Dealing with Difficulty in Reign of Giants

[LoneBarren]

Don't Starve DLC Guide

 

Intro

It's seems like this DLC separates the good from the bad, and all I see is people bitching about how difficult this new DLC is. People are complaining about spring, about summer, about all the giants except Goose/Moose, and after just killing my first Bearger I wasn't sure what all the whining is about, but then I read a heap more comments and realised, that pretty much anyone who had played the game before good wikis for it were established, wasn't going to be bitching, In other words people were lost and were used to having a wiki to resort to for help, however with the limited number of people actually working on the wiki rather than bitching it seems the wikis have almost nothing on them, so in this article I'm going to try and explain how to deal with some of the harder aspects of Don't Starve, The Reign of Giants

Seasons

As of Reign of Giants there are now 4 Seasons which we all know, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring. However the 2 newest seasons Summer (as old summer is now Autumn) and Spring, the other 2 we have all dealt with before, and these 2 new seasons seem quite hard to deal with and so people are getting quite worried about how to deal with them and so generally start in Autumn so they have 2 seasons of familiarity before they get thrown into the newer Seasons

 

Spring

Spring is an interesting Season, A very rainy season that can cause large sanity and freezing issues, this rain is both a curse and a lifesaver as it can grow crops super fast, but can drop frogs on you.

 

Rain/Water Meter

This meter measures how clogged full of water you are (your wetness) and so is quite important, if your wetness gets to high it can cause you to freeze and prevent items from being used. However Klei being very kind provides you with many ways of dealing with this issue. The first is a campfire/fire as this dries you out, however using so much wood on staying dry while it is raining is very hard and an alternative is required. The second Solution are umbrella type items, the first of which is the Deerclops umbrella or Eyebrella, which you should get during winter, however if you don't then there is the ordinary Umbrella, or if you spawn in spring there is the Pretty parasol. The Third Solution to the rain is dressing for rain with the rain coat and rain hat, both of which require you to find a savannah and get some bone, the hat is the easiest to make only requiring 2 Moles, 2 Bones and a Straw hat, then the coat is basically the same but the moles are replaced by tentacle spot, and the Hat is replaced with 2 ropes.
 

Spring Food Sources:
Now that you have dealt with the major rain cons time to reap the benefits, sort of. First of all, rabbits are basically impossible to source as they are all staying in their little holes, however the DLC provides you with Moles to replace them, and all the rain makes berries grow back exceptionally fast and farm plots grow just as fast. Spring allows you to stockpile lots of resources once you deal with the rain.

 

Frog Rain:
One last problem with spring: Frog rain. Frog rain is a pain in the arse and is hard to deal with, but there are some ways to do so. First Settling in a pig village makes the frogs kill the pigs giving you meat and also killing the frogs, with the pigs tanking you can get lots of meat. Second is settling next to a Hollow stump and the catcoon will kill frogs for you, you can help it. Third, is bee mines and bee hives, bees are super aggressive in spring which kinda sucks in some circumstances, but it can be used to kill off all the annoying frogs. Fourth option are spider nests near your base, this sounds stupid but spiders and a bird cage are great meat sources, and "bacon and eggs" is one of the best foods, with plenty of Frog legs you can make endless food (2 eggs 1 frog leg 1 monster meat) of course you need to cook monster meat before it can be fed to birds. Last method and probably the worst is 2 Bases, thats right 2, whenever 1 is flooded with frogs simply move to the other, then enlist help from some other creatures to deal with the frogs.

 

Main Spring Objectives:

Being ready for Summer is your main objective in spring, if you don't have ice you should mine some, build an icebox so you can store it and cool your thermal stone. Build an Endothermic Fire-pit, Ice Fling o'Matics and just generally be ready for summer.

 

Summer

 

Summer is a very difficult Season, it must be said, however if you had a successful Spring then you should be fine. The Main Issues are Overheating, Combustion of structures, and De-fertilisation of Plants, once your past dealing with that you are fine

 

Overheating

This is the exact counterpart to winter and freezing, and so you use ice to keep your temperature cooler. The easiest way to keep your temperature down is to use an Ice Cube Hat which cools you down quite a bit, the next best way is the Endothermic Fire-pit powered by logs, The electrical doo dads are made in the refine tab, then comes the siesta lean-to allowing you to cool off at the cost of hunger, and finally just eating ice cools you off quite a bit. Also the "Cool Amulet" with the blue gem cools you down and is the equivalent of the breezy vest.

