This article may contain instructional language and subjective recommendations. Readers should read the content carefully, and follow accordingly.
General Tips:
This section is to provide general tips applicable to all levels.
The character should have full Health, Hunger, and Sanity.
It´s generally a good idea to hunt MacTusk N' Son as soon as possible and one is prepared for the fight. They have a chance of dropping the Tam o' Shanter or a Walrus Tusk. Both items are really usefull troughout the adventure mode. The Tam o' Shanter is a Tier 2 warm cFile:Imagesgsdfgsdgsd.jpglothing and has a large sanity boost of +6.7/min (enough to gain sanity during night) and a durability of 24 days. The Walking Cane is an indestructible item which increases walking speed by 25%, ideal for faster exploring and getting out of dangerous situations (also as an emergency weapon dealing 17 damage). It can be crafted from 2 gold,1 walrus tusk and 4 twigs and requires an Alchemy Engine.
Wickerbottom has an early advantage, Wilson has an advantage with winter maps, WX-78 has the best later chapter advantage and Maxwell and Wendy have the better advantage in the fifth chapter. Players who suffer resource problems should use Woodie and Willow for their Character items. Wolfgang is only good for players who either acquire abundant amounts of food or plan to rush the mode.
Only 4 slots of items can be brought to the next level.
The knowledge that the character has will be brought to the next level.
Pig torches are common in the adventure mode.
To pass the obelisks, the player should prepare some green mushrooms to change sanity. Some obelisks will be open when the sanity is below 20%, then the next gate would be the opposite sanity.
There will be fewer berry bushes and rabbit holes.
The Fire Staff is valuable item in some levels where it can get really handy to light some blockades from a distance.
After the 2nd level, Pig Fortresses start to spawn. These are dangerous because the inhabitants are the hostile guardian pigs. To pass through it is recommended to wear at least a Log Suit. Other possibilities are to burn it down or lead hostile monsters to it. Hammering the Pig Torches will prevent the pigs from respawning.
If at some point you are in a position with abundant resources and you have the luxury of a little more time. You may craft structures or "placeables" before moving to the next chapter. Such as a fridge, chest, crock pot, etc. Then instead of placing them on the ground, you keep them in your sidebar to place later. Since you keep all your recipes/blueprints from the previous chapters, these "to-be-placed" items will be carried over as well.
Some levels of Adventure Mode are suited to making a base, while other levels are meant to be rushed through, as they will only get worse over time. Levels that are suited to making bases include The Game Is Afoot, Archipelago, and Two Worlds, while levels that are meant to be rushed through include King Of Winter, A Cold Reception, and Darkness.
In each world, one or two out of four resources will be harder to get:
Flint: Flint does not lie on the ground and most of rocks are replaced by the ones that don't drop flint.
Wood: Evergreens are replaced by spiky trees or lumpy evergreens.
Grass: Most of the grass is picked and needs fertilizing
Twigs: Saplings are replaced with spiky bushes.
The Levels
Each level can be extremely challenging and no preparation can be made for the first level. The levels are randomized, and each is fundamentally different in its challenges. This section will list each level and explain them.
A Cold Reception
A Cold Reception appears at first glance to be a normal world and even includes an axe and campfire at the spawn location. But looks can be deceiving. Day lengths will not exceed one third of the day and quickly become winter's shortest. Seasons rotate every six days with a short freeze two days before winter. Frequent summer rains drain sanity and winter snows accelerate freezing. As of The End of the Beginning update, frogs will frequently rain down until roughly day 30. A common resource will be scarce, like grass, flint, twigs or berry bushes.
Farm at least one spider den for silk. It's essential on almost all worlds and easy to obtain here.
Expect to use more fuel to maintain fires due to frequent rain or winter.
As stated earlier, sanity will be an issue. Making a top hat can help manage it. If you can spare a monster meat and some time, a friendly pig will max your sanity.
Attacking a frog will cause others nearby to become aggressive. They will quickly finish off an unwary player. Traps will not aggro mobs and can provide a substantial amount of food though it will spoil quickly.
Due to the frequent rain in this world, WX-78 will often struck by lightning (causing SYSTEM OVERLOAD) which can be helpful, but will quickly induce insanity unless precautions are taken.
