Question: Charcoal?

[VrtraTheory]

Hello all.  Still very new to the game and am attempting to figure things out without any guides.

 

However, I'm stuck on charcoal... I've tried letting logs burn in my campfire, sticking nitre and rocks in the fire (won't let me), setting pine trees on fire with my torch... I'm on my fourth play and about to die, mostly because I can't figure out how to unlock any of the charcoal recipes.

 

Can anyone give me a hint where to get it?

[NailBach]

Hi,

just started playing it yesterday. By accident, i ran through a wood with a torch i found out that you need to burn down trees for charcoal.


Hope this helped

[23rd]

Yeah, you need to wait for the pine tree to grow into an actual.. tree. There has to be a better way to say that. This is the only mod I use that changes the game in any significant way, it just makes sense for to be able to get charcoal and ash from a firepit. You said yourself your thought to try getting it from your campfire.

 

Is that your face? That's a nice face.

[simplex]

Is that your face? That's a nice face.

It's like you're TRENTOMINOUS XXIII.

[23rd]

It's like you're TRENTOMINOUS XXIII.

Maybe if I was being all secret about it. "I think someone has a nice face. BUT I WON'T TELL YOU WHO! Hehehe I'm so devious hehehe." That bolded part is funny, I like that.

[Sporb]

It turns out burnt trees aren't completely useless. I remember being stuck trying to figure out how to get charcoal for the longest time. Once I figured that out (by accident), I was finally able to survive winter for the first time.

[PopcornTattoo]

yeah you need to burn down trees to get charcoal but you should be careful where you decide to light the first tree

 

you could end up wiping out an entire forest biome if you're not careful

[Deacon_Blue]

yeah you need to burn down trees to get charcoal but you should be careful where you decide to light the first tree

 

you could end up wiping out an entire forest biome if you're not careful

 

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[VrtraTheory]

Thanks all!

 

Unfortunately, I had already died (killed by a penguin, go figure...)

 

I'm on a new playthrough and this time I rushed a crockpot, but I felt the output was REALLY low compared to the effort I put into it...  Making a crockpot meal basically takes ALL DAY (trapping enough birds or bunnies to cook, sticking them in, waiting for output) and doesn't seem to give enough sustenance.  I felt I had better luck with my previous strategy, which was to make my camp in the middle of a beefalo herd and build 6-8 farms.  I was able to survive reasonably well by eating my crops every other day, and doing a berry bush picking trip the alternate days.  Is there a magic food strategy I'm missing?  (I still haven't managed to make my fishing pole work, and bees are still a mystery to me, so maybe those make things easier.)

 

Also, one last question -- I can't get rid of this tree guardian.  He unfortunately found my camp and I can't seem to lead him far enough away to lose him... making him walk over campfires and my firepit don't seem to work... And I don't have nearly enough health to survive a swipe from him.  Any ideas what to do with him?

[23rd]

Thanks all!

 

Unfortunately, I had already died (killed by a penguin, go figure...)

 

I'm on a new playthrough and this time I rushed a crockpot, but I felt the output was REALLY low compared to the effort I put into it...  Making a crockpot meal basically takes ALL DAY (trapping enough birds or bunnies to cook, sticking them in, waiting for output) and doesn't seem to give enough sustenance.  I felt I had better luck with my previous strategy, which was to make my camp in the middle of a beefalo herd and build 6-8 farms.  I was able to survive reasonably well by eating my crops every other day, and doing a berry bush picking trip the alternate days.  Is there a magic food strategy I'm missing?  (I still haven't managed to make my fishing pole work, and bees are still a mystery to me, so maybe those make things easier.)

 

Also, one last question -- I can't get rid of this tree guardian.  He unfortunately found my camp and I can't seem to lead him far enough away to lose him... making him walk over campfires and my firepit don't seem to work... And I don't have nearly enough health to survive a swipe from him.  Any ideas what to do with him?

I HAVE SO MUCH ADVICE TO GIVE, SO I'M USING CAPITALIZATION TO INDICATE HOW EXCITED I AM! THE FIRST THING I SHOULD TELL YOU IS that every crockpot recipe is different, so at the beginning you'll be wanting to make meatballs. The most efficient way to make meatballs is with one morsel and three berries (or, if you've been running into them, three red mushrooms instead) which will restore about 63 hunger, far more than the combined total of your ingredients. The health it restores and the time it takes to make meatballs is lousy, so by the late game you'll probably never be making them. Regardless, meatballs are practically essential for the early game. I don't want to spoil too much, but bees will definitely make things easier for you in the Summer if you know what to do with them to increase your food output. Honey makes a lot of unique late-game recipes, one of them is even geared towards helping you get your Sanity back up.

