Wolfgang

"Mind says no. Muscles say yes!"

- Wolfgang

Wolfgang is the second unlockable character (320 XP, see Experience for more information on how to unlock him). He is a simple-minded strongman who is very boastful about his might.

When he has a high amount of Hunger, he moves faster, does more damage, and has more Health than most other characters. On the other hand, he becomes weaker when his Hunger is low. This gives him great advantages during both melee and ranged combat, easily dispatching even the toughest foes at full Hunger, but leaves him exposed when his stomach is empty. Wolfgang also has a larger stomach at a maximum value of 300, but his Hunger will decrease faster or slower depending on how full it is. Wolfgang becomes scared when in the Dark or near Monsters though, so in those cases he loses Sanity 10% more quickly than normal.

Special Power
Wolfgang's special power is his Mightiness level which increases or decreases depending on the amount of Hunger he has. There are three stages of Mightiness which give Wolfgang different physical appearances and stats:

Mighty Form:

This is Wolfgang's buffed form. It's a temporary physical upgrade that is activated when Wolfgang's hunger goes to 225 or above. When this form is achieved the top of Wolfgang's costume will be ripped off, he'll gain numerous arm muscles, and his head and mustache will become bigger. When near full on Hunger he'll also become taller.

His Health will go from the regular 200 to 300 (at 300 Hunger). He will receive a damage bonus from 1.25x to 2.0x when completely full and he will also receive a slight but noticeable speed boost.

Because of this physical upgrade, Wolfgang's Hunger decreases 1.5x to 3x faster (depending on his current hunger) than any other character (except Wes).

The magnitude of these bonuses will also linearly decrease as Wolfgang's hunger is drained.

Regular Form:

This is Wolfgang's starting form. His appearance changes to that of a slim fit man, visibly having thicker arms than other characters. He starts with 200 Health, and has no bonuses to damage or speed.

In this form, Wolfgang's Hunger decreases 1.5x faster than other characters (except Wes).

Wimpy Form:

Wolfgang's debuff is a physical downgrade when at 100 hunger or less. His appearance will become a sad and more pathetic-looking version of himself. When nearly starving he'll also become shorter.

His max health goes from 200 down to 150 at 0 hunger and his damage goes from 0.75x from the initial downgrade to 0.5x when completely starving.

Wolfgang's movement speed slightly decreases in this state and his Hunger will decrease at 1x to 1.5x the rate of other characters (except Wes).

The magnitude of these penalties will linearly increase in value as Wolfgang becomes more hungry.

Disadvantage
Because he's a Nyctophobic, Wolfgang suffers from 10% greater Sanity drain from Monsters and the dark, so a little more care should be taken with sanity management. The effect only extends to those two cases though, meaning that other things that drain sanity (e.g. Evil Flowers, Dark Sword, Night Light etc.) will drain it at the same rate as other characters. If the player has no sanity recovering items it is recommended that they sleep through the night to avoid Sanity drain, since it's harder to refill than Hunger.

Tips

 * When the player is lacking Hunger drain reduction items, it is advised they stay Wimpy during general gameplay and only eat to avoid starvation or just before a fight. That way they'll avoid the big Hunger drain of the Normal and Mighty forms and be out of danger since the penalties when staying Wimpy are only relevant during a fight.
 * A Belt of Hunger will nullify Wolfgang's Hunger problems. This along with the fact that it provides some Sanity regeneration and extends his Mighty form to last more than 4 minutes and a half, makes it an excellent item for this character.
 * In the Reign of Giants (RoG) DLC players are able to craft a Hibearnation Vest which also provides a Hunger drain reduction albeit not as big as the Belt of Hunger. That said, the Hibearnation Vest provides the highest insulation against cold and more than twice the Sanity regeneration of the Belt, making it more desirable in Winter even after the player has secured a Belt of Hunger.
 * Since Wolfgang's Sanity drain penalty only applies to the dark and Monsters and is so small, it's fairly easy to overcome. Even in a "Light's Out" world, picking a Flower a day will even out the Sanity drain with other characters. When fighting Monsters in Mighty form, Wolfgang will actually lose less Sanity than other characters, due to the fights being shorter, resulting in less exposure to the insanity aura.
 * A Tam o' Shanter provides 6.7 sanity/min, being a great item to manage Wolfgang's Sanity. It not only stops Sanity drain at night even for him, but it lasts very long and even provides insulation against the cold. Sleeping in a Tent or eating Taffy, Cooked Green Caps or Pumpkin Cookies is also desirable when trying to get big amounts of Sanity back quickly.
 * A Hibearnation Vest in RoG is also a good Sanity item with its 4.5 sanity/min. What little sanity is lost at night will be regained back during the day in no time. This will be useful when the player wants to equip something else other than the Tam in the head slot.
 * Wolfgang is immune to all damage when changing forms. This can be used to the player's advantadge to survive attacks that would've otherwise killed them (e.g. Bigfoot's stomp.). This does not apply to damage resulting from eating certain food though.
 * Due to the way Wolfgang's Health scales between forms it's better to heal when Wimpy and take damage when Mighty, since the healing and damage will be doubled or halved when changing form respectively. This makes healing items up to twice as effective with Wolfgang and attacks up to half as damaging.
 * This value is increased the more Meat Effigies the player has, ranking up to only 1/6 of the damage taken with 4 of them active. This happens because the health penalty from the effigy is a fixed value instead of a percentage of the max health. meaning Mighty Wolfgang has more than twice the health than Wimpy Wolfgang when using Meat Effigies.
 * Despite looking like a logical food choice for Wolfgang, Meaty Stews are actually too unpredictable to be useful. Since none of his forms lasts more than 120 points, the Stew will never give back 150 points worth of Hunger and it spoils too fast to be stored as an emergency "Go-Mighty" food. This role befalls better on Bacon and Eggs for its high spoilage time and Dragonpie for being cheap and quick to consume.
 * Apart from various traps, the Weather Pain in RoG and the Fire Staff are the only weapons not affected by Wolfgang's damage multipliers, making them really effective even when Wolfgang is Wimpy.

