By now you’ve probably had Don’t Starve on your PS4 for about a week, thanks to it being made a PlayStation Plus freebie last Tuesday. That’s plenty of time to have given the game a chance, faltered or flown high on the wings of success, and decided whether or not it’s worth keeping on your system. I figure you’ve had enough chance to try and figure out the game on your own, though, and am now here to help you not starve in Don’t Starve .
You should have two playable characters unlocked by this point, if you’ve been fooling around in Don’t Starve. They’re the Gentleman Scientist Wilson, who’s available right from the start, and The Firestarter Willow, who unlocks after you’ve survived seven days. They’re the two “best” starter characters for beginners.
Either character works for your first Major Run, but there are certain advantages for each player that you may want to consider. Wilson has a Magnificent Beard. While that may seem like a weird thing to point out, it’s actually a perk. After 16 days, he will have a full beard, and that’s a good thing, because Winter is coming. It starts after 20 days of playing, and the beard will provide warmth, meaning people don’t have to spend as much time crafting winter clothing and can do more during this season. Also, once winter ends, the beard can be shaved off with a razor for beard hair, which can be combined with boards and cooked meat to create the Meat Effigy that will allow Wilson to be resurrected once if he dies.
With that all laid out, it may seem impossible for Willow to compare to Wilson. However, she has quite a few benefits of her own. They don’t call her The Firestarter for nothing. This pyromaniac comes with a lighter, which can act as a torch at night and set anything on fire, and regains sanity by standing near fires. Granted, she also will start setting random fires if she goes insane, but we all have our quirks. She’ll also help players get through that first winter easier by allowing them to work in the dark, without fear of the Night Monster. That means blue mushrooms can be harvested and she’ll have less trouble approaching sleeping Beefalo to shave them and get wool to make the desirable Beefalo Hat for winter.
But enough talk about picking the right character to ensure you’ll have a great Don’t Starve start and not watch your character freeze to death when winter comes. Your first concern is his or her hunger. I mean, it is Don’t Starve . Though, odds are it won’t be hunger that kills you that first day. It’ll be the Night Monster if you don’t make the right tools and start a fire before nightfall. So we’ll start there. The first thing you want to do in Don’t Starve is start getting twigs from saplings and picking up flint stones off the ground so you can make an axe and a pickaxe. You need an axe to get logs for fires, and the pickaxe to get rocks for a fire pit and gold for the Science Machine.
Once you have an axe, a pickaxe, and about 10 logs, you should start looking for food. This isn’t terribly difficult, despite the name of the game. Carrots are often found in grassy areas, and can be plucked. There are also berry bushes around, which will regrow new berries after a few in-game days. Not to mention, startling birds can make them drop seeds. For your first day, grab as many carrots, berries, and seeds as you can. Don’t immediately eat them, though. Wait until you start your fire as night falls, then cook them. It makes them more effective.
But simple foods are only so effective. You can’t live off of them for too long. Which is why you better still keep grabbing lots of grass and many twigs as you search for food. You’ll want these for traps. Once you have about 3 of them, you’ll start looking for a place to make a camp. Ideally, it will be a spot in the woods that is near Pigs and Pig Houses and rabbit holes. That’s when you’ll want to craft and place a fire pit, put the traps on top of any rabbit holes, and begin settling in for the long haul.
See, Pigs are your friends in Don’t Starve . They’re neutral mobs who won’t attack you, and can even be befriended if you feed them meat or eggs. This means they’ll help protect you against other monsters in the world. They also help keep you sane. Basically, they’re your dudebros. They’re also a little like gremlins though, as you have to be careful what they eat. Giving them monster meat will turn them into werepigs, which are pretty much a living nightmare.
Once you have a home near some pigs and rabbit holes, you should be pretty well set in Don’t Starve . You can start working on the Science Machine, so you can craft better items, build walls around your settlement, and even make yourself a tent. It also means you can start making some Rabbit Earmuffs and a log suit, to keep your character warm and make him or her better protected. Not to mention you’ll finally be able to create a Spear, which you can then use to hunt some Beefalo.
Just remember that each Don’t Starve runthrough is a learning experience. Even if you find yourself dying fairly quickly or succumbing to the cold of winter early on, know that each time you play, you’re becoming more efficient and learning what works for you. As a final note, I recommend planting one pine cone to replace each evergreen you chop down. Not only will it help sustain the forest, it will also help pacify any nearby Treeguards upset about you cutting down their bretheren.