Character Playstyles

[Knowledgeable]

I decided to make this thread about character playstyles as I am interested to learn the different ways people play the characters in this game. Just post a list of the character/characters you play and how you play them.  I'll start the discussion with my list:

Wilson - Focus mainly on resource gathering and food plus building. Will defer my stuff to others who are going into combat if they are better suited for it. While Wilson can fight I usually try to avoid going up against tough or large groups of enemies alone. I will shave his beard as soon as it gets big when not winter, otherwise I keep it during winter for insulation.

Willow - Focus on resources and building structures requiring charcoal plus exploration. Can also be good for farming beardlings due to Bernie. I have found he is a great decoy when alone as you have nobody to help fight off shadows. He can also be useful to just leave dropped at camp to help anyone else with low sanity. Her lighter is good for early night exploration for blue mushrooms. It also helps for longer expeditions due to the fact you can cook food with it and also obtain charcoal for fire fuel more easily.

Wolfgang - Focus on food gathering and combat. For managing Wolfgang's hunger I typically stay at normal form/halfish hunger at all times except for when mighty form is needed. I keep some amount of food on me usually in case I need the mighty form boost for a fight or hunt. Crockpot foods are the most useful for this I have found. For sanity problems I tend to make taffy when possible along with cooked green mushrooms. During winter after a tam o shanter is acquired Wolfgang's sanity becomes hardly a problem at all. I tend to keep armor and weapons on me for when fighting is needed. As Wolfgang I mostly tank enemies with armor in mighty form which usually works out okay.

Wendy - Focus on resource gathering and combat with weaker enemies. Abigail is a great help for taking out enemies such as spiders and bees in groups, which is helpful for resource farming and obtaining bee boxes. Wendy is also useful for underground/night exploration due to her reduced sanity loss and the extra damage Abigail does in the dark. With Wendy I find it best to avoid tougher combat unless in a group, but maybe that's just me.

WX-78 - Focus on gathering, exploration and combat. I haven't played WX much, but when I do I find him useful for longer/underground exploration and combat due to his easier to manage hunger. It also makes for easier fight preparation as you worry less about food you need to bring. His downsides are more prominent in spring when the rain comes. If in a group with a WX and everyone is in agreement, by spring WX will get the eyebrella due to his damage from rain. Otherwise I have a combo of an umbrella and football helm to neutralize the rain. As for upgrading with gears I generally don't bother unless we have an abundance of gears or all the structures requiring gears have been built. This is because I put more importance in obtaining important structures over upgrading as ice boxes are very useful and flingomatics usually essential for summer. Also because gears are a limited resource.

Wickerbottom - Focus on gathering and resources. Due to her books Wickerbottom is great for farming both enemy drops and plant drops. This makes her very useful for building up a camp and quickly obtaining food. Her ability to craft science machine items from the get-go is also great for gathering resources early on and helping other players (shovel ftw). Her sanity and health can be problematic due to her inability to sleep in tents/lean-tos meaning she cannot take advantage of them. Instead sanity restoring clothes and foods are how I keep her sanity up. Healing foods and items are good for health as well.

Woodie - Focus on gathering logs resources and building. Due to Lucy it is easy for Woodie to gather many stacks of logs very fast. This is great for quick building and fire fuel, as well as allowing other players to focus on other things. It is easy enough for a single Woodie to manage the wood supply for a group as long as it is not too big. Of course you also have to be careful not to chop trees to fast in order to avoid werebeaver form. Also remember to eat a balanced and somehow non-fatal diet of logs to keep the beaverness meter up. Werebeaver form is alright for smashing things, but otherwise is usually a disadvantage due to rapid sanity loss. On full moons I find it best to stick near a safe place or other players to help mitigate sanity problems. 

Wes - Focus on gathering resources and camp building. Due to Wes being super op relatively weak when playing him I tend to stick close to camp or safe spots and focus mostly on gathering things and building up a camp. He can be used to farm nightmare fuel as blowing balloons makes for easy sanity loss, but I'd advise having armor and/or other players ready for help as well as something to quickly restore your sanity when needed. The balloons can also be of some use in choke points or camp entrances to distract enemies. I myself am not too great at playing Wes but I am aware others who use him a lot can be more versatile in how they use him.

Maxwell - Focus on exploration and resources. With his shadow copies Maxwell is a good pick for quick farming from trees and boulders for both himself and others. Though when entering combat I am careful to have a shadow guard or two and/or armor on hand as with his low health Maxwell can be more easily overwhelmed. I find his sanity buff useful for underground exploration if staying down there for long periods. There was an instance where I was next to a blue mushtree biome and managed to survive near exclusively off of cooked and raw blue mushrooms for health/sanity balance. However I am also careful not to venture into areas with many enemies, including the ruins.

Wigfrid - Focus on food gathering and combat. Playing Wigfrid was a fun experience for me as I was unused to playing a better suited combat character at the time. Her diet initially scared me off, but after discovering the usefulness of crockpots (I basically ignored them until I saw others use them a lot in DST... sue me.) it is easy to manage as long as you have a steady supply of meat and filler. Wigfrid is great in a group for taking down groups of enemies and fighting bosses. With a supply of gold she is also helpful in providing weapons and armor for other players to help take down bosses. She is also good in combination with a Webber as she can easily farm spider drops from a single tier 1/2 den. Tier 3 is more difficult but with others helping or careful fighting it is possible.