Frogs can be used to clear hard to kill mobs early. Since they attack pigs, you might want to wait until a frog rain near a village or a fortress, since they can easily beat their kiting AI. Be warned, you will have to avoid the frogs if you want to collect the loot, so it's unadvised if you are just starting.
RoG
The difficulty is increased in Reign of Giants, since you have an easy chance to die not only due to the cold, but to the rain as well. Constant rain and cold will mean that long distance travelling will take a long time unless appropriate gear has been crafted.
Players using WX-78 are advised to build an Umbrella as soon as possible. A Pretty Parasol is the best quick solution, as it prevents too much health and sanity loss from the rain.
A straw hat can now be made to prevent wetness at anytime. If you are always moving, it would be wise to make one with spare materials.
Players can get Giant items much faster in this world, thanks to the short seasons. If players wish to build a Hibernation Vest, Eyebrellas or Insulated Packs, it would be wise to do them here.
Webber players will have problems since a large pig village is often behind one of the bridges. It's wise to pass them during night, or craft a Bush Hat. Webber can also visit large spider dens on the bridges to gain followers/protection.
Wigfrid players can use their Battle Helm to decrease wetness, and the Battle Spear to kill mobs such as beefalo for easy meat.
Sanity management is much harder with the wetness mechanic. Willow players can make fires to quickly dry off and gain back sanity.
Archipelago
Archipelago has normal weather patterns, normal seasons and normal Day-Night Cycles. The challenge of this level is that it is a series of islands connected by Worm Holes with no land routes between them. Players are spawned on one of six islands and the wormholes are the only way to get here and there. The starting island consists of the relatively safe Grassland that player spawns on surrounded by Marsh. Players must brave the marsh to find and use the Worm Holes to progress to the other islands.
Tips:
Wormholes reduce sanity by 15 with each use, so players should make a way to recover the sanity that will be lost often.
Each island consists of only one or two Biomes. So be sure to bring sufficient supplies from the last island and collect as much of the current islands resources as is needed.
There is a possibility to jump through a worm hole and spawn right next to some Killer Bee Hives, so be prepared for the worst.
This was supposedly changed in a recent update to give players a chance before they attack.
Although the starting grassland area should have Flint on it, in the event it doesn't players should either go search other islands for it quickly or make Torches and survive the night by burning things.
Killer Bee Hives are common in this level. They can be very dangerous. A Grassland full of them will normally be on one of the islands. It is possible to carve a path through using pigs to draw the attention of bees but this is time consuming and may not be viable in some worlds. The best way to get through is wear at least a Log Suit and if possible a Beekeeper Hat and keep moving while heading for the sections that are less dense and do not run head on into them if possible as they will quickly kill an unarmored player.
If you find Treeguards or Deerclops and have no way to deal with them safely, using the abundant Tentacles can help to weaken/deagro them.
It's wise not to enter the Marsh during winter, since most Spider Dens are Mature Tier 3. On the upside, you can get a spider hat here to deal with later levels.
Players who wish to avoid problems later with silk/spiders are advised to destroy the tier one dens at the start of the chapter around their base, then allow the tentacles to deal with any spider queens who might appear later.
RoG
In Reign of Giants, you will be dealing with a 60 day summer until winter. This adds a slight difficulty, but you have various biomes which will provide materials to prevent overheating. You will still start in the resourceful area, so you can produce a wider variety of items with the flowers and possible Bee Hive.
Webber has a major advantage when it comes to this chapter, since you will spawn near a large number of spider dens. The abundance of tentacles, Merms and Spiders will allow you to harvest Monster Meat, Silk, Tentacle Spikes, Fish, Spider Glands and Tentacle Spots. Since Webber does not aggro spiders, you will have no problem harvesting these materials, plus you can build your base near these dens for protection and followers.
Players will have an easier time dealing with the killer bees, since they can now simply wait for them to combust, due to the large amount of flowers and bees to spread the fire.
Wigfrid has an advantage, since she can farm on spiders and build multiple pieces of armor from the rock Biomes. This world provides a large number of monsters and lots of monster meat to balance her sanity gain.
Players can wait till winter and get large amounts of ice, then travel to the next chapter, giving them an advantage if the next world is A Cold Reception.
