DS RoG is still beyond my current skills

[finmat92]

Hi everyone, i'm here after 4 years from release and over 300 hours in playtime.

I need to improve myself and i'm looking for some advance tips.

Recently i started a new game in RoG. I consider game with default settings and Wilson as character. The game is completed when i'm able to survive one year (in this case 4 seasons).

I was in the Spring season, so i tried to do my best to create a campbase and try to survive through Summer that was coming. I collected main resources as twigs, grass, some food (carrot, berries, birchnut, etc), flint to craft axe and pickaxe. Then i went looking for other areas meanwhile i was exploring the map. I found beefalo in Savanna biome (manure is a important item to craft farms and create a supply area for grass and twigs in order to save time); i found rockyland (supply area for rocks, flint and gold nuggets essential to craft Science machine and Alchemy Engine); i found grassland (it was full of bee hives, unfortunately they were aggressive); i found Marsh (where i was able to pick up fish, frog legs, green mushroom for sanity). I built a firecamp, a Science machine, a Alchemy Engine, 3-4 chests, a little area where i planted pine cones, i crafted Backpack to carry more stuff,  3 improved farms, 3 lightning rods (preventing fires) and some grass tuft/sapling near them. After 21 days Summer has come and i found myself having to face so many problems:

1- Overheating (i crated one Ice Cube, but i hadn't a ice box due to the lacks of gears). Trees can help, but only for a moment. Endotermic fire is good, but it costs 2 nitre and i can't go far away from it. Due to wildfire caused by Summer i lost Science machine and Alchemy Engine.

2- Hounds. Yes, they aren't dangerous, but they can be if they arrived at the worst moment (i was dead, respawned with half health/sanity/hunger and nothing in inventory).

3- Sanity. Using Ice Cube during the day drop down it. Also rain (during Spring), dusk/night, monsters lower it. This forces you to spend a lot of times to raise it. 

4- Bosses as Dragonfly that can arrives in the worst moment and destroy your campbase. 

What i'm looking for is a way to optimize my time, 21 days are barely enough to prepare yourself for Summer/Winter.

Thanks for your attention.

[TipherethB]

20 hours ago, finmat92 said:

Hi everyone, i'm here after 4 years from release and over 300 hours in playtime.

I need to improve myself and i'm looking for some advance tips.

Recently i started a new game in RoG. I consider game with default settings and Wilson as character. The game is completed when i'm able to survive one year (in this case 4 seasons).

I was in the Spring season, so i tried to do my best to create a campbase and try to survive through Summer that was coming. I collected main resources as twigs, grass, some food (carrot, berries, birchnut, etc), flint to craft axe and pickaxe. Then i went looking for other areas meanwhile i was exploring the map. I found beefalo in Savanna biome (manure is a important item to craft farms and create a supply area for grass and twigs in order to save time); i found rockyland (supply area for rocks, flint and gold nuggets essential to craft Science machine and Alchemy Engine); i found grassland (it was full of bee hives, unfortunately they were aggressive); i found Marsh (where i was able to pick up fish, frog legs, green mushroom for sanity). I built a firecamp, a Science machine, a Alchemy Engine, 3-4 chests, a little area where i planted pine cones, i crafted Backpack to carry more stuff,  3 improved farms, 3 lightning rods (preventing fires) and some grass tuft/sapling near them. After 21 days Summer has come and i found myself having to face so many problems:

1- Overheating (i crated one Ice Cube, but i hadn't a ice box due to the lacks of gears). Trees can help, but only for a moment. Endotermic fire is good, but it costs 2 nitre and i can't go far away from it. Due to wildfire caused by Summer i lost Science machine and Alchemy Engine.

2- Hounds. Yes, they aren't dangerous, but they can be if they arrived at the worst moment (i was dead, respawned with half health/sanity/hunger and nothing in inventory).

3- Sanity. Using Ice Cube during the day drop down it. Also rain (during Spring), dusk/night, monsters lower it. This forces you to spend a lot of times to raise it. 

4- Bosses as Dragonfly that can arrives in the worst moment and destroy your campbase. 

What i'm looking for is a way to optimize my time, 21 days are barely enough to prepare yourself for Summer/Winter.

Thanks for your attention.

I'm no expert, but i'll give you some tips that i tend to do when i'm playing. Take these with a grain of salt, however, as i'm no expert.