Webber - Focus on food gathering and weaker enemy combat. Webber is always good to have in a group due to his ability to plant a spider den from the start. I also use him for "spider wars" with allied spiders to quickly farm their drops. Allied spiders are also helpful for fighting/as decoys as long as you have monster meat handy. Speaking of monster meat, I do quite enjoy the lack of negative effects Webber gets from monster foods as I find it helpful for saving better foods for others. His beard is somewhat useful for winter and silk when silk is scarce. It can be a problem playing Webber however if your camp is situatied in a pig village or near pigs due to them aggroing on him. It is good to be near large groups of spiders as Webber for protection, though this doesn't really benefit other characters.

Winona - Focus on resource gathering, exploration and building. I enjoy playing Winona even if she is rather basic. Her speed can help gather resources faster and build up a camp. It is also helpful for nomadic playstyles when you keep on the move. Her tape isn't particularly special but can help quickly fix clothes if you haven't got sewing kits on expeditions. She is an all-rounder like Wilson and can do combat alright alone.

So, discuss! How do you guys play the DS/DST characters? You can talk about 1 character or multiple, including shipwrecked characters if you use the shipwrecked mod.

[Sinister_Fang]

I do just about everything regardless of who I'm playing. Character perks might make me change how I go about doing a few things, but for the most part they don't seem to impact how I play as much. Everyone is capable of fighting, building and gathering.

[fimmatek]

52 minutes ago, Sinister_Fang said:

I do just about everything regardless of who I'm playing. Character perks might make me change how I go about doing a few things, but for the most part they don't seem to impact how I play as much. Everyone is capable of fighting, building and gathering.

The same here.

4 hours ago, Knowledgeable said:

Wendy is also useful for underground/night exploration due to her reduced sanity loss.

And Abigail's higher damage. She's insanely good agains Splumonkey and a nice help agains clockworks if used cleverly.

4 hours ago, Knowledgeable said:

With Wendy I find it best to avoid tougher combat unless in a group.

Did you know that Wendy is actutally one of the few characters who can solo Klaus? Yep! Currently only 12 characters are able to do that in DST.

 

4 hours ago, Knowledgeable said:

Woodie - [...] Of course you also have to be careful not to chop trees to fast in order to avoid werebeaver form.

That's in DS. In DST you turn into werebeaver sooner or later, chopping just accelerates it, unless you eat logs or other stuff to keep you beavermeter high. As the werebeaver you can chop down a lot of trees, preferably tier 3, and if you collect and plant the cones after you turn back (even better: others collect and give the cones straight to you) you can replenish your sanity in no time. 

4 hours ago, Knowledgeable said:

On full moons I find it best to stick near a safe place or other players to help mitigate sanity problems.

In DST you can just go to the caves to prevent turning into werebeaver.

4 hours ago, Knowledgeable said:

but after discovering the usefulness of crockpots (I basically ignored them until I saw others use them a lot in DST... sue me.)

Funny, I was the same back then when I knew so little of the game... oh, nice memories...

4 hours ago, Knowledgeable said:

She is also good in combination with a Webber as she can easily farm spider drops from a single tier 1/2 den. Tier 3 is more difficult but with others helping or careful fighting it is possible.

If you alarm one wave of spiders from a den and then lure it a bit further, you can kite them and this way you can kill the entire staff of a tier 3 den even if you're alone. Needs some practice, but helps a lot, and can be done as any character. Just make sure it's day or there aren't too many dens too close.

[Knowledgeable]

49 minutes ago, fimmatek said:

And Abigail's higher damage. She's insanely good against Splumonkeys and a nice help against clockworks if used cleverly.

Did you know that Wendy is actually one of the few characters who can solo Klaus? Yep! Currently only 12 characters are able to do that in DST.

 

Huh, good point. Forgot about the extra night damage. I've never fought Klaus so I wouldn't know, I'm such a wimp when it comes to the tougher bosses. I tend to avoid combat sometimes as with my somewhat shoddy connection it makes it near impossible to kite and I sometimes get extra hits. I'm afraid of going into a big fight and being a burden because I can't fight optimally.

49 minutes ago, fimmatek said:

That's in DS. In DST you turn into werebeaver sooner or later, chopping just accelerates it, unless you eat logs or other stuff to keep you beavermeter high. As the werebeaver you can chop down a lot of trees, preferably tier 3, and if you collect and plant the cones after you turn back (even better: others collect and give the cones straight to you) you can replenish your sanity in no time. 

In DST you can just go to the caves to prevent turning into werebeaver.

Ah right, forgot about the beaverness meter. Me and a few friends always find it weird that eating a whole log doesn't do much for hunger

Really? I didn't know that.I'm so dumb, I guess I will go underground then when possible.

49 minutes ago, fimmatek said:

Funny, I was the same back then when I knew so little of the game... oh, nice memories...

Haha, in DS I just automatically thought "Nah, crockpot would be hassle to build... what's so great about one anyway?" and survived off whatever I could scrounge up, cooking when possible. I thought cooked meat and cooked cactus + mushrooms was the best thing ever. The efficiency of crockpot foods amazed me when I discovered them and I make sure to build a crockpot now.

49 minutes ago, fimmatek said:

If you alarm one wave of spiders from a den and then lure it a bit further, you can kite them and this way you can kill the entire staff of a tier 3 den even if you're alone. Needs some practice, but helps a lot, and can be done as any character. Just make sure it's day or there aren't too many dens too close.

