Benefits and Downsides of Each Circuit (and How they could be Rebalanced)

[LavenderLillie]

As it currently stands, WX's circuits are in a state where there is a definitive "best build" for each board, and each board has a definitive "best circuit". This puts WX in a very awkward state, where their main gimmick of building your own character is overridden by the fact that most of your options are a waste of your circuit slots unless you're going for a niche gimmick (with all of the cool gimmicks that come up being nerfed into the ground). As such, I wanted to go over the current state of each circuit, the benefits of picking 1 of those circuits, the benefits of filling your bar with those circuits (where applicable), and what could be done to change the circuit to be more balanced with other circuits on the same board. Today's patch has made these a lot better already, and I hope to see more changes like that in the future!

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS: WX-78 is non-binary, and thus uses they/them pronouns. Have some basic decency and refer to them as such. Additionally, I am making this set of reviews from the perspective of a solo player. I don't know how most of these circuits are improved or in some cases how they even function in co-operative play (particularly regarding the new circuits). As such, most of my suggestions on how circuits work will be focused more towards single-player play, which I am aware is not the target audience for Don't Starve Together. If any developers or any of you helpful forums users who play with friends have any ideas on how to improve circuits for co-op, feel free to put them in the comments or implement them!

Alpha Circuits

"Alpha Circuits" are the set of circuits dedicated to your base stat buffs. Most of the circuits provide buffs to their relevant stat, as well as an additional buff that makes that stat more powerful, either by default or once you have the relevant Alpha Tinkering perk. After the nerfs prior to the weekend, most of these circuits feel very underpowered on their own, as well as feeling rather uninspired (with the improved versions of the circuits only giving a stat buff and all). Most of these circuits either need a buff or a rebalance to make them feel more interesting and to make it feel more rewarding to specialize in a single circuit type. I am also of the mind that all of these circuits should be rebalanced to give 50/150 of their respective stat instead (with Beanbooster either staying at 100 or also going to 150), at the price of increasing the cost for some of the circuits. Changes for each of the individual circuits will be mentioned in their individual sections. An alternative solution could be making it so that having a full bar of non-Super Circuits gives +20 to the stat (making it an even 400) and having a full bar of Super Circuits give +160 to the stat (restoring Hardy's even 600 while allowing other stats to get a taste of greatness as well) 

 

Hardy Circuits
The Hardy circuit is the standard version of the health circuit, giving you +40 health and, with Alpha Tinkering II, give +2.5% damage reduction per circuit. This means that, when equipping 1, you go from 100HP and 0% DR to 140HP and 2.5% DR, and with a full bar you get 380HP and 17.5% DR. For the Super-Hardy circuit, you gain +100 HP and +5% DR, giving you 200HP and 5% DR or 400HP and 15% DR (440HP and 17.5% DR with a standard Hardy circuit inserted to supplement the 7th slot). As of now, this is the best Alpha circuit set by far, as the circuits are cheap and buff your most impactful stat-- you can survive your Hunger or Sanity bottoming out, but if your Health ever hits 0, there is no recourse other than revival. However, the circuit has felt significantly weaker since its DR was nerfed (twice, 10/20% --> 5/10% --> 2.5%/5%) and the base circuit was nerfed (50/150 --> 40/100), making it not particularly worth it to invest 2 insight points into and making the super-hardy circuit feel like a significantly less impactful upgrade than it should for the effort it takes to scan a nurse spider.
This set of circuits could be improved by improving the circuit's damage reduction once again (from 2.5/5% to 4/10%), or giving it a stat falloff the more circuits you equip (5/15% --> 3/10% --> 2/5% with a maximum total of 22/30%), both making a single circuit enticing for balanced stats and encouraging a tankier build (alternatively, this circuit could get a stat fall-on, to still encourage just a single circuit while holding out powerful damage reduction for full tank builds). An alternative to damage reduction would be a small bit of lifesteal per circuit instead.
As for recipe changes, the standard Hardy circuit is good where it's at, but the Super-Hardy circuit could ask for a Nurse Spider or Life-Giving Amulet instead of two spider glands, increasing the cost of producing the circuits to make up for their increased strength.