1. Overheating 

I Would reccomend using a Straw hat + Umbrella combo for this, as it negates both water and overheating. You can also try getting summer clothes, but that isn't something i reccomend as they can be a pain to get. Wildfire can be stopped with a Flingomatic, which should be one of the things you want to get in a spring spawn. You may also consider not using the ice hat, as it induces insanity and if you're not ready for that, it might be a problem.

If you're playing Wilson, shave your beard, as it gives you heat. Don't shave it during winter, though.

2. Hounds

There are many ways to deal with hounds, and i'll list some of them below.

You can use pigs, but it's not very effective. Once you hear the hounds warning, run to a pig village nearby, if any, and the pigs should do the job for you. something worth noting is when the hounds bark, they lose their aggro (which defines what they wanna kill) and re-aggro on the closest thing to them. so if a hound wants to kill you, barks, and a pig is closer to him than you are, he will attack the pig. 

You can also use beefalo, but be careful with this one, as when in heat, beefalo will also kill you. Quite effective if they aren't in heat, however. Won't work in spring unless you have a beefalo hat.

Another way is tooth traps, although harder to get, they really pay off. Building a 12x12 should be enough

You can also lure the hounds to another threats, like bosses and such.

3. Sanity Management

To be sane, or to not be sane, That's the question.

Well, it seems you want the former. i'd avoid the ice hat and melon hat if you start in spring to avoid getting wet, which induces insanity and freezing. Again, You can use the StrawBrella combo, or other means such as the rainhat or raincoat. though, these are harder to get than 12 grass, silk, pig skin and twigs.

Green caps are a great source of sanity and insanity, a raw one will give you -50 sanity, and a cooked one +15 sanity. I'd use these if i plan to go hunting nightmares or to clean my mind, so have these with you when possible.

Playing with characters with less sanity loss (Such as Wendy) Might help if you really need it, but i'd stick with Wilson.

4. The Giants

Okay.. This is the hard part. Every Season, a Giant comes for you. in RoG, this is their home. And they aren't gonna give it up easily to a random stranger. So Make Ham Bats, Put on war paint, and prepare a trap. Get your Beefalo Friends. Call the Pigs. Get a Helmet and armor. Your character will warn you, and roars will be heard incase your idiot character forgets to tell you a giant is coming. Stay away from your base in this scenario, and prepare for fighting.

Kite them.

Dodge their attacks, and then land yours. This is the most effective way to fight bosses, however, it is tricky to learn.

Don't be alone.

Beefalo and Pigs are your best friends here. They will help you deal extra damage, but many will die in this fight. Great for distraction, and possible source of food as you feed off their corpses. Kinda depressing, but effective. 

Be prepared.

Have A Ham bat, or Spear if you're low on stuff, and always Football helmet and Wood Armor.

5. Time management

i really suck at this so i'll let someone else tell you.

Well, I hope thiese tips (4/5 parts of them at least) helped you, and get ready for a fun time.

 

[tehhotdog]

Hounds are very easy to kill, depending on how many there are. If there are only a few, you can easily kite them and kill them with 5 hits from a spear. If there are too many to kite one without another hitting you, you can use beefalos, pigs, bees, tallbirds, tentacles, merms or frogs to help. Or you can just tank them with some armour and a helmet.

For sanity, learning a new blueprint or prototyping a new recipe will give you 20 sanity. Shaving your beard as Wilson or Webber will also raise your sanity, or burning things as Willow. Picking flowers gives 5 sanity per petal, and crafting a garland or preferably a top hat will regenerate your sanity overtime. However, if you make a top hat and need it to last longer, only equip it during the day. You won't regenerate sanity at dusk or night. Wearing a catcap will also restore your sanity over time.
If you are struggling, you can resort to using jerky purely for sanity gain. Any meat(except monster meat) put on a drying rack will turn into jerky(which you probably know already) and will restore a nice amount of sanity. It also lasts much longer.

When it comes to the giants, there are some things that you need to know;
Deerclops will target your base if he is close enough, and he will destroy everything you have if you don't get him away from it.
Bearger will hibernate in the winter, and can be avoided by just leading hiim away and going back to him when you are prepared.
Moosegoose is the easiest of all the giants, but one of his attacks will make you drop your weapon, so just take care when fighting him.
Dragonfly is faster and stronger than you, and if you make a mistake he will destroy you. He is by far the hardest giant, but you can lead him away like bearger..

