Hardcore mode in dst

[nimzowitsch10]

Alot of survival games have hardcore but dst doesnt, if dst had a hardcore mode it should have:

- 1.5x damage taken, 1.5x sanity drain, 1.5x hunger drain

- 2x mob spawns, more nightmare creatures

-2x wildfire,, fire spreads as fast as old ds

- every creature is aggro towards you, even neutral ones

- no revives, no rollbacks, world ends when there are no players left alive

 

I'm sure there's already a mod like this out there but if klei could add this to base game that would be cool.

 

 

[Edible Coal]

i dislike hard mode that just use number multiplier to be hard

[DegenerateFurry]

38 minutes ago, nimzowitsch10 said:

-2x wildfire,, fire spreads as fast as old ds

So what you're saying is that hiding in the caves all summer is a requirement rather than an option?

Also, can't most of this be done with worldgen sliders?

Edited March 1 by DegenerateFurry

[Auth]

3 hours ago, nimzowitsch10 said:

- every creature is aggro towards you, even neutral ones

when im minding my own business and get jumped by 29 bunnies

[Evelo]

Don't Starve has a "hardcore" mode, so to speak. Set the Revival timer to "None". When you die, BOOM! World Resets, just like Don't Starve (Alone) intended.
I always play that way because that's the way it, I think at least, ought to be played.

[Captain_Rage]

Actually, that might be to liking of the majority of the community. People will flex by playing hardcore mode and rolling back each time they face a setback. 

[layangan putus]

Official Hardcore Mode should include unique enemy move sets (a broader behavior, such as a larger alert radius and kiting players for backup) in addition to the classic difficulty multiplier (increased movement speed and extra attack). I’d like to see boss reworks that match the game's theme. Much like V Rising's Brutal mode, different difficulty settings should offer unique attack patterns and behaviors, not just more health. Devs also need to rebalance all loot by reducing it to almost none and revalue all recipes to introduce a more challenging progression; they should also consider changing the starting season to winter or summer. Enemies like Guardian Pig, Gilded Knight, Rockjaw, Lurking Nightmare, Big Tentacle, Splumonkey, Mush Gnome, Sentrypede Husks should be the relative baseline of the weakest before opening rifts. Another important thing is making the skill tree organic rather than having it available at all times. Regarding death, implementing Outward-style hardcore mechanics can be fitting: players would have a 20% chance of permanent death, or otherwise respawn in a random location with only a torch, similar to the drowning mechanics but modified.

For minor tweaks, players will no longer have full control over their T3 Chess Shadow opponent, increasing the likelihood of encountering the T3 Knight. The Labyrinth should have the sanity/insanity-obelisk obstacles just like in Atrium. The ocean should have constant wind/waves moving toward the mainland until both Archive puzzles are completed. Solving the first puzzle calms the sea near the giant whirlpool, granting access to the second puzzle, which is then required to calm the entire ocean. Anyway, on and on, it will be too much effort creating hardcore for gaining what?

 

"Upcoming DST 3 release in the next 25 years, fr fr COPIUM"

[Well-met]

the hardcore mode is called wes

[Jakepeng99]

14 hours ago, nimzowitsch10 said:

Alot of survival games have hardcore but dst doesnt, if dst had a hardcore mode it should have:

- 1.5x damage taken, 1.5x sanity drain, 1.5x hunger drain

- 2x mob spawns, more nightmare creatures

-2x wildfire,, fire spreads as fast as old ds

- every creature is aggro towards you, even neutral ones

- no revives, no rollbacks, world ends when there are no players left alive

 

I'm sure there's already a mod like this out there but if klei could add this to base game that would be cool.

 

 

Hardcore means when you die you dont respawn.

 

It should just be survival mode but resurrection and rollbacks dont work.

[nimzowitsch10]

Klei is not going to create unique things for hardcore mode, look at the development time for regular updates on this game.

[Malfario]

Guys do you realice most of the things listed on this psot are already plausible via game settings.

You can make the player take 35% aditional dmg, increase the natural apearing spawners of most mobs, including sanity creatures, decrease the respawn timers of almost anything, increase how much rain wildfires, frog rains you get.

Dst already has a Hardcore mode and you can do it yourself

[layangan putus]

1 hour ago, Jakepeng99 said:

Hardcore means when you die you dont respawn.

 

It should just be survival mode but resurrection and rollbacks dont work.

Technically, you are correct that hardcore can refer to permadeath; however, it can also denote maximum difficulty settings.