 

Processing Circuits
The Processing circuit is the standard version of the sanity circuit, giving you +40 sanity and, with Alpha Tinkering I, gives reduced sanity drains. With Alpha Tinkering II, these circuits also gain an increase in sanity gains. The Super-Processing circuit gives +100 sanity, meaning that the maximum pool of stats is 380 sanity with base and 440 with Super circuits. The current problem with these circuits are that Sanity is the least important stat to maintain-- it's impactful when you have a low sanity pool, as changes to your sanity stat are overall more impactful than they are with a higher sanity pool, but equipping more than one of these circuits is excessive to say the least. (This is likely the reason that the Processing circuits have the Beanbooster Tier 3 circuit, which is being covered separately). As such, I feel that giving the circuits more tools to maintain your sanity does very little in encouraging people to take more of these circuits.
Instead, I would appreciate if having Processing circuits plugged in increased WX's "processing power" (as a buff from Tinkering II, whilst maintaining the decreased sanity loss in Tinkering I or moving that functionality to basekit like Gastrogain's hunger drain reduction), which would improve the effects of other circuits (either by improving their stats or buffing their tinkering effects)-- 1 Super-Processing would apply the buff to the Alpha board, 2 to the Beta board, and 3 to the Gamma board, in addition to providing their sanity buffs (the increased processing perks would be either absent or halved with only normal processing circuits).
As for recipes, I feel these circuits are good where they're at right now, though if Super-Processing circuits were to be made more expensive, I would make them cost a purple gem either instead of or in addition to the 1 nightmare fuel cost.

 

Beanbooster Circuit
The Beanbooster circuit is the improved version of the sanity circuits for some reason, despite primarily providing health-related changes. It inherits the +100 max sanity from Super-Processing circuits, as well as providing a 5hp/30s passive healing. It inherits the Tinkering perks from the standard Processing circuits, while also gaining a 20% max HP shield from Alpha Tinkering II (this shield blocks only the amount of health it has until it reaches 15 HP or higher, where it will block any overflow that would put the shield below 0) [side note: please un-nerf the shield to recharge 1HP/5s again, 5 minutes to charge up the minimum health shield only to lose it on transferring consciousness just feels awful, please make it innate to the body or make it generate faster. Another way to improve the shield would be to have it generate faster overall (10s/3s per point), but having it have a 60s/30s cooldown after taking damage before recovering]. As it stands, this is perhaps the worst circuit to plug more in of. While it gives you more healing and shields, equipping 2 of these circuits leaves you with at most 1 Alpha slot open, meaning you can have at most 140 HP (56HP shield) to heal with these circuits.
Since Beanbooster currently lacks incentive for plugging in more of, I suggest giving this circuit a massive fall-on when you equip two of them, increasing the healing to 10HP/20s and the shield from 20% to 50% of your max HP (as well as giving it some damage reduction once it reaches 15 or higher). While these changes may seem rather drastic, the main purpose of this circuit is to function in tandem with Hardy circuits, and as such there should be some compensation for forgoing health for healing and shielding.
No comments on the recipe, this is perfect. Requires you to scan Bee Queen and either kill her or Klaus to obtain the circuit, so you have to go through a boss.

