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Rushing the Ruins (DST)


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Hey, I've started playing dst solo lately just for the challenge of having many mobs having more health. I was wondering if anyone could give me any tips to help me rush the ruins better while playing dst. While I rush, I play as Wx-78 and here's sort of a list of what I get done by days:

Day 1 through 3 I use these days on the surface to gather basic materials such as twigs and stone as well as gather loads of pig skin and prototype a lab machine, a firepit, a chest, and a crockpot for a quickbase in the ruins. I use a strategy where I hammer down the pig houses in the birchnut biome to get around 18 pig skin as well as all the cut stone and wood planks that I need for prototyping. Then I trade in 5 pig skin to the pig king for the 5 gold I need to make a science machine and then a lab machine as well as gathering the 13 pig skin I need for helmets. Finally, I gather at least 2 stacks of cut grass to refine into rope for spears, football helmets, and log suits.

Day 4 through 6 - These days I craft a lantern and explore. First I try to find a rabbit village for 2 meat (Hambat for Ruins) and to gather loads of carrots for food (Spoilage doesn't matter) Also, I dig up a shovel worth (Around 52) of blue caps for healing and sanity. Then I just explore in order to find the ruins.

Day 7 through 12 - During this time, I explore the ruins enough to find the location of an ancient pseudoscience station, statues, nightmare fissures, and the labyrinth (Ancient Guardian) Then I find a relatively safe area near the heart of the ruins and away from splamonkey spawners (Deadly during nightmare phase) and nightmare fissures and put down my prototyped stuff for a quickbase so I don't have to wear a backpack. Around this time I cook 14 bluecaps and up my sanity so I don't have to worry about additional nightmare creatures. Next, I explore, fighting shadow clockworks, hammering broken clockworks, and mining ancient statues. I also eat gears as needed to up my sanity and health (The goal being fully maxing out my stats) After collecting loads of ruins items, I go back to my base.

Day 13 through 17 - During this time, I will go to an ancient pseudoscience station and craft a theulicite club and armor as well as a magiluminessance. Finally, I go to fight the ancient guardian grabbing all the chests on the way. Finally I take out the ancient guardian and grab it's horn as well as the loot in the ancient chest. At this point, I craft a final hambat with the meat that I gain for any fights I might encounter on my way out. Days 15 to 17 are usually just transporting all the materials from my quickbase on to the surface and crafting any ruins gear that I might need before I go

This is pretty much the end of my ruins rush, from this point on I kill clops with my ruins gear, gain a walking cane so I can go back down to craft a lasy explorer and a houndius shootious. Then I just play as normal but with the added perks of playing with ruins gear.

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You don't need to schedule everything. When you have a hambat, football helmet, some pig skins, at least a stack of grass , 1 or 2 lanterns and found a blue mushroom tree biome, it means you're ready to rush the ruins. A few meat for extra fresh hambats won't hurt, even better if you somehow get some living logs for starcallers.

Having 2 lanterns makes shadow creatures much easier to kite, and lets survive when you make a mistake of dropping your lantern near a monkey. Lichens will be a great source of hunger, due to having no down sides when you're sanity is already at 0. 

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Welcome to the forums!

Personally, I don't need to have EVERYTHING scheduled. But I do have a pattern for doing it.

When I begin playing, I look for spiders and a sinkhole. When I do find spiders, I HAVE to get at least 2 silk. During / after the search, I'd look for the Pig King. In the biome he spawns in (the deciduous biome), I'd hammer a couple of pig houses if I'm playing alone and trade the pig skin for gold, which will be just enough to make an alchemy engine (otherwise gather materials by chopping trees and mining). After getting the materials for an alchemy engine, 2 silk and a science machine I'd chop a load of *fully grown* trees, enough to get a backpack full of wood and pinecones. I'd make a science machine on the surface, pre-make the alchemy engine, make a bug net and a backpack. With wood and pinecones in my backpack, and a bug net in my hand, I go down to the caves.