When starting a world, you need to know how to prioritise resources and jobs. I always try to keep a full, or near full, stack of every basic resource(grass, twigs, rocks, flint, logs) in my backpack.
If you start in Autumn, you should prioritise finding a good location to build a base first, and then look for gears. They can be found in tumbleweeds or by killing chess pieces(as you probably already know).  Once you have some, make an ice box and stockpile food toward the end of the season ready for Winter.
When Winter comes, get at least 15 ice cubes and put them in an ice box(if you have one) or make an ice flingomatic as soon as you can, ready for Summer.  You will need a thermal stone at the start too, without one you can't travel without freezing after about 20 seconds. Rabbit earmuffs or a winter hat are good for keeping you warm.
At the start of Spring, you will probably be cold still from the Winter, and the rain will make you even colder. Keeping dry is very difficult without an eyebrella or rain coat and hat, and sometimes you will just have to sit through it in order to get work done(like gathering resources and food) 
In Summer, eating any ice cubes you have left from Winter will cool you down and restore a small amount of hunger, and an endothermic firepit or two will be necessary for survival, nitre is very easy to obtain for them(mine rounder, whiter boulders). You will need to make a thermal stone and cool it down in an ice box or at an endothermic fire, if you want to move around the world without overheating almost immediately.


Other than all I have already said, I don't really know what to say. Hopefully at least something here makes sense to and helps you.

[imsomony]

If you're struggling with RoG, I would recommend making sure your starting season is Autumn, not "default" (which can be Autumn OR Spring). Autumn is the equivalent of Summer for vanilla DS, so you'll have the entire season to prepare for Winter and everything after.  

 

The thing about RoG is that you need to always be looking 1-2 seasons ahead of where you are, and preparing for it. So when you start in Spring, you already need to worry about rain and lightning immediately, but your primary concern is actually preparing yourself for Summer.  

 

With a Spring start, focus on getting an Umbrella/Straw Hat combo or scouring the swamps for Tentacle Spots to make a Rain Coat. It's usually faster to do Umbrella/Straw Hat though, and all you need is a Science Machine to get either going. Make a Science Machine ASAP, drop it anywhere convenient, and pre-build the basics you'll need later. This is what I try to make/pre-build first: Alchemy Engine, Lightning Rod, Crockpot, Drying Rack, Chest, Spear, Log Suit, Backpack, Endothermic Fire. 

 

After that, make sure you find your Pig King and Beefalo for early hound/frog protection (if you aren't good at kiting), and your Desert. Sometimes you'll have two Deserts, so make sure you find one with Cactus plants, and begin setting up a camp nearby or in it - you'll be spending your first Summer there, picking tumbleweeds and cactus plants, etc.   

 

Get 3 gears ASAP, and as much ice as you can carry before Spring ends. The gears are for one Ice Flingomatic and one Ice Box. You'll need 15 ice for the Flingo, and any extra is cheap and easy filler for cooked meals. Once you have an Ice Box, make a Thermal Stone (or two), and place them in the Ice Box. You can carry those around to keep you cool for short distances, while you work on making actual Summer clothing.   

The Summer camp probably won't be your permanent base, it's just there to get you through until Autumn. It won't be pretty, but it will be functional. Don't bother with farms or berry bushes this first year, it's too much effort for too little payout right now. And definitely, don't replant grass/twigs at all - the desert will provide plenty of those. My basic/first year Summer camp is typically: Alchemy Engine, Lightning Rod, Bird Cage, 1-2 Crockpots, Ice Box, 2-4 Drying Racks, Ice Flingomatic, Fire Pit, Endothermic Fire Pit, a couple trees for wood, and a chest or two.

You only need one Lightning Rod since your base is dense, it's all within one screen. You should place your one Ice Flingomatic in such a way that it covers everything except for the fire pits. Basically, the Flingo is the center of your base, and you build what you need around it. This thread can give you an idea of the range a Flingo has, or I can recommend a mod if you're on PC:

As for Dragonfly, I never fight her the first Summer, she's not worth the trouble. As soon as my character gives the first warning, I run away from my Summer base, deep into the Desert, to a corner or hound mound area. Once she spawns, I run like hell away from her, leave my Summer base and the Desert behind, and live as a nomad for the next few days until the season ends.