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Basic strategies for new players


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There is nothing worse than having to stop your progress just to collect the much needed items to revive a player, for dying to darkness on day 2 no less.  This really sheds time and days that could be used to build up the base and/or prepare for Winter.  On the flip side, it isn't very fun to have to wait to be revived when you could be playing the game.  To solve this problem, somewhat, I've come up with basic survival strategies needed to survive the first few days.

 

Make the basic necessities

Believe it or not, this is one of the biggest reasons new players die.  I can't tell you how many times players have died from darkness on day 3, when there are plenty of grass and twigs around the area.  So the strategy would be to collect 4 twigs, 2 grass, and 2 flint for a torch and pickax.  Sure it's nice to have an ax as soon as you get 1 flint, but that means you'll have to look for 2 more pieces to make a pickax.  It's more efficient to make a pickax, then mine rocks to get more flint.  That means you pick up 2 flint off the ground vs 3 flint off the ground.  Only grab enough twigs around the portal to make a torch, and then grab more twigs, grass and 2 flint when you go further out.  This means that new players joining the game still have some grass and twigs around the portal so they can make their own torch.

Don't explore weird territory

I think you should explore the game, don't get me wrong, but don't explore an area that looks dangerous if you're new to the game Don't Starve in general.  Many people have died by caves (on day 2-5) and by the Dragonfly before Winter even starts.  That's ridiculous at that point.  Don't explore a new and dangerous area if you don't have the tools and you don't even know what they are.  Now, I can see the excuse for caves because many new players will mine it for flint and accidentally enter when they are picking up the flint, but you have to pass dangerous looking pools of lava to get to the Dragonfly, so there is no excuse there.

Prioritize

What good is a rabbit trap when you don't even have a torch?  This whole list seems hard to believe, but some people have literally died because they felt a rabbit trap was more important than a torch.  I just...  Sure a rabbit trap is very much needed, especially if you have Wigfrid, but I think a rabbit trap is pretty useless if you can't even survive past the night.  If you have limited resources then, as stated above, make the necessities and constantly picks twigs and grass far away from the portal.  Shout out to the people who make bee boxes yet don't catch butterflies.  I literally have to waste 2 days to make the net and catch the butterflies.  Shout out to the people who make rabbit earmuffs, wasting 2 rabbits, instead of using the razor in the chest to shave the beefalo.  Those two rabbits would have made great kabobs/meatballs, but a useless pair of earmuffs are nice I guess.  

I don't remember other mistakes, but anyone else is free to add anymore mistakes that have people dying in the first few days.  

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Okay, decent advice in general, BUT...

Sometimes you don't find the beefalo in time before winter--especially in large or above maps, and/or by yourself.  In that case, you make earmuffs out of desperation to have a winter ANYthing.  You can make beefalo/winter hats later, but...if you don't have access to the right ingredients for those in time, earmuffs ARE better than nothing.  If you're playing alone, sometimes it can take multiple seasons to find the beefalo!  I know from experience. 

Mind you, I don't make the rabbit earmuffs until winter IS upon me--not right away, after only a few days in.  I wait to see if I truly can't find anything better in time and THEN make the earmuffs.  And a thermal stone.  Not to mention if you like to randomise the season lengths, as I do.  If you're taken unwares by a super-short autumn--which has also happened to me--two of those jumping rabbit traps are gonna look a lot more like clothing than food to you, real soon!

Other than that, sure, I agree with most of it.  But, don't _always_ yell at people for making the less efficient thing, in this case.  Sometimes it's all they can find.  (shrug)

...Notorious

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Make a pickax first is a solid tip, as is fanning out beyond the immediate vicinity of the portal. People joining public servers a few days into autumn often seem to have trouble finding flint. IME, there's more of it lying around on grassy, mosaic and rocky biomes, less in forest, deciduous, swamp and savannah. A meadow far from the portal often still has flint lying around many days into the game.