 

Anyway, WoW Hardcore features permadeath, where players have to clear difficult dungeons and manage occasional PvP encounters. However, it's an MMORPG, so it's heavily influenced by external factors that players can't fully control. Thus, Minecraft is a better reference, as the goal is relatively straightforward: defeating the Ender Dragon. Another survival-sandbox reference, like No Man's Sky, also features a permadeath mode where the goal is clear: reach the center of the galaxy. There’s even an achievement for it, despite there being few mechanical differences between it and normal mode. If hardcore mode equals permadeath, how will this be implemented in DST? I feel most of the elite players have mastered this: hunting all bosses without ever dying, being resurrected in any other way, or abusing rollback. I guess it is what it is.

[Maxil20]

15 minutes ago, layangan putus said:

Anyway, WoW Hardcore features permadeath, where players have to clear difficult dungeons and manage occasional PvP encounters. However, it's an MMORPG, so it's heavily influenced by external factors that players can't fully control.

Completely tangental but the idea of someone doing permadeath on an MMO game and knowing there are people who have done that disturbs me on a deep emotional level that I cannot describe.

[Mike23Ua]

2 hours ago, nimzowitsch10 said:

Klei is not going to create unique things for hardcore mode, look at the development time for regular updates on this game.

The thing is, and as others have pointed out already.. is that DST already HAS the type of Hardcore Mode your asking for, literally everything on your first post can be done by meddling with world Gen settings.

Personally I would love it if they would touch up on some of the world Gen settings a bit but it is what it is..
 

touch up on meaning stuff like: Wonkey Curse Normal (the way it exists right now) Wonkey Curse Worse (the way it was when it was first added into the game before being nerfed into oblivion for casual players to still enjoy the game)

Same thing with “Randomized Seasons” I would prefer them to actually and truly be Randomized, as in I always have to prepare for everything because the next day could be a hot summer, and after that a rain soaked cold spring. Currently it’s only randomized the first time you go through them, and then remain that way for all future years.

Theres also “Lights Out” that wish would get fundamentally reworked from the ground up, such as for example: Having shadow hands spawn to unscrew Winona’s Spotlights so she at least has to run over and pick the bulb back up and screw it in again. Make WX78’s permanent Nightvision glitch out every so often so the “challenge” of playing in a lights out game mode can still be present.

Unfortunately Klei seems hell bent on ruining any of these outdated modes, by continuing to add new reworks & skill trees that directly clash with the already established modes that were not made with “infinity spotlights” in mind when they were created.

[Waywarbler]

DOUBLE world hunger.

TRIPLE wildfire spread.

13 hours ago, Evelo said:

When you die, BOOM! World Resets, just like Don't Starve (Alone) intended.

Well, there was touch stones, and meat effigies.

[layangan putus]

28 minutes ago, Maxil20 said:

Completely tangental but the idea of someone doing permadeath on an MMO game and knowing there are people who have done that disturbs me on a deep emotional level that I cannot describe.

Maybe similar to preparing for an ultra-marathon of over 100K, a triathlon, or free climbing, no? Perhaps hiking tough mountains is a more fitting analogy; mastery over managing a high risk into a calculated outcome as a group. People start small, get to know the community, build relationships, learn from mistakes, develop mental resilience, and train hard over the years. I suppose people get healthier through these sports rather than extreme gaming, but whatever is fun for them.

[Evelo]

4 hours ago, Waywarbler said:

Well, there was touch stones, and meat effigies.

Yeah, I do wish those worked with the insta world reset though. Makes me wish DST had a Don't Starve Together (Alone) mode for the solo players.

[Nikki Darks]

5 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

Completely tangental but the idea of someone doing permadeath on an MMO game and knowing there are people who have done that disturbs me on a deep emotional level that I cannot describe.

Yeah, very much this. As someone who's been playing MMOs for most of his life... I dislike how the thought of permadeath in an MMO makes me feel.

[Seero]

On 2/28/2026 at 9:24 PM, nimzowitsch10 said:

2x mob spawns

This isn't Minecraft. 

[gaymime]

On 3/1/2026 at 2:24 AM, nimzowitsch10 said:

Alot of survival games have hardcore but dst doesnt, if dst had a hardcore mode it should have:

- 1.5x damage taken, 1.5x sanity drain, 1.5x hunger drain

- 2x mob spawns, more nightmare creatures

-2x wildfire,, fire spreads as fast as old ds

- every creature is aggro towards you, even neutral ones

- no revives, no rollbacks, world ends when there are no players left alive

 

I'm sure there's already a mod like this out there but if klei could add this to base game that would be cool.

 

 

bits marked in blue is just world settings you can adjust right now on every platform when making/rejoining a world where you are the host. i personally -always- turn on harder hits and i increase or max most of the creature spawns(except splemonkies and lunar aberrants, those guys can rot).

