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This article is incomplete because it lacks info specific to DST, as well as Hamlet additions.. Please help to improve the article, or discuss the issue with the community on the comment section. |
Exclusive to: 
Reign of Giants, 
Shipwrecked, 
Hamlet and 
Don't Starve Together.
Wilson overheating.
–Wurt
Overheating is a game mechanic introduced in the Reign of Giants DLC, as well as appearing in the Shipwrecked and Hamlet DLCs, as well as Don't Starve Together. It functions as the counterpart to Freezing. Overheating happens during Summer or Dry Season. Overheating can also occur while the player is standing close to a sufficient heat source for a long period of time. When the player begins to take in too much heat (at 65° C), the edge of the screen will begin to turn orange and become a hazy ring while a warning sound plays. At 70° C an orange haze will appear around the player's screen, and a sizzling sound will play. The character will make an exclamation to warn of the high temperature (eg. "Hot as heck!") and the screen will gain a reddish ring within the orange haze. The player will then begin to take damage. The only way to stop this is by cooling off, such as being near a sufficiently cold source.
Survival
Wilson overheating from his beard.
Overheating can be overcome in two ways: by reducing the player's temperature, and by preventing player's temperature from rising rapidly. Surviving Summer or Dry Season will depend on a combination of these.
Cooling Down
There are several ways to cool oneself down:
- An Endothermic Fire, Endothermic Fire Pit or Polar Light is a stationary light source that works like a fire, but they cool the player instead.
- A Chilled Amulet, Ice Cube, or Fashion Melon will lower temperature when worn. Note that these have different cooling values. The Ice Cube and Fashion Melon will also cause Wetness while worn, so caution is advised especially as WX-78.
- Using a Luxury Fan or Lucky Fan
will lower the player's temperature instantly. The Luxury Fan has 15 uses while the Lucky Fan has 3 uses. However, when used, they put out fires, so the player should be wary around light sources. - Equipping the Whirly Fan will also lower the player's temperature, but only while the player is running.
- Eating one of the following food items will temporarily cool the player down by 1°C per second for various amounts of time. Eating even stale or spoiled food can also cool the player down.
- Watermelon: 5 seconds
- Fruit Medley: 5 seconds
- Ice: 7.5 seconds
- Melonsicle: 10 seconds
- Ice Cream: 15 seconds
- Ceviche : 10 seconds
- Banana Pop : 10 seconds
- Jelly-O Pop : 10 seconds
- Neon Quattro
- Tropical Bouillabaisse
- Iced Tea
- Asparagazpacho : 40 degrees lower than environment for 5 minutes.
- Wetness will decrease gained temperature up to 30°C at the cost of Sanity and negative effects on items.
- The player can sleep during the day in a Siesta Lean-to to cool down and skip to dusk, thus preventing further overheating.
- A Thermal Stone can be brought near an Endothermic Fire or Endothermic Fire Pit to cool it or placed in a stationary Ice Box or a mobile Snow Chester to freeze it. It will cool the player down as long as it's in stage 1 or stage 2.
- The cheapest way to cool down is to run around a Tree holding a Whirly Fan.
| Cool Source | Temperature | Duration | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
 Endothermic Fire (level 1) Endothermic Fire Pit (level 1)
|
-10° | variable (affected by Rain) | |
| Endothermic Fire (level 2)Endothermic Fire Pit (level 2)
|
-20° | variable (affected by Rain) | |
| Endothermic Fire (level 3)Endothermic Fire Pit (level 3)
|
-30° | variable (affected by Rain) | |
| Endothermic Fire (level 4)Endothermic Fire Pit (level 4)
|
-40° | variable (affected by Rain) | |
 Polar Light 
|
-100° | 2 days | +25  /minute
|
 Thermal Stone (stage 1)
|
-10° | 8 uses
|
when Thermal Stone is 30° lower than environment |
 Thermal Stone (stage 2)
|
10° | 8 uses
|
when Thermal Stone is 10° lower than environment |
 Chilled Amulet
|
-20° | 6 minutes | +2 /minute
|
 Ice Cube
|
40° | 8 days | -10% speed, increase 1  /second (up to 50).
|
 Fashion Melon
|
55° | 3 days | -2 /minute, increase 0.5 /second (up to 33).
|
 Whirly Fan
|
55° | 90 seconds | only works while the player is running |
 Ice Bream 
|
-5° | 1 day (spoil) | works both on the ground and in the inventory. |
 Luxury Fan
|
-50° per use (up to 2.5°) | 15 uses | put out fires |
 Lucky Fan
|
-50° per use (up to 2.5°) | 3 uses | spawn tornado |
Delaying Overheating
There are several ways to delay overheating (look further below to Game Mechanics for a list):
- Retreating to the Caves will slow down the rate at which heat is gained.
- Players can stay under a Tree to delay overheating. Near the beginning and end of Summer, this will be enough to prevent overheating damage. However, during the middle of Summer, Trees alone won't provide enough protection to prevent overheating.
- Wearing gear with high Overheating resistance, such as Eyebrella.