There are so many better/faster sources of meat than rabbits that I never bother with them until I need a prestihatitator, but it just seems like the logical thing to do when you're new to the game and I remember how much time I wasted trying to catch them!. Just kill a frog or a mole if you need morsels. They don't run away. Two silks and some twigs will get you 9 fish from a pond in the time it takes to chase a couple of rabbits into a trap.

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1. edging the map as early as you leave portal

2. leave edging the map when in need of food

3. go for blue caps if you know how to kill nightmares, blue caps are one of the best early foods with giving hp and sanity if cooked.

4. 2-40 light bulbs before winter.

5. don't rush a base, "were baze".

6. leave items you don't need to carry at a well known safe place, aka pigking, savanah (beef), or pig torches(free light if the pigs are walled right).

7. armor up and kill spiders.

8. use monster meat to feed pigs, four mm is a wpig which drops pig skin and 2 meats for a ham bat or foot ball helms.

9. (if winter) hunt mc tusks, cane is high priority for speed.

10. deer boy is easy with a road and/or cane, use cooked green caps for sanity.

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11 hours ago, LuxuryHeart said:

Sure a rabbit trap is very much needed, especially if you have Wigfrid...
Shout out to the people who make bee boxes yet don't catch butterflies.

To go off of this...

1. Rabbits are a really bad food source when pigs, spiders, moleworms, koalefants, bunnymen and even beefalo exist. You can go for all of those (except maybe bunnymen) just as easily, even when you're new, as long as you have some basic kiting skills or know how to make them turn on each other.

2. Bee boxes don't need flowers around them, just build them far away from base. When they're unloaded they'll still slowly make honey, so you can run by every once in a while and harvest them.

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Something a newbie did in my world recently- DON'T PLANT LIKE 30 TREES RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR BASE

It was day 7 and with treeguards on Less in settings we already got a TG roaming right next to our base.

 

Don't put Chester's key into Chester. He won't carry that key for you. He'll stay in one spot.

 

Don't make Ratatouille. Most of the time the ingredients you use to make that Ratatouille give more satiety than Ratatouille does.

 

Don't eat monster meat if your health is low and your character is starving, you'll die either way. I could've picked that meat from your corpse and make Meatballs for myself. v-v

 

If there's a sinkhole right next to your base- don't unplug it. Unless you want 5 batilisks attacking you and your friends every single night. Yeah, they drop meat and guano sometimes, which is nice, but it gets really annoying really fast.

 

Also watch that right upper corner now and then. My friend always forgets that it's almost night time or that her character should eat.

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1 hour ago, JellyUltra said:

2. Bee boxes don't need flowers around them, just build them far away from base. When they're unloaded they'll still slowly make honey, so you can run by every once in a while and harvest them.

I'm sorry, I'm a bit confused. If the bees can't find four flowers per each of them to pollinate before dusk comes, they won't contribute to honey production. The only situation when you don't need flowers is when you place the apiary far away from areas you frequent, so that the simplified honey production model kicks in. But this is inefficient since it will only produce one honey a day while you can produce much more with enough flowers for each bee to pollinate. You don't want the apiary very close to the camp anyway since it spawns hostile bees (after harvesting the honey) or, even worse, killer bees during spring.

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9 hours ago, CaptainChaotica said:

Okay, decent advice in general, BUT...

Sometimes you don't find the beefalo in time before winter--especially in large or above maps, and/or by yourself.  In that case, you make earmuffs out of desperation to have a winter ANYthing.  You can make beefalo/winter hats later, but...if you don't have access to the right ingredients for those in time, earmuffs ARE better than nothing.  If you're playing alone, sometimes it can take multiple seasons to find the beefalo!  I know from experience. 

Mind you, I don't make the rabbit earmuffs until winter IS upon me--not right away, after only a few days in.  I wait to see if I truly can't find anything better in time and THEN make the earmuffs.  And a thermal stone.  Not to mention if you like to randomise the season lengths, as I do.  If you're taken unwares by a super-short autumn--which has also happened to me--two of those jumping rabbit traps are gonna look a lot more like clothing than food to you, real soon!

