give us a world setting to turn it off so we can have the current DST experience in hosted worlds and bam, everyone's happy.