 

Gastrogain Circuit
The Gastrogain circuit is the base form of the hunger circuit, granting +40 hunger and (I'm pretty sure) -5% hunger drain, giving you a maximum of 380 hunger and roughly -30% hunger drain (these reductions are multiplicative, so the hunger drain reduction is calculated by doing 0.95^7 rather than 1 - 0.05*7). The Super-Gastrogain circuit provides +100 hunger and -10% hunger drain, with a max of 440 hunger and roughly -31% hunger drain (wow, huge improvements!). With Alpha Tinkering I and II the hunger drain reduction becomes stronger, up to -10%/20% (tot. -52%/-54%).
This circuit was absolutely gutted by the nerfs, with a full circuit loadout going from -79%/-90% to -52%/-54%. While the circuits are certainly still okay, there is very little incentive to equip a full set of them. To this end, I suggest re-buffing the circuits to their -5%/-20% base hunger drain reduction, and instead replacing the Tinkering buff with +5%/20% and +15%/50% hunger gain from foods (this would equate to a maximum of approx. 4x hunger from food with Supers if multiplicative or x1.65 with additive scaling), encouraging still eating for those who plug in a single circuit, while allowing those who want to ignore food to fill their entire hunger bar with a single meaty stew.
EDIT: Disregard the information here, the circuit has been re-buffed in the current patch. While I would still prefer eating to give more hunger over draining less hunger, we're in a much better state now. Thanks Klei!
As for circuit pricing, this circuit feels just right where it needs to be in progression. If I had to change something, however, I would make the Super-Gastrogain circuit require moon shrooms, to force the player to visit both the Ruins and Archives outskirts to acquire the necessary materials.

 

 

 

Beta Circuits

"Beta Circuits" are the set of circuits dedicated to passive effects. These will often affect stats that deviate from the standard Hunger, Health, and Sanity, but are more statistical or passive increases rather than the more active effects provided by the Gamma Board (the exceptions being Spatializer, which is in a very strange middle ground between Beta and Gamma, but isn't really "active" enough to be Gamma, and Chorusbox, which is in a weird middle ground between Alpha and Beta, but is still more active than any of the other Alpha circuits). An additional effect is provided to most of the circuits that fits the theme of their original circuit, with Spatializer once again being an exception. Partially as a result of the recent nerfs and partially as a result of Speed always having been the most impactful stat that these circuits can buff, these circuits have mostly felt underpowered, excluding Speed, Night vision, and the Thermal circuits. As a result, I think most of these should be buffed to provide improved or more interesting buffs.

 

Acceleration Circuits
Out of all of WX-78's circuits, the Acceleration circuits have always had the best progression and design. First of all, it's one of two sets of circuits on the Beta board that have any inter-circuit progression at all. Save for the Acceleration and Illuminant circuits, every other circuit on the Beta and Gamma boards is a standalone circuit. This naturally makes the Acceleration circuits stand out. Also, the base Acceleration circuit costs a whopping 6 slots, the whole Beta board if you elected to ignore Off By One, providing a large cost for ignoring the upgraded version but providing a good reward. Additionally, as of now, this is the only circuit where its buff falls off depending on how many of the circuit you have installed. With Super-Acceleration Circuits, your speed goes +25%/40%/50%, incentivizing using only a single circuit to maximize your gains, but providing a fair reward for plugging in as many as possible as well. Its Beta Tinkering II Perk makes the circuit feel even better to use, having it instead reduce speed decreases from most sources (this scales linearly, going 33%/67%/100%).
This is the best designed Circuit that WX has ever had, by far. It provides good progression, ample incentive to plug in a single circuit, and a fair but not ridiculous reward for plugging in a full set-- this is partially bolstered by all of the other Beta circuits being okay at best and useless at worst, meaning there is very little opportunity cost to plugging in 3 circuits, but even if other circuits were usable, the ability to have +50% speed would still be enough for a good portion of people to use that as the build for their main chassis.
If I was absolutely forced to change something about the recipe for the Super-Acceleration circuit, I would have it require an electrical doodad. Nothing special, but makes mass production a little more costly.