Other than that, sure, I agree with most of it.  But, don't _always_ yell at people for making the less efficient thing, in this case.  Sometimes it's all they can find.  (shrug)

...Notorious

I hardly ever have this problem since I make it my mission to look for beefalo and prioritize it.  

Though you are right about the beefalo hats.  Beefalo hats require killing several beefalo before you're able to get the horn.  Much more efficient to just shave them for a Winter hat.

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8 hours ago, Rellimarual said:

Make a pickax first is a solid tip, as is fanning out beyond the immediate vicinity of the portal. People joining public servers a few days into autumn often seem to have trouble finding flint. IME, there's more of it lying around on grassy, mosaic and rocky biomes, less in forest, deciduous, swamp and savannah. A meadow far from the portal often still has flint lying around many days into the game.

There are so many better/faster sources of meat than rabbits that I never bother with them until I need a prestihatitator, but it just seems like the logical thing to do when you're new to the game and I remember how much time I wasted trying to catch them!. Just kill a frog or a mole if you need morsels. They don't run away. Two silks and some twigs will get you 9 fish from a pond in the time it takes to chase a couple of rabbits into a trap.

I generally don't either.  I usually just make the rabbit traps to get spiders so I can get silk, glands, and meat or go after frogs since they actually chase me.  Though many new players usually make them to catch rabbits, and they'll do it when they don't have a torch.

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4 hours ago, Vixrotre said:

Something a newbie did in my world recently- DON'T PLANT LIKE 30 TREES RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR BASE

It was day 7 and with treeguards on Less in settings we already got a TG roaming right next to our base.

 

Don't put Chester's key into Chester. He won't carry that key for you. He'll stay in one spot.

 

Don't make Ratatouille. Most of the time the ingredients you use to make that Ratatouille give more satiety than Ratatouille does.

 

Don't eat monster meat if your health is low and your character is starving, you'll die either way. I could've picked that meat from your corpse and make Meatballs for myself. v-v

 

If there's a sinkhole right next to your base- don't unplug it. Unless you want 5 batilisks attacking you and your friends every single night. Yeah, they drop meat and guano sometimes, which is nice, but it gets really annoying really fast.

 

Also watch that right upper corner now and then. My friend always forgets that it's almost night time or that her character should eat.

I generally see them kill and plant like 30 trees.  We don't have problems with treeguards for the most part, unless they forget to plant the pinecones and next thing you know we'll have like 3 of them wanting to kill that person.

 

A guy did this and caused several players to die.  Then some new people thought it would be a genius idea to open the 2nd sinkhole near our base.  I think the problem is many are either really eager to explore the caves, or they'll mine it for flint.

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4 hours ago, Arlesienne said:

entsorry, jm a bit confused. If ththoughcan't find four flowers per each of them to pollinate before dusk comes, they won't contribute to honey production. The only situation when you don't need flowers is when you place the apiary far away from areas you frequent, so that the simplified honey production model kicks in. But this is inefficient since it will only produce one honey a day while you can produce much more with enough flowers for each bee to pollinate. You don't want the apiary very close to the camp anyway since it spawns hostile bees (after harvesting the honey) or, even worse, killer bees during spring

Bee Boxes still produce Honey when unloaded. At a rate of one stage every day, if I remember well. It stays at the same rate regardless of flowers and winter as long as they're unloaded. A good amount of Bee Boxes can already feed Wolfgang at that rate.

Nothing's wrong with having flowers around though. But usually it should be a luxury because of the amount of time it takes just to get a bit more honey production when Bee Boxes are loaded.

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Well, I explore like crazy and...sometimes I just don't find the bloody things!  Especially frustrating when it turns out they actually WEREN'T that far away after all...they were just in the one direction you kept forgetting to explore and didn't _realise_  (A big part of why I often need maps, in games--missing something over and over and having no idea _that_ you missed, let alone WHAT you missed.  Then I look at the game map and (smack forehead) "D'OH!")  

(shrugs)  Sometimes you just have bad luck...or randomise the seasons.  Which I refuse to stop doing even if stupid Antlion DID wreck my face off the first time they showed up in my world because of it.  : P  ("Oh, the trees are already turning green.  It's gonna be a short winter."  (end of night) "Aaaand, welcome to..." (dramatic pause as the day rolls over) "...SUMMER?!!")