Trivia

 * Wolfgang was added on October 2nd 2012 when the game was still in Beta. Like Willow and Wendy before him he had no special power when implemented and the only thing that differed him from Wilson was the lack of a beard. It was only on November 13th 2012 that an update added perks for the current playable characters.
 * In his early concept Wolfgang had a bald head.
 * Wolfgang ingame.pngang's previous perk, before the "Strange New Powers" update, was 75 more health and hunger (maximum of 225 each), and a 1.5x damage multiplier, similar to his current Mighty Form. He also looked like his Mighty form all the time, though with an intact costume and less arm muscles.
 * Wolfgang's voice is sounded by a tuba, which changes in pitch depending on his current form.
 * After the "Strange New Powers" update because of Wolfgang's Hunger drain multiplier mechanic timewise it takes him 207 normal Hunger points (exactly 2.5 in-game days) to get from 300 to 0 Hunger making him a little more Hunger resistant than a fully upgraded WX-78. Mighty form lasts only 2 minutes and 51 seconds if not sustained.
 * Thanks to his perk, Wolfgang is the character with both the highest and lowest damage output in the game. When full Mighty he can do 136 damage in melee combat with a Dark Sword and 200 damage at range with a Blow Dart. In the same way when fully starving he can do as low as 2.125 damage when wielding a Bug Net or Fishing Rod and 13.6 damage with a Boomerang.
 * In RoG, thanks to the Morning Star, Wolfgang can do as high as 144 damage to wet targets. His DPS even surpasses that of the Dragonfly.
 * Despite his mustache, he cannot grow a Beard, stating his skin is too strong for hair.
 * From the poster in the 4th William Carter Puzzle, it can be assumed that Wolfgang worked on a circus as a Strongman before being trapped in the Don't Starve world by Maxwell. This is all speculation though and nothing official has been said on the matter.
 * When examining Frog Legs, he states that they "Is delicacy in my country!", suggesting that his nationality could be French.
 * When examining a Hammer, he states that it "Needs Sickle!", suggesting that he may be (or has been) Soviet or just Communist.
 * When examining a Pitchfork, he states that it "Reminds me of childhood," suggesting that he may have grown up in a farm.
 * Despite voicing his preference for cold temperatures when examining the Thermal Measurer, Wolfgang is just as vulnerable to the cold as other characters.
 * Wolfgang has a skull in the game files.
 * Wolfgang was previously unlocked after Wendy.
 * Wolfgang's rather unusual quotes (see his quotes page) may be a reference to the phrase "brains over brawn," in that he has only the latter.
 * Mighty Wolfgang's scale is 1.25. That makes him the tallest of the playable characters while in this form. His Wimpy form, on the other hand, has a smaller scale of 0.9, thus making him the shortest of the PCs.
 * The size of items he's equipping also changes with his forms. They're smaller when he's wimpy and bigger when he's mighty.
 * If the player saves the game while Wolfgang's hunger is between 220-225 or 100-105 points and in the Mighty or Normal form respectively, when they reload Wolfgang will be one form weaker. That happens because the game considers Normal form to be between 105 and 225 points and Wimpy form between 0-105 points, even though to get from Mighty to Normal, he needs to be below 220 points, and from Normal to Wimpy below 100.
 * Wolfgang is the only character that when struck by Lightning in RoG is shown to have a normal human skeleton.
 * When examining the Hibearnation Vest he says "Is like hair on Wolfgang chest.", despite having no visible chest hair neither in-game nor in promotional art.
 * From his examination quotes of the Catcoon and ruined Hollow Stump it seems like Wolfgang does not like cats.
 * Wolfgang was added to Don't Starve Together (DST) with the "...In with the new" update, making him the first character to be added after the initial closed Beta release of DST.

Bugs

 * While wearing some of the hats while in Normal form, Wolfgang's mustache will disappear when the player moves towards the top of the screen.
 * When going from Mighty to Normal form, Wolfgang says he needs to "filly" instead of "fill" his stomach.

Gallery
Вольфганг