Surviving the Seasons: How do YOU get through your first season(s)?

[Zoran47]

Basically this is an open topic post, not a question.  I've noticed that as I play with my settings on "Start in Spring or Autumn" I've noticed that I have to alter my strategy wildly to account for the following season.

 

If I start in Autumn, which is by far the easiest season both to start in and to survive through, I simply explore the map, gather raw materials, and make sure I have enough silk and warm clothing to last the winter.  Even gathering enough food for the winter is not "that" hard since I can usually hunt in the winter by virtue of camping near meaty food sources (by personal favorite is Buzzard Hunting. Drum sticks and morsels are great for crock potting and jerkifiying.)  Also, I find it a lot easier to stay warm than it is too stay cool, as you can find warming items in winter, but you can't find cooling items in summer.  The only disadvantages to an autumn start are the shorter days and the fact that you may not be able to take on Deerclops should one spawn during your first winter (I have been there already -_-).

 

Spring is by far the worst start of the two more tame seasons.  The constant rain, frog rain, sanity issues, freezing all take a toll on your mental state.  On top of that, you not only have to prepare your base camp (though you can survive slightly longer without one because summer gives you some construction time at least).  However, you HAVE to gather as much cooling items as you can, namely gears for a super early ice box and ice itself to store so you can make the Ice Cube and Ice Flingomatics.  Because with the spontaneous combustion of summer you want to be able to have some way of protecting key locations on the map (Pig Villages, Tall Forts - don't underestimate the meat these generate - and you fledgling base camp, etc.)

 

So how do you start?  And if you start in winter  or summer share about your experiences there as well.  I've never done so but it'd be great to get perspectives about all kinds of starts.  

[Ridley]

I start in autumn because the frantic start of spring actually kills my enjoyment. Obviously I get the winter gear ready, then in winter I get the summer gear ready. I try to have the rain coat before spring, the swaps should have spots lying about by then.

[brummbar7]

I just let it randomly pick.  Spring starts are more intense for sure.  Right now one upside is that deerclops is still a ways off at that point.  It will be more interesting to see how it goes once all giants are in play.

 

Spring I just run around the edges of that map more or less like normal.  I pretty much go with parasol and straw hat the whole time.  I find that usually keeps me from getting deadly soaked before the rain ends.  Depending on when I find a touchstone, sometimes i have an umbrella too, but I try to go parasol as much as I can since in the beginning webbing to make sewing kit is sometimes hard to obtain. I try to explore most of the map mainly to try to find any glaciers I can, and get back to mine them once I have a fridge, before summer.  Also try to get some farms going and get a melon or two to start summer with.  Melons are important in a spring start as you very well may not have the ice to wear an ice hat all through summer.  I also usually make a satellite camp for summer.

 

Satellite camp has very minimal stuff:  fire pit, fridge, crock pot, and a couple chests.  Everything has to be where I can see it in the firelight in case it starts to smolder, because I keep my flinger far enough away it won't reach the fire.  If possible I try to position it to cover the crockpot and a chest for flammables.  Really looking forward to klei adding a visual indicator on that.  By this time I'll have enough rot to snuff smoldering, and maybe an ice staff if I got lucky grave digging.  I surround the flinger with farms, grass, twigs, and berries and keep it fueled whole summer.  In a spring start I usually don't have fire hounds the first two seasons, so they're not too much a worry at that point. Summer days are so long I can get tons done, since ice hats and melons keep you cool the whole time, I don't carry a cold stone or anything else to deal with it.  Just keep a endofire in my craft tab ready to go in an emergency.  After a tireless summer of work,  fall and winter are a breeze.

 

Autumn start is easier of course.  Always try to find beefalo, get hat.  Copius winter ice gathering makes for easy summer later.  I'll have an umbrella and rain hat at very least by spring, so no problems there either.  Deerclops is the wild card, and I'll usually be working on second base in the winter, so that if he shows up and I'm not prepared, I can bug out to backup base in a pinch.

 

Both starts I always seem to be scrambling for webbing for bug nets and clothes.  I've noticed that nowadays the pig king seems to always(?) be in the autumn biome, and always has the glommer, a cave entrance, and a wormhole right by him.  So usually my main base is also by that area.   Satellite base is at the other end of that wormhole if possible, or near beefalo.  One time the beefalo were also right by the main base, and my satellite was by a tallbird fort, which worked great.  There was even a touchstone right there, and the pig king wormhole led right to it!  Best world gen yet I think.  Since I do a lot of farming in summer to get melons, I seem to feed myself a lot with crops, and don't rely on the tallbirds as much as I thought I might.

 

Summer and winter feel very different to me, because ice hats and melons are positive coolers, and spoil to boot, meaning I don't need to micromanage them.  Once I make them I just wear them constantly.  Unless I'm low on ice, then sometimes I pop the ice hat in the fridge overnight.   On the other hand, winter items merely delay freezing, so I always have to be careful about getting caught out in a hound swarm, or by deerclops, lest I freeze during battle.  Sometimes in winter I travel sans pack, so I can wear hat, vest, and heat stone, and go all day and well into night.   That's 3 items to deal with winter though, as opposed to 1 to deal with summer.  This combined with long summer days make me like summers much more than winters.

[Crown_king]

Wow this text is dwarf ^

[pwhampton]

For season starts... First off, starting in autumn is essentially  the same way you start off in vanilla DS, it is the old summer, so it is the easiest to work with since it is what we are use too.