 

Illuminant Circuits (+ Optoelectronic Circuit)
Out of all of WX-78's circuits, the Illuminant circuits are.... okay. The addition of the Super-Illuminant circuit has made the set far more enticing, as a single slot for the ability to avoid Charlie entirely (at the cost of being unable to sleep) makes the circuit worth it to upgrade, and the scan and recipe being simpler has made the standard Illuminant circuit a good Day 1 plug-in. The Optoelectronic circuit, now a part of this chain as well, is one of the best circuits in the entire game, as full night vision makes combat and exploration alike in the caves and at night a complete breeze. However, with the recent nerfs, there has been very little incentive to plug in more than one (Super-)Illuminant circuit. If you were to plug in 2 Illuminant Circuits or 4 Super-Illuminant Circuits, you should have full-screen vision like you do with the Optoelectronic Circuit. Additionally, the Tinkering perk for the base Illuminant Circuit makes it worse (exchanging its large circle for a cone, reducing your area range), and the Tinkering Perk for the Optoelectronic Circuit is that it stops hurting your eyes. Cool! I can do that with a mod, too! The only one of these circuits where the Tinkering perk is done well is the Super-Illuminant Circuit (as the cone is an actual help rather than a hindrance), and even still I feel as if more could be done with it (yes, I'm one of those Lighthouse WX advocates. I want to have 7 rays coming off of me at all times!).
As it currently stands, this is one of the easiest circuit sets to fix. Illuminant and Super-Illuminant should give more incentive for plugging more of them in (such as a fall-on for equipping more circuits), and Optoelectronic should get a more intriguing perk (maybe if it worked like the Magnifying Glass or Inspectacles from Hamlet, giving a chance for anything you chop/mine to drop a trinket or additional resource), moving its non-blinding to the base kit.
Recipes are perfect for this set. If something had to change, increasing the Optoelectronic circuit's cost to Moggles instead of just a Moleworm would balance the recipe I suppose? I don't feel anything needs to change at all, personally.

 

Electrification Circuit
Hey, speaking of circuits that were destroyed by the nerfs, here's the Electrification Circuit! I could've sworn this used to give +30 thorns for each circuit, but it was 20 at the start of the beta, and now it's 15. Its Tinkering II perk gives an AoE damage effect that does far too little damage (75/circuit) for how infrequently it activates (it's meant to be a "get off me" button, but without 2 equipped it doesn't even do enough to kill a spider). Despite this, there's little to no incentive for equipping more than one circuit, as the first circuit provides the huge additional buff of electric immunity (making Electric damage do 1x instead of 1.5x and making Electric damage not shock WX)-- future circuits offer no compensation for the lack of additional buffs.
I feel this circuit could primarily benefit from a flat buff, then a pseudo-fall-on for equipping more circuits (something like 20/30/20 for a maximum of 70 damage). I also wish its Tinkering II buff was something more interesting than a burst damage effect, though if it's forced to be an AoE burst effect then I would increase the damage. Personally, I would like for them to give WX's attacks electric properties once every 10/5/3 hits, and move the AoE damage effect to the Screech circuit.
EDIT: New patch just came out, this circuit is in a much better state now. I would still like some fall-on for more circuits, but this now properly functioning as electrical damage and not interrupting the Blocking circuit is much better now! Thank you Klei!
Cost of this circuit is totally perfect. Nothing needs to change.

 

Rangebooster Circuit
Finally, we're free of circuits that were nerfed! Unfortunately, this circuit is just bad. This circuit essentially acts as a micro-version of the Horizon Expandinator, while also applying a negligible increase to Jimmy's range with tinkering, increasing the range of Scott, and being incredibly annoying to get the recipe for. I wish I could say anything redeeming about this circuit, but it does what it's supposed to do poorly and that is the unfortunate truth.
Luckily, with how vague of a stat "Range" is, this could very easily be improved by allowing WX to gain increased range when performing certain actions (including buffing the radius of the Spin-Cycle perhaps?). If WX gained more weapon range from these circuits (especially if applied with a fall-on to make using more of them more enticing), I could see myself equipping 2 of these over a speed circuit.
This is one of the few circuits where I feel the cost could be made cheaper, perhaps just requiring a flare instead of a compass. Additionally, if WX had an easier way to scan birds (or if Tallbirds also counted for the scan because they're tall and high up), this circuit would be much less tedious to obtain and would thus be much more fit for its main purpose of early-game exploration. (Maybe we could even get a Super-Rangebooster circuit for scanning Vultures or even the post-rift Birds that give the tool/weapon range buff instead, though if it were locked to post-rift I'd appreciate some other buff too.)

