Guides/Getting Started Guide

Don't Starve is a game with simple mechanics. At first, it may seem difficult, but following this guide should keep the player alive for as long as they want to continue playing.

Basic Game Mechanics
So far, the only usable controls are:

Movement: WASD, Mouse 1

Using Items: Mouse 2

Spacebar: Perform action near you.

TAB: Map

ESC: Pause and menu

'''Q/L. ARROW: '''Rotate camera clockwise

'''E/R. Arrow: '''Rotate camera counterclockwise

U. Arrow: Zoom camera in

D. Arrow: Zoom camera out

SHIFT: Holding shift while clicking on an object/item examines it.

CTRL: Holding ctrl while clicking on an item picks up half, Holding an item while holding ctrl and clicking will drop a single item.

BACKSPACE: Brings up information, top right shows update and render, lower left shows revision number and revision release date and time.

ENTER: Enables/disables fullscreen mode

Current Day: Shows the player what day it is. Each day is worth 10 experience points.

Health: Keep an eye on this. When health reaches 0, the player dies.

Hunger: Keep an eye on this. When hunger reaches 0, the player takes continuous damage until food is eaten or the player dies.

Inventory: What the player can carry on them. Max inventory space is 23 slots, including the backpack and the equipped items. Certain items are stackable, while others are not.

Equipped Items: Tools and weapons that help the player accomplish tasks that they cannot do by hand, grant armor, and extra inventory space.


 * On Hand: Tools, Weapons, Torches


 * Body: Armor, Dress Items, Backpack


 * Hat: Armor, Dress Items

Map: Shows the player their location and notable items(grass, saplings, berry bushes, fire pits, ect.). Reveals when explored.

Research: Currency used to unlock craftable items that benefit the player.

Craftable Items (Toolbar): Shows what the player is able to craft and what items are needed.

Day 1
The player does not start with any items. This is the only time hunger is a real issue, but collecting the right items will keep the player full, and the Grue at bay.

Tips: (Day-Time)

 * Only pick up flint, grass, saplings, carrots, berries and seeds at the immediate start. Remember that you'll want to cut down some trees before night fall.


 * Collect as much grass as possible


 * Find bunny holes and make a note on the location, then continue scavenging

Tips: (Dusk)

 * Return to where the bunny holes are


 * Create an axe, and collect as many logs as possible

Tips: (Night)

 * Create a fire


 * Create as many traps as possible, then place the traps in a triangle around the bunny holes


 * Keep the fire burning throughout the night, this should take 2-3 logs
 * (Or create 3-4 torches, and pick off any sleeping rabits you find, note that rabits will run back to their hole if you are near them at night, so you might have to travel a little bit far.)

Dont's:

 * DON'T attack spiders, or their nests

DON'T attack bees, or their hive

DON'T attack Tallbirds, or take their egg, matter of fact just run in the complete opposite direction if you see one

DON'T travel in swamp, tentacles and what not

DON'T be brave, wait for when you're better equipped (logsuit and spear)

DON'T attack beefalos, they are useful

DON'T attack pigs, you'll need them too.

Day 2-6
Continue similar to Day 1 above, however the player MUST create a logsuit and a spear. This is because Hell Hounds are almost guaranteed to appear during this time. Only eat monster meat in combination with cooked seeds, as it does replenish hunger but it also damages health and the amount it heals compared to the amount of damage you take is not very good. Cook it then use it for research. Also, the player should search for an area that has beefalos and jackalope holes. Even though they come from two different biomes, biomes do mix in some areas and both can be found close to each other somewhere in the world.

Tips:

 * Create a pickaxe, mine rocks for Gold Nuggets, and create a science machine


 * Use monster meat for research, if avaliable cook it then research as it does yield higher research points


 * Research rope, logsuit and spear.


 * Create a logsuit and a spear.


 * Continue collecting grass and twigs for constant food income (for building traps)


 * Explore for an area that has beefalos (grassland biome) and jackalopes (forest biome)


 * When the Hell Hounds appear, to avoid taking damage, drop some meat and attack the hounds as they eat


 * Avoid enemies overall until the player has acquired an amulet, or created a meat effigy


 * If ever fighting enemies, keep an eye on spear and logsuit durability


 * If exploring, don't forget to return and replace any checkable trap

Day 7+
Once a suitable location is found, set a fire pit (better than the regular fire because you can see it on the map and if it goes out you can restart it with a fuel) and begin to harvest resources to bring them back to camp. Using a shovel, dig up any grass, saplings and berry bushes to plant them in camp (do not research the replantible plants because while they are high in research points they are not renewable, so you can run out of them). Continue to set traps for jackalopes and collect seeds and manure for farm plots. Any beehives encountered need to be destroyed and rebuilt as bee boxes. Look for the Pig King, and exchange meat for gold nuggets to use for more efficient tools. De-construct the pig houses with the hammer, and take the items dropped to create pig houses back at the camp (pigs will spawn within 3-4 days). Continue to explore the map and bring back any resources found, be sure to immorally dig up any grave you find as the contents are high in research value and could quite possibly save your life, or your second life really. With all of the traps, food should not be an issue and with bee boxes you should be able to avoid dying.

