Giant Don't Starve Together Character Guide

[MrJamminJelly]

Hello Klei Forums, this is my first post despite lurking around long before, and I have decided to make an account (why not?). I happen to be a big fan of Don't Starve Together, with it being my personal favorite Klei Game, I have seen many players pick characters such as Woodie and then immediately chop down trees until they become a werebeaver, Wendy players who  never actually summon Abigail once, and fight large amounts of spiders/ bees/hounds with no spectral assistance, I even saw someone play as Wolfgang once, go mighty after eating a bunch of carrots and berries, and then run around not fighting anything, with these past experiences in mind I have decided to make a basic guide on how the different characters work, so that those new to the game, or even disillusioned veterans can easily understand the pros and cons of a character in the sense of a few different things, including how they contribute to a team, how they fare as nomads, and above all else how they generally survive. Anyways I hope this will help beginners just getting into this game, and let them have a better time playing!

[Arlesienne]

Where can one read read your guide please?

[MrJamminJelly]

Apologies, but I had intended to put it in later, sorry about that, anyways I will start posting, here I go!

[MrJamminJelly]

First we will start with Wilson, the original character and the one that will be used to measure all stat differences.

Perks:

As he is the starting character Wilson is the most simple to use and has no downsides at all, with his perk being the fact  that he grows a magnificent beard, which will be gone over in more detail in the strategy part of this guide.

Stats:

Wilson's stats are as follows, 150 Health, 150 Hunger, and 200 Sanity, these are the base stats that all characters are based off of.

Due to Wilson having no downsides, anyone can play him and not suffer from the negative perks all other characters have.

Strategy 

Now, what makes Wilson unique is that he can grow a magnificent beard, which can be used for a variety of things, and grows in intervals.

When Wilson first starts out or is revived, he has no beard at all, when 4 days have passed he will have a short beard, 3 days later Wilson will have a long beard, and finally 8 days later Wilson will have a magnificent beard.

Playing as Wilson to the best of his abilities requires knowing how to handle ones beard, a necessary tool for this is the razor, which can be crafted at a science machine with 2 twigs and 2 flint.

When Wilson has no beard nothing happens.

When Wilson has a short beard, he can shave it for 1 beard hair, which can be used for fire fuel, a meat effigy, or to craft Bernie, which will be gone over in the Willow section, Wilson will also have 15 seconds worth of insulation, allowing him to spend 15 seconds more than someone away from the fire before freezing.

When Wilson has a long beard, shaving will give you 3 beard hairs, while keeping it will give you 45 seconds of insulation. 

When Wilson has his magnificent beard, shaving will allow you to get 9 beard hairs, while keeping it nets you a whopping 135 seconds of insulation.

A minor thing to note is that shaving give you 10 sanity, not much but hey, it's something.

So the basic idea with the beard is to save it for winter, then keep it off the rest of the year, especially when summer rolls around, as having it will have poor Wilson overheat even faster!

Now beard hair is dull but useful, in that it can be used to create a renewable form of regeneration, the Meat Effigy!

To make a meat effigy you need a prestihatitator, 4 boards, and 4 things of beard hair.

Creating and placing a meat effigy will take away 40 points of health and will only work for the one who put it down, so if a friend need it then give them the materials otherwise it wont work.

Now Wilson working with a team is not actually all that great, as one can get beard hairs without Wilson, just at a slower pace, thus negating the usefulness of his beard, however having a full beard will allow everyone else to get better winter clothes while you get by with your beard and maybe some earmuffs.

Funnily enough Wilson works better as a nomad, with no downsides one can do work as usual with no worries of burning through food or only eating meat, and his beard is a godsend for winter, however one should try to get a razor before summer starts.

As Wilson has the default damage modifier and the default health, combat is neither his niche or his weakness, his rounded stats allow him to fit well into almost any role, aside from ones only available to certain characters such as Wicker-bottoms books.

To recap, Wilson is well rounded, and is the reason he is not highly recommended, Wilson s not ban in any way, but he doesn't bring much to the table other than less worry about winter clothes and more easily available meat effigy, if say Wilson was the only one who could craft meat effigy's of could make special items with his beard hair that only he can make then he could be highly recommended, however if you just want to have a simple character with a little work in handling a  beard then Wilson is the one you'll want, however if you want something a little more in depth then move along as you won't find much here.

[CameoAppearance]

Playing as Wilson isn't really different between singleplayer and multiplayer, but your description of the Meat Effigy is either out of date or pulled from the singleplayer game. It doesn't actually use meat anymore; it takes 40 HP from you at the time of crafting like a Telltale Heart and doesn't decrease your maximum health after being built or used. Other players can sacrifice 40 HP to attune themselves to the effigy too (the hover text will say "Attune Meat Effigy"), and anyone who's made that blood sacrifice can activate the effigy when they're dead and revive themselves.

(I broadly like the change, but it annoys me a little that in DST the meat effigy has no actual meat items in the recipe.)