Interesting, I'll have to try this properly sometime. I have done something sort of like it with tier 3 dens, luring a few spiders away to take out far enough from the den that I don't trigger the warriors.

2 hours ago, Sinister_Fang said:

I do just about everything regardless of who I'm playing. Character perks might make me change how I go about doing a few things, but for the most part they don't seem to impact how I play as much. Everyone is capable of fighting, building and gathering.

For me I like to play each character differently in some ways. But I'd still consider myself something of an amateur (only ever been to the ruins once, for like 10 mins to name an example). More experienced players probably have a better handle on things. I just put down what I do on the forums for other people to see and compare. I like hearing new ideas and ways people do stuff 

[Extant]

Usually I either only played solo or in public servers where I ended up doing as much as I could (ignoring character perks for the most part) since a lot of people require help in them most of the time.

I've only played in 1 actual co-op group so far in my DST career and I only used 2 different characters in 2 worlds at the moment.

Wendy

I focused on collecting monster meat from spider eggs for the group as there was no Webber on the team. I also used Abigail to help us against hounds later on until we got a death pit up and running.

I mostly tried to stick to a ham bat until we had a surplus of weapons since her reduced damage modifier tends to consume weapons too quickly and a ham bat is still better than a spear until a little past the point where it becomes spoiled.

I handled most of the cave exploration and mapping so I guess her reduced sanity loss was convenient in that situation as I had to deal with less shadow creatures along the way.

Also, our ruins when I was playing as Wendy was filled to the brim with Splumonkeys so I wiped them out with as many Abigail flowers as I had. There must have been around 30-40 pods blocking the entrance to the ruins...

Wickerbottom

I focused on base building/growing food and plants to give us a head start early in the game. Also in charge of farming poor Bee Queen this time around as I was the one with the books (in my previous world with Wendy my main co-op partner was Wickerbottom).

Most of the nightmare fuel we gathered came from me since I was almost always insane due to reading books and having normal sanity drain modifier. We were lucky to spawn plenty of Treeguards even before Bearger came, too. Dnak swords for all!

I mostly stay around the base and do what I can to keep supplies up and attend to resource gathering that doesn't usually require much fighting.

[Sicko Hog]

12 hours ago, Knowledgeable said:

For managing Wolfgang's hunger I typically stay at normal form/halfish hunger at all times except for when mighty form is needed.

You're missing out on a lot Wolfgang's potential by playing like this. There's more than enough food to keep you mighty at all times, and the speed boost will help you gather it faster, along with speeding up the early game significantly.

[Knowledgeable]

6 hours ago, Field Field said:

You're missing out on a lot Wolfgang's potential by playing like this. There's more than enough food to keep you mighty at all times, and the speed boost will help you gather it faster, along with speeding up the early game significantly.

Maybe I'm not the best food gatherer or something, but in DST I try to be aware of the group's food situation and thus eat as little as possible to leave enough for others. I feel like being always in mighty form would use up a lot of food quickly. I suppose late game when there is an overabundance of food I could try it. I may also try it in DS.

[Extant]

Yeah, it's a lot harder to stay fed as Wolfgang in a larger group especially on public servers unless there are some experienced people on there. 1 good Wickerbottom pretty much eliminates all food issues for the group as long as nothing happens to the reed supply and berry bush farm.

There are no hunger issues when you're soloing DST or when you're in a smaller/medium sized group that has more skillful players that cooperate together.

[CaptainChaotica]

23 hours ago, Knowledgeable said:

WX-78 - Focus on gathering, exploration and combat. I haven't played WX much, but when I do I find him useful for longer/underground exploration and combat due to his easier to manage hunger. It also makes for easier fight preparation as you worry less about food you need to bring. His downsides are more prominent in spring when the rain comes. If in a group with a WX and everyone is in agreement, by spring WX will get the eyebrella due to his damage from rain. Otherwise I have a combo of an umbrella and football helm to neutralize the rain. As for upgrading with gears I generally don't bother unless we have an abundance of gears or all the structures requiring gears have been built. This is because I put more importance in obtaining important structures over upgrading as ice boxes are very useful and flingomatics usually essential for summer. Also because gears are a limited resource.

THIS.  The entire post was well-thought-out and intelligent, but I especially wanted to call out this part because OH MY GOD, what I would've given to have a WX player like you! (claps)  THANK you, for getting that gears are rare, sometimes hard to find before summer, and not thinking of only yourself.  I have literally had the cliche of the random WX staring..._hungrily_...into the chest that contained MY ONLY GEAR.  (Then he went above and beyond by not letting me into my own damn fridge, and finally laid down the "ultimatum"--he would leave me alone and make his own base...IF I GAVE HIM THE FREAKING GEAR.  Okay, so, lemme get this straight--you say you'll go away and stop bothering me about the thing you keep bothering me about that I say you can't have...if I give in and GIVE YOU THE THING YOU'RE BOTHERING ME ABOUT does anybody smell a bit of a logic mess-up here?  I informed him that he should try hitting Tab on his keyboard and see that little star by my username?  Do you know what that means? It means BYE.) 

Sometimes you do luck out and find gears really early.  Sometimes you find one in a tumbleweed on Day 1, like my brother did his _very first time playing_ (I kid you not.  I had to EXPLAIN that it was a big deal, and not actually common, what just happened.)

...sometimes it takes you so long that by the time you do, the mini-glaciers are too melted to get 15 ice in time (especially in singleplayer, where they don't come back) and you have to live nomadically all summer after all.  I've had that happen. 