I _always_ watch the upper right corner.  It irritates me when people don't--or don't anywhere near as often as they should, anyway.  I cannot TELL you how many people--including me--were yelling at Sips:  "YOUR HUNGER!! YOU IDIOT!!  LOOK AT IT!  IT'S CALLED DON'T _STARVE_, YOU'RE NOT BEING ATTACKED, EVERYTHING IS GOING RED BECAUSE YOU'RE _DYING_!!!!"

...despite the fact that the video was at least 2, 3 years old when we saw it.  : P 

And, I'm'a have to put my foot down on all this rabbit poo-pooing. Hunting for big meat may be cooler, but it takes you away from camp all the time and puts you in danger. Why do that, when you can live near/in a rabbit savannah and have _some_ meat EVERY day (except in spring), thereby making the occasional hunt a BONUS, rather than a necessity?  Waste time _chasing_ rabbits into traps what are you on about?  I just put the traps right on their holes and check 'em once a day!  (Less if I've been travelling.)  Small jerky's little bits of health and sanity add UP, when you've got a decent amount of drying racks, (6 or so) and I can't tell you how many times that stuff has saved my life.  For meatballs...after a while you'll get all you need from hounds. 

In spring?  Ponds.  Find a bunch of ponds and plunk down a lot of traps.  In fact, that's exactly what I'm doing at the March of Civilization server right now--ponds all year round except winter, grab traps, move them all over to the west where the rabbit savannah is.  In spring, move them all back and they can stay there until the end of autumn.  Perfect!  Just, in this case, don't check or place the traps until dusk, unless you want all the frogs in the area up in your business.

Sure, there's the "most efficient" way to play, but that's not available to all players at all times.  My MOST basic advice on all this?

Don't let perfect get in the way of good.

...Notorious

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18 hours ago, Vixrotre said:

If there's a sinkhole right next to your base- don't unplug it. Unless you want 5 batilisks attacking you and your friends every single night. Yeah, they drop meat and guano sometimes, which is nice, but it gets really annoying really fast.

I can argue. If I recall correctly a tentacle spike can kill them in 1 hit. Just have a few of those dedicated to killing bats and you're good.

 

18 hours ago, Vixrotre said:

 

Something a newbie did in my world recently- DON'T PLANT LIKE 30 TREES RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR BASE

 

Getting treeguards is a blessing. Living logs can be used for things such as Dark Swords, which do come in handy when fighting bosses.

 

9 hours ago, CaptainChaotica said:

this rabbit poo-pooing. Hunting for big meat may be cooler, but it takes you away from camp all the time and puts you in danger. Why do that, when you can live near/in a rabbit savannah and have _some_ meat EVERY day (except in spring), thereby making the occasional hunt a BONUS, rather than a necessity?

Living near hound mounds or spiders and owning a birdcage gives CRAZY amounts of food. Heck, on a world alone I had over 4 stacks of monster meat in my fridge. Cooked monster meat can be fed to a caged bird to obtain eggs, and 1 monster meat and 3 eggs will yield meatballs. Harvesting cactus or mushrooms from nearby areas will allow you to make pierogi. It heals 40 health and it's made with 1 meat 1-2 vegetables and 1-2 eggs. That could be used to heal oneself after fighting hounds or picking cactus. 

Also, spiders can be moved anywhere. Rabbits on the other hand only spawn in a savannah. Relying on spider meat for survival can let you base near other things,  such as a swamp for reeds or MacTusk to have a higher chance of getting multiple walking canes and tams' o shanter.

