Guides/Winter Guide

Applicable for The End is Nigh! Update

Winter may be a great challenge for beginners, as players will have to face limited food supply and material, risk of freezing and appearance of Deerclops. This may be a helpful guide for those who have difficulty during winter. This also includes some more advanced tips and information for winter.

Preparation (Before Winter)
The first step for winter survival can be done before winter itself. It is always good to be prepared in terms of food, equipment, and base.

Food
Preparing food is an important step for preparing for winter, but alternatively there are also food sources in winter. The only difference is that prepared food is much more reliable than the food sources in winter which may be variable (such as Winter Koalefant and Deerclops). On the other hand, prepared food are more likely to be spoiled by the end of winter in contrast to the food sources in winter.

Food preparation should be done over the summer. It is good to note that Seeds, Honey, Koalefant Trunk and other various food items can only be obtained during summer (unless Honey is obtained via destroying Bee Hives).

It is useful to set up farms of Evergreens, Berry Bushes, Grass, Saplings, and Bee Boxes, but be reminded that only Evergreens will grow at a considerable rate during winter. The same goes for Farms and Bee Boxes.

Meat gotten by killing Tallbirds, Koalefants, Beefalos, and Pigs can be used as a food supply for the earlier portion of winter. If some of the stocks survive for the latter half of winter, then the spoiling Meat should be dried using a Drying Rack to produce fresh pieces of Jerky which can last another 15 or more days. Jerky is actually better than all available forms of meat due to its Sanity and Health increase. An Ice Box will also help slow spoiling.

If Meat is not available, Monster Meat can also be used. This would only work if the player has access to a Crock Pot to produce non-Monster food items (such as Meatballs, Kabobs, and others but not including Monster Lasagna).

Morsels are also a stable supply of food during winter. These can best be obtained using rabbit farms which utilize Traps near Rabbit Holes and then murdering the accumulated Rabbits to produce Morsels. This technique can be linked to producing Small Jerky by drying in the Drying Rack.

When attempting to dry any food to produce Jerky / Small Jerky it would be best for it to be done during Summer since Winter doubles the time to dry the meat.

Berries, Seeds, Carrots, and other vegetable items are only good if you have a Crock Pot to produce better foods out of it and if you have an Ice Box to preserve these items during the winter.

Equipment
Equipment is needed for maximum survivability in winter. Warm clothing increases the time before Character starts to freeze. Various items such as the Heat Stone and Torch are also useful to prevent Freezing.

Warm Clothing

Warm clothing is a must if one will go out during winter. Warm clothing in general reduces time before freezing, but this may vary (lengthens when summer is near and shortens when it is snowing). If one decides to go out during winter (such as when hunting Winter Koalefant) it is most advisable to use equipment with warm clothing tier 3. Below is a table which lists all the equipment with the warm clothing bonus and their respective warm clothing tier along with other information.


 * Time before freezing lengthens when summer is near and shortens when it is snowing.

Beefalo Hat is probably the most advisable of the warm clothing because it can easily be crafted and it takes the Head slot, so there is room for Backpack. Also, it is a tier 3 warm clothing. It provides the best protection against freezing.

Other Items

Other items are helpful for providing heat when held or for setting up fires which can provide heat. It is always good to bring a Torch or a Heat Stone (to be charged by a fire first) to prevent freezing.

Night Lights at key points may also help. The same goes with setting up Fire Pits at various locations. As a last resort, it is always good to bring Cut Grass and Logs to be able to build a fire when necessary.

Base
The base is a key component for surviving Deerclops and Hound/Ice Hound attack during winter. Since it is hard to picture an 'ideal base' in steps, the following is a simple checklist to determine if your base is ready for winter. Each item has a different amount of 'points'. Your base should be safe enough if you have a total of at least 8 points.
 * Do I have my base walled, with 1-3 entrances? (3 points)
 * Are the entrances of my base (if any) protected by Tooth Traps or Traps? (1 point)
 * Do I have a reliable source of food (e.g. berry bushes which have reached fruition in summer, Bird Traps, Beefalos, Pig Houses)? (2 points)
 * Do I have easy access to vital resources (i.e. Cut Grass, Twigs, Logs, and Stone)? (2 points; 1 point if some resources are missing)
 * Do I have some stock of vital resources? (see above) (1 point)
 * Do I have a fallback plan? (1 point)
 * Do I have more than one base? (2 points)
 * Do I have sufficient fuel to bring the fire to its largest size every night? (1 point)
 * Do I have sufficient toolsets and extra weapons? (1 point)
 * Do I have some Straw Roll or Tents? (1 point)

Tactics (During Winter)
Time should best not be wasted during winter. There are different ways to spend your winter. Also, there are different encounters you might not be able to avoid during winter. Some of these tips are general but others are specific.

It is to be noted that these are only a few possibilities and there is no real limit to what you can do in winter.