 

Combustion of Structures:

This is fairly simple, most of your stuff can also overheat and when it does it can catch fire, which can possibly burn down all of your camp or all of your Grass Tufts, Berry Bushes and Saplings can burn down, so you need to spread out your saplings, and various other replanted things, an Ice Fling O'Matic goes a long way to fixing this, simply plant one in a field and make sure that it is constantly fuelled and as long as they are in the radius of the Fling O' Matic then they should be fine.

 

De-Fertilisation of Plants

Basically your plants won't grow however during the spring they grow heaps so you should get tons of material before the summer comes around, which is great. I believe the Ice Fling O'Matic actually keeps plants fertilised as well as putting out fires making this thing extremely useful.

 

Small Specifics

 

Full Moon

This will occur on the 9th and 10th night and then 14 days later (24th and 25th night, then 39th and 40th). The Full moon lights everything up so you are not in danger from Charlie (night monster) and you can run around, Multiple other things occur during this time, First Glommer and the Glommer flower spawn. Also on a Full Moon Flowers become Evil flowers and pigs become Werepigs. Take note during the day between full moon nights Things are not reverted, Flowers are still evil and pigs are still Werepigs (this has got me killed).

 

Glommer

Glommer only spawns on a Full moon and will spawn at his statue (Glommer's Statue). Mining his statue grants a small amount of marble and the Blueprint for an Old Bell. Glommer himself can be killed and will not attack back (hold alt to attack him) , you can also harvest the statue to give you a Glommer flower (this also apparently summons a glommer which when you kill wilts the flower -unconfirmed-). At the statue there is also a pan flute which suggests that the pan flute and old bell should be used together. 

 

Moleworms

These little things can be a pain in the arse, catching them and digging up their hole makes them homeless when you place them down again, when homeless they are supposed to build a new hole somewhere nearby (this both does and doesn't happen for me). Moleworms are used in the Rain hat, and can be identified by a pile of moving dirt, they can also be killed for 1 morsel and are a good source of Meat in Spring. Moleworms will grab minerals left on the floor, they will pick them up and take them to their dens, some items will not be recoverable from said dens.

 

Catcoon

So cool, these little guys can be befriended for just 1 Morsel (and some other stuff but this is the best) and then they will wonder around slowly, constantly following you. When you aren't moving around they will kill nearby small creatures (birds and rabbits) they will also hack up items every so often, these items are generally common but can come in handy.

 

Volt Goats

-Coming soon-

 

 

 

[LoneBarren]

Well i Figured that you could edit posts but.... you cant... i will remake the thread when i finish the guide later on

[Amkar]

Well i Figured that you could edit posts but.... you cant... i will remake the thread when i finish the guide later on

 

You can edit them. Click the edit button at the bottom near the quote buttons.

[simplex]

You can edit them. Click the edit button at the bottom near the quote buttons.

You can only edit posts after your post count reaches 5 (which just happened for the OP).

[Amkar]

You can only edit posts after your post count reaches 5 (which just happened for the OP).

 

Oh! I never knew that. Still, now they can edit it.

[XirmiX]

It's been my 3rd spring and no frog rain I'd like to experience that. Thought I did experience it once, but then I thought it accurs every spring).

[Flypaste]

You do NOT want to experience frog rain, trust me.

[Tavish]

How would I kill a deerclops with its new freezing ability? My tactic of moving the deerclops to the beefalo doesnt work with the freeze. I like playing as wendy and she isn't the best fighter, and abigail can't do anything to deerclops. Should I just try to tank it?

[BipedalBear]

All those who bitched about things probably never played Adventure mode(or never finished it). Adventure mode has several things similar to the RoG contents, it really trains your mentality on how to deal with problems when you face them. 

[brummbar7]

How would I kill a deerclops with its new freezing ability? My tactic of moving the deerclops to the beefalo doesnt work with the freeze. I like playing as wendy and she isn't the best fighter, and abigail can't do anything to deerclops. Should I just try to tank it?