 

Temperature Circuits
This duo of circuits is probably the most interesting Beta circuit set, because they're the only circuits with only one use, being avoiding the temperature effects of their respective seasons (Thermal for Winter, Refrigerant for Summer). Additionally, with Beta Tinkering I, the circuits give resistance (immunity with 2) to the opposite temperature's debuff (Refrigerant stops you from catching fire, Thermal stops you from freezing). Additionally, Thermal increases your drying speed, and increases your food spoilage rate by 25%. Conversely, Refrigerant will create ice when you reach 90% (maybe it's 95%?) wetness or higher, and will decrease the spoilage rate of food by 25%. Both of these circuits will heat up/cool down Thermal Stones in your inventory, as well as players and thermals around you.
Overall, these circuits are good for what they are meant for, but don't incentivize equipping more than one well enough to rationalize the 6 slot cost. I would appreciate if their Tinkering perks were instead swapped to increasing attack speed or damage as you attack more, though also generating heat as a result (akin to Obsidian tools in Shipwrecked), and freezing enemies who attack you, with both perks becoming significantly more powerful from equipping a 2nd circuit (2.5x the rate of heat and buff generation, always full freeze on hit)
As for cost, both of these circuits fit in a very fair spot as it stands. 1 of the respective gem is both very thematic and feels like a perfectly reasonable cost.

 

Spatializer Circuit
Wait, this is the last Beta circuit already? Really? Well, anyways, the Spatializer Circuit replaces the (1st-7th) rightmost slot(s) in your inventory with an Expansive Storage Unit, acting as an in-inventory Elastispaced chest. This can be held open while moving, and you can have other containers opened at the same time. Interestingly, this is the only circuit to have no benefit from Tinkering perks, which I feel is quite odd and makes the circuit feel underpowered with its skill perks (or lack thereof) than other circuits do.
That being said, this is one of my favorite circuits in WX's kit by far. I love how much is opened up by having a bottomless slot, including but not limited to carrying infinite amounts of wood or rocks on logging and mining trips, making re-turfing a breeze, and allowing you to stack theoretically infinite lucky horseshoes (yes, the luck boost still applies. Please let us keep this, Klei!). The only things I would change are giving this circuit a Tinkering perk-- perhaps giving each Storage Unit a second, non-elastispaced slot?, and allowing you to re-organize the units within your inventory (perhaps when you plug in the circuit, you get to bind the slot to an inventory slot, preventing you from causing bugs by moving the slot around while also allowing you some level of customization).
As for cost, this feels in just the right place. Not post-rift, but late-game enough that it feels like a fitting reward for your quality of life. This is probably my second favorite of all of WX's circuits just for how unique it is.

 

 

 

Gamma Circuits

Gamma Circuits are the set of circuits that provide active abilities for WX, allowing them the ability to perform actions that they couldn't by default. I was enjoying not complaining about the last 3 circuits I wrote about, unfortunately I get to do a lot of complaining here! Most of these abilities, as they stand, do not apply any meaningful buffs to WX, don't function properly for what they want to do, or both! Luckily, these circuits have yet to be nerfed, so I have hopes that they will be improved and refined as we go deeper into the beta now that Klei is back in the office (as of either today or tomorrow).