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But Captain, hardly any new players have a base on day one to stick around. If they're making traps when that leaves them without the makings of a torch or campfire, their priorities are going to get them killed. Traps are not that useful until you settle down. A trap that might have a small bit of meat tomorrow is not that helpful when you're still exploring the map and will be on the other side of it tomorrow, and you don't have a crockpot yet, let alone a drying rack. Traps are fine in the scenarios you mention, but those come later in the game. The OP mentioned that traps are important for Wigfrid in particular, but that hasn't been my experience. Wigfrid drains hunger faster than other characters and needs to get big meats fast at the beginning of the game. A cooked morsel is not much good unless you can get it fast and now, like frogs legs or moles if it's evening. You can usually get a few of those quickly since you start with a weapon, then quickly move out in search of larger prey.

By the time I start building a base, I've usually got a stack of monster meat from killing spiders and hounds and want to hoard grass and twigs for racks rather than spend them on traps, so even when I need morsels to make bacon and eggs, I'll go for frogs, moles, birds (since I've already made a trap), etc, because they cost me nothing. Or I already have established a source of big meats.. But that's not what the OP is talking about. They were offering tips to beginners at the start of the map.

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26 minutes ago, Electroely said:

Getting treeguards is a blessing. Living logs can be used for things such as Dark Swords, which do come in handy when fighting bosses.

And likewise, I don't think most beginning players are in a position to work toward dark swords. Treeguards are easy to kill once you get the hang of it, but exploring the map and setting up a basic productive base come first. You can survive for hundreds and hundreds of days without ever making a dark sword.

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I'm sure someone's said it before, but I'd like to re-emphasize that for most people changing your playstyle to spend the first week or two just scouting will pay off quickly.  I completely agree that learning how to gather and make food is good, but you really want to do so while staying on the move during the early days.  I prefer to forgo even a campfire and simply run through the night with a torch, though I will often build one after a few days and stay by it just long enough to cook some MM and then whatever else I want to eat.

 

Just keep swimming -- so to speak.  No matter what else, always be on the move and always be moving into un-mapped space.  You can have an exception for mining gold, two pick-axes worth then get the move on again, one axe of wood - tops.  To help with inventory control pre-build things and use your tools completely up before moving on.

 

But always be scouting, everything else is just a delay.

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Well, I MEANT when you settle down, you should make traps blah blah.  Not immediately, of course!  I didn't mean those were a first priority.  But that they had use, like, at all.  At some point.  I do, in fact, sometimes take about a week or so to set up base at all.  It depends on how hungry I'm getting and how soon I find my first piece of gold--sometimes I plunk it down in a "good enough" spot after several days of wandering, 'cos I'm tired and want my damn crockpot.  : P  But I do look for someplace with access to more than one type of resource.

And yeah, bacon and eggs, etc. but I kind of like to be able to make jerky that isn't still poisonous.  Without having to go on long hunts and possibly stir up vargs all the time.

I dunno, just...this bugs me, 'cos every single time these threads come up, it seems like so MANY of the ways _I_ happen to play are tossed out as "amateur" "noobie traps" and "inefficient".  (mocking singsong voice)  Don't use rabbits.  Don't rely on beefalo (I don't, but I do _use_ them from time to time).  Learn how to fight everything yourself.  Don't make traps.  Don't build walls.  Blah blah blah it just gets to me after a while...

People, I may not be playing exactly The Correct Way, BUUUTT...

day570.png

...in a world with 40-day winters followed by 50-day springs.  Every year.

(drops the mike)

(Oh, and don't EVEN give me "Wigfrid is easy mode".  She just happens to be the character I picked on what happened to end up as my longest-running server.  I could probably do the same thing with Willow--and intend to, at some point.  Yes, that's Warly's crockpot. The server does have mods.  None of them are very big or cheaty.  A Warly died to the Dragonfly long, long ago and I went out to the desert to rescue his stuff.  I do have to sort of apologise for the kabobs--I didn't have enough filler to make proper meatballs. But I DID have sticks.)

Not recordbreaking, I know...but it DOES prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that I know what I'm doing.  Even if I AM doing it in a way some might not approve of.