 

Regarding the Lief (fine, fine, Treeguard) the first thought that went through my head when I was chased by a giant, angry tree the first time, aside from a sardonic joke about Smokey the Bear, was to plant pinecones in an attempt to make more trees just so he'd forgive me. Turns out that had been a good idea.

 

Your prose is even better than your face!

[Deacon_Blue]

Adding to 23rd, I suggest tossing all kinds of random ingredients into crock pots to learn what you can and can't make that are worthwhile. The single most useful piece of information I can give you is that you can use one monster meat in crock pot recipes safely. That should help provide a little more "oomph" to your recipes. In general, the more meat you throw in the crockpot, the better the output. Just avoid overdosing on the monster stuff.

[23rd]

In general, the more meat you throw in the crockpot, the better the output.

I don't know about this, necessarily. Putting in four morsels will still just net you meatballs, and few things suck worse than realizing you just spent four morsels on meatballs when you could've spent one. Still, the rest of your post is golden. Can't believe I forgot to mention monster meat!

[the truthseeker]

Welcome to Don't Starve and the Klei forums Vrtra Theory!

(And yes, a handsome pic it is indeed. The other comments you won't get unless you stick around and get to know some of our members, but I hope you do! Out of curiousity, I'd love to hear how you came up with that handle though!) 

 

 

The "burn trees to get charcoal, but be careful how you burn them or you'll get a forest fire" thing has been addressed, so I can skip past those basics.

 

In the beginning, try looking for not-fully-grown trees that are isolated (not next to other items unless they also happen to be not-fully-grown trees you also wish to burn) to burn and chop those down until you have at least 8 (6 for the crock pot and 2 for the drying rack prototypes.)

I'd avoid burning down forests as you can also burn bushes, twigs, mushrooms, etc, that you are not ready to permanently lose. 

 

Once you've got that base up and running (a fire pit and science machine to start,) I'd find (or make with that shovel if need be) some ground to plant trees.

 

Plant them in groups of 6 since you can now safely choose either to burn them down and get more charcoal (for more Crock Pots and/or Drying Racks) or have them grow out and chop down the fully-grown trees.

 

 

For obvious reasons, leave enough space between your sets so lighting one on fire does not light others on fire unless you absolutely choose to get more charcoal than 6 at a time and deliberately pant them as a big group! Same goes for making sure any existing/transplanted "pickables" (grass, twigs, berries, wild carrots, flowers etc.) are far enough away from those trees should they be set afire (by you or lightning. As a matter of fact, make sure your pickables have a lightning rod placed within two screen lengths just to be safe!)  

 

As for the other topics:

 

 

 

I HAVE SO MUCH ADVICE TO GIVE, SO I'M USING CAPITALIZATION TO INDICATE HOW EXCITED I AM! THE FIRST THING I SHOULD TELL YOU IS that every crockpot recipe is different, so at the beginning you'll be wanting to make meatballs. The most efficient way to make meatballs is with one morsel and three berries (or, if you've been running into them, three red mushrooms instead) which will restore about 63 hunger, far more than the combined total of your ingredients. The health it restores and the time it takes to make meatballs is lousy, so by the late game you'll probably never be making them. Regardless, meatballs are practically essential for the early game. I don't want to spoil too much, but bees will definitely make things easier for you in the Summer if you know what to do with them to increase your food output. Honey makes a lot of unique late-game recipes, one of them is even geared towards helping you get your Sanity back up.

 

Regarding the Lief (fine, fine, Treeguard) the first thought that went through my head when I was chased by a giant, angry tree the first time, aside from a sardonic joke about Smokey the Bear, was to plant pinecones in an attempt to make more trees just so he'd forgive me. Turns out that had been a good idea.

 

Your prose is even better than your face!

 

 

Adding to 23rd, I suggest tossing all kinds of random ingredients into crock pots to learn what you can and can't make that are worthwhile. The single most useful piece of information I can give you is that you can use one monster meat in crock pot recipes safely. That should help provide a little more "oomph" to your recipes. In general, the more meat you throw in the crockpot, the better the output. Just avoid overdosing on the monster stuff.

 

 

 In general, the more meat you throw in the crockpot, the better the output. Just avoid overdosing on the monster stuff.