In the caves, I look for those areas in which you find loads of grass and try to get a few stacks of grass off of that. The moment I find some fireflies, I catch them and place down my alchemy engine to make a miner's hat, lantern and log suit. Then I start looking for the ruins. When I do find them, I try to set up a base as close to the monkey villages as possible without them being close enough to invade my base. After I set up my small base, I make a monkey-proof wall that I use to get protection and food from those things. Then I plant my pinecones, and go raid the ruins using log suits for protection, my miner hat for light and spears / a hambat as a weapon. And if I'm playing as Wigfrid, I'd usually get less wood than I wood (see what I did there) as another character and switch log suit + miner hat for magiluminscense + battle helm when raiding the ruins.

Hope this helps!

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I'm also considering changing up my game to tackle the ruins in the first year.  I typically spend the first year entirely on the surface setting up an awesome base - but I never really get around to running the caves.

When placing a base - what are the main things you're looking for?  Also - what do you mean by "monkey proof wall"?

I plan on playing WX or possibly Wig to get an edge while I explore and learn caves.

What is the least amount and best amount of prototype / gathered materials you would want before you go into the caves?

What are the most common issues I'd want to be aware of if my plan is to live in the caves?

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31 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

Also - what do you mean by "monkey proof wall"?

Spoiler

 

 

32 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

When placing a base - what are the main things you're looking for?

Usually I'd just look for a narrow bridge (as seen above but in the ruins which has a lot of those) on which I could set up my monkey wall.

 

33 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

What are the most common issues I'd want to be aware of if my plan is to live in the caves?

Things could be lurking in the dark without your knowledge, sanity is constantly decreasing, food is relatively scarce in the caves outside of the ruins and constant need for fuel for light.

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Okay wow - thx.  So the Monkey wall - that one used a Goose/Goose statue to fight through.  Do you need this?  Or can you attack over the wall?  Or is there something that doesn't require a boss drop to build?

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4 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

Okay wow - thx.  So the Monkey wall - that one used a Goose/Goose statue to fight through.  Do you need this?  Or can you attack over the wall?  Or is there something that doesn't require a boss drop to build?

You can use any marble sculpture. I only chose the Goose/Goose statue because of how derpy It looks. You can also just replace the sculpture with a wall and attack over said wall. Using a marble sculpture gets them all in the same area which makes it easier for me to kill them in masses.

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10 hours ago, Electroely said:

The moment I find some fireflies, I catch them and place down my alchemy engine to make a miner's hat, lantern and log suit. Then I start looking for the ruins.

Thanks for the welcome and the help! I guess I never considered a miners hat a good source of light early on but it seems easy enough, especially for being able to fight stuff without having to put down a lantern as long as your wearing a log suit as armor.

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I took the plunge and entered caves about day 5 with most of the prep listed here.  I am now on day 15 or so because I guess I took a left turn when I should have taken a right turn, and explored the entire caves EXCEPT ruins before finding the ruins lol.

I have a few questions on caves if anyone can please help.

- What is the nature of the nightmare cycle?  I understand fissures wills pawn shadow monsters, and splamonkeys turn into shadow splamonkeys - but what is the timing for this?  I previously thought it followed the day / night cycle, but it didn't seem to line up.  Is it a slower cycle?  Is there any way to predict it without seeing a fissure or the color changing tiles?

- I don't have any marble statues yet to build a center for the monkey wall - if I just put a dip in the wall would they gather in the dip easily?  Or would this be dangerous?  I mean like this
x--------x
x--------x
xxx-xxxx
----x-----

like that?

- How do you manage clockwork bishops?  Do you repair other clockworks for help fighting them? (as I understand it I can jam some gears into a ruined clockwork and it will activate as an ally)  Or is there some trick to fighting these guys?  On the surface I've always fought bishops indirectly so I'm not fresh on any tactics for them.