3 hours ago, Extant said:

There are no hunger issues when you're soloing DST or when you're in a smaller/medium sized group that has more skillful players that cooperate together.

(winces, hissing inwards between teeth) Ooohh..ouch...I hate people say things like:  "There's NO reason to have any problem with (thing)."   Because then it makes me wanna go "Right, yeah, sure...nobody...would have trouble with that.  Only total IDIOTS, amirite?" and then hastily excuse myself to stuff my trouble in the garbage before they see it, stammering like a sitcom character at a too-fancy-for-them dinner party.  Wanna know what my very first time actually _starving_ was?  The first time I played Wolfgang!  If you don't know about the ice-as-filler thing and have never played ANY character with a noticeably higher-than-normal hunger drain before? winter can really kick your arse.  Also I hate hate hate HATE those animations where he shrinks down, 'cos they force you to stop dead, and it seems to always happen during a dog attack!  Losing HP because of that, and then starving so the life that was going away already didn't have much left...yeah that was a recipe for disaster.

Anyway, I do also use the Shipwrecked characters mod (lookit my avatar; also Walani is the main character in my "March of Civilization" thread--currently on hiatus due to multiple world-crashes) although I really can't say I'm playing them "correctly"...I mean, Warly was the THIRD character I outright starved as (I don't care if you're sick of it, eat!  these!  meatballs!  Wigfrid + spring + not knowing about crockpot meals _containing_ meat was the second, by the way.) so...I don't play as him.  It just plain wasn't fun.  Walani (in the mod) now has this awesome but non-canon ability to teleport between ponds by "surfing" on them, and I barely even remember to use THAT.

...really I tend to play the same no matter what, so I just switch between the characters who don't outright _contradict_ my playstyle,  : P

...Notorious

[Knowledgeable]

28 minutes ago, CaptainChaotica said:

THIS.  The entire post was well-thought-out and intelligent, but I especially wanted to call out this part because OH MY GOD, what I would've given to have a WX player like you! (claps)  THANK you, for getting that gears are rare, sometimes hard to find before summer, and not thinking of only yourself.  I have literally had the cliche of the random WX staring..._hungrily_...into the chest that contained MY ONLY GEAR.  (Then he went above and beyond by not letting me into my own damn fridge, and finally laid down the "ultimatum"--he would leave me alone and make his own base...IF I GAVE HIM THE FREAKING GEAR.  Okay, so, lemme get this straight--you say you'll go away and stop bothering me about the thing you keep bothering me about that I say you can't have...if I give in and GIVE YOU THE THING YOU'RE BOTHERING ME ABOUT does anybody smell a bit of a logic mess-up here?  I informed him that he should try hitting Tab on his keyboard and see that little star by my username?  Do you know what that means? It means BYE.) 

Sometimes you do luck out and find gears really early.  Sometimes you find one in a tumbleweed on Day 1, like my brother did his _very first time playing_ (I kid you not.  I had to EXPLAIN that it was a big deal, and not actually common, what just happened.)

...sometimes it takes you so long that by the time you do, the mini-glaciers are too melted to get 15 ice in time (especially in singleplayer, where they don't come back) and you have to live nomadically all summer after all.  I've had that happen. 

Wow, I'm glad to know people take the time to read my post! I kinda got carried away in the flow (realized I said the word "usually" about 4 times in the Wolfgang paragraph and had to correct it) Heck I'm always looking for more co-op worlds to join, when my wifi is back up and running (using my phone data atm) I'd love to join a world of yours!

Also yes I know that story, I read through all the pages of the "How to Be Courteous" thread looking for stories and yours was one I read. I don't get why upgrading is such a big deal to some players. I don't think I've eaten any gears yet as WX (except for a super cheaty world where I messed around) because I'm always terrified that I'll nom one or two and then later on the whole group will pay for my selfishness. I also seem to have bad luck with gears often, having few or far away clockworks and hardly ever getting them from tumbleweeds. Like, can't we just... I dunno, build a smelter or something and make gears from gold? (given that DS/DST gold seems to be way more durable than real world gold) Then there would be no more squabbles and clockworks would no longer have to fear the scourge of players hunting for their innards.

28 minutes ago, CaptainChaotica said:

Anyway, I do also use the Shipwrecked characters mod (lookit my avatar; also Walani is the main character in my "March of Civilization" thread--currently on hiatus due to multiple world-crashes) although I really can't say I'm playing them "correctly"...I mean, Warly was the THIRD character I outright starved as (I don't care if you're sick of it, eat!  these!  meatballs!  Wigfrid + spring + not knowing about crockpot meals _containing_ meat was the second, by the way.) so...I don't play as him.  It just plain wasn't fun.  Walani (in the mod) now has this awesome but non-canon ability to teleport between ponds by "surfing" on them, and I barely even remember to use THAT.

I have used the Shipwrecked mod too (unfortunately not much cause there is a bug caused when I play with an xbox controller) and I have only used Warly so far. I have to agree with you, I love the guy but he is so frustrating to play sometimes. I just had him keep scoffing seeds and ended up laughing at his increasingly disgusted reactions. To be honest if I ate 6 handfuls of seeds in a row I'd be inclined to agree with him.