 

I don't know about this, necessarily. Putting in four morsels will still just net you meatballs, and few things suck worse than realizing you just spent four morsels on meatballs when you could've spent one. Still, the rest of your post is golden. Can't believe I forgot to mention monster meat!

 

 

Crockpots require 6 charcoal, 3 cut stone (or 9 rocks,) and 6 twigs per. Drying Racks require 2 charcoal, 3 rope (or 9 grass,) 

and 3 twigs per. These things should be build in multiples (as a new player I'd recommend no less than 3 crock pots and four drying racks if not more!) before your first winter. 

 

Why? 

What About 8-simple-reasons-to-use-Crock-Pots-and-Drying-Racks:

(spoilered for length)

 

1. Cooking the right foods can get you more than simply the sum of its parts! When used with the right ingredients, they restore MUCH more hunger than the ingredients themselves and even if they don't, they then can restore MUCH more health and sanity then picking/eating flowers and is MUCH easier than finding and eating COOKED green/blue mushrooms for sanity or UNCOOKED blue mushrooms for health (which--like all mushrooms,--ONLY regrow after about 10-20 game-hours of rain!) I'll start with a hint and say Dragonfruit can be used this way even if you only had sticks on you....
2. Crock pot and drying rack foods do not spoil until they are harvested (the same goes for farms BTW!) It's highly recommended keeping foods on these items until absolutely needing them to eat/craft Crock Pot Recipes, (and keeping an emergency foot supply unharvested on the farms and all but one Crock Pot during the winter just in case.) I can't tell you how often having that un-harvested food saved my bacon because it was there and it did not rot. Once you craft an ice box, you can harvest more often and store it there, but this tactic of :leaving a set of food unharvested should always be done! 
3. Jerky is your friend! Not only does it last longer than meat (20 days un-refrigerated compared to 6 days for meat and 10 days for cooked meat. Small jerky lasts the same duration, but the foods you can make small jerky from have varying duration un-refrigerated, ) eating Jerky by itself heals 20 health, 25 Hunger and 15 Sanity! (Small Jerky is 8, 12.5 and 10 respectively.) Also, it can be used for ANY crock pot recipe requiring "meat." Just remember: you can't cook jerky and cooked meats can't be dried.   So you can't make a meat effigy out of Jerky and once you cook meat, you have to use or lose it in that state and can't later dry it. Monster meats can also be dried into Monster Jerky this way lasting up to 20 days (compared to the 6 days normally or 15 days cooked.) You can also use them (including regular and in cooked forms) in crock pot recipes to make advanced foods that heal yoiur stats safely!  However, not only does it still retain some of its toxicity this way if eaten alone (all monster meat forms restore 18.75 hunger and jerky makes you lose 5 sanity compared to the 10 if simply cooked and both versions take away 3 health,) the restriction of using 2 or more monster meats causes Monster Lasagna still applies just like Jerky=meat in cooking recipes. Taking your Meats and drying them (saving some aside for when you need to craft with meat though,) then placing them in your Ice Box is highly recommended until you have that "last wave of meats" you can keep on the rack. 
4. All crock pot foods can be stacked up to 40, (unlike some other base foods that stack a lot less!) This means you can make long-lasting foods like Bacon and Eggs and keep them a long time, even explore with them for days easily! This tactic really shines when you have an ice box so not-as-long-lasting-foods can be stacked and stored without worrying about storage caps in your ice box! (Believe it or not, if you have many Advanced Farms and harvest a lot, this could be an issue, and sometimes, you don't find the gears for a second Ice Box  until after your first winter!) 
5. Cook with Eggs! Once you've made a  a birdcage/bird trap, you now have a source for all your meat (and cooked monster meat if not already jerky) to be made into eggs! Heck, even rotting eggs can be cooked and made into fresh eggs before they spoil! (And once you learn to harvest those crops and feed them...well, learn what it can do, but it could take several attempts to unlock it all.)  Eggs and the right other ingredients make SEVERAL other foods that heal you up (and one of them is THE highest healing food in the ENTIRE game! it's worth it...well, maybe not...well, maybe so...what's that synonym for me being wishy-washy and changing my mind a lot again....) 
6. It increases the durability of stale/rotten foods by grouping them with all ingredients used! Specifically, (and as a reminder why crock pots are awesome for keeping food: )

   Spoiled Food used in Crock Pot will have the spoilage value averaged among the ingredients, then halved. Cooked meals will not begin to spoil until the player removes them from the Crock Pot.

