Each of The Characters and How to Best Utilize Them

[K5dV]

Each of the characters and how to best utilize them. 

Disclaimer: This guide is my opinion, if your playstyle with a particular character  benefits the team equally or more than the playstyles recommended this guide, then you should totally play it your own way. A lot of the appeal to Don't Starve is finding the best way to do things for yourself, and I don't want to spoil your fun! Feel free to share your playstyles too! 

 

Wilson: 

Wilson is an adaptable character who can fit many roles. He can be an excellent character for gathering things and bringing them back to the base, especially during winter. I would advise always telling Wilson's that their beard keeps them warm, also be sure to tell them to shave it during summer. Even if the person you tell already knows it, it's worth telling since it may spread knowledge that lets new players survive longer during harsh seasons like winter and summer. 

 

Willow: 

Willow is a great character for exploring in the early game. With her lighter giving her the ability to cook on the go, plus a light source that lasts 8 days, she is great for exploring. Bernie gives her a contingency plan if she goes insane, so you won't always have to fight shadow creatures. Bernie can also be a great team support item, since you can repel shadow creatures from your base for your teammates. She can craft lighters for her team, which although have a small light radius, last 8 days and consume minimal resources. 

 

Wendy: 

Wendy is a great for tending the spider nests, or going into the caves. Her damage penalty is not a huge deal, since Abigail is a huge help, especially if you have a bad connection. Abigail deals splash damage, meaning she can stunlock entire spider dens and kill them quickly. This makes Wendy an excellent spider farmed if she can summon Abigail, just beware the initial 50 sanity cost of summoning her. An important quality about Abigail is that she deals extra damage during dusk, and even more damage during night. Wendy only loses 3.3 sanity per minute in the dark, unlike the other characters, who lose 5 sanity per minute. This means if she wears a top hat she will lose no sanity during the night, be sure to tell players this. This means she is best suited sanity wise to stay in the caves. If you can get a lantern, Wendy is great for gathering things from the caves. 

 

Wolfgang:

Wolfgang is good for hunting Koalefants and pigs. Wolfgang's big downside is his increased hunger drain. When mighty, he drains hunger much faster than the other characters. You should tell Wolfgang's to stay in their wimpy form as much as possible, and to switch to normal form when fighting. Wolfgang should only be mighty if fighting a boss or fighting a large hound wave. Many new players who play Wolfgang don't understand how much a food drain he can be if they stay mighty 24/7. Unless the base doesn't have a spider farmer, Wolfgang should be hunting pigs and Koalefants. Wolfgang should avoid fighting monsters if possible (eg. don't kill every spider you see), his sanity drain can be very bothersome since many monsters have hefty insanity auras. 

 

WX-78:

WX-78 has a variety of team support roles. WX-78 can fit many roles on a team. He can be a tend to the base or explore, but his traits allow him to be versatile. Eating spoiled food with no penalties can be very useful for making room in the ice box. He does need an umbrella during rain, but his system overload perk allows him to heal himself if medicinal supplies are at a low. His main advantage is upgrading by eating gears, which can only reliably be obtained by tumbleweed farming. The gears from slain clockworks should generally go towards making structures for the base. WX-78 can be very powerful if he reaches his full upgrade potential, but it'll take a lot of tumbleweed farming. 

 

Woodie: 

Woodie is a great lumberjack and good at gathering resources. Woodie can do a lot of things for a team. His werebeaver form allows him to quickly mine or chop materials for your partners to pick up later. He can also chop lots of trees thanks to Lucy the Axe, which never breaks. He gains sanity from planting trees, meaning a small stockpile of pine cones is all that you need to prevent him from going to crazy-town. Woodie should be near trees or logs that he can eat during a full moon, else his beaverness meter will quickly drop to zero and he'll begin to starve. He has a beard, which will give him some extra protection in winter, but he can't shave it, meaning it will be a pain during summer. He can also raise pig or bunny armies relatively easily. When he befriends creatures, they stay with him longer than they do for other characters. Woodie can be a very productive teammate, he just needs to have a steady supply of trees. 

 

Wickerbottom:

Wickerbottom is good for quickly getting access to science recipes in the early game, and good for getting access to her books in the late game. Wickerbottom is great for early backpacks and spears, and she can really help cut out time searching for gold, since she can build a lot of the stuff instantly. Her other huge upside is her books. Applied horticulture allows her to get early farms set up, and gives her access to easy food during autumn. Her other books are good too, but they can require some rare resources. The End Is Nigh allows her to keep a friendly WX-78 supercharged almost 24/7, it requires the Shadow Manipulator to craft. Her sleepytime stories book is a renewable pan flute, and it takes the prestihatitator to craft. On tentacles allows her to make death fields, and give everyone tentacle spikes, and you need an achemly engine to make. Birds of the world, which is available from the start of the game, can give easy feathers and morsels. Her big issue is sanity. All her books cost sanity to read, and she can't sleep or eat stale food. The best way to keep Wickerbottom sane is cooked cactus flesh and green cap mushrooms. Taffy and pumpkin cookies are good too, but they need honey to be made, making them less viable until you get a bee box. Wickerbottom is a great character to have in your team, she just needs reeds and some help managing her sanity. 

 

Wigfrid: 

Wigfrid is good at fighting mobs. Her perks oriented towards fighting make her ideal for a hunting role. In order to compensate for her downside of only eating meat, Wigfrid should constantly be killing things. Wigfrid can also craft her battle spear and battle helmet to give to other players. I recommend only crafting helmets, since the spears only do slightly more damage than regular spears. The battle helm gives almost double the durability of a football helmet, without you having to go through the trouble of getting pigskins. The issue with Wigfrid is if there is a food shortage, she will be the hardest to feed. Meat is vital to crockpot dishes, if you have no meat you can still feed people with the fillers, but Wigfrid can't eat those fillers. Wigfrid can be a good fighter for a team, but she needs to be killing constantly. 

