Behold! Another newbie asking for help.

[Vajrajina]

Hi attractive people!

I had my first don't starve game yesterday where I lasted for 29 days, when the winter hunger drove me to hunt game I couldn't kill (or at least not without loosing way too much HP doing so), and a treeguard has messed with my health bar as well. In the end, a hound simply just walked up to me and landed the killing blow. I got here by reading the wiki for info (fishsticks are OP)

Now I've been trying to start a new game, constantly running into issues like:

I don't like this start!
Duh, what do I do anyway?
Where are teh beefalos?

Stuff like that.

What I would like to ask from you guys are two things:

1. What are your top priorities when determining the location of your 1st base?
I read that manure is important, but why? You can't grow crops in the winter.
To me, silk seems to be pretty damn important. Every 2nd useful thing needs silk. One big mistake I made in that game was clearing out spider nests instead of farming them...that was baad.

2. Do you have a "checklist" before winter (and if so, what's on it?)?
In the summer, food is pretty much everywhere, you just have to turn up and pick it up (more than less), in the winter, it's only killing things, but those things hurt and they are in groups?
Do you go exploring caves to get a marble suit, so you can hunt in safety? Do you get a staff to freeze 3 beefalos while you kill the 4th? (not wiping out your manure factory in the process?)

Any feedback is welcome!

Cheers!

[cptCalavera]

First, welcome!

 

Second. This is my view of your questions. But people tend to have different aproaches to surviving so there sint one way that is the best way

 

I set up my camp in semi close proximity to beefalo, swamp and pig king. And if possible, close to a wormhole that leads somewhere good, for example a mctusk camp.

 

Manure is good for fertilising replanted bushes, and grass. I dont really use it a lot for farms. except for when they are depleted.

 

Once you learn to kite the spiders, its pretty easy to set up a few nests a bit away from camp for farming them. Just remember to let them grow to the third stage before destroying them so you cn replant them.

 

Before winter I like to have a beefalo hat, a bird cage and some food stocked up. (besides the obvius like crockpot, farms, fridge, drying racks, chests etc.) Thats about it. I play mostly Wilson so cold dont hurt as bad thanx to his beard. A hetstone is nice but not necisary.

 

Learn to kite properly. You can take out mosts thing without getting hurt with proper kiting. I wear a football helmet and log suit just in case. The marble suit slows you down to much.

 

You can also build traps to catch spiders, bunnies and birds if you dont want to hunt. And even though things dont grow in the winter. They stay fresh in the farm or on the bush untill you pick them.

 

With the ice staff you can target a single beefalo once. He will hunt you and the rest of them dont mind u at all. Make sure he is far enough away from the rest of the hurt and then you can attack him without his freinds joining in.

 

Hope some of this helps and good luck.

 

 

[Vajrajina]

Fridge! Where do you get gears from? I know you get it from a "chess biome" but I never saw a chess biome, no matter how much running around I do. Can you actually get it from a grave as it says, or you rather wouldn't count on it? (3.5% chance, I will sooner find a ghost, which I'm not keen on)

[cptCalavera]

Ye, gears from graves takes as much exploring to find as it is to find clockworks (chess biome). Just do some more exploring and you should find them. Make sure to be ready for battle though. Cos some of them has a ranged attack that I find quite difficult to dodge.

[insanechef]

I don't like this start!

Duh, what do I do anyway?

Where are teh beefalos?

Stuff like that.

What I would like to ask from you guys are two things:

1. What are your top priorities when determining the location of your 1st base?

I read that manure is important, but why? You can't grow crops in the winter.

To me, silk seems to be pretty damn important. Every 2nd useful thing needs silk. One big mistake I made in that game was clearing out spider nests instead of farming them...that was baad.

2. Do you have a "checklist" before winter (and if so, what's on it?)?

In the summer, food is pretty much everywhere, you just have to turn up and pick it up (more than less), in the winter, it's only killing things, but those things hurt and they are in groups?

Do you go exploring caves to get a marble suit, so you can hunt in safety? Do you get a staff to freeze 3 beefalos while you kill the 4th? (not wiping out your manure factory in the process?)

Any feedback is welcome!

Cheers!

 

 I usually build near bunnies. You can trap them all winter. 4 morsels is meatballs. or you can make jerky to restore health and sanity. If you mass twigs/grass you can make lots of traps, put em on top of the rabbit holes and have plenty of jerky for the whole of winter.