Time Management
A good way to make your winter worth it is to manage your time. A basic tactic is to gather nearby resources or farm by the day, and cut Evergreens, stay put and cook food, or use Straw Roll/Tent at night. Spending your winter is not limited to this scheme, though.

The only limitations on managing time are your food supply and equipment warm clothing level. When going out for different activities such as Krampus, Deerclops, or Winter Koalefant hunting, it is advisable to bring a good amount of food, a weapon, and armor.

Freezing Management
To be able to avoid Freezing and eventually dying to Freezing, it is best to use the preparations identified in the Equipment section. Also, prepared Fire Pits at specific checkpoints can do good, but it may be costly.

Sometimes there can be resource squeeze points during winter, and especially so in adventure mode, to help with this simply place one burnable object on the ground and light it with a torch for quick warmth. This is especially useful on the "Cold Reception" map.

Sanity Management
Winter has an adverse effect on the Sanity of the player. Generally Sanity becomes low during winter so one must watch out.

Sanity can be increased by picking Flowers, eating Crock Pot food, or killing Hallucinations to avoid Wilson becoming insane. A useful trick is to engage a neutral Hallucination (specifically the Crawling Horror only) by pressing spacebar on top of it while wielding a melee weapon (though it may take some practice).

Sanity can also be drained easily if desired by eating raw food, eating a Blue Mushroom which also restores Health and Hunger, and many other ways.

Resource Collection
Resource collection is a basic activity that can be done during winter. It is advisable to collect resources every now and then, not only when resource stocks are low. Resource collection is a great way to kill time in winter.

Winter Koalefant Hunting
A good way to spend your time in winter is to hunt Winter Koalefants. This may be a planned activity or it may be spontaneous when you go out. Ideally, hunting would begin at the start of day, all until nighttime. Here is a step-by-step process for systematized Koalefant hunting:


 * 1) Prepare some good foods (such as Crock Pot food), a Torch, a Weapon, and an armor piece. Ideally, your armor piece should not conflict with your warm clothing piece (e.g. Log Suit with Beefalo Hat).
 * 2) Check for tracks of Winter Koalefants anywhere possible, except in Forest biome because it is harder to find the next track when in a forest. Caution is advised when searching in a Marsh biome because of Tentacles and Merms, but it may also act as an aid to killing the Winter Koalefant. It is advisable to search by roads or dirt trail as this may quicken the process.
 * 3) Once tracks are found, start investigating them. If nighttime is nearing it is not advisable to investigate, and it would be better off if investigation began on the first day mark of the next day. Be sure to keep record of what day is it (for the last step). If you happen to be lost in the tracks, it is okay to retrace steps taken.
 * 4) Once the Winter Koalefant is found, one can wait for nighttime to hit the Winter Koalefant and begin fighting, one can corner the Winter Koalefant and hit it with a melee weapon, or one can use a ranged weapon such as a Boomerang for initiating attack.
 * 5) While fighting the Winter Koalefant it is advisable to use a melee weapon. After doing the initiating attack, the Winter Koalefant will attack, so the character must run away from it. After the Winter Koalefant's attack, you may hit the Winter Koalefant 4-5 times, then run again to avoid attack. This process (also known as Kiting) should be repeated until it is killed.
 * 6) After killing the Winter Koalefant always check the message log (CTRL + L). If there is text displaying "Suspicious dirt placed" after the day you began hunting (recorded in step 3) the Winter Koalefant has respawned and you may go hunting again.
 * 7) Be sure to store the big loot from the Winter Koalefant in an ice box or consume it as needed. The Winter Koalefant Trunk spoils so it must be consumed or crafted quickly into a Puffy Vest.

Deerclops Battle
Basically, the Deerclops is a boss monster which may spawn in winter (signaled by growling like Hounds) and can destroy structures. Information on how to battle the Deerclops is found in this page.

Hound Battle
Information on how to deal with hounds can be found in this page.

Bird Hunting
Bird hunting is a good way to accumulate Snowbird Feathers, Crow Feathers and Morsels. This may also be done during summer to obtain Redbird Feathers instead of Snowbird Feathers, but there are more productive activities for summer. Bird hunting is a great way to kill time in winter, but beware of Krampus.

Bird hunting is done best using a Boomerang which is also cheap but it can be done with any ranged weapon. Simply killing nearby birds using ranged weapons will do. The ice staff will also work. The technique can be augmented if one wears the Feather Hat to increase the number of birds landing.

Using this technique may also be risky if Krampus appears but it is no problem to a prepared player. Krampus can also easily be killed using the kiting technique.

Currently a live bird can be cooked on the fire to insure a 1 cooked morsel drop, this may help in dire situations.

Escaping Death
Death is more likely during winter therefore it is advised to activate a Touch Stone or build a Meat Effigy. Only one Meat Effigy is advised since it reduces total health by 30. Another possibility is to use an Amulet when death is imminent but this technique is not as reliable.

When a resurrection plan has been taken, it is also useful to have an extra kit of tools and other important things near the point of resurrection.