King of Winter
King of Winter, as the name implies, is an endless winter but otherwise has normal day and weather patterns. The player spawns with three burning trees around to prevent immediate freezing. Nearby will be a dead adventurer with a backpack containing a random schematic and one for the Rabbit Earmuffs, a Heat Stone, some Logs, Cut Grass, and a Torch. These will give players a chance to survive despite the lack of preparation for winter.
Tips:
Place the Heat Stone in your inventory. Heat Stones do not provide heat while in the backpack. When the heat stone becomes cold enough that it makes you freeze faster, place it in the backpack again.
Making a Winter Hat or getting a Tam o' Shanter can help maintain sanity and stave off the cold.
Because farming is out, renewable resources such as carrots, berries and grass do not regrow.
Some players have reported worlds lacking in one of these, this is decided randomly and most should have at least some of each.
Some players have also reported that farming does work in this world but those reports are unverified and players should not expect to be able to rely on farming here.
However, if carrots and berries are limited trapping Rabbits or beefalos will be a good source of food (if they are available on the level); so a basic base near rabbits/beefalos is recommended to provide food. Take care when hunting for beefalos as they will group to attack.
It is a good idea to kill every Tallbird you find. They are quite easy to kill (Just hit and run), and give you 2 Meats, plus their Tallbird Egg if they have laid one.
Berry Bushes do slowly regrow in this world after 5 to 7 days due to winter slowing growth. So players should take note of the viability of berry bush locations.
Some players have reported bushes not regrowing at all or worlds lacking them.
On worlds where pickables regrow, they stop entirely sometime after day 20.
Permanent winter means the Deerclops doesn't despawn and Mac Tusk are there year round. Appropriate care should be taken when either are in the area.
Killing Deerclops is good idea, if the player is properly prepared, since his Eye can help you gain hunger and health while also reducing your sanity if you need to pass through some Obelisks. As a bonus the eye does not spoil.
Or you may use Deerclops as a formidable weapon to dispose of enemies by kiting him towards them (using a Walking Cane is mandatory since he can easily outrun you without it) since he is aggressive to any kind of monster. A good idea may be to lead him to a herd of Beefalos and let him stomp them to death. This will provide a quick and effective source of Beefalo wool, occasional horns to easily craft a Beefalo Hat and a good amount of Meat which you can use for crafting Jerky.
Be sure to collect Cut Reeds from the Marsh Biomes you encounter because you can use them to craft Blow Darts, which are extremely helpful when dealing with MacTusk as he will die after only two hits. Also, as it is infinite winter, it means that the Azure Feather is always available and you can find at least one bridge area containing Hound Mounds. This means that Blow Darts are easy to craft in this chapter.
The Game is Afoot
This world starts with a chest nearby usually containing a winter hat and some wood. Winter ends after the tenth night and never returns. The main gimmick of this world is that if you want to find some Things, you need to go over bridges guarded by spiders, chess pieces, tentacles or tallbirds (though this isn't always true). On the other island you can find normal trees, marble trees or lumpy trees. There is the possibility of an island being completely cut off from the rest of the world requiring players to find a wormhole to get to it.
First, make campfire, find Chester and make Garland. There are a lot of Beefalos in the world, so if you don´t want to fuel your fire with wood, you can fuel it with Manures.
Tips
Make Garland, shovel, tree farm on the central island and make a Marble Suit.
Kill lots of butterflies for emergency healing. But be careful of Krampus.
When dealing with the spiders, Wendy can be especially useful by using Abigail to help her kill them. Players not using Wendy should be careful, take on one nest at a time, do not take unnecessary risks, and use traps to catch them as they leave their nest.
Beefalos are usually found behind one of the barriers
Winter makes food hard to obtain at start, but you usually find a spider nest near the tallbird bridge. Try and make them attack each other.
Since this world has a 10 day winter at the start, players are most likely going to encounter Deerclops on the starting island. There are three ways to deal with this:
Kill him for his loot. This will require armor and a good weapon, but most importantly a fire source. The early dusk can lower your heat faster, making the fight a much more risky method. Players with Wolfgang, upgraded WX-78, Wendy or Maxwell can do this.