   Have some berries stale/rotting that were already cooked? Throw them in with a morsel or monster meat and make some meatballs that are now in the green duration that can fill up your hunger what that's all you need to fill or feed them to some other "friends" for allies! Make sure they don't hog all your food though...oops did I just give another hint? That Honey, and Jerky finally approaching the yellow? Make Honey Ham! Still too much honey, pumpkins beginning to go bad,  and losing your mind (literally perhaps) what to do next? Make Taffy and Pumpkin cookies! (Oh dear, did I just give you several crock pot recipes that are awesome?! Oh well....) 

7. Those things around that that used to simply annoy you now become the most important meal of the day! Butterflies (cooked with a vegetable) make healing food much better than their wings alone. Tallbird eggs can be used in several recipes when you don't have regular eggs (or wish to use their one egg instead of 2 regular eggs in cooking, or just one egg if you are including a VERY rare butterfly drop cooking it with a very specific fruit and no meats....oops I did it again! ) Frogs drop their legs which can either be used (with a vegetable) as a basic-hunger 20-health-healing food, a (half like a morsel) meat component or dried as small jerky. If you made a fishing rod (or killed merms,) the same goes for fish (but that food--also using a vegetable--makes a 40-health-healing item [if you learn how to differentiate it from fish tacos and its 20-health-healing,] or dry it as small jerky; fish however does not count as "meat" in crock pot recipes and is its own category [as some Pescetarians will tell you.])  So all those "enemies" who aggressively attack you (or tease you with their fluttering) now are all but BEGGING you to kill them for the Crock pot! 

8. The More Meat, the better! Now I MUST emphasize, when it's not something as simple as a "half meat" cooking dish, you get reward "tiers" when you hit 1, 1.5 (for one dish specifically I have mentioned before) 2, and 3 total meat values (and again, fish doesn't count,) and hitting/going above above 2 monster meats creates monster lasagna (for most foods, some foods can't make that even when using two or more, but I'll let you find that out for yourself what those exceptions are.) But when you figure out this, you can make dishes that can make some of the most powerful items in the game! This means two morsels, a monster meat and...gee, something else (I'm sure you can figure it out,) can satisfy 75 hunger 15 health and 5 sanity every time you eat it! Hit 3 meat? Heal 12 Health,150 Hunger, and 5 Sanity!

If these 8-simple-reasons-to-use-crock-pots-and-drying-racks don't convert you, nothing will!

 

But if you absolutely positively need help (and part of this game's fun is the discovery recipes included,) and want to know "what will this combination make," you can go to this location. Not only does it have every known recipe for Crock Pots, the beginning includes a link to a Crock Pot Simulator. (Again, use with care as once you know something, you can't discover it again!)

 

 

And finally, regarding our friend Lief the Treeguard, he can be a pain showing up when you least expect him and never when you look for him (with that 1.33 percent chance after Day 3 starts of him spawning from [non-dead, non-just planted and un-sprouted, non-burnt non-lumpy] Trees,) but use him to your advantage! Direct Hounds, Killer Bees or Pigs to him, or plant pine cones close by until he Pacifies. When he wakes up or is done fighting-if he survived the fight in the first place assuming you didn't finish him off for the Living Logs-he's now a Neutral creature you can send all those attacking meanies to! (As long as you don't chop trees close by to where he is, then he'll gun for you again.)  

[VrtraTheory]

OK, the crockpot advice makes sense.  I'll have to do that when I'm flush with food -- it's hard to "experiment" when you're surviving the night on toasted seeds.

 

(Just had a "you complete idiot" moment -- finally realized the shovel actually does what it says and DIGS UP berry bushes!  Pardon me while I plant 40 of them in my backyard...)

[VrtraTheory]

Sorry for double-post, looks like I can't edit...

 

Thanks for the welcome and the (tons of) info, will try to incorporate some of those strategies in this playthrough.

 

I do have a question -- can you trap monsters?  I haven't ever gathered enough stone to try my hand at a stone wall, but if I do, can I build a "cage" out of stone wall, lead a Hound, a treeguard, a spider, etc., into it, and then finish off the last missing wall piece?  Can they eventually "break out" or are they stuck there?

[the truthseeker]

Sorry for double-post, looks like I can't edit...

 

Thanks for the welcome and the (tons of) info, will try to incorporate some of those strategies in this playthrough.

 

I do have a question -- can you trap monsters?  I haven't ever gathered enough stone to try my hand at a stone wall, but if I do, can I build a "cage" out of stone wall, lead a Hound, a treeguard, a spider, etc., into it, and then finish off the last missing wall piece?  Can they eventually "break out" or are they stuck there?