...Notorious

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51 minutes ago, CaptainChaotica said:

Well, I MEANT when you settle down, you should make traps blah blah.  Not immediately, of course!  I didn't mean those were a first priority.  But that they had use, like, at all.  At some point.  I do, in fact, sometimes take about a week or so to set up base at all.  It depends on how hungry I'm getting and how soon I find my first piece of gold--sometimes I plunk it down in a "good enough" spot after several days of wandering, 'cos I'm tired and want my damn crockpot.  : P  But I do look for someplace with access to more than one type of resource.

And yeah, bacon and eggs, etc. but I kind of like to be able to make jerky that isn't still poisonous.  Without having to go on long hunts and possibly stir up vargs all the time.

I dunno, just...this bugs me, 'cos every single time these threads come up, it seems like so MANY of the ways _I_ happen to play are tossed out as "amateur" "noobie traps" and "inefficient".  (mocking singsong voice)  Don't use rabbits.  Don't rely on beefalo (I don't, but I do _use_ them from time to time).  Learn how to fight everything yourself.  Don't make traps.  Don't build walls.  Blah blah blah it just gets to me after a while...

People, I may not be playing exactly The Correct Way, BUUUTT...

day570.png

...in a world with 40-day winters followed by 50-day springs.  Every year.

(drops the mike)

(Oh, and don't EVEN give me "Wigfrid is easy mode".  She just happens to be the character I picked on what happened to end up as my longest-running server.  I could probably do the same thing with Willow--and intend to, at some point.  Yes, that's Warly's crockpot. The server does have mods.  None of them are very big or cheaty.  A Warly died to the Dragonfly long, long ago and I went out to the desert to rescue his stuff.  I do have to sort of apologise for the kabobs--I didn't have enough filler to make proper meatballs. But I DID have sticks.)

Not recordbreaking, I know...but it DOES prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that I know what I'm doing.  Even if I AM doing it in a way some might not approve of.

...Notorious

I could type this response using my toes and succeed in communication but that doesn't prove it is efficient or even a good way to do it.

Play your way and have fun. I get that and support it. I do sub optimal stuff all the time in pursuit of fun and the way I like to play. I would stay away from rationalising it as "I know what I am doing" or offering it as advice on good habits however.

I empathise with feeling defensive in the face of people telling you you're having "Bad,Wrong, Fun". Why not just stick to - this is what I like to do argument, it really doesn't matter to me what's best?

Once again, having fun your way I can get behind, but offering it as advice or best practices - nah.

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15 hours ago, CaptainChaotica said:

Well, I explore like crazy and...sometimes I just don't find the bloody things!  Especially frustrating when it turns out they actually WEREN'T that far away after all...they were just in the one direction you kept forgetting to explore and didn't _realise_  (A big part of why I often need maps, in games--missing something over and over and having no idea _that_ you missed, let alone WHAT you missed.  Then I look at the game map and (smack forehead) "D'OH!")  

(shrugs)  Sometimes you just have bad luck...or randomise the seasons.  Which I refuse to stop doing even if stupid Antlion DID wreck my face off the first time they showed up in my world because of it.  : P  ("Oh, the trees are already turning green.  It's gonna be a short winter."  (end of night) "Aaaand, welcome to..." (dramatic pause as the day rolls over) "...SUMMER?!!")

I _always_ watch the upper right corner.  It irritates me when people don't--or don't anywhere near as often as they should, anyway.  I cannot TELL you how many people--including me--were yelling at Sips:  "YOUR HUNGER!! YOU IDIOT!!  LOOK AT IT!  IT'S CALLED DON'T _STARVE_, YOU'RE NOT BEING ATTACKED, EVERYTHING IS GOING RED BECAUSE YOU'RE _DYING_!!!!"

...despite the fact that the video was at least 2, 3 years old when we saw it.  : P 

And, I'm'a have to put my foot down on all this rabbit poo-pooing. Hunting for big meat may be cooler, but it takes you away from camp all the time and puts you in danger. Why do that, when you can live near/in a rabbit savannah and have _some_ meat EVERY day (except in spring), thereby making the occasional hunt a BONUS, rather than a necessity?  Waste time _chasing_ rabbits into traps what are you on about?  I just put the traps right on their holes and check 'em once a day!  (Less if I've been travelling.)  Small jerky's little bits of health and sanity add UP, when you've got a decent amount of drying racks, (6 or so) and I can't tell you how many times that stuff has saved my life.  For meatballs...after a while you'll get all you need from hounds. 