[Ressayez]

this is maybe not a shipwrecked character, but she is very balanced and i think fits the artstyle and tone of the game very well, anyways...

i main lulu the plantress

my playstyle with lulu is vastly different from other characters, the main reason being i do not play characters other than lulu, but when i am forced to play others on servers that are "vanilla," i find myself not enjoying the game in the slightest. playing without receiving two fruit per day and without having mushrooms appear at my feet is just about the most drab thing i can think of. wolfgang, wx, wickerbottom??? none of these characters can utilize lureplants in the same way lulu can. i often walk into my lureplant fields during spring only to find i'm being eaten alive because i was playing wendy in her lureplant halloween eyeplant costume and not my beloved lulu. in addition to her strategic usage of lureplants (some of the single most useful items in the game, ask ANY pro) i admire her for her non-meatarian vegetalarian playstyle, i have ALWAYS want to have a vegetalarian character, and for years i was hoping that wigfrid would be changed into a non-meatarian vegetalarian and maybe also her face and hair and clothes would change to be more like lulu? but alas, here we are, lulu, despite being the most balanced characters, even among "vanilla" characters, keli has not added her to the game, or any of the elements that make her playstyle and perks so refreshing. as lulu your job is to be the lureplanter, your teammates should go lulu also so they can help to make the lureplant farms even bigger, but in the case that they do not, get them to go a character like wigfried or weebler so they can get lots of meat for your lureplants, wickerbottom is also a strong choice to pair with lulu as she can use her farmining staff to grow crops for lulu to eat. early game i always focus on making as many lureplants as possible, this means until i get what i want, a beautiful, robusty lureplant farm, i will not be sane, i will not stop digging berry bushes. after the maximum efficency farm is setup, then the fun part, the waiting game. i will wait for hound and boss attacks and laugh as all these dogs and deerclops are decimated by my lureplants. i sit back and eat my two fruit spawned a day and feet mushrooms, life never tasted so sweet... you need to enable the clockwork hound mod to get clockworks to come to you, as you will need to get gears by summer so no lureplants die from heat stroke or hot dogs, and tbh dst in its current state does not really seem to support the lulu's playstyle of utilizing the expertly placed lureplant farm, and that's a real shame

[Alarsin]

[Extant]

8 hours ago, CaptainChaotica said:

(winces, hissing inwards between teeth) Ooohh..ouch...I hate people say things like:  "There's NO reason to have any problem with (thing)."   Because then it makes me wanna go "Right, yeah, sure...nobody...would have trouble with that.  Only total IDIOTS, amirite?"

Ah, sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound that way. I was mostly tailoring my comment to Knowledgeable and Field Field who both seem like very experienced players.

For a new player, this game is an absolute nightmare because information is probably 95% the key to survival and skill is more or less like 5%. Of course, when you learn enough about the game, everything basically becomes easy to handle but it takes a lot of hours filled with struggles and deaths to get to that point.

[Knowledgeable]

50 minutes ago, Alarsin said:

I concur.

12 minutes ago, Extant said:

Ah, sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound that way. I was mostly tailoring my comment to Knowledgeable and Field Field who both seem like very experienced players.

For a new player, this game is an absolute nightmare because information is probably 95% the key to survival and skill is more or less like 5%. Of course, when you learn enough about the game, everything basically becomes easy to handle but it takes a lot of hours filled with struggles and deaths to get to that point.

Pfft, experienced my foot. I only started properly playing this game like a month ago and still feel like a newbie. I have yet to defeat any of the bosses except deerclops and moosegoose (and I took on both of those with others... yet to solo any of the bosses). I also still don't know much about caves. Yes a bit to the whole "intense start" thing. Remembering my first DS games makes me want to facepalm at how silly I was

Wilson died miserably several times in a row that day. My advice... don't start your first ever game in Lights Out

[Extant]

Ah, don't worry about it. Everyone progresses at different rates and we all specialize in different areas of the game. Some of us are better at inventory management, some of us are better at schedule keeping, some of us are better at prioritizing, some of us are better at combat, and some of us are better at base building.

Getting to the point where you're comfortable enough tackling on a lights out world after just 1 month of playing and handling Maxwell's lower HP is pretty impressive in my book. Also, don't worry about the Bunnymen death. We all die to the Bunnymen when we get careless.

They're a frightening bunch when in large groups. I'm really glad they nerfed Bunnymen in DST.

[CaptainChaotica]

Yeah...I figured you probably meant experienced players, but I've also run into things like "Gaining (huge) amount of money in (short time) is NOTHING, if you know what you're doing!" on game forums and then...they never explain _how_.  So I wasn't sure if you were one of that type, or not.

Me...I dunno.  There's a lot of things in the game I'm not good at/comfortable with yet...but...do I HAVE to be?  I figure as long as you can survive well your own way without cheating/outright cheaty mods, does it really _matter_ what your way is?  My longest world went for 613 days before the game-code changes brought in by the Forge broke a (completely aesthetic) mod I'd been using, and CRRKKK! (finger across throat) that server would never load again.  I survived that long mostly by myself, with a minimalist base and random seasons that ended up as a SUPER-long winter and spring every single year.  Summer and fall were both normal.  (It randomises the first year and then the game sticks that way for all subsequent years--unless you use the "Actual Random Seasons" mod, which didn't exist yet.)  

Does the fact that I lived these over 600 days in a cold, wet, sanity-draining world, by myself, not count simply because I left the Bearger alive for several years to wander peacefully in the forest, dodged the Deerclops straight into the Dragonfly one cold desert-exploring night, and didn't do much with the caves...make those non-cheated, never-consoled 613 days not COUNT?  _I_ don't think it does. But someone outright called me a "veteran noob" because of my playstyle. Like, the ONLY thing that defines whether you're a good player is if you solo bosses.  And there were those "rank tiers of players" threads where no matter what else they did, non-fighters were ALWAYS the bottom rung...

