Can someone give me some pointers?

[Rasukki]

I've played don't starve fore a bit of time now 166 hours and have only survived to the max of 26 days and even on that world have never set foot into any cave, period. What's a obvious sucky guy to do! Anyways I just was wondering in what order you should do things, basically a RoG compatible strategy.  (Keep in mind I am just about the unluckiest don't starve player ever .

 

 

P.S What sort of character should I use?

[spencer320]

Character selection depends on how you play. What strategy do you use now? What seems to be the hardest part?

[emerphish]

Use the supreme robot overlord that is WX78 character you want to use. Get killed at night? Willow. Up to a tough start with an amazing payoff? WX78. Trouble with winter? Wilson. Want spells to make your life easier, but you can handle sanity? Wickerbottom. Need help fighting, but you can handle sanity/hunger? Woodie. Need help fighting/working, but you don't want to do it yourself? Maxwell (beat adventure). Feel like a hardcore boss that is up to anything? Wes. Have trouble with sanity and don't like fighting? Wendy. Want to fight and kill things quickly, but you can handle hunger? Wolfgang.

 

I always scout the edges of the world while trying to find a good spot for a base/looking for gears to upgrade if WX78, and living off carrots and berries. Don't settle down until you have came back to where you started, then go to a peninsula or wherever you like your base. Make it near rabbit holes, and away from pigs(unless you are woodie, then you can have a were-party). You want to keep friends close, but enemies close. Being near a spider den is great for harvesting silk(just don't destory the den until tier 3). 

 

What you do after that is mostly your choice. But you need to make everything in the science tab besides the gunpowder and rainometer. I, for one, like to make alchemy engine, then focus on planning the base out, where the fire pit(s) should be, where what goes, etc. Then I make walls/floor. Then I plant saplings, make drying racks, set up farms, try to get food under control. After that I make magic machines and explore the world. Then I prep for caves and get op, get bored, delete world, start anew. Btw I am prepping for fights/winter the whole time.

 

Tips: on default, summer is days 1-20, winter is days 21-35, summer is 20 again, then winter is 15 again, and so on.

As WX78 you may want to rush through the first few worlds to get gears, then settle down after that.

Always have some way to respawn in the caves, you will die your first few times.

Kill the walri (walruses to the unintellectuals) you want what they have.

Caves are high risk, but high reward. Snurtle armor, theulecite, etc.

Don't take risks you can't afford.

 

EDIT: just thought of more tips.

 

Beware of mobs that aggro as a group(pigs, frogs, beefalo, spiders, most others)

Fight via kite. Hit then run away. Mobs usually can take a few swings before they hit you again. 

Deerclops will kill your base, then you, if you don't fight him, and do it away from your base.

Kill too many innocent creatures and you will start to hear whispers. Kill more and krampus will spawn and steal your stuff, then run away and dissapear into his bag. Kill him and he drops 2 charcoal, monster meat, and a 1% chance to drop his sack. It is about as big as your inventory (or bigger, never had it and i have RPGHUD), bigger than a piggy, and you run full speed.

[vimrich]

Think of Don't Starve a mastering "cycles." 

 

1. Day-Night - night will kill you in seconds.

2. Food - will kill you in a few days

3. Hounds/mobs/combat - can kill you "weekly" or so (slower at first). getting mob drops are essential anyway, so need to master this

4. Seasons - winter, etc.

5. Caves - perma night down there, worms

6. Ruins/Nightmare cycle - one word, nightmarebeaks

 

Don't just get used to one way to solve each one, but many ways. On any given day or situation, your preferred solution will be gone and you'll need plan B.  Then move up to total mastery of that cycle.

 

For example, night. Firepits and campfires are just the start. What will you do if dusk blinks out and you're out of wood? Make a torch and run. Or set a nearby tree on fire! It gives you enough emergency light time to cut some wood - but don't do this in the middle of forest! You need to build up enough different ways to survive night so that you can wander around at dusk w/o any fear of getting caught. How will I get logs if a treeguard is around? (leave a few stumps for this situation and dig them up if a treeguard is around instead of chopping!) BTW you'll notice some neat things you can capture/kill at night while they're sleeping. 

 

Food/winter tend to go hand in hand for most new players. The answer here again is MANY different sources of food. Most players don't spend enough time exploring in the first 10 days and end up with a base that's not near enough to stuff. Bunnies, ponds, berry bushes, and so on. You need to how to use them all. Also, in winter the nights are longer, meaning you lose sanity more and need to sleep (until you have other means), so all in all you use even more food than normal.

 

Mobs/hounds/combat -  silk and other mob drops are essential. You have to master mobs. Some go with kiting, but I'm terrible at it. I've gone 500 days without ever fighting anything directly. Traps, and OTHER MOBS are the key here. Pigs are essential, beefalo always nice, even the semi-dangerous bees and frogs can help you out. Learn how to run rather than fight and let them all fight each other. Treeguards in particular are not so bad to have wandering around a screen or so from your base.

 

Hound attacks - this was the killer for me when I first started out. Usually getting me by day 60 or so. Key here is allies - pigs and bees early on, then tooth traps later. But now, I find I can just run around in circles with a torch/lamp at night if I had to and then the pigs wake up or I'm back to my traps and they all die. The key is having open space to run in - don't get caught in a forest or something where a half-second bump into a tree will do you in - or that last "let me see if I can one hit in" moment. If you're running, then RUN don't turn to fight.

 

If winter is killing you, you probably haven't mastered food and combat well enough - you need silk big time to get better food sources and warm clothing. 

 

And don't take risks!

[mrtwoface]

It seems like other people are giving you tips on vanilla, so I'll keep my advice ROG centered - 

 

When you start the game it will be either in Autumn or Spring, you can tell which by the amount of rain (Spring is very rainy) and the tint of the world (Spring is green, autumn makes the pinenut trees orange.) 

 

If you started with Spring, make a parasol with flowers, grass and twigs ASAP as well as a straw hat to keep your wetness down. Make more advanced rain protection items like the rain hat and umbrella as you can. All Spring you should be setting up your base like normal and preparing for Summer by collecting ice and getting materials to build ice flingomatics.

 

If you start in Autumn, it is pretty much the vanilla game season-wise until after Winter to the next Spring. General tip for giants is to fight them away from your base and get treeguards to fight them if possible.