 

also if you want aggro play as wortox or webber who have monster tags and invoke the ire of neutral(but not passive) mobs

 

aaaalso also while i dont think it is 1.5 you can adjust the day ratio to not have daytime, you can increase the spawn of shadow creatures, you can make kelp garlands, you can wear spider hats and you can turn up hostile creatures with sanity auras(treeguards are good for passives and spiders are good for actives) you can use slurpers for hunger drain or even intentionally adopt personal practices like not having greencaps and not using tophats and the like. there are loads of ways to play that are both forced by the game and only forced by your willingness to play that way

 

 

On 3/1/2026 at 11:30 AM, Captain_Rage said:

Actually, that might be to liking of the majority of the community. People will flex by playing hardcore mode and rolling back each time they face a setback. 

i can tell you from both personally experience as well as reading the comments on this forum; most people actively refuse to engage in the "hard" version of the game and play more-or-less default whenever humanly possible.  as for rollback? lolololol, with some of the people on here i absolutely would pay

[layangan putus]

9 hours ago, gaymime said:

i increase or max most of the creature spawns

Because of the fixed loot table, defeating multiple enemies yields a wealth of resources if one is skillful enough, making the progression relatively easier. In comparison, the combination of setting a low creature spawn rate (little) and setting a low (very slow) regrowth rate can create scarcity.

 

Having more enemies works both ways; for example, facing multiple Depths Worms actually poses little threat since their kiting pattern is simple. Using spiders as another example, the threat from 50 spiders is not that significant when players can simply run around until they pick off one Spider Queen, then use the hat to start a civil war among the rest. Another way to deal with such an ordeal is to utilize another mob group (like Bunnymen) or certain skills - the classic farming setup.

If only the world settings allowed for limited spawners (only one spider den, rabbit hutch, and pig house), there would be little players could do except wait and plan carefully. In that case, farming spiders spawned from the queen within a day and a half would actually make sense. The scarcity could lock some players out of certain strategies that rely on grinding those resources in the early game. Anyway, it’s better if there is a setting to reduce the loot table to almost nothing (RPG-like) in hardcore mode, so setting max (tons) to creature spawn rate can finally become a real deal.

I remember no Alchemy Engine challenge somewhere. Now, that's hardcore, especially when navigating to the ruins to get the star staff.

[gaymime]

4 hours ago, layangan putus said:

Because of the fixed loot table, defeating multiple enemies yields a wealth of resources if one is skillful enough, making the progression relatively easier. In comparison, the combination of setting a low creature spawn rate (little) and setting a low (very slow) regrowth rate can create scarcity.

 

Having more enemies works both ways; for example, facing multiple Depths Worms actually poses little threat since their kiting pattern is simple. Using spiders as another example, the threat from 50 spiders is not that significant when players can simply run around until they pick off one Spider Queen, then use the hat to start a civil war among the rest. Another way to deal with such an ordeal is to utilize another mob group (like Bunnymen) or certain skills - the classic farming setup.

If only the world settings allowed for limited spawners (only one spider den, rabbit hutch, and pig house), there would be little players could do except wait and plan carefully. In that case, farming spiders spawned from the queen within a day and a half would actually make sense. The scarcity could lock some players out of certain strategies that rely on grinding those resources in the early game. Anyway, it’s better if there is a setting to reduce the loot table to almost nothing (RPG-like) in hardcore mode, so setting max (tons) to creature spawn rate can finally become a real deal.

I remember no Alchemy Engine challenge somewhere. Now, that's hardcore, especially when navigating to the ruins to get the star staff.

well nothing is difficult if you have a high enough skill so... i am not sure what you are trying to say here?

as far as that goes you can also reduce how many spiders show up as well by setting them to less, little or none which you can do with many of the enemies AND you can do the same with their spawners though you are looking at 3-8 not 1 since the size of the world does affect things. there are none-world challenges where you turn everything off which makes stuff substantially harder but that also requires using the world settings which... i am assuming a lot of people, including you do not use since many of these things being requested already exist as a setting right now in every version of dst

[Mike23Ua]

You don’t have to try to flex that you’re too good at the game you know? This game is HARD by Default, I literally died a horrible miserable death to a crew of monkey pirates with absolutely no way of defending myself against them.

The problem with DST in particular is that swarms of high health, high damaging mobs gather up on you worse than a Smite Gank. Which makes Ocean Content as a Whole: An absolutely miserable experience if you don’t have friends to play the game with.