People.  It's a SANDBOX game.  That means different playstyles are perfectly possible.  Chill.  And heck, finding ways to make the game fight itself is FUN, dammit!  >:D  (Not directly talking to anybody _here_ yet, but...)

I'll randomise the seasons, make myself have to worry about thirst on purpose, create a mostly-desert world and then not have a base at all for an entire in-game year, no matter how long that ends up being.  Long summer, that came STRAIGHT from winter, and I never lived in the caves for cooling?  Yeah that happened.  And I dealt with it.  Because I'm a general survivor, not a fighter.  And that's just fine.

Side-note:  Knowledgeable, I'm kinda...flattered? that after reading all the way through that "How to be courteous to other players" thread, you actually remembered _my_ stupid story.  (Jerkface and Dumbarse, Attourneys at Law!)  But man, what a morning that was.  : P

  ...Notorious

[AnitaCoffee]

Wendy, being my favorite, I try to tackle all points with her. I gather, build, farm spiders for meat/silk/glands, if I effectively get enough glands and we don't have a Willow, I burn an out of the way forest for charcoal and ashes, make everyone salves in the early days. I like to farm bees when I find bee biomes, and plan to eventually make bee farms on servers that last a while. I made one (and everyone laughed at my sad warbly fence T.T) but I didn't know how to plant flowers and someone built a pig farm beside my bee farm. =3= Combat with her is challenging. So far I've only beat Deerclops solo with her, and... does it count as solo when you use a living forest set piece for help? xD I'm a relatively new player myself, haven't clocked 200 hours yet.

Willow, I burn things, gather the charcoal and ashes, leaves the ashes for someone else to make salves. Make a couple of Bernies for base when someone is going insane. Mostly it's just, gather, gather, gather, maybe fight a thing. Winona is about the same, though I haven't played her for very long. Rather dull the two of them, to me.

Wigfred as I've said in other threads after playing Wendy so much, feels like easy mode combat wise, and she has a unicorn helmet. I love her for that. First few days I spend gathering as much as possible, exploring to hopefully find points of interest (like Walrus camps), gold for everyone else to have helms and spears. Help Wendys when we don't have Webbers to gather spider resources, and though I gather plenty, I generally leave building for someone else to do since I'm away from the base so much. Winter I build a mini area near Walrus camps if I found them and just farm, farm, farm. By the end of it I hopefully have a few Walrus tusks and a Tam or 2. I've also enjoyed playing her nomadically since it's quite easy to do, and in pub servers you don't always have cooperative groups, so I just branch out on my own. 

I plan on tackling Wickerbottom eventually when I have a good and understanding group. I haven't really played any of the male characters besides Wes where I made lots of balloons...

[Extant]

2 minutes ago, AnitaCoffee said:

I haven't really played any of the male characters besides Wes where I made lots of balloons...

Making balloons is the pinnacle of DST. You have now ascended to the highest realm possible and can handle anything this game throws at you!

On a more serious note, Wickerbottom definitely takes a bit of practice to get good at her. Especially figuring out how to use on tentacles effectively without getting wrecked by your own tentacles.

I'm pretty new at her too but I've been practicing with her on a co-op world recently. If I can give some advice, it'd be this.

Be at good health or (if you're far enough into the game) have a lightning-proof outfit when charging WX-78 with The End is Nigh. You can die from your own lightning strikes.

8 x 8 hay walls seems to be the minimum flooring required to safely spawn a bunch of tentacles to farm raid bosses for you. Mostly Bee Queen but I guess it could work for Dragonfly, too.

Birds of the world with sleepy time stories can be used to farm a good amount of meat if you find yourself running short on it for meatballs/pierogi. It's mostly used for farming Krampus however and azure feathers during winter.

You are going to be insane a lot as Wickerbottom due to her books. I would highly recommend being comfortable with insanity before beginning to play a lot of her. If you're not comfortable being insane, you could try asking a Maxwell on the team to read for you as he regenerates sanity passively.

[AnitaCoffee]

20 minutes ago, Extant said:

Making balloons is the pinnacle of DST. You have now ascended to the highest realm possible and can handle anything this game throws at you!

On a more serious note, Wickerbottom definitely takes a bit of practice to get good at her. Especially figuring out how to use on tentacles effectively without getting wrecked by your own tentacles.

I'm pretty new at her too but I've been practicing with her on a co-op world recently. If I can give some advice, it'd be this.

Be at good health or (if you're far enough into the game) have a lightning-proof outfit when charging WX-78 with The End is Nigh. You can die from your own lightning strikes.

8 x 8 hay walls seems to be the minimum flooring required to safely spawn a bunch of tentacles to farm raid bosses for you. Mostly Bee Queen but I guess it could work for Dragonfly, too.

Birds of the world with sleepy time stories can be used to farm a good amount of meat if you find yourself running short on it for meatballs/pierogi. It's mostly used for farming Krampus however and azure feathers during winter.

You are going to be insane a lot as Wickerbottom due to her books. I would highly recommend being comfortable with insanity before beginning to play a lot of her. If you're not comfortable being insane, you could try asking a Maxwell on the team to read for you as he regenerates sanity passively.