 

 I usually hunt spider dens in dusk because they wander outside and are easier to kill. You can kill a tier 3 spider nest which gives you a small nest you can plant near your base.

 

Heatstone is an absolute must for winter. Clothing is also useful if you want to go further away from your base. Icebox obviously is good too. I'd usually want a heatstone, alchemy engine, 6 drying racks and a crockpot by winter.

 

Like I said, you can trap bunnies by placing a trap over their bunny hole. Good food all winter! You can also follow tracks to hunt koalefant. Very good food and a trunk for making warm clothing.

 

Marble suit isn't really needed if you have a logsuit and football helmet. You can feed pigs 1 piece of food and attack another pig then cancel it by moving. the pigs will fight and you can quickly pick up the pig skins/meat. 

 

Top 3 tips:

Get a heatstone and keep your fire pit going ALL winter

Learn to kite enemies and feed 4 monster meat to pigs. The loot from werepigs is 2 meat and a skin for a football helmet

Always have your logsuit on when near baddies!

[Abenlen]

I don't really use manure.  I just gather every flower I see when I wake up in a new world and let them rot.  Seems to be quicker than trying to find enough beefalo gifts to start berry and grass farms.  I don't really worry about seed farms because...

 

RABBITS!  I live off of them.  And frogs.  If you catch the rabbits and let them starve in a chest (assuming you are playing RoG) you can harvest them to your hearts content and never get a naughtiness point.  If that doesn' work for you, collect them into a stack and then kill them all, which just counts as 1 point.  Frogs you can slaughter to your hearts content without worrying about your evil deeds.

 

My checklist for winter would be

• Gather as many Twigs and Grass as possible.  If you rely on trapping you really don't want to run out of these halfway through the season.

 

• Set up a grass and twig farm near your base, but not right on top of it in case you have a slight fire problem come summer.  One or two screens away is fine.

 

• Set up a tree farm, one screen away.

 

• Have lightning rods in your base, twigs, and tree area.  Not really an issue in Winter, but it will be come Spring.

 

• Drying Racks.  I aim to have at least ten of them.  Small jerky restores 12 health, 8 health, and 10 sanity (if I remember correctly).  Jerky can save your life and sanity, and is one of my favorite food items.

 

• Locate an area several screens away to drop off your treegaurds and giants. 

 

• Create at least 2 thermal stones.

 

• Have at least one icebox.

 

• Make a crockpot if you have the resources after doing the above.

This works for me, though I understant other people might have other ways of doing it that work just as well for them.  Hope this helps!

 

 

[Vajrajina]

How do you trap all those bunnies without enough carrots? I know that there is a chance that they will get trapped without a bait, but it seems ever so slim... I had 4 traps, and once or twice a day I would find a bunny in 1 of them, but that's it.

[Mobbstar]

1. What are your top priorities when determining the location of your 1st base?

I read that manure is important, but why? You can't grow crops in the winter.

To me, silk seems to be pretty damn important. Every 2nd useful thing needs silk. One big mistake I made in that game was clearing out spider nests instead of farming them...that was baad.

 

The pig village is a good place to house nearby, so are the bee fields (there are lots of twigs, berries, carrots and grass to get, and bees of course)

 

Poop only matters for making farms and fertilizing dug up grass/bushes. As such, it is not that important.

Silk is very pretty damn important indeed! You need it for a top hat (implies magic), fishing rods (good in swamps/near frog ponds), bug nets (bees, bees, bees!), vests for winter, bird traps, etc.

 

There are spider dens all over the world. As long as you don't turtle, you can't run out of silk. Even if, the underground has tons of huge nests.

 

2. Do you have a "checklist" before winter (and if so, what's on it?)?

 

I actually made a checklist: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=304940846

 

How do you trap all those bunnies without enough carrots? I know that there is a chance that they will get trapped without a bait, but it seems ever so slim... I had 4 traps, and once or twice a day I would find a bunny in 1 of them, but that's it.

• place trap(s) somewhat far away from the burrow(s)
• wait for the wunny babbit to come out
• approach it from the burrow and chase it into the trap

Or (only possible when winter hits) chase them down with the only tool in the game that entirely requires skill to be useful: the walking cane. It requires a hunter walrus' tusk.

 

EDIT: fixed formatting issues

[Vajrajina]

I managed to FIND a walking cane in the game where I died on day 29, but I still couldn't chase bunnies down, even after I chased them onto the road. No skill noob maybe?