I'm going to dive into some youtube videos while at work today and rejoin my game tonight in the ruins, but I find youtube videos are hit or miss for these details.  Thanks for any help you can share ^_^

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1 hour ago, Shosuko said:

- What is the nature of the nightmare cycle?  I understand fissures wills pawn shadow monsters, and splamonkeys turn into shadow splamonkeys - but what is the timing for this?  I previously thought it followed the day / night cycle, but it didn't seem to line up.  Is it a slower cycle?  Is there any way to predict it without seeing a fissure or the color changing tiles?

It's slightly slower than the day / night cycle. The best way is to know it without seeing a fissure or color of the tiles is by hearing the sound effect whenever the phase changes and keep track of it. 

There are 4 phases, and fissures usually spawn at the third phase and begins to despawn at fourth phase. Splumonkeys will be shadow splumonkeys at third and fourth phase. The second and fourth phase is probably about 1-2 minute long.

1 hour ago, Shosuko said:

- How do you manage clockwork bishops?  Do you repair other clockworks for help fighting them? (as I understand it I can jam some gears into a ruined clockwork and it will activate as an ally)  Or is there some trick to fighting these guys?  On the surface I've always fought bishops indirectly so I'm not fresh on any tactics for them.

Easiest way is to tank them. You can actually kite 1 bishop with a magi and cane, but it's not worth it. Just bring some armor&healing and hold F. 

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59 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

- What is the nature of the nightmare cycle?  I understand fissures wills pawn shadow monsters, and splamonkeys turn into shadow splamonkeys - but what is the timing for this?  I previously thought it followed the day / night cycle, but it didn't seem to line up.  Is it a slower cycle?  Is there any way to predict it without seeing a fissure or the color changing tiles?

The nightmare cycle is slower than a day cycle. It goes in this order: Calm, Rising, Peak, Falling and Calm again. The effects of it are only active on the Peak and Falling phases. You can tell when it changes by listening to the ambient noises. You can also look at statues, although you'll probably be mining them. I believe the best way to predict it is using the Thulecite Medallion. While it does not tell you when it's about to start, it can you the current phase and whether the Peak phase is starting or ending. I keep one on me whenever I exit the ruins (for grass / twigs for example) so I don't accidentally run into the monkey village when the monkeys are in their shadow form.

 

1 hour ago, Shosuko said:

- I don't have any marble statues yet to build a center for the monkey wall - if I just put a dip in the wall would they gather in the dip easily?  Or would this be dangerous?  I mean like this
x--------x
x--------x
xxx-xxxx
----x-----

like that?

You could make a marble statue by placing down a Potter's Wheel (which costs 2 boards, 2 cut stone and some twigs) and sculpting a statue on it (which you can use cut stone or marble for + 2 rocks). If you can't afford that, I suppose you could try the dip in the wall, although you would have to manually get the monkeys into the dip by running from side to side and hoping they'll follow (which the small space between walls might stop them from doing).

 

1 hour ago, Shosuko said:

- How do you manage clockwork bishops?  Do you repair other clockworks for help fighting them? (as I understand it I can jam some gears into a ruined clockwork and it will activate as an ally)  Or is there some trick to fighting these guys?  On the surface I've always fought bishops indirectly so I'm not fresh on any tactics for them.

You can't really both hit them and dodge their attacks. What I'd recommend doing is bringing extra armor when fighting one, and getting nearby rooks to hit it with you (by using it as a meat/gearshield against clockwork rooks). If there are knights nearby, just step away from the knights' attacks while hitting the bishop. They don't drop anything good, so I usually avoid them unless I have to kill them (at the Ancient Psuedoscience Station, for example).

 

1 hour ago, Shosuko said:

I'm going to dive into some youtube videos while at work today and rejoin my game tonight in the ruins, but I find youtube videos are hit or miss for these details.  Thanks for any help you can share ^_^

Personally I don't like the idea of watching YouTube videos for DS/T guides, since I think most of them give inefficient tips for doing things (such as all those beginner guides out there encouraging people to rely on making traps for rabbits and making a base near beefalo for poop, both of which have better replacements). There may be good ones out there I haven't seen, but I usually try to tell players (such as ones I meet ingame) to not rely on tips from YouTube videos too much.