Thanks for the tips! I'll probably do a lot of reading before I touch her too, she just seems the most indepth, veteran character out of the lot. I'll probs play her solo a bit as well just so I can tinker. 

[Knowledgeable]

3 hours ago, CaptainChaotica said:

People.  It's a SANDBOX game.  That means different playstyles are perfectly possible.  Chill.  And heck, finding ways to make the game fight itself is FUN, dammit!  >:D  (Not directly talking to anybody _here_ yet, but...)

Side-note:  Knowledgeable, I'm kinda...flattered? that after reading all the way through that "How to be courteous to other players" thread, you actually remembered _my_ stupid story.  (Jerkface and Dumbarse, Attourneys at Law!)  But man, what a morning that was.  : P

Yeah, I usually try to mitigate my chances of death when facing bosses. In one world that meant leading deerclops halfway across the map to a reed/tentacle setpiece to take him out. With my lag I don't trust myself to take them out alone so I like to have backup

Haha, I have a good memory for stories given that I sometimes write them myself. I especially like hearing about other player's experiences here because for some reason it is very interesting to see the interactions between players that go on.

3 hours ago, AnitaCoffee said:

I plan on tackling Wickerbottom eventually when I have a good and understanding group.

I also want to play Wickerbottom a bit more to make the most of her abilities. Particularly in making use of her books to take down bosses.

2 hours ago, Extant said:

Making balloons is the pinnacle of DST. You have now ascended to the highest realm possible and can handle anything this game throws at you!

You are going to be insane a lot as Wickerbottom due to her books. I would highly recommend being comfortable with insanity before beginning to play a lot of her. If you're not comfortable being insane, you could try asking a Maxwell on the team to read for you as he regenerates sanity passively.

Ah yes, I remember one time where I spammed balloons as Wes until he was insane. Confused as to how blowing a few balloons could make one lose sanity, I asked my friend. They responded with "It's very stressful.". I stayed insane for a bit before eventually dying. My balloons remained as useless decorations for the rest of that short-lived world.

Also, wait other characters can read her books? I didn't know that, I thought only Wickerbottom could read her books.

[CaptainChaotica]

If you like stories, Knowledgeable, you should totally read some of the "Tales of Life and Death" forum (if you haven't already) 'cos that's what that whole section is ABOUT.  Telling random stuff that happened to you/people you know in the game.    (No this is not a sneaky attempt to get someone else to read my "March of Civilization" thread...but I wouldn't at all complain if that did hapen on its own.  Heh.)

I have played Wickerbottom (in fact, one of my currently longest-running-but-still-functional worlds is my Megarandom/Multilands one, where I'm playing as her) but I'm sure most people who are experts would tear their hair out at how I play her.  I hardly ever get a chance to get around to fancy spellbooks and synergy strategies with WX or whatever.  I just kind of play normally except I can have a backpack and shovel right off the bat.  : P  (And you are NOT allowed to be her in the March of Civilization/No Science Machine/Caveman type challenges, for exactly those reasons.  That is, if you're taking the challenge seriously.  Otherwise whatever.)

EVENTUALLY I will get to the spells, I swear.  But that particular world is really chaotic and I had to work on building my...basic base without dying from random Ewecuses, Yeti or Shipwrecked monkeys.  : P  Skipping my way past the frolicking sharkittens on my way to my favourite berry place (which belongs to pigs but they don't stop me), saying hi to "The Easter Bunny", taking a detour through the beaverperson village...

...Notorious

[Extant]

3 hours ago, Knowledgeable said:

Also, wait other characters can read her books? I didn't know that, I thought only Wickerbottom could read her books.

Maxwell is the only exception to this rule as he's rather experienced with the higher magic arts formerly being on the throne himself.

So only Wickerbottom and Maxwell can read her books.

[ShadowDuelist]

When I first started playing DST I used to read on these same forums (I'm a really long time lurker) stuff like -"Wickerbottom is the super duper bestest of them all like omg wow I haz krampus sack day 2 ez gg" so i was like "cool, then playing as wickerbottom must make the game easier, I'll try that".
And it sucked... hard, I used to get insane and haunted by terrorbeaks, be in constant hunger emergency during winter, and never even get to the part of making use of more than the plants book. And of course I remembered about all of you guys: -"DANG YOU FORUMERS!"

The thing is that I had to go through learning the game, starting with Webber for quite a long time, pass through Wigfrid, then Wendy, then Woody, then Maxwell, then back to Wickerbottom. And that's when I finally appreciated her perks and started to "really" do her stuff. And despite being openly a Maxwell main, I always admit that Wicker really is more efficient into mostly everything, but ONLY once you really know most of the game.
It's quite common to see newbies in publics all being wickerbottoms, wolfgangs and wx, only to die miserably in 18 days or less, to stuff that, probably just being Winona, Wilson or Wigfrid, they wouldn't.

I think the characters pros and cons can really condition the way you play, not specifically what you can or can't do, they all can do everything as Fang explained, but each character has a different learning curve and some really require you to have a specific amount of knowledge about the game before you can make the most of what makes them special. For those that eventually know all there is to know about the game, then yeah any character will do to you, even Wes, but before that point, you really need to commit to understand the character and the game, to make the best of it.

My advice to someone who is a new player and is trying to decide which char has the best perks, is that the char you like the most, stick with him/her until you learn the game.