Around day 16, create a Meat Effigy and always carry an amulet with you. Be sure to switch to it when in real danger, simply having it in the inventory will not ressurect the player. However, the Meat Effigy will automatically ressurect the player on death when created (you have to be Wilson to be able to make the Effigy as he is the only one that can grow a beard, if in game you can use a tent to change to Wilson to initiate the growing of his magnificent beard).

Crock Pot Guide
Creating a Crock Pot requires: Fillers:
 * 1) 3 Cut Stone
 * 2) 6 Charcoal
 * 3) 6 Twigs

Any item that can be put into the crockpot that is not edible under normal circumstances are considered filler items. These items infrequently augment the food to become better.

Catalysts:

Twig - Forms of Meat + Twig consistantly create shish-ka-bobs

Honey - Forms of Meat + Honey consistantly create Honeyed Ham

Frog Legs - Most fillers and other foods + Frog Legs create Froggie Bunwich

Tips on creating food:

Tips on Building up Food Supplies:
 * The more hunger and/or health the independent components heal, the more the combination of them will heal,
 * Example: If you put 1 Morsel and 3 Grass you will get Meaty Stew, this however heals less than 4 Morsels.
 * Cooking food before you re-cook it in the Crock Pot will often give you a better result than combining 4 uncoocked items.
 * Using Monster Meat will transform the food item into some variation which does not poison the user.
 * Example: If you put 3 Cooked Monster Meat and 1 Honey you will get Honeyed Ham.
 * Example: If you put 4 Cooked Monster Meat you will get Meaty Stew.
 * Neither of the above will damage the user when consumed

What is more troublesome than having to search for food every other day? Worried that your food supply may not be consistent or renewable? To avoid spending time gathering food and worrying about resource management, try these options:

The Vegetarian: The Carnivore:
 * Make a bunch of Turbo Farms near Beefalo and use their manure to fertilize your farms. While you explore take the time to pick up as many seeds as you have farms and you should have a never ending food supply that should be able to feed you fairly every day.
 * If you feel like you need a little extra food you can dig up every berry bush that you find and re-plant them near your base and farms
 * Note: you must fertilize your farms every time you harvest and berry bushes the first time you plant them and if you harvest your berries too early see (Berry Bush Life Cycle ).
 * Use 4 Fruit in combination to get Fruit Medley.
 * Use 4 Veggies in combination to get Rattatouie.

Safe Methods of Gathering Meat: Risky Methods of Gathering Meat and Meat Accessories:
 * Build your base next to the "green grass" biome. It should have lots of birds and rabbits in them. Dig up, Gather and transplant all Saplings and Grass Tufts. Put them in your base and use them to build rabbit traps.
 * When setting traps and harvesting traps make sure to place and re-place the traps on top of the rabbit hole and it is guarenteed if you place them correctly that you will be able to consistently harvest 20 morsels per day.
 * Create a Bee Box next to your base, catch butterflies with a butterfly net and "plant live butterflies" next to your Bee Box (this is suspected to increase honey yield since bees won't have to travel far to gather nectar)
 * Gather Honey whenever the Bee Box drips honey if possible.
 * Create a Twig Farm in your base
 * Dig up and transplant sapplings in your base whenever possible.
 * Place all Spider Eggs you can gather next to your nearest pig town (this will allow you to gather monster meat and or silk)
 * Attack and aggro the spiders and run arund the pig town until pigs kill all the spiders, rinse repeat
 * If the spider's nest is at tier 3 you can destroy it, pick up silk and replant the spider eggs if no more spiders are coming out of the nest.
 * Gather all Monster Meat
 * Kill Beefalo in any desired methods you should desire, recommended to gather a pig army then attack.
 * Gather Beefalo Meat and hairs, one of the most important and stylish items in the game is made with Beefalo hairs (joking of course, but still stylish)

Any Meat stated above if should be combined in a set of 3 with honey to create Honeyed Ham or 4 in combination to create a hearty Meaty Stew. This will almost consistently bring your hunger up by 75 points and your health points up by 50.

Once your farms are up you will start to be able to create extra stores of food.

Surviving waves of Hell Hounds
Though little is known about the spawning times of hell hounds it is suspected that they spawn on regular intervals between 5-10 days and will spawn within the first 7 days of playing. Though obtaining resources enough to bee traps may be difficult that early, there is an easy and effective way of dispatching Hell Hounds so long as you are close to a pigman village.



