Books are items craftable by Wickerbottom. They can be read several times at the cost of sanity to trigger several type of events. The durability can be regenerated by storing the books in Bookcases. Only Wickerbottom and Maxwell can use the books to cast, although Maxwell has to pay a higher sanity penalty. Wurt can read the books to either gain or lose sanity but would not cast, trigger their effects.
Player can continue reading the books even at 0 sanity without paying any additional sanity cost. Players may use any of the standard ways to regain Sanity, consign themselves to fighting shadow creatures, or wear a Bone Helm to make the Shadow Creatures neutral. Books can also be safely read on Lunar Island or the Lunar Grotto due to Enlightenment. Sanity considerations are especially important with repeated book readings, such as when summoning Grumble Bees, growing Lureplant farms, or building Tentacle pits.
Birds of the World summons up to 30 Birds to land between 6m and 12m. It does not work during Hurricane Season in the Shipwrecked DLC. The type of spawned Birds depends on the season and turf the birds land on.
Birds of the World summons 20-30 Birds if there are at most 10 Birds within 10m of the caster. The book summons 10-20 Birds if there are 11-20 Birds within 10m of the caster. The book does not summons Bird if there are more than 20 Birds within 10m of the caster.
One summoned Bird lands every 0.034-0.067 seconds.
Birds of the World may combine with Sleepytime Stories, ideally right before the night so the birds remain asleep for the duration of the night and not just duration of the book. The birds may also be frozen with Ice Flingomatics. There are also other sleepless way of killing, such as Winona's catapults.
This book is good for farming Krampus and Feathers when a proper farm is made on the Lunar Island.
Applied Horticulture grows crops and plants within 30m instantly, while trees grow one stage every use. It does not work on unfertilized or withered crops or plants. Some plants, such as grass, do not grow in Winter.
Applied Horticulture can no longer be crafted in Don't Starve Together, but it can still be spawned through the Console.
Sleepytime Stories
“Strange, it's just 500 pages of telegraph codes.”
Sleepytime Stories causes Mobs within 30m to fall asleep after about 2 seconds of casting. The duration of sleep depends on the target and the effect is broken when it is attacked.
Sleepytime Stories can be used instead of the Pan Flute, for example for shaving Beefalos during the day and during mating season, calming Dragonfly, stopping Bee Queen's attacks and beetles, stopping Depths Worm and Hound attacks, slowing down or completely stopping most boss and giants attacks or stealing guarded items from set pieces.
In Don't Starve Together, it's able to put other players to sleep if PvP is enabled on the server.
On Tentacles creates up to 3 Tentacles between 3m to 8m. Less tentacles are created when there are more obstructions in the spawning zone. Burnt structure, stump of a wall, tree or a boulder or another tentacle are examples of obstructions.
Tentacles from On Tentacles generally produces more Tentacle Spots than it consumes. They are also a source of Tentacle Spikes, a great melee weapon.
The book can be used to build defenses or traps, as the Tentacles are hostile to most Mobs in the game. Tentacle pit can be built by having a ring of wall stumps and safely reading 15-21 times of On Tentacles in that ring.
The End is Nigh!
“The beginning was dull, but got better near the end.”
In the Reign of Giants (RoG) and Shipwrecked (SW) DLCs, any bolt of lightning from The End is Nigh! can strike Wickerbottom when used. Wickerbottom should consider wearing lightning insulated clothing, such as the Eyebrella (RoG), Snakeskin Jacket/Hat (SW), or the Dumbrella (SW).
Joy of Volcanology
“The foreword just says "Hope you like dragoons."”
Joy of Volcanology creates 4 Dragoon Eggs falling at the player's location. It replaces "On Tentacles" in the Don't Starve: Shipwrecked DLC. Joy of Volcanology has the same functionality as the Volcano Staff, except it is less precise.