No worries on the double posting/can't edit.

 

Keep replying and eventually you'll be granted access so you can!

This is just to stop bot spammers and auto-updating spam links. Once we see a human being here and sticking around, one of the Mods/Admins will grant editing access if the system doesn't auto-grant it.

 

 

 

 

Regarding the trapping question, yes you can! You can also trap Pigs, Kolalaphants and other assorted beasts this way and they will docilely stay inside! And as long as you don't get near, several others (aggro Treeguard, spiders) shouldn't try to break out. However, this won't work with Hounds. Make a Kill Zone for them instead. 

 

 

As for "literal trapping," besides Jackalopes, try traps on Spiders and Frogs also! All the rendering, none of the work!

 

(THIS is the easiest way ti clear out a tier 3 Spider Den before smashing it because...oh, no reason )  

[Deacon_Blue]

Sorry for double-post, looks like I can't edit...

 

Thanks for the welcome and the (tons of) info, will try to incorporate some of those strategies in this playthrough.

 

I do have a question -- can you trap monsters?  I haven't ever gathered enough stone to try my hand at a stone wall, but if I do, can I build a "cage" out of stone wall, lead a Hound, a treeguard, a spider, etc., into it, and then finish off the last missing wall piece?  Can they eventually "break out" or are they stuck there?

 

Yes you can, but it is really of no benefit to you. The only possible benefit I see is that it becomes easy to "aggro" the koalafant. Hounds will attack at the walls. Treeguards will attack the walls unless they are pacified, which took me like 6 ingame days to get right and seriously isn't worth it.

 

Pic related - it's my pets Harry and Lloyd

[Sporb]

I don't think anyone mentioned this specifically: the treeguard will stop chasing you if it targets another enemy. Of course, while a treeguard is hunting you down, the only time it will target another creature is if it is hit by one.

[gnarlytreeman]

don't over spoiler him....... yes experince the flubs muahahaha don't make yourself bald tho....

[The Letter W]

Half the time Lightning will burn down the forest and present charcoal to you anyway... 

[VrtraTheory]

The screenshot above reminds me... is there any shortcut for "snap to grid"?  I looked through the Controls list, but I couldn't find one (for example, if you're trying to line up a bunch of farms, or berry bushes, or saplings, and get them in a nice grid, all I can do is eyeball it pixel-by-pixel).  That screenshot looks pretty lined up to me, though.

[23rd]

The screenshot above reminds me... is there any shortcut for "snap to grid"?  I looked through the Controls list, but I couldn't find one (for example, if you're trying to line up a bunch of farms, or berry bushes, or saplings, and get them in a nice grid, all I can do is eyeball it pixel-by-pixel).  That screenshot looks pretty lined up to me, though.

That bothered me a lot as well when I first started getting into this game, to the point I wouldn't even bother making farms half the time because I knew I'd just be spending the better half of my day trying to line them up, and going through a lot of shovels and poop. You don't want to go through too much poop. Not enough food in the world for an infinite supply of poop.

 

There's no vanilla option for what you're asking, so that's why everyone, and I do mean everyone, uses this glorious thing.

 

Hey, you made five posts, I think that means you can edit your posts now.

[s1m13]

I don't think anyone mentioned this specifically: the treeguard will stop chasing you if it targets another enemy. Of course, while a treeguard is hunting you down, the only time it will target another creature is if it is hit by one.

 

This is correct, but dont forget pine cones!

 

[the truthseeker]

That bothered me a lot as well when I first started getting into this game, to the point I wouldn't even bother making farms half the time because I knew I'd just be spending the better half of my day trying to line them up, and going through a lot of shovels and poop. You don't want to go through too much poop. Not enough food in the world for an infinite supply of poop.

 

There's no vanilla option for what you're asking, so that's why everyone, and I do mean everyone, uses this glorious thing.

Die-hard vanilla player and I use it. Yep. 

[Cynical Cynicist]

OK, the crockpot advice makes sense.  I'll have to do that when I'm flush with food -- it's hard to "experiment" when you're surviving the night on toasted seeds.

 

(Just had a "you complete idiot" moment -- finally realized the shovel actually does what it says and DIGS UP berry bushes!  Pardon me while I plant 40 of them in my backyard...)

 

After you plant those, don't dig them up again while they look all crusty and dry. You have to fertilize them with something first, or else it will just yield a bunch of twigs. Berry bushes are non-renewable, so you want to protect them.