Avoid him. This tactic will have drawbacks, since you will never get the chance in this chapter again to kill him, but some characters would be better off doing this. People who haven't built proper bases might have more use of this, but generally this is the worst method of dealing with him. The trick is getting him unagressive when he spawns, this means distance or distracting him with spiders, then keeping track of him and building temporary fires away from him at night, only to keep warm. When Summer comes, he will despawn and you can collect the resources he leaves from his destruction.
Manipulate him. This is the most difficult, yet rewarding, tactic. You need to find either a Pig Fortress, Level 3 Spider Eggs/Den, Tallbird Nest, Beefalo herd or even a Pengul Herd. Lure Deerclops into chasing you and run through one of these or attract the mobs to his presence. This can be risky, since some mobs will outrun the Deerclops whilst chasing you. You can use this to clear blockades and get rid of Deerclops, but this is still risky.
RoG
In RoG, players are now given a permanent Summer after 10 days. This makes the gimmick a real challenge. Players will now need to deal with overheating and general fires during the duration of this chapter. To combat this, players can stock up on Ice early in one of the biomes over the bridges, giving them 10 days to do so.
Webber has an advantage in this level, since one of the bridges are certain to be Spider Dens/Queens. Also, the starting zone has a large amount of dens also, making Silk and followers not a problem.
Wilson and Webber will need to keep their beards shaved after 10 days, to avoid overheating. This can be a disadvantage if the next chapter is King of Winter.
Deerclops is now much more dangerous, but has the reward of the Eyebrella. Players who have trouble in A Cold Reception should kill him and craft the hat, or use it for the overheating from the permanent Summer.
Penguls can spawn Ice when they make a nest. Players should scout the coastline to get as much ice as possible.
Wigfrid can farm sanity and meat from the spiders and tentacles found on the bridges. She also has an early advantage against the Deerclops.
Two Worlds
The level is divided, as the name implies, in 2 islands. Let's call them Paradise and Pandemonium. The player spawns on Paradise, with a Fire Pit, a Tent and plenty of resources on the immediate vicinity.
Paradise:
The island has an abundance of almost every resource imaginable available to the player. The Day-Night Cycle here is very different; the Day phase lasts almost the entire day, while Dusk and Night only last one segment each. It never rains, and besides the periodic hound attacks, there are almost no threats here. Chester may also be found on the island.
Plenty of carrots, berries, pigs, beefalos, bee hives, and trees are on the island. Some boulders and tallbirds may also be found. Usually there is a big group of Guardian Pigs protecting a Maxwell Statue; it is recommended that the player should keep a distance until properly prepared. And to be careful on full moon.
When fully prepared, the player may hop in the Worm Hole to proceed to Pandemonium.
NOTE: A Sick Worm Hole is guaranteed to be on the island, while a regular Worm Hole may not be present. If the latter is true, the player WILL NOT be able to return to Paradise so players are strongly advised to thoroughly prepare and collect anything they might need before proceeding through the Worm Hole. There also may be two Worm Hole, one sick and one normal.
NOTE: It is also possible for the two islands to be connected, simply through land. This enables the player to simply avoid wormholes and just walk into the Pandemonium.
Pandemonium:
When the player leaves Paradise via a Sick Worm Hole, the land changes to make way for rainy misery. Rain is abundant, and the Day-Night Cycle is adjusted back to normal. The biomes are primarily swamps, heavily infested by Merms and Tentacles. Rocks and Tallbirds are more abundant here though.
Players should prepare on Paradise not only for Pandemonium, but also for the extremely challenging level of The Darkness.
Darkness
Darkness is the final level. The level has a Day-Night Cycle, but darkness is permanent. There are almost no food resources for you to collect and your only source of natural light is Maxwell's Light. You spawn with a bunch of campfires and fire pits surrounding you and there will be a backpack nearby. Which contains the following:
Now those might sound like a lot but they're really not going to help you much if you didn't come prepared yourself. There are Pigs sleeping on the map which you can kill for meat however with their kiting A.I. they can be a bit tricky. There is a chance you will find Tallbirds in this map which are in your best interest to try and kill especially if they have laid an Egg. Koalefant is also quite worth it, if you haven't found any of these food sources and you're getting desperate for food, you're going to have to resort to spiders.