You can kite him, though it can be dicey, especially if you're slowed (by piggyback for instance).   It's nice if you can get him to aggro a treeguard and then also kite him so DC doesn't freeze the treeguard constantly.  Otherwise, tooth traps, sleep darts, gunpowder, blowdarts...

[LoneBarren]

Hey i can now edit post so i will do that and provide more info i do plan on a guide for all the Giants and some extra information

[InaneDugong]

Yeah, if you think the DLC is hard, try playing Adventure Mode with Wendy (or WX with no gears - yeah, 'insanity' pretty much sums this one up) and no cheats. It's tedious, but I really think that Don't Starve is more enjoyable when you only expect to live for 20 days at best and never get handed anything that curbs the difficulties all together (which was the mistake with Vanilla and Winter). 

[Warewolves]

A lot of this is already on the wiki, if not all of this. I''d like to see either more detail, or possibly go to the wiki and help out there.

[LoneBarren]

A lot of this is already on the wiki, if not all of this. I''d like to see either more detail, or possibly go to the wiki and help out there.

Hey yeah I would work on the Wiki, noticed lots of it is on the wiki but there really isn't much detail in the wiki and people were confused, this is also a kind of guide to the most important things for your survival and some tips and tricks for surviving.

I did look at editing wiki pages, but i decided against it because i prefer to write guides rather than just provide information one 1 or 2 things, I feel that it makes it easier for players if all the challenges and all the solutions are in one place. I also suck at wiki style formal writing.

[LoneBarren]

All those who bitched about things probably never played Adventure mode(or never finished it). Adventure mode has several things similar to the RoG contents, it really trains your mentality on how to deal with problems when you face them. 

I agree with this, the RoG content also seems pretty easy for me, so far only 2 times have I encountered difficultly, the first was with sanity in the Winter, but that was quickly solved by the building of a tent (i may have accidentally ingested glommer goo) and the other was that I slept through the first night of a full moon and then tried to go to a pig village and promptly died from Werepigs, however all i did was run from them and they caught up ???? and killed me which has never happened before as you can usually outrun them.

[Amrince]

How would I kill a deerclops with its new freezing ability? My tactic of moving the deerclops to the beefalo doesnt work with the freeze. I like playing as wendy and she isn't the best fighter, and abigail can't do anything to deerclops. Should I just try to tank it?

 

Interesting fact that I discovered almost by accident, but is an incredible help when facing the new 2-hit freeze deerclops. 

 

1) When you hear him coming, grab up your spare armors 2 log suits and 2 helmets generally works but on weaker characters more might be necessary as well as a few jerky or salves or poultices (I like to keep an emergency set of this stuff in chester during the winter)

 

2) Get significantly far away and set up a campfire.

 

3) Give it 2 more logs so that it is roaring (this may not be necessary but i haven't tested it without a roaring fire)

 

4) Now stand directly on top of the fire (or as near to it as you can, but literally on top of worked for me)

 

5) Let him come to you and just start swinging away. you will not freeze due to the fire warmth (beautifully designed game mechanic in my opinion)

 

6) Granted this requires a bit of tanking but with enough armor/heals and a hambat (my personal favorite weapon because it lasts forever in winter and is super renewable and easy to acquire.  4 monster meat => 1 were pig => 1 hambat)

 

7) enjoy your 8 new meat and fancy eyebrella.

 

Notes: Essentially with the fire warmth to prevent the freeze on 2nd hit you are in comparable terms kiting away from half of his hits after the first one compared to just taking him straight up with the freeze mechanic. and it goes very quickly (again obviously more slowly for the weaker characters but still a very solid strategy)

[LoneBarren]

Interesting fact that I discovered almost by accident, but is an incredible help when facing the new 2-hit freeze deerclops. 

 

1) When you hear him coming, grab up your spare armors 2 log suits and 2 helmets generally works but on weaker characters more might be necessary as well as a few jerky or salves or poultices (I like to keep an emergency set of this stuff in chester during the winter)

 

2) Get significantly far away and set up a campfire.