Fallen Dragoon Eggs sometimes create Lava Pools on the ground. When Lava pools burn out they leave behind Rocks , Ash and Charcoal. Lava Pools can be extinguished directly with Ice, which leaves behind a single Obsidian instead. This allows Wickerbottom to easily farm Rocks, Charcoal and Obsidian.
Garden plants affected by the book's begin to grow rapidly, going through each stage in about one second. At the same time, they consume water and use and release nutrients into the soil during the transition to each stage just like during normal growth. Farm Plants are tended throughout all stages of growth. Due to the high growth rate, the farmland should be watered and fertilised in advanced. Therefore, it's recommended to use the book on combinations of plants that feed each other. However, even under perfect conditions, the Farm Plants cannot grow into giant plants.
This book is good for farming Crops Seeds. When there are sufficient farmland and Crops seeds, the caster is better off farming than casting this book.
Horticulture, Expanded is an improved version of the "Horticulture, Abridged". It has a more complex recipe, but allows you to grow up to 15 plants instead of 10.
Giant plants are still not produced by reading the book.
Applied Silviculture instantly grow non-food plants, such as Grass Tufts, Saplings, Reeds, Monkeytails, and Trees within 30m. An additional harvest cycle worth of fertiliser is consumed when used. For instance, transplanted grass tuft allows for 20 harvests before refertilisation but if book was used for each harvest, refertilisation is required after 10 harvests. Also calms down Tree Guards when used.
This book is good for farming of Cut Grass, Twigs and Cut Reeds, especially when combined with Lureplant.
This book is also good for maximising the growth of trees for a woodcutter such as Bearger. Tall Trees may also be needed for Treeguard Idol.
The Angler's Survival Guide summons a school of Ocean Fish 10±4.24m away. The type of Ocean Fish spawned is based on the ocean type where it spawned. The probable spawning area is a ring with radius 10m, blotted 2.82m in the positive x and z axes.
This book can be used to farm fishes from Coastal Ocean. Multiple schools of fishes can be concentrated in a tile of coastal ocean after blocking off the remaining and surrounding tile with Dock Kit.
This book can also be used to accelerate the spawn of desired Ocean Fishes such as Ice Bream and Scorching Sunfish by reading in ocean surrounded by their respective ocean tiles.
Pyrokinetics Explained extinguishes all burning or smoldering objects within 16m, including Campfires, Fire Pits, and their endothermic variants. If a Fiery Pen with less than 100 % durability is in the inventory, it will be recharged with 10 % durability for each extinguished burning object and 5 % for each smoldering object. Otherwise, a new Fiery Pen will be given with the durability gained from extinguishing fires, capped at 100%.
The Overcoming Arachnophobia is a unique Book by Wickerbottom added to Don't Starve Together. Crafted with 2 Papyrus and 8 Silk.
When cast, creates a 3 by 3 turf area Spider web under the player. The web vastly slows all creatures moving on it (including all spiders) by 75%, this effect is not applied to players and flying creatures. The web disappears after 2 minutes (4 clock segments). Using the book costs 20% of its durability.
Tempering Temperatures removes wetness from characters within 16m and dries items in their inventory. In addition, the Book sets the temperature of the characters to 35 degrees. Reduces 20% durability per use.
Lux Aeterna summons a beam of light at the casting location, above the character, similar to Cave Light. The beam lights up a circle of 3m radius for half a day. Reading in the caves triggers an Earthquake.
Lux Aeterna Redux summons a beam of light at the casting location, similar to one from Lux Aeterna for two days. Reading in the caves triggers an Earthquake. Each read consumes 20% durability.
Farm Plants will continue to grow at night if inside the light granted by this book.
Practical Rain Rituals toggles rain. Also, it maximises the moisture of Farm Soil Turf, and its 8 adjacent Farm Soil Turfs, that the caster is on. The book works in caves as well, which can manage Acid Rain. This book is unable to cancel Lunar Hail.
This book is good for getting rain on demand. The rain can be useful for watering Farm Plants, wetting combat target, enabling Rainy Day Lure and Snow Day Lure, disabling Wildfires and Antlion.