Firstly, when hell hounds attack the first signs that they are approaching is a grunting, snorting and barking noise. This gets progressively louder and will peak within half a day's time. This should give you enough time to have prepared a route.

Consider how to manuver through trees, making sure to kite the hell hounds while accounting for how many are chasing you (they will continue to chase you if you're not careful) then lead them into a village of pigs. It might take a while for the pigmen to respond but they will, once they notice the hell hounds, start attacking the hounds. They should take the hell hounds out in two attacks cleanly and they will leave the remains for you to collect and you will not have to worry about fighting the Hounds yourself.

Meat Guide
Requirements

Steps
 * Any weapon
 * Beefalos
 * Pigs
 * Meat (any kind)

Notes
 * 1) Give meat to the pigs, so they will follow you.
 * 2) Attack a beefalo but retreat before hitting, so the pigs will attack it.
 * 3) If they manage to kill the beefalo, the pigs will try and take the meat dropped, if they die, you can take their meat instead.


 * Since you don't actually hit the beefalo, it won't attack you.
 * Pigs will respawn the next day.

Gold Guide
Requirements Steps Notes
 * Any weapon
 * Log suit (optional but recommended)
 * Bird trap unlock
 * Spider nests/eggs
 * Twigs
 * Seeds (optional)
 * Honey production (optional)
 * 1) Locate a pig village with a king.
 * 2) Plant spider eggs near the village.
 * 3) Startle spiders and let the pigs kill them, loot dead spiders.
 * 4) Craft and set bird traps, and hunt birds, using seeds will enhance the process.
 * 5) Give morsels to the pig king and collect gold nuggets.
 * 6) Cook monster meat.
 * 7) Use or research gold nuggets and cooked monster meat.
 * 8) Go to step 3, or 2.
 * 9) {Kill pigs, give their meat to pig king, go to step 9. Don't die.}
 * Since honey is great for healing, the player can eat cooked monster meat with honey and stay healthy.
 * Silk is required for bird traps, the player will be able to get crafting materials for bird traps from spiders.
 * Gold nuggets, cooked monster meat, and bird feathers give 15, 7, and 5 research points, respectively.

Finding a camp:

 * Pre-camp exploration is key to knowing where to go to get different resources and where to set up camp.
 * It is a good idea to set camp on the corner of as many biomes as possible. This will make the finding and getting of materials and different foods easier than being in the centre of a biome.
 * It is a good idea to make camp near Beefalos or Pigs for manure. This will make food creation easy and will mean that the player will need to worry less about starving.
 * Forest biomes and rock biomes are notably difficult to set a base in.
 * The vast number of trees in the forest cause an obstruction that the player must chop down. This can be resourceful, but highly irritating. If you create a basic campfire close to a tree, the fire will spread rapidly and clear a large area for you. Chopping the burnt trees yields charcol for a cooking pot.
 * The rock biome's stone ground means that planting bushes, trees and crops is impossible. The player may want to make camp just off the edge of this biome, for easy access to rocks and for farming capability.
 * The player should choose wisely before setting a fire pit, science machine or other utilities of this nature, down, for they are hard and counter productive to remove once placed.
 * Camps are usually of a circular shape, centered around a fire or fire pit. This makes it possible to use all your utilities and farms without having to stray into the dark at night time.
 * Swamp biomes are to be avoided for camps in early game, due to the occurence of swamp monsters, do not camp here, even if the clear ground may be appealing.

Base Camp Set-up Guide: 1. Ocean:

 * 1) If a location has been chosen near an ocean, place the fire pit just inland from the ocean to give yourself room for important parts.
 * 2) Place the research machine (science machine or alchemy engine) inland, preferably near the fire pit.
 * 3) Collect manure and berry bushes and plant them near the edge of the water, as tightly packed as possible. This way when gobblers spawn you can easily corner them against the ocean.
 * 4) Next gather grass, saplings and pinecones and make farms of each in an area near the fire pit.
 * 5) Hunt for meat until you have enough food to last a long time. (at this stage, a crock pot is a good idea)
 * 6) *Biomes:
 * 7) *#Forest: The ony truly sustainable forms of meat will be pigs, and occasionally birds
 * 8) *#Swamp: Though they do not have a plentiful source of meat and are very dangerous for the sake that they house the Swamp Monster frogs do live in swamp biomes and with the aid of a crockpot they are an invaluable resource in replenishing hunger meter.
 * 9) *#Prairie: Arguably the second best biome for food because there are rabbits and Beefalo roaming about. They are difficult to kill but with a bit of kiting and very minimalistic materials (ie. enough to build a spear) they can be reliable food sources.
 * 10) *#Grasslands: The least threatening and most plentiful food source, The biome includes plenty of grass and saplings which are key components in building traps. Traps set up at the mouth of the rabbit hole will guarentee food and the traps can be utilized more than once per day with a reliable yield of approximately 10-30 morsels per day.