Game Mechanics
Overheating mechanics are based on the temperature implementations in the game. A player character has a body temperature, which ranges from -20° to 90°. Any time body temperature rises above 70°, the character will take 1.25 damage per second.
Rate of Temperature Change
Ambient temperature is a key factor influencing a character's body temperature. Body temperature will attempt to match the ambient temperature at one of two rates: the ambient delta which is determined by all heat and cold sources, or the insulated rate which depends on insulation values of clothing worn by the character. The rate is in degrees per second, and the game will choose whichever value is larger.
Ambient Delta
The ambient delta is a rate that takes into account the total effect of all heat sources affecting the player, including the weather, campfires and Thermal Stones. It is also a function of the player's current temperature.
The rate determined by the ambient delta is given by:
ambient_delta = min(warming_cap, sum(net_temp_eff(source) for all sources))
where the warming cap is a value equal to 1 or 5, and the net temperature effect (net_temp_eff) is the effect of a heat/cold source on the player's body temperature. The ambient delta is either the warming cap or the sum of the net temperature effects (whichever value is smaller).
The warming cap is the maximum rate of temperature increase, and depends on the player's body temperature. The rate will be +5° per second while the player's body temperature is below the freezing point of 0°, and +1° per second once the player's body temperature is warmer than the freezing point.
The net temperature effect of a heat/cold source depends on the difference between the heat source temperature (values listed in the Heat Sources table below) and the player's body temperature:
net_temp_eff(source) = max(source_temperature - body_temperature, 0) + min(source_temperature, 0)
The following items, when equipped, provide varying levels of resistance to overheating. Some of these items, like the Eyebrella or Floral Shirt, can prevent overheating for the entire day on their own, if the player is fully cooled each night.
Insulated Rate
When the ambient delta is smaller than the insulated rate, the player's body temperature will increase by:
insulated_rate = 30 / (30 + total_insulation)
| Item | Insulation | Slot |
|---|---|---|
 Wes
|
-30 | Face |
 Woodie 
|
-45 | Face |
 Willow
|
30 | Face |
 Blooming Wormwood
|
60 | Face |
 Gardeneer Hat
|
60 | Head |
 Premier Gardeneer Hat
|
60 | Head |
 Straw Hat
|
60 | Head |
| Fashion Melon
|
120 | Head |
 Pretty Parasol
|
120 | Hand |
 Summer Frest
|
120 | Chest |
 Umbrella
|
120 | Hand |
 Eyebrella
|
240 | Head |
 Floral Shirt
|
240 | Chest |
| Ice Cube
|
240 | Head |
| Whirly Fan
|
60 | Hand |
 Werebeaver
|
Immune 240
|
Face |
 
|
Immune | Face |
 Blue Funcap
|
60 | Head |
 Green Funcap
|
60 | Head |
 Red Funcap
|
60 | Head |
 Pinetree Pioneer Hat
|
60 | Head |
 Tropical Parasol 
|
120 | Hand |
 Dumbrella
|
240 | Head |
 Magnificent Beard (affected by length, Wilson only)
|
0 / -15 / -45 / -135 | Face |
 Silky Smooth Beard (affected by length, Webber only)
|
0 / -11.25 / -33.75 / -67.5 | Face |
 Chirpy Scarf
|
120 | Chest |
 Chirpy Cloak
|
240 | Chest |
 Chirpy Capelet
|
240 | Chest |
Note: For the purpose of calculating a Thermal Stone's own temperature gain, a fixed insulation of 120 is used. This value is not added to the player's total insulation, nor does the player's insulation affect the Thermal Stone in any way. A Thermal Stone warms at the same rate on the ground as it does in the inventory.
In the Hamlet DLC / Don't Starve Together, the canopy in Deep Rainforest and Gas Rainforest biomes / Waterlogged biome will provide shelter, granting 180 overheating insulation.
Don't Starve Together
In Don't Starve Together, insulation mechanics differ from Don't Starve and its DLCs, affecting how Overheating and Freezing works.
From mid-Autumn to early Spring, the game prioritizes Winter insulation values and ignores Summer insulation values. This means that wearing an item meant to overcome Overheating (such as an Eyebrella) will have no effect on the player's temperature, while an item meant to overcome Freezing (such as a Beefalo Hat) will keep the player's temperature from lowering as intended.
Meanwhile, from mid-Spring to early Autumn, the game prioritizes Summer insulation values and ignores Winter insulation values. This means that wearing an item meant to overcome Overheating (such as an Eyebrella) will keep the player's temperature from raising as intended, while an item meant to overcome Freezing (such as a Beefalo Hat) will have no effect on the player's temperature.
Willow will take damage from overheating at half the rate (0.625 health per second).
Trivia
- Heat exhaustion is when the body collects more heat than it dissipates, symptoms include heavy breathing, sweating, and fast, weak pulses.
- Additionally, heat exhaustion can lead to the more severe heat stroke, which can lead to disorientation and lack of sweating, and, eventually, can result in organ failure, unconsciousness and death.
