Don’t Starve Beginner’s Guide

Don’t Starve Beginner’s Guide by Tomily

First and for most, this guide is meant to help people who think the difficult of the game is really high.
I’m not in any way telling you how to play the game. But if you have problems with early game in the current update, that might help you.
Keep in mind that a lot of the fun in the game is about discovering and learning. As I said before, the guide is just a little bit of help for those who want it.

The guide was made based on the standard Sandbox experience

Day 1 – Getting stuff done:

The first days are crucial on how well prepared you are for winter. You will always spawn in a grassland biome, which happens to have the majority of the items you need.
Try to walking by picking up items.
What does it mean?
Try to not wander around with lots of grass and saplings waiting for you. Click’em all! Spend the whole day and half of the dusk doing it. You probably have over a stack of grass and twigs, a good amount of berries (don’t eat them just yet) and carrots, and flint.
Ok, but we are not in dusk yet. So, now that you have enough materials to build an axe, do it!. But don’t go chop wood just now. You’ll just need it during the night, it’s a waste of time to grab wood so early on the first day.
Why did I built an axe though?
It’s your weapon. If you have an opportunity to kill a rabbit, go for it. You will need the morsels to keep your sanity at a good level.

Now, this is important. Dusk arrival. Some people get desperate when they notice that they need to build a fire. Calm down. Dusk is as good as daytime. Keep collecting the goodies. When you see the clock hitting half of the dusk time, chop a couple of big trees, and keep with your mission. Just build your camp fire when night knocks on your door. Cook a couple carrots, eat’em, and soon the night will be over.

Day 2-5 – A whole world to explore:

Good, you made it to day 2. Now it’s time to roll. Keep collecting the goodies, and try to get a little bit more of the map covered. Between day 2 to 5, you will clear a lot of map, even stopping to pick grass an other stuff (Don’t forget the bunnies).

What’s the difference to now from day 1 then?
Now it’s hunting time. From now on, chop trees during the day (Try to always have at least 8 logs on your inventory). If you see a spider den, good, but be sure that it’s just one, or two. More than that will probably overwhelm you! Try to go back to it before dusk comes.

I can’t kill spiders yet! I don’t have a spear!!!
Yes you can. With your trusty axe in hands, build a camp fire by the border of the creep/webbing (before dusk!). Drop a morsel right in front of the fire, and stand in front of the morsel. When dusk arrives, one spider will leave the den. The hungry spider will run right after the morsel. Hit it before the morsel gets eaten, and keep hitting. Playing with any character other than Wolfgang or Wes, you will kill the spider with 4 hits. When the spider die, the next one will leave the den and go after the morsel. Repeat.

My fire will run out if I keep killing spiders like that.
No, it won’t. Since the nests are in tier 1 by that time, after the third spider there will be a delay before the next one comes out. Now you can feed your fire and your belly.
When the night is over, go explore and collect your stuff. Hopefully there will be another spider den ahead.

Berries:
Why did I say to not eat the berries? Well, there is a reason for that.
While you explore and collect berries, you will happen to find at least one lost pig in the forest. Give the berries to him to get manure. (There is a exploit to give them all at once – Grab the berries with your mouse, and give to the pig at a good distance. Before you reach the pig, put the berries on your backpack – If you are reading this and the exploit was already removed, you can drop the berries on the ground and give 4 of your monster meat to the pig. He will turn into a werepig and eat the berries. the downside is that you have to fight him without armor or weapons (just with your axe))

Your items:
Around day 10 you will have everything you need to start your camp. Your inventory will look somewhat like that:

Day 5-10 – Home:

As you explore your map, you will try to find a good place to live (if you like having bases).
I would recommend somewhere near beefalos. There are several benefits of living near beefalos:
1-) Easy manure – They will provide you with an constant amount of manure, without the need of sacrificing food like the pigs
2-) Meat – If you need a good steak, this is the way to go. There are several ways to kill the beefalo without being hit, but this you have to find out by yourself or search somewhere else ^^
3-) Protection – Afraid of the hounds? If you hear them coming, go join your mammal friends. At some point one hound will attack them, they will attack the hound, and the other hounds will aggro the beefalo again. They can protect you from MacTusk if he’s around too.

If you have the items listed before, you can start your base. With them, you can build around 7 turbo farm plots, 6 crock pots, firepit, ice box, winterometer, and research the tools you want, such as a bug net to build your bee boxes.

Sanity Problem: After all spider killing you did, your sanity might be a little low. Pick 12 flowers and make a Garland. Picking the flowers will provide you enough sanity, the Garland you keep a constant boost to your sanity during the day.

Day 10-20 – Preparation:

You have your base with almost everything you need. Now it’s time to think of the future.
Chop a lot of wood, kill lots of spiders, birds, hunt the koalephant, build your bee boxes, shave the beefalos, stock grass, twigs and reeds, kill some tentacles and stock a few spikes too. If you have spare manure, you can plant grass and berry bushes near you base too.
You will have enough food for winter, and enough materials to explore during the snow.

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Now the guide ends. I will put some video footage of me doing exactly what I’m saying above, but there will be no commentary during the video. I already have 2 uploaded, the others have to wait unfortunately.

One more time: you play the game the way you want to. I’ve just made this guide to those who really want help. I’ve seen people saying that can’t reach day 10 because the game is too hard. I hope some people find it useful.

Here is the first day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yitY0q7Vuaw

I’m not going to out all the episodes here, this is not and let’s play topic, I’m just making the videos to illustrate what I’m saying.

Last but not least, let’s discuss our tactics about early game. Say what you do that is not on the guide, criticize my tips, improve the guide.

Peace.