This book is also goodfor removing rain on demand. This can eliminate the need to carry rain protection gear, eliminate Frog Rain, summon Antlion earlier.
Each read consumes 20% durability.
Lunar Grimoire
“All this interest in the moon is probably just a phase.”
Lunar Grimoire converts the night of current day into a full moon, causing the lunar cycle to continue from that point. Each read consumes 33% durability.
This book is useful for farming Werepig, removing the need for illumination on Surface and starting Moon Stone event.
Apicultural Notes summons two friendly Grumble Bees. They are passive like other followers and will follow the summoner, protecting the summoner from other aggressive creatures. A maximum of sixteen drones can be summoned. Each read consumes 33% durability. Should a player attempt to fight Bee Queen with summoned Grumble Bees, she'll screech and assume control over them. Therefore, it's ill advised to have any summoned before fighting her.
The Everything Encyclopedia
“Wickerbottom likes to do everything by the book.”
The Everything Encyclopedia lowers requirement for prototyping items from science, magic and think tank tiers (for more information, check Crafting/Don't Starve Together). Items from both science tiers, tier 1 of magic and think tank can be crafted anywhere, while tier 2 magic items require any science or magic station.
Single read gives one 'charge' to any player, including the caster, within 16m. Charges stack up, which allows player to read book multiple times in a row, and later use stored charges to prototype items with decreased requirements. If player prototypes item while not standing next to normally required research station, charge count is lowered by one, otherwise it is not consumed.
Wickerbottom's perk does not synergize with effect of The Everything Encyclopedia. Therefore, both her and other survivors will require at least Science Machine to prototype tier two magic items.
If lowered prototyping requirements do not demand crafting station, player won't gain bonus 15 sanity points from learning it.
Each read consumes 33% durability.
Trivia
The text "Ia! Ia!" in the description for The End is Nigh! refers to the phrase "Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!", a chant from the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft.
The sanity reduction from reading possibly could suggest that these books contain knowledge which humans were never meant to know, similar to the Necronomicon and Pnakotic Manuscripts from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. Although Wurt can gain sanity by reading some of the books, this is likely because she reads them for personal enjoyment rather than to utilize possibly forbidden magic.
According to Wilson in Don't Starve Together, Sleepytime Stories is "just 500 pages of telegraph codes". This implies that the book bores those affected to sleep.
Sleepytime Stories and The End is Nigh! were originally named Bedtime Stories and Conflagration respectively.[1]
Previously, Don't Starve Together also featured the book "Applied Horticulture", but with the Reap What You Sow update, which redesigned the farming system, it was replaced by the book "Horticulture, Abridged".
When Wickerbottom inspects "Birds of the World", she mentions the Western Screech Owl. This is a reference to the mod the developers made titled The Screecher.
Several characters introduced with the Hamlet DLC have unimplemented quotes for Wickerbottom's books:
Wagstaff: Birds of the World ("I cannot access the knowledge within it. How frustrating!"), Applied Horticulture ("Much more than a collection of facts."), Sleepytime Stories ("Is this ink imbued with dark fuel?! Fascinating!"), On Tentacles ("What prevents me from using this?"), The End is Nigh! ("Oh, I do wish I could access its power.").
Wheeler: Birds of the World ("Will it help me get back in the air?"), Applied Horticulture ("I'm not digging this one."), Sleepytime Stories ("A sleeper hit."), On Tentacles ("I'm guessing it's not a children's book."), The End is Nigh! ("Feel good story of the year.").
Wormwood and Wilba however do not have any quotes for books.
Webber's comment on "Practical Rain Rituals" may be a reference to the superstition that killing a spider will make it rain. Less likely it references the Aztecs ritually sacrificing children to The Rain God, hoping for rain. Few other characters reference the use of a ritual.
. Only Wickerbottom and Maxwell
Applied Horticulture
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) (Treasure Hunting