[MrJamminJelly]

Thank you very much for that information!If this doesn't show that I don't play Wilson in Don't Starve Together that much then I don't know what will! Anyways I don't seem to be able to edit the part about meat effigy but this is still great! Thankfully Willow, who the next section will be about is one of my more played characters, if someone could tell me how to fix the part about meat effigy's then could you please tell me? Sincerely MrJamminJelly

[DwerBomb]

You need another post (5 posts) to be able to edit your own posts

[MrJamminJelly]

Next up in our doomed lineup is Willow the Fire-starter!

Perks:

Willow is the first example of negative perks or perks that negatively influence your struggles in the name of survival.

Willow's perks are as follows, Willow is resistant to fire damage with the first 3 seconds of fire damage being nothing with all fire damage from that point on (until Willow leaves the fire) will only take half damage, making anything that can cause fire damage less of a problem for her.

Willow has two unique items she can craft, her lucky lighter, and her teddy bear Bernie. Willow's lighter is unique in that is lasts a whopping 600 seconds, and can be crafted with 3 petals, 1 rope, and 1 piece of gold, making her lighter easy to make for your friends/meatshields. Bernie on the other hand has a unique use, in that when Willow goes insane (at 18 sanity or lower), dropping Bernie on the ground will have him walk around and distract the shadow monsters letting Willow get her sanity back up or use her final perk effectively. Bernie has a durability that can be restored with a sewing kit, or can be replace with a new Bernie using 2 beard hair, 2 beefalo hair, and 2 silk. note however that Bernie will only help Willow, which means that you can't place him near an insane teammate and have him help them. A final thing to mention is that Willow and Willow alone can cook food with her lighter allowing one to not have to put down a fire to kook a mushroom.

Finally Willow gets colder as her sanity drops, making this a double edged sword, in that going insane in winter will give you a very hard time, while going insane in summer will let you last a little longer than others, somewhat similar to Wilson's beard but in reverse.

Stats: 

Compared to Wilson, Willow has 150 Hunger, 150 Health, and 120 Sanity, having a whopping 80 less sanity than Wilson, meaning that players will have to be more careful with Willow doing anything that will make her go insane, especially since she has a 1.1 sanity multiplier, making anything that affects her sanity stronger for her than others, both positive and negative.

Strategy:

When it comes to Willow, she works well as someone who goes into the caves and collects nightmare fuel, as she can easily recover her sanity, while having a long lasting torch that while having a smaller light radius lets willow not only explore much longer, but let her cook mushrooms and other food items if needed, and Bernie lets Willow equip combat items such are armor and a weapon, before fighting, along with healing up or eating, and in a last ditch effort leave poor Bernie behind to live a little longer. 

For Willow being a nomad is easy compared to some other characters as Bernie lets Willow pick flowers or eat cooked green mushrooms, while Bernie tanks, and Willows lighter is better than the usual torch for the nomad due to the extreme length of time that the lighter lasts, letting nomad Willows wander around at night with safety, along with this, Willow's sanity cold lets her get through the  punishing summer easier than other nomad characters.

Willow working with a team is different in that Willow can make copies of her lighter to give to her teams, letting them last longer in the dark should they lose track of time, and be able to gather things like grass and twigs instead of huddling next to a fire, and can let others wear the summer clothes while she picks some evil flowers, and Willow's cooking ability lets Willow cook for her and her teammates in dire situations, while her sanity recovery while next to fires lets Willow's teammates wear the top hats.

To recap, Willow lets her and her teammates handle the dark better, while Willow herself can handle insanity easily, while making summer less of  a endothermic fire fest, letting Willow gather resources easier than her other teammates, letting them focus on maintaining things and fighting, of which Willow is able to do as well as Wilson, albeit with less sanity, while getting nightmare fuel and spelunking a bit easier than the others sanity wise (except waxwell). Willow brings a sort of super torch to her friends, along with less stress for when summer rolls around, while letting the caves nightmare fuel being handled by her letting characters like Wickerbottom and Maxwell use their books, with less issues while you let them have the summer clothes and top hats, while you munch on a cooked green mushroom you cooked with your lighter. All in all Willow is one of my favorite characters, and is good for both nomads and people who want to work together giving something for both while having relative balanced stats, with the only bad stats being her low sanity which can be easily handled making it not as much of a downside as one might think, making this character recommended.

Addendum: Due to the mass amounts of griefing many players are wary of Willow players until they know you won't burn down your base, so be diplomatic and kind, who knows, you might not get kicked upon spawn!

[Arlesienne]

Thanks for starting to share your project! A worthwhile and enjoyable read. I like Willow a lot, so the chapter about her was a double treat despite having already known this. Keep up the good work and it may get pinned if you ask me!

One thing worth adding for DST is that many people fear Willow griefing, so good manners and diplomacy are essential.

[CameoAppearance]

One further correction: The person who builds the Meat Effigy is automatically attuned to it, so the initial 40 HP cost is all you have to pay.