 

Webber: 

Webber is an excellent spider farmer, and can fit other roles in a team. Webber is great at spider farming, and can cause spider civil wars with a bit of effort. You need two spider dens, and you feed spiders from one den and during dusk get close to some other spiders. Use a weapon and attack one of the spiders. Before you actually land the hit that deals damage, cancel the attack by moving away. You have to be close enough to start the animation, and you should cancel about halfway through it. If this works, you won't actually land a hit, but the spiders you feed will aggro an the spiders you almost hit. The result is a prosperous civil war, just be sure to grab the monster meat first. 

 

Webber starts off with a spider den, which is very useful for making a base anywhere. Spiders are neutral towards him (this includes queens), and he can feed them to gain their temporary friendship. Allied spiders with still try to attack your teammates though, so don't have a spider party at your base. Webber can also craft spider dens with papyrus, silk and glands. Webber grows a silk beard which provides warmth during winter. Much like Wilson's, tell Webber's to shave their beard before summer and save it for winter. Webber can eat monster meat with no penalties, this is useful for clearing out that monster lasagna that inevitably appears. A little known fact about Webber is that he can upgrade spider nests to different tiers with silk. Go up to spider den and click on it with silk, it costs 5 silk per tier. You'll upgrade using the silk one at a time, so five clicks with silk will upgrade the den. This can make queen farming much easier. Every time you upgrade a den, the spiders inside respawn. 

 

Webber's downsides are that pigs, catcoons and bunnymen will attack him on sight. Don't build your base near pigs if you plan on recruiting a Webber. Webber also has 100 sanity, lower than any other character. Sanity management can be tricky, but with easy access to silk he can make lots of tents. 

[ClumsyPenny]

Very good guide, I agree with most of your points. I just wanted to correct 2 things:

6 hours ago, MiniKeeper said:

Her other books are good too, but they take the shadow manipulator to craft, which can be difficult to make.

Birds of the world is available from the start, On tentacles needs an alchemy engine, Sleepytime stories needs a Prestihatitator.

6 hours ago, MiniKeeper said:

Woodie should be near trees during a full moon, else his beaverness meter will drop to zero and he'll begin to starve.

At the start of a full moon his log meter will be set to 25, which is when the werebeaver transformation occurs. For the duration of the night your log meter will quickly decrease, even if you turn back to human. My strategy is to drop a stack of logs just before the night and eat them right after I transform. Since each log gives 10 log meter points you need at least 8 logs and during a winter full moon your meter might drop to 25 again if you aren't careful.

[ConfusedCourier]

2 hours ago, Hobgoblino said:

My strategy is to drop a stack of logs just before the night and eat them right after I transform. 

Living logs work even better if you have a surplus of em.

[Snowhusky5]

Great tips! The only thing that hasn't been pointed out yet is about Wolfgang; while he does take 10%(?) more sanity drain from monsters, he also kills them faster than other characters, which results in less time in the sanity drain aura and thus less sanity loss. 

[K5dV]

15 minutes ago, Snowhusky5 said:

Great tips! The only thing that hasn't been pointed out yet is about Wolfgang; while he does take 10%(?) more sanity drain from monsters, he also kills them faster than other characters, which results in less time in the sanity drain aura and thus less sanity loss. 

Yes, his sanity drain is 10%, from monsters and darkness. But his sanity drain can make a difference when fighting a monster with lots of health. 

[K5dV]

2 hours ago, Hobgoblino said:

Very good guide, I agree with most of your points. I just wanted to correct 2 things:

Birds of the world is available from the start, On tentacles needs an alchemy engine, Sleepytime stories needs a Prestihatitator.

At the start of a full moon his log meter will be set to 25, which is when the werebeaver transformation occurs. For the duration of the night your log meter will quickly decrease, even if you turn back to human.

Thanks for pointing that out. It's been corrected. 

[Snowhusky5]

1 hour ago, MiniKeeper said:

Yes, his sanity drain is 10%, from monsters and darkness. But his sanity drain can make a difference when fighting a monster with lots of health. 

he can deal up to 50% more damage than most other characters, so if Wolfgang is fighting a Deerclops, for example, it will take 2/3rds as many hits to kill it, which means 2/3rds the time spent in the sanity drain aura. Even with a 10% greater sanity drain, that is still less sanity drain during the fight than any other character fighting a Deerclops, or any other hostile monster, since he can kill them in less time.

[FractalBrot]

34 minutes ago, Snowhusky5 said:

he can deal up to 50% more damage than most other characters

I thought it was up to 100% more, though realistically with hunger drain it's more like constant 80% or so?

[Snowhusky5]

Just now, FractalBrot said:

I thought it was up to 100% more, though realistically with hunger drain it's more like constant 80% or so?

no, you're right, it is up to 100% more, which only makes my previous point more true...

[GuyNamedChris]

No Wes 0/10

[Bahlsen]

Wolfgang walks slower in his wimpy form, considering all the food he can provide I'm sure he can afford to stay almost always in his normal form without penalising other players, and actually still be a great asset. Sometimes I wonder how many people one Wolfgang could feed if he focused solely on hunting.

[Learner]

WX-78 is capable of replenishing health deep down in the ruins, thanks to the number of gears available within them. (Just make sure you keep a supply of logs and grass for log suits.)
Plus, the typically lengthy voyages within the ruins tends to ask the player to bring consumables like cooked green caps or meatballs, which can, and have for me before, gone stale during said trips.