A few notes on personal stuff I think about the character's perks:

Spoiler

 

• I hate chopping trees in large amounts. I'm lazy like that. So I rather spend a whole season insanelocked as Maxwell collecting fuel, and have enough to use loggers in a disposable manner, than working the trees one by one. Even as other characters you can always keep 3 or 4 piggies near the forests, befriend them with any meat, and use them to get you all the wood you need. To my personal taste, this is where Webber suffers the most: Having to wait for bearger for that mass tree killing. I'd like Webber a lot more if he could temporally overcome his penalty by using the onemanband.
• I don't think WX deserves the spot among the best perks in the game. He's fast, sure, but only if a wickerbottom is or was present and kind enough to leave you end is nigh books. And also being that fast is not really THAT useful, specially when any character can go around with cane and magiluminescence. As it was mentioned by OP, in team games gears really come by very late in the game, probably by the second or sometimes even third ruins reset. I played in an endless public run as WX for like 800 days to finally get the opinion that he was just a tankier, wickerbottom dependant, Wilson. The only thing I appreciated about WX was carrying 2 or 3 meaty stews and being able to live off them nomadic for days, even when they were almost rotten. A perk that became neglect-able once I got bundles, since I could keep all my food fresh virtually forever.
• I think the best team composition, in a completely subjective ideal according to how I like to play the game, are a Wendy, a Wigfrid, a Wickerbottom, and the 4th can either be a Maxwell or a Wolfgang. Wendy is a great early spiderfarmer and she can also quickly make short work of bees, helping to get bee boxes faster. She's handy to have close during splumonkeys nightmare phase, and in mid to late game she offers the best sanity station you can have. Wigfrid because I honestly appreciate her helmets, I think they are the best helmets to go around during most of the game, and lets you save thulecite crowns for more serious battles. She's also a decent ally in all boss battles requiring less healing. Maxwell because of his supreme gathering skills early on, and his capability to keep a steady supply of living logs from early to mid game. He can also assist Wicker with the books use, although he does suffer the penalty of being more fragile during long raid bosses battles. For late game its best to just have a Wolfgang instead of Max, even if he's average at collecting things early on. And I didn't forget about Wickerbottom, there's enough stuff and guides about her around to mention again what she can do, she's great for any team composition.

 

 

[Knowledgeable]

3 hours ago, CaptainChaotica said:

If you like stories, Knowledgeable, you should totally read some of the "Tales of Life and Death" forum (if you haven't already) 'cos that's what that whole section is ABOUT.  Telling random stuff that happened to you/people you know in the game.    (No this is not a sneaky attempt to get someone else to read my "March of Civilization" thread...but I wouldn't at all complain if that did hapen on its own.  Heh.)

I have played Wickerbottom (in fact, one of my currently longest-running-but-still-functional worlds is my Megarandom/Multilands one, where I'm playing as her) but I'm sure most people who are experts would tear their hair out at how I play her.  I hardly ever get a chance to get around to fancy spellbooks and synergy strategies with WX or whatever.  I just kind of play normally except I can have a backpack and shovel right off the bat.  : P  (And you are NOT allowed to be her in the March of Civilization/No Science Machine/Caveman type challenges, for exactly those reasons.  That is, if you're taking the challenge seriously.  Otherwise whatever.)

I scoured that forum long ago, haha, including your civilization thread. Was interesting to take a peek at a more modded game and your comments on the screenshots were amusing ("I put snow in cup" she says, suddenly having become a stereotypical cold war era Russian.). 

Yeah, I agree somewhat. The way I play some characters would have people annoyed, ie WX and never upgrading. Same goes for Woodie; often in DS I would force werebeaver just because it was fun, and half the time end up dying later when Woodie woke up. I also end up forcing it by accident sometimes in DST and well... it's not exactly as fun as in DS

2 hours ago, Extant said:

Maxwell is the only exception to this rule as he's rather experienced with the higher magic arts formerly being on the throne himself.

So only Wickerbottom and Maxwell can read her books.

Neat, I didn't know that. Makes sense I guess. 

On a side note, that made me imagine a funny scenario. All the characters (minus Wicker and Max) are trying to read Wickerbottom's books but only see gibberish/scribbles. Meanwhile Maxwell is sitting nearby reading one of her books with ease. The other characters are deeply confused.

1 hour ago, ShadowDuelist said:

When I first started playing DST I used to read on these same forums (I'm a really long time lurker) stuff like -"Wickerbottom is the super duper bestest of them all like omg wow I haz krampus sack day 2 ez gg" so i was like "cool, then playing as wickerbottom must make the game easier, I'll try that".
And it sucked... hard, I used to get insane and haunted by terrorbeaks, be in constant hunger emergency during winter, and never even get to the part of making use of more than the plants book. And of course I remembered about all of you guys: -"DANG YOU FORUMERS!"

I went into DS blind, and learned as I unlocked the different characters. I found Shipwrecked fun because it was a nice change. When I finally did look at other people playing I was a bit gobsmacked. "Strategies"? "Kiting"?

I learned a lot from the community but thanks to my base experience I had enough knowledge to play all the characters at least ok. My playstyle for Wolfgang I learned just by playing him in DS and finding out what a food-hog he is in constant mighty form

[Maxposting]

On 26. 7. 2018 at 1:23 AM, Knowledgeable said:

Maybe I'm not the best food gatherer or something, but in DST I try to be aware of the group's food situation and thus eat as little as possible to leave enough for others. I feel like being always in mighty form would use up a lot of food quickly. I suppose late game when there is an overabundance of food I could try it. I may also try it in DS.

and being wimpy at some times can make you double healing