 

3) Give it 2 more logs so that it is roaring (this may not be necessary but i haven't tested it without a roaring fire)

 

4) Now stand directly on top of the fire (or as near to it as you can, but literally on top of worked for me)

 

5) Let him come to you and just start swinging away. you will not freeze due to the fire warmth (beautifully designed game mechanic in my opinion)

 

6) Granted this requires a bit of tanking but with enough armor/heals and a hambat (my personal favorite weapon because it lasts forever in winter and is super renewable and easy to acquire.  4 monster meat => 1 were pig => 1 hambat)

 

7) enjoy your 8 new meat and fancy eyebrella.

 

Notes: Essentially with the fire warmth to prevent the freeze on 2nd hit you are in comparable terms kiting away from half of his hits after the first one compared to just taking him straight up with the freeze mechanic. and it goes very quickly (again obviously more slowly for the weaker characters but still a very solid strategy)

Hey Ill probably include this in my main post when i make the giants section, but this does seem a little bit cheaty and i cant be the only one that things so.

[Amrince]

Hey Ill probably include this in my main post when i make the giants section, but this does seem a little bit cheaty and i cant be the only one that things so.

 

I suppose everybody is entitle to their own opinion on "cheaty" things but i find this a clever built in mechanic. I would also imagine that fighting the dragonfly near an Ice-fling-o-matic may also result in a clever idea to prevent some of the fired dmg from his lava spitting but have yet to try it. Im not certain how this is any way seemingly better/worse than the general "kiting" mechanics we have all come to accept and the pattern of repetitions that we are adapted to. It's just one of many ways to deal with things. Easier? probably. But a bug exploit? i think not.

 

I love the idea that you are putting together a guide, i'm sure many people will appreciate it even before it gets to final form. great work so far!

[BipedalBear]

Hey Ill probably include this in my main post when i make the giants section, but this does seem a little bit cheaty and i cant be the only one that things so.

Remember to include the life limit of catcoon, which is 9. If catcoon dies with no lives left, you can hammer the tree stump and get a morsel and some logs. 

Another fact, Killing gloomer will spawn three krampus. 

Tell, the beginners to use hammer to stun the moleworm. Includes this for the rain hat. 

[Amrince]

Remember to include the life limit of catcoon, which is 9. If catcoon dies with no lives left, you can hammer the tree stump and get a morsel and some logs. 

Another fact, Killing gloomer will spawn three krampus. 

Tell, the beginners to use hammer to stun the moleworm. Includes this for the rain hat. 

 

I'm pretty sure that glommer does have a naughtiness value; however, i do not believe that anytime you kill him 3 krampi spawn.  I've killed him loads of times and never spawned a single krampus for it. Likely you were just at the tipping point of your naughtiness value and assuming you were past day 100 there is a chance to spawn 3 krampus. (post day 50 there is a chance to spawn 2)

[BipedalBear]

I'm pretty sure that glommer does have a naughtiness value; however, i do not believe that anytime you kill him 3 krampi spawn.  I've killed him loads of times and never spawned a single krampus for it. Likely you were just at the tipping point of your naughtiness value and assuming you were past day 100 there is a chance to spawn 3 krampus. (post day 50 there is a chance to spawn 2)

I was indeed past 100.However, everytime I kill the gloomer(set from zero naughtiness), I get the krampus spawn(99231). Try it yourself.Kill it when it is still full moon and run around. 

[LoneBarren]

I was indeed past 100.However, everytime I kill the gloomer(set from zero naughtiness), I get the krampus spawn(99231). Try it yourself.Kill it when it is still full moon and run around. 

I have not had krampas spawns in past killings of the Glommer so this might be a Bug, for example in my most recent world rain doesn't affect webber's sanity and rabbit holes haven't got a image the rabbits just run the disappear 

Also on another note, is the Catcoon thing legit, cause if it is that sucks, i really like catcoons, but this also Suggests that there will be a way to make their dens other wise they will run out.

Atm it seems like Klei is trying to reduce the number of Non-Renewable resources as this way it is less pushing on new players who don't understand how precious things are.

[OneShoot]

You do NOT want to experience frog rain, trust me.

It's a horrible experience, but i managed it with simple traps around the camp, and other group of traps that i lead the frogs after hit one of them...