One Pirate Monkey Raid later.. and your about ready to rage quit the game for good. It’s plain & simply: Not Fun, it’s content that was designed with the intention that you actually have 2 or more players playing the game together. And there is heavy HEAVY Evidence to back this up.

Groups of Brightshades are significantly easier to deal with when you have one player who can distract and get them to draw out their vines while the other hits the weak point. Same thing with bosses with endlessly spawning minion spam, it’s so much easier when someone can deal with the minions while you focus on damaging the boss.

But the entire reason I am even on these forums at all is to voice opinions, concerns, show different view points, and to maybe suggest changes.

And for the above “distraction” situation, Wendy should be able to command Abigail to lure mobs away, Maxwell should have shadow puppets that “flee” and disappear (runs away from his direction and then after a few seconds vanishes) like Mirage in Apex Legends.

New abilities that allow single player players to achieved the same result they would have if real players existed to kite them away.

Hiring Pigmen, and Bunnymen do not work like this… they just run around punching whatever, but what if we had AI we could command to “Lure” enemies away? 

DST Does not NEED a Hardcore Mode because there’s realistically only like 10% of extreme machivoest players who would actually be interested in it: And yes I’m talking Directly to the people who can flawlessly dance around in combat situations with their “no hit challenges” but for everyone else? It would just take away from updates EVERYONE could enjoy to cater to these Extremists.

[layangan putus]

1 hour ago, gaymime said:

well nothing is difficult if you have a high enough skill so... i am not sure what you are trying to say here?

That's exactly the point of hardcore mode! With limited resources, most players' skills matter less, so with reasonable scarcity, the usual gameplay can change dramatically for non-hardcore players. We're still talking about hardcore, yes? Frankly, most enemies are just free resources unless they have advanced mechanics. Let's say that in hardcore mode, all pigs become guardian pigs and live in groups of four; this would make strategies involving pig skins, such as crafting hambat or helmets, highly questionable. In the end, players require spending specific resources to hunt optimally, such as using electricity when hunting Gilded Knights; the hardcore mode should have more of these enemies if they keep the same loot table.

 

1 hour ago, gaymime said:

there are none-world challenges where you turn everything off which makes stuff substantially harder but that also requires using the world settings

Have you or anyone else done that? What is the goal? No hunting bosses, so just hanging around up to 100 days or a full year? The challenge is fine, but I prefer the official hardcore mode to include all contents.

 

I think people can defeat all bosses without ever accessing the alchemy engine. I haven't checked if it's technically possible, but it will be PITA for a Wilson-like character when fighting AFW. Ah, now I am curious.

[gaymime]

14 minutes ago, layangan putus said:

That's exactly the point of hardcore mode! With limited resources, most players' skills matter less, so with reasonable scarcity, the usual gameplay can change dramatically for non-hardcore players. We're still talking about hardcore, yes? Frankly, most enemies are just free resources unless they have advanced mechanics. Let's say that in hardcore mode, all pigs become guardian pigs and live in groups of four; this would make strategies involving pig skins, such as crafting hambat or helmets, highly questionable. In the end, players require spending specific resources to hunt optimally, such as using electricity when hunting Gilded Knights; the hardcore mode should have more of these enemies if they keep the same loot table.

 

Have you or anyone else done that? What is the goal? No hunting bosses, so just hanging around up to 100 days or a full year? The challenge is fine, but I prefer the official hardcore mode to include all contents.

 

I think people can defeat all bosses without ever accessing the alchemy engine. I haven't checked if it's technically possible, but it will be PITA for a Wilson-like character when fighting AFW. Ah, now I am curious.

i hosted none-world challenges for three years (two of which were on this forum) and before the ds/dst twitch split would pay streamers to do streams of none-world runs(and a few times max world runs which were substantially more difficult for most). it used to be one of the things i enjoyed seeing skilled players do! for sure aside from webber you cannot "hang around" in a none world you just die when the first night happens or your hunger runs your health out. the goal is to survive OR if you are mindful and competent to make a simple base(machine, fire, cookpot, the usual). my fav run was a woodie who managed to find lunar grotto and built a functional base)

also there isn't really any way to have a hardcore mode with all elements? what you are asking for is a different game using dst assets....even the hardmode mod from a few years back had to make several caveats and changes to work(while also adding in a few things to make it easier to play because it was not balanced super great). personally i think you might consider trying more bespoke plays for a while. if you play with the game on its terms you might learn some fun and interesting things ^^ at the very least it will allow you novel ways to play that better match your listed desires,

personally i recommend upping tallbirds for a start. that by itself does a fair bit to change how you play just by the mobile nature of the danger and tallbird eggs are not so overpowered that you gain too much by having a few more of them than you'd get off of a tallbird fort