 

Now, for the new season, spring. Starting off in spring is more difficulty then autumn, but not by a high degree if you are a veteran to DS. Exploration in more key in spring then autumn since you need to find those gears and mini-glacier to get that ice fligomatic up and running before summer hits. I tend to wait to harvest the ice though until I get an icebox up and running to store it in or until I have the supplies to create the machine as soon as I can get back to base. Another issue with spring is the bees, but I usually just wait till summer comes along before I get my beehives set up anyhow. The rain I hardly have an issue with since they fixed how wetness worked. Just pick a few flowers and keep a parasol on you at all times. And if you have issues with rain putting your fires out, you can find a cave and get some light flowers to make a lantern.

 

For winter start, get that torch as soon as possible and get that science machine up ASAP and get your earmuffs made. get your base up and farm rabbits until winter ends.

 

For summer start, you better be playing Wickerbottem on default plus or you are going to die fast. (might be possible with another character on default plus. But I had it rough even with Wickerbottem.) The main reason for Wickerbottem is her books. It will allow you to instantly grow grass and twigs before they dry out on you. Getting close to a beefalo heard is also useful since you will not be growing many veggies in farms without instantly force growing them.

[Joshpro8423]

When I start out in Spring, I would immediately go searching for flowers for pretty parasols because rain usually occurs almost every day before dusk. I would then collect as much grass and twigs as I can so I can be less worried out it in the Summer. The first thing I look for would be gears and gold rocks. Just like brummbar7, I would make a Summer camp a few miles away from my base camp so as to reduce the chance of things burning down.

Base camp would be near a food source like rabbits or frogs, tallbirds or catcoons. Tallbirds seem to be great for food, because they drop two meat plus the egg if they laid any, which adds up to 125 hunger if all cooked. I would also make sure my base is near the pig king for gold, since I like playing the new character Wigfrid.

My Summer Camp would consist of an icebox with food, ice, ice cube and a thermal stone, plus any melons I managed to farm. I would also have two fire pits; a normal one and an endothermic one. The normal one is for cooking purposes. A siesta lean-to and a tent plus a chest for storage completes the base.

For autumn, I would do what I would always do in vanilla DS, but I will still make my Summer Camp plus my Winter Camp somewhere else. The Winter Camp will basically be for if Deerclops decides to show up for a visit. I try not to visit base camp often during Summer or Winter, for reasons being fires and Deerclops respectively.

[XirmiX]

I have a question: if you set Deerclops to less, is there a 50/50 chance he'll spawn, like every other winter, cause that would make sense if he spawns every winter with default option.

[Joshpro8423]

I have a question: if you set Deerclops to less, is there a 50/50 chance he'll spawn, like every other winter, cause that would make sense if he spawns every winter with default option.

On default, I usually see him near the end of the second winter, but I haven't tried less deerclops, so I don't know.

[ossiemaine]

Starting in spring is maybe a bit harder but if you know what you're doing wouldn't be any problem. Making the rain hat and an umbrella will make the rain no problem. Rain coat is good too but a bit more risky too obtain.( I usually go to swamp in the evening, wars will be going on and spots are easy to gather ). With the new set pieces it's soo easy to get gears so that shouldn't be a problem. Be sure to get at least around 40-50 ice in your icebox before summer starts. 1 play through i didn't even make a ice hat just the thermal stone, which is easy to make and very effective. If you spend Spring well the rest of the year shouldn't be a problem. Till the deerclops spawns at the start of the night and your not prepared and die on day 103 ( :'( RIP Wigfrid!) 

[scize]

I start in autumn because the frantic start of spring actually kills my enjoyment. Obviously I get the winter gear ready, then in winter I get the summer gear ready. I try to have the rain coat before spring, the swaps should have spots lying about by then.

thats basically the idea. 

[Mr_E_Fox]

I have a question: if you set Deerclops to less, is there a 50/50 chance he'll spawn, like every other winter, cause that would make sense if he spawns every winter with default option.

I've gotten the deerclops I believe on the precise same day of every winter toward the end (5 days before spring? I'm now looking into it), ranging from mid day towards late dusk.

 

But on topic, I roll it random but have 2 worlds started spring start and 1 (less played) world with fall. I love the spring start cause it's intense. My favorite world right now I started Wickerbottom spring with an uncooperative spawn. The only gears in the over world are at the teleportato Literally as far from my spawn as possible. I finally managed to find them at day 14. I dug up a whole graveyard day 10 out of hope/desperation. Thought I had no pig king but found one in the fall. Only had enough ice for 1/2 the summer, but really don't think that starting spring is easier with Wickerbottom over other characters. At least with this world spawn I had major troubles maintaining my sanity. It was amazing, even more so since my first two springs had a significant number of frogs. and lots of rain. Would have been a lot easier with jerky, but the rain crushed those dreams.

[XirmiX]

Ugh... Winter is kinda hard to prepare AT completely; you have to prepare for spring (rain coat, rain hat, probably sewing kit), for summer (ice and stuff) and for deerclops (9 gunpowder and a weapon), but I say to that: oh well, at least something to do during Winter

[Zoran47]

I'm still working on spring starts, as I usually have difficulty still (autumn is a breeze right now).  Anyone out there start in Winter or Summer?

[DrNocturnal]

I start in spring or autumn.

 

Spring is simple, you don't need parasol for the first two rains.

 

Just explore the map, gathering food&resorces and make science machine at night on day 2/3/4.

 

Unlock shovel, hammer, spear, log amor, rope, cut stone, board, electrical dadood. 

 

make prototype of alchemy machine and lightning rod, but don't put them down.

 

then, dismantle the sience machine ,start shoveling bushes, grass and saplings.

 

Make ur base in the deciduous trees's biomes near the swamp.

 

Then plant all the plants.

 

hunt for spiders and plant spawn.

 

built pig house.

 

gathering ice, prepare for summer