who will return playable? and who be new?

[Cheggf]

I think Don't Starve Together's reworks and refreshes gradually making all of the characters more and more similar goes to show that there are too many characters and there isn't enough room for them to all have their own identities. A smaller, more focused roster would be good.

[Szczuku]

46 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

I think Don't Starve Together's reworks and refreshes gradually making all of the characters more and more similar goes to show that there are too many characters and there isn't enough room for them to all have their own identities. A smaller, more focused roster would be good.

Large pool of characters doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be similar. A large pool of characters, where each character has a lot of skills, is what causes that. Most skilltrees have given their respective character some form of teleport or revive, or both.

If dse kept character perks to a minimum then we could have all ds/t characters added without them cluttering niches.

But that's probably not going to happen, since if Klei added Wurt but only gave her merm physiology abilities, and not merm society abilities, players would whine and complain that she was more fun in dst.

[Creatorofswamps]

7 minutes ago, Szczuku said:

But that's probably not going to happen, since if Klei added Wurt but only gave her merm physiology abilities, and not merm society abilities, players would whine and complain that she was more fun in dst.

I had similar thoughts, and came to the conclusion that at least I would still enjoy playing for Wurt, even if hiring merms was removed

[flamboyant wolf]

5 minutes ago, Creatorofswamps said:

I had similar thoughts, and came to the conclusion that at least I would still enjoy playing for Wurt, even if hiring merms was removed

Same.

Honestly it might take me some time to form a cohesive, consistent opinion on what direction I hope DSE takes with characters, but so far, where I stand is:

1. Above all else, I want character perks to affect the way you play, I want them to be viable, they don't have to be overpoweringly strong, but utilising them shouldn't feel like hindering yourself(ex: pre-skilltree Woodie or Walter). 

2. I think character downsides are fun, and a great way to set characters apart, further their identity etc;

3. I do think some "debloating" and scaling down could be beneficial either way, especially if it can reduce characters' ability overlap, and overall bring a better balance, help avoid character's abilities trivialising the game and so on, Although I don't want characters to go back to feeling "flat" and "one-note"(ex: pre-skill tree Winona&Willow, many pre-refresh characters in general)

4. I think DSE, being a new game and all, is a great opportunity to reimagine or majorly rework the characters, especially since it appears that the environment they will exist in has been changed up quite a bit as well. 

[Cuernito.]

On 4/9/2026 at 9:03 PM, Echsrick said:

like i think every dst character sould return because yes

Nah, im pretty sure klei is gonna make only the main survivors to appear in the new game, and paid or exclusive characters from DST are gonna stay in Together, it kind of makes sense on how klei usually only move the main characters to the next game or dlc. It happens in DST and im pretty sure is gonna happesn again in this one, but dont worry klei is much likely adding new characters too into this game. I would like a monster hunter character like Van hellsing, i think with the new asthetics he can combine well in this new victorian gothic game.

[Echsrick]

49 minutes ago, Cuernito. said:

Nah, im pretty sure klei is gonna make only the main survivors to appear in the new game, and paid or exclusive characters from DST are gonna stay in Together, it kind of makes sense on how klei usually only move the main characters to the next game or dlc. It happens in DST and im pretty sure is gonna happesn again in this one, but dont worry klei is much likely adding new characters too into this game. I would like a monster hunter character like Van hellsing, i think with the new asthetics he can combine well in this new victorian gothic game.

that be sad and kinda weird i think, like why would the old ones not be there? they have wigfrid and webber both not from base game in together and still 1 from ship and ham

[Creatorofswamps]

actually, I think that klei will add all the characters from dst, otherwise they will upset most of the players

[Cuernito.]

4 minutes ago, Creatorofswamps said:

actually, I think that klei will add all the characters from dst, otherwise they will upset most of the players

I dont think this would happen cause they didnt added all character from dlcs to DST and while is true that some players are still upset about wilbur, walani, wheeler etc not being in Together it was a good choice after all, they added new characters excluive to DST and it worked really well, so why would they do the opposite now?

Edited April 11 by Cuernito.

[Creatorofswamps]

3 minutes ago, Cuernito. said:

I dont think this would happen cause they didnt added all character from dlcs to DST and while is true that some players are still upset about wilbur, walani, wheeler etc not being in Together it was a good choice after all, they added new characters excluive to DST and it worked really well, so why would they do the opposite now?

at least the characters from dst are already optimized for multiplayer, and over the years they've invested more in them than in the single-player characters.

[Cuernito.]

11 minutes ago, Echsrick said:

that be sad and kinda weird i think, like why would the old ones not be there? they have wigfrid and webber both not from base game in together and still 1 from ship and ham

The thing is they dont added all in the past, they added them before all the skill trees and reworks because the game felt boring back then with every character not being too much different from each other, and since DST back then only had 1 exclusive character (Winona). And i think its gonna be better for the new game to not have a really big characters pool. The game can feel too bloated if so.

3 minutes ago, Creatorofswamps said:

at least the characters from dst are already optimized for multiplayer, and over the years they've invested more in them than in the single-player characters.

Im pretty sure some of them are gonna appear in the new game like walter, but mostly for lore reasons, others like wurt i think are gonna stay in Together.

[xhyom]

Kindaaa worried for Wickerbottom, because a timeskip likely happened; characters look older, Wilson even has some gray hair, it seems. You know where I'm trying to get right? lol

[Queron81]

20 minutes ago, Cuernito. said:

I dont think this would happen cause they didnt added all character from dlcs to DST and while is true that some players are still upset about wilbur, walani, wheeler etc not being in Together it was a good choice after all, they added new characters excluive to DST and it worked really well, so why would they do the opposite now?

But DS and it's dlcs never had such a huge playerbase like DST, especially not over so many years. I bet most players didn't even unlock most of the characters. I think Klei will try to satisfy all players and add all the characters from DST to DSE. The characters from DST are like a huge family, and whatever will happen in the end of the story, I think they will get all ported to this new world. And I'm sure there will be added some new characters from this new world.

19 minutes ago, xhyom said:

Kindaaa worried for Wickerbottom, because a timeskip likely happened; characters look older, Wilson even has some gray hair, it seems. You know where I'm trying to get right? lol

Just give her 0.5 walking speed  

[Mysterious box]

1 hour ago, Cuernito. said:

I dont think this would happen cause they didnt added all character from dlcs to DST and while is true that some players are still upset about wilbur, walani, wheeler etc not being in Together it was a good choice after all, they added new characters excluive to DST and it worked really well, so why would they do the opposite now?

They added a good deal of them though we got Warly, Wormwood, and Wagstaff, and Wilbur was sorta added via Wonkey.