 

Redigestion Circuit
If I were ranking these circuits on how funny they were, Redigestion would be right at the top. Unfortunately, that's the only thing this circuit really has as of right now. This circuit allows you to process 5/4/3 rot into Nutribricks, which give 18.75 hunger when wet, and never spoil when dry. This circuit is perfect to throw on a body at base if you want to produce Nutribricks, but it's not super easy to obtain rot (especially in the early game when this circuit is intended to be used), and the bricks don't provide enough hunger to justify intentionally letting food spoil. Additionally, its Tinkering I perk allows you to consume spoiled food to also work toward producing Nutribricks... which doesn't really change much about how the circuit functions.
If I were to rebalance this circuit, I would make it so that more circuits being equipped gave more powerful Nutribricks (18.75/25/32.5), and if its Tinkering perk was changed from putting spoiled food towards Nutribricks to instead putting overeaten food toward Nutribricks (so for every 25 or so hunger you overeat, you produce another brick).
As for the recipe, it works fine for where it's at. It's an early game circuit with an early game cost, but it should be better.

 

Screech Circuit
I feel that I should preface this by saying that I have not tested this circuit at all, so anything I state about this circuit is taken from info I've heard off the forums and the (unofficial) DScord. (Right here in writing is when Game Update 721079 released). With the new patch increasing its screech duration, it's in a slightly better state, though I say this all not knowing how much it was buffed.
Since I don't know the extent of the changes from the new patch, I will assume that this circuit has been improved to the point of being okay for people who want the Screech effect, but I feel like it should also deal some damage (similar to how Queen Womant deals sanity damage to the player with her Screech).
Recipe cost is fine, I like there being another use for the Mole Rat noses.

 

Blocking Circuit
After the patch this circuit is certainly better now-- it's no longer interrupted by electrification's tinkering perk and the vision for the ability is far more clear. However, it certainly still needs some work. Its Tinkering II effect applying Planar Defense doesn't really do anything either, as Planar Defense isn't helpful at all against normal enemies which is what you'd like to use this circuit on for the most part.
Firstly, this circuit needs some inherent thorns. Without a full Electrification build, the circuit does effectively nothing. Additionally, this circuit needs to either have an increased duration but apply before armor, or grant some increased armor durability, as part of its Tinkering II perk. This skill's tinkering is locked behind 2 insight points, it should be good.
As for cost, this Circuit works like a Snurtle Shell more than it does a Shellmet, please let it cost a Snurtle Shell instead of a Shellmet. That is all.

 

Spin-Cycle Circuit
Much like the Speed Circuit, especially post-patch, this is probably one of the best designed circuits in WX's kit. There's something so silly about going whhheeEEEEEEE!!!!!! and spinning around dealing AoE damage to trees and mobs. Its Tinkering II buff of increased speed makes spinning even more fun (though it does feel a little lacking compared to some of the other perks especially for a Tinkering II buff), and it has a fair incentive to equip more with it halving axe durability loss.
For things I would change, I wish this circuit improved axe damage (perhaps excluding the Maul because it's already powerful enough there), and allowing you to use other tools like pickaxes or even shovels and hoes with the Circuit as well.
As for cost, this is right where it needs to be. No complaints.

 

 

 

The Skill Tree?

Part of the way the Circuitry branch of the skill tree is oriented feels like it takes away some of the player's choice, forcing them into taking the Tier I Tinkering for each circuit type before you take the Tier II, partially because some circuits become more powerful with each increase and partially because some of the circuit effects are too powerful to only require a single skill to obtain. Because of this, I suggest instead splitting them into Tinkering A and Tinkering B; before being able to take a Tinkering B perk, you have to take 1-2 Tinkering A perks, and to take Off By One, you need to take 3 total Tinkering perks. This would make it feel as if you have more agency in which perks you choose, while still locking more powerful perks behind the weaker perks. (It would also be cute if the A and B perks were placed on a circuit bar, with Off By One being placed as a circuit on the 7th slot that the perk introduces!)

(Here's a concept I drew up in Paint 3D in like 10 minutes)

 

Anyways, I hope that these suggestions are seen and read by the Klei team and considered for feedback for the circuits. If we keep getting updates like today's patch, I hope we can come to a more complete state for this skill tree! I want to give one more thank you to Klei for already showing us that they're listening and for taking the time to refine and perfect this skill tree update. Thank you all for your hard work!