[Direkappa]

How do you trap all those bunnies without enough carrots? I know that there is a chance that they will get trapped without a bait, but it seems ever so slim... I had 4 traps, and once or twice a day I would find a bunny in 1 of them, but that's it.

 

Here's a tip on rabbits.

 

1. Place the trap between the rabbit and the hole.

2. Go behind the rabbit and chase it towards ur trap.

3. ???

4. Profit

[Arcita]

Here's what I like to do:

 

Right away start gathering whatever twigs, grass, flowers, berries, carrots, seeds and flint that are in the immediate vicinity. When you have at least 10 twigs, 10 grass and 1 flint then make an axe and start chopping large trees until you have a stack of logs. Now travel until you find the edge of the land. I like to initially follow the outer edge of the map because it makes it easier to locate every biome.

 

While you travel, continue collecting whatever flowers, twigs, grass, flint and food you find. When you acquire 12 flowers, make and equip a garland. We'll be traveling during the night so this will keep our sanity up. What we are primarily looking for now are stone and gold. So continue unveiling the outer perimeter in your search. Night will likely be coming soon so make two torches and continue on your way. We don't have to worry about food at the moment so just eat your food raw to save time. 

 

Once you find some stone/gold, mine as much of it as possible. Try for at least 2 stacks of stone. At this point you are running out of inventory space, so I like to plop down a science machine at this point and open up some crafting recipes. I make a backpack, a logsuit, a hammer, and 2 shovels. Also you are going to want to precraft an alchemy machine; this means that you craft it but do not place it down so that it is saved such that you can place it down later.I then hammer the science machine and continue on your way. If I ever find any pigheads on sticks then I hammer those for the pigskin. If I run out of inventory space though I toss the hammer. 

 

Now I am shoveling up all berry bushes, twigs, and grass that I find as I travel. I am currently looking for a swamp. If I find a swamp then I collect 8 reeds. I am also looking for spider dens at this point. If I find one then it will just be a tier 1. It'll only produce "normal" spiders, so you only need an axe to fight them. A spear requires the same amount of hits against spiders as an axe does, so there's not point making a spear at this point. Don't worry about destroying the dens unless they are close to a potential base. Collect at least 15 silk. 

 

Of course always keep an eye out for a place to get gears. 

 

Now continue exploring until you find a permanent place where you'd like to set up. This might take several more days, but I think this time is well worth it. A prime location is everything. If you are losing sanity then pick whatever green mushrooms you find and plop down temporary firepits to cook them. They're good for sanity. (but only if they are cooked. otherwise they are the worst item for sanity)

 

Great places to set up camp are near some kind of herd animal like beefalo or pigmen villages. It's also nice to have spider dens, rabbit holes, ponds, cave entrances, and a large stone reservoir nearby.

 

Once you find the perfect spot plop down a stone firepit and your precrafted alchemy engine. Build a bird cage, and plant all of your berry bushes, grass, and twigs. Now you'll want to acquire rot/manure to revitalize the crops, and also you need some charcoal in order to make crock pots and drying racks. I like at least 3 crock pots and around 6 drying racks. If you like then make some farms at this point.

 

Now you can make a bunch of traps and place them directly over rabbit holes to ensure you catch a rabbit a day or more. Also make a bird trap to catch a bird for your birdcage. Also, make a boomerang. Boomerangs aren't used often because they are hard to get the hang of, but they are OP. You can collect rabbits and birds ridiculously fast with them as they one hit kill them. This is such a fast method of harvesting food in fact that you'll have to be careful about summoning Krampus. Just spam space bar when the boomerang is coming back in order to catch it every time. 

 

Farm your spiders for monster meat and get morsels from your traps and boomerang every day. Convert the morsels to eggs using your bird cage. Make bacon and eggs with 2 eggs, 1 monster meat, and 1 morsel: this food is great and easy for health and hunger. Make meatballs for hunger with 2 morsels (or 1 monster meat and 1 morsel) and 2 filler items like berries from your berry bushes. If you run out of filler items then kabobs are good and easy. Dry morsels on the drying rack to make jerky for your sanity.

 

Before winter comes, I like to make 2 thermal stones. I take 1 with me while I do chores and leave the other by the fire. When the one with me wears outs, I just go and exchange them. Winter clothing is pretty easy to make during the winter so I wouldn't prioritize that. Prioritize getting lots and lots of grass and twigs as they don't grow back during winter. Also, leave your berry bushes unpicked for winter so you can use them for filler items. I'd advise putting your bushes at least two screens away in multiple locations so that a gobbler doesn't spawn and take all of them.