One of the islands will be connected to the rest of the world by a bridge (similar to the ones in "King of Winter") that may be blocked by the following.
it might not be a bad idea to bring some Taffy with you from the previous world to help manage Sanity
It is also very easy to recover sanity using a Tent multiple times in a row since it is of the eternal night
Note that tents do consume hunger like Bed Rolls do but heal you.
Killing spiders along with Spider Dens on the way will provide plenty of Monster Meat and Silk for survival. Don't be afraid to burn the forests stuffed with Spider Dens, you'll get much better view of the area plus burn some of the dens and spiders, which will drop so much needed loot. Also dig up any mushrooms that you find for healing, sanity management and cooking purposes.
This level should put players' survival skills to the ultimate test, there are quite a few spider nests around and it can be easy to run onto the web and alarm spiders. Resources will be extremely scarce. There are fields of Maxwell Traps and there are Hound Mounds.
Tips
Prebuild any objects you think you might need for Chapter 4 in the previous chapter. Having a ready to place Crock Pot, Tent, Fire Pit and an Ice Box will save loads of time as objects you built, but didn't place will stay in your inventory.
Bring a Walking Cane with you. It's arguably the best item in the game.
Bring at least a Log Suit for farming spiders; if possible bring a Marble Suit.
The second great source of food is fishing and cooking Fishsticks, they are very easy to cook and provide good healing. If you find a safe Pond in an open area, its good to make a camp near it. It will provide 5-7 fish every day.
It is also HIGHLY recommended that you have unlocked the Bug Net, so you can catch Fireflies which are quite abundant on this map.
The level will initially provide enough materials to make a Straw Hat. Kill some spiders, get 2 Silks, make a Bug Net, and catch Fireflies .
Be aware that it will be very difficult to not run out of Grass and Twigs to continuously make torches.
If need be, harvest Spiky Bushes while wearing an armor. It is worth it to lose one health point to get a twig on this map.
In Tooth Trap fields and Hound Mound areas you're going to want the Miner's Hat so you can see a bigger radius around you.
Tent is quite useful here because it's darkness all day! you can refill your sanity by sleeping few times. So don't need to worry about sanity.
If you're bad at killing spiders - bring food, it saves time, too. Otherwise, Rope may be more useful.
Use the light provided by the Maxwell Lights to bring out the Divining Rod.
If you have a walking cane, sufficient ressources for Miners hats and enough food to last you about 10–15 days it is easily possible to "rush" the chapter - which means ignoring every enemy if possible, just on the lookout for the things. As the map has about the same shape every time (6 islands connected by bridges), it is easy to figure out where the next bridge is, which saves you a lot of time. A stack of Jerky is a perfect food source as it spoils slowly and replenishes health, hunger and sanity at the same time.
This is the best map for your attempt to get a walking cane, so if you don't already have one go on a search for the items needed.
Ironically, Maxwell is the best character for this chapter. His natural sanity gain gives players more time to search without needing to boost his sanity.
RoG
This chapter is the same, except maybe the addition of a few sleeping giants to kill. Since the world is in permanent night, you will still need to deal with the darkness, but some things now make this world much easier:
Moggles can be made to provide night vision, making tactics with Woodie less needed. No longer possible, since they require Glow Berries.
If you get a full moon (since the moon cycles still change as time does pass) you can explore without the fear of having no fuel. No longer possible, the full moon is dark but still has the blue tint. A light source is still needed.
Webber can pass spider dens and befriend spiders, meaning bridges/spider queens are less daunting.
Wigfrid can gain sanity by killing mobs, meaning you can kill mobs which are sleeping and gain easy sanity.
Players can use Scalemail to burn attackers and start safe fires to light their path without fear of damage. This prevents the fear of defending against mobs which are awake.
Checkmate
Checkmate is the epilogue. It is basically a long road with a few stops for resources. There are several small halls full with graves, skeletons, and two others with the Teleportato and with beefalos. Just like all the previous levels you will have the Divining Rod with you. There is permanent night and Maxwell's Lights are showing your way. No matter what level your sanity may be, eyes can be seen in the darkness.
Don't wait around in this chapter. Hound attacks and sanity loss are still affecting you here, meaning you can still die here from being distracted.
RoG
RoG