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Maneuver the bishop so that while you are tanking it, it is in between you and a charging rook. Getting rooks to charge around will also sometimes cause them to accidentally collide with non-aggroed bishops (as opposed to a bishop you are fighting), and this will cause the bishop to attack the rook. Kiting rooks around is a good way to deal with various ruins tasks, like hammering walls, statues and broken clockworks. It helps to have moggles if you want to get them to hit other damaged clockworks.

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Excellent tips thank you

- I'll pay attention to the audio for those cues.  I play with bgm off, but game effects on so this should be an easy thing to catch now that I know what to look for.

- I did not realize it was so easy to craft a sculpting table, or a sculpture.  I thought you needed to get a design paper from something...  There are some default sculptures without needing the paper?

- I am familiar with running rooks around to cause havoc, it's my typical "top side" log harvesting method until I can get a set up for deerclopse / bearger to trample through.  I did not know the bishops would aggro the rook though.  That sounds promising.

I did not find anything good on youtube, never do for DST lol, so I appreciate the comments a lot!  thx ppl.  If there are any other caves / ruins tips you feel like sharing please do ^_^

Oh - Any DST streamers on Twitch who would be good to watch?

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1 hour ago, Shosuko said:

There are some default sculptures without needing the paper?

There are 2 default sculptures.

 

1 hour ago, Shosuko said:

 I did not know the bishops would aggro the rook though.  That sounds promising.

It's kind of hard to do since you would need the bishop not aggro'd on anything for it to happen.

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here's what I figured out:

you spawn at portal -> gather 40 grasses + 40 twigs + ~10 flints + some pig skin for football helmet + kill some cats for 4 cat tails-> make 1 axe + 1 pickaxe -> go to a cave entrance ->

 

make 3 torches + 2 traps (in case spiders attack you) -> find food -> find a place to base (preferably a place with some lighting) 

 

make lantern -> get some silk (to get fireflies -> miner hat)

 

the rest is up to you :) be creative

 

notes:

1-as far as I know you'll need beefalo wool or cat tails to survive winter easier

2-you can use the cave entrance in swamp area, since its much easier to find pig skin there

3-remember to eat cooked/raw blue mushrooms 

4-put down the headphone (insanity will probably over-excite you and cause an easy death), this one helps me a lot

5-you might want to get out at times for resources like beefalo wool/pig skin/manure/bones/tenticle spike/living logs/boss fights to get hats (spider queen hat/bee queen hat and so on)/cut reeds (swamp sometimes exists in caves)

 

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I can't seem to bait the aggro of the splumonkeys like in that video.  When I attack them they don't seem to retaliate at all.  I did have 1 throw poop once, but otherwise they only stole and ran away.  Is there a specific way to bait / aggro them?

-edit- nvm I think it figured it out.  You only use it to farm during nightmare cycle.  Get them all stuck behind the wall and then you can fight them.

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I like how he planned everything out. However, some of them might go horribly wrong and cause you to die, or either lose all your sanity. Also, I kind of find it easier to do those tasks with Wolfgang, but you can have your favorite character while I have my least favorite character.

Wickerbottom would probalby, be the ______ at it.

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7 hours ago, Shosuko said:

I can't seem to bait the aggro of the splumonkeys like in that video.  When I attack them they don't seem to retaliate at all.  I did have 1 throw poop once, but otherwise they only stole and ran away.  Is there a specific way to bait / aggro them?

-edit- nvm I think it figured it out.  You only use it to farm during nightmare cycle.  Get them all stuck behind the wall and then you can fight them.

Yeah, my test world was surface-only so I kinda had to improvise... If you want them farm them outside of nightmare cycle (for example running low on food and need it immediately) you can have them agro on you and chase them towards the wall. If you have a marble sculpture as part of it they'll run into the wall trying to avoid you, which would let you kill it and enjoy your 1 banana and 1 morsel.

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