In spring?  Ponds.  Find a bunch of ponds and plunk down a lot of traps.  In fact, that's exactly what I'm doing at the March of Civilization server right now--ponds all year round except winter, grab traps, move them all over to the west where the rabbit savannah is.  In spring, move them all back and they can stay there until the end of autumn.  Perfect!  Just, in this case, don't check or place the traps until dusk, unless you want all the frogs in the area up in your business.

Sure, there's the "most efficient" way to play, but that's not available to all players at all times.  My MOST basic advice on all this?

Don't let perfect get in the way of good.

...Notorious

I tend to explore one way for a day, and then go in another direction.  That way I have a pretty big circle for the most part and I usually find them.  

I've played with new people who literally starve because they can't be bothered to get food, or they decide exploring is more important than eating.

Rabbits are pretty easy to hunt and you have to hunt them for the Prestihatitator anyway.  Though I do understand why some people prefer Spiders (you get meat AND silk/glands) and frogs over rabbits since they will gladly hop right into your trap.  Though it really isn't hard to hunt rabbits since you can just put the trap right over it in the evening/night and pick it up in the morning.

True that, it's why I didn't mention other things or strategies to play.  I encourage exploring and hunting (even when I hardly hunt and only explore just to get a great location) when I don't really do all that stuff.  Players have a different style so I took that in mind, while also noting that no matter your style you should do this.

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1 hour ago, Bunions said:

I could type this response using my toes and succeed in communication but that doesn't prove it is efficient or even a good way to do it.

Play your way and have fun. I get that and support it. I do sub optimal stuff all the time in pursuit of fun and the way I like to play. I would stay away from rationalising it as "I know what I am doing" or offering it as advice on good habits however.

I empathise with feeling defensive in the face of people telling you you're having "Bad,Wrong, Fun". Why not just stick to - this is what I like to do argument, it really doesn't matter to me what's best?

Once again, having fun your way I can get behind, but offering it as advice or best practices - nah.

I actually agree with a lot of what Captain is saying.  I see nothing wrong with using the traps for rabbits to get food and besides, you're going need them to build the Prestihatitator anyway so why not?  I also do build walls (more for organization) and they can be used to protect and box things in (like the Walrus people or beefalo packs) and I also rely on the beefalo a lot (poop, fur, protection, etc.).  Though I also think fighting for yourself should be a must have, even if you tend to have a more passive style of letting others fight for you.

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l'm not going to go over well worn reasons these aren't the *most effective* strategies for a few reasons.

1 - The information is literally everywhere people have Don't Starve discussions, and available with even rudimentary search skills.

2 - There is little point in arguing with people who are already convinced that they are correct.

Suffice to say it has been proven that a lot of the things mentioned in this thread are sub optimal, (not just Captain - not trying  to pick on her exclusively) and I'd be personally leery of offering it as advice.

Of course context counts and all that, and any intelligent person can construct scenarios where thier advice seems to work well.

As for offering these things as a best practice however, that's kinda not cool imo so I spoke up. Once I said my piece I intended to absent myself from the thread.

With all that said who cares? Have fun the way you like, I'd just tend to shy away from offering much of it as advice per sey and perhaps couch it in terms of: "This is what I like to do - YMMV."

Frankly with any sort of time investment, even the worst sort of strategy one could concoct can be made to work reliably with practice. So who's to say what's "right"?

 

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There's nothing wrong with trapping rabbits!  But because the trap is one of the few things you can make right out of the gate, it gives novice players the impression that this should be their first source of food. I did nearly starve a few times as a beginner at single player trying to do this, and then when I finally caught one, it was with great frustration that I realized it gave no more hunger than a carrot. 

It seems an especially dangerous way to start off as Wigfrid since she can't forage for plant foods when the rabbits turn out to be so meager a food source, although the OP gives the impression that they're essential.

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