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This article is incomplete because it lacks info specific to DST, as well as Hamlet additions. Also beards. Please help to improve the article, or discuss the issue with the community on the comment section. |

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.
Contents
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.
- 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, it puts out fires, so 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
- 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 |
---|---|---|---|
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-10° | variable (affected by Rain) | |
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-20° | variable (affected by Rain) | |
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-30° | variable (affected by Rain) | |
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-40° | variable (affected by Rain) | |
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-100° | 2 days | +25 ![]() |
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-10° | 8 uses ![]() |
when Thermal Stone is 30° lower than environment |
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10° | 8 uses ![]() |
when Thermal Stone is 10° lower than environment |
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-20° | 6 minutes | +2 ![]() |
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40° | 8 days | -10% speed, increase 1 ![]() |
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55° | 3 days | -2 ![]() increase 0.5 ![]() |
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55° | 90 seconds | only works while the player is running |
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-5° | 1 day (spoil) | works both on the ground and in the inventory. |
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-50° per use (up to 2.5°) | 15 uses | put out fires |
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-50° per use (up to 2.5°) | 3 uses | spawn tornado |
Delaying Overheating
There are several ways to delay overheating:
- 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.
- 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.
Item | Insulation | Slot |
---|---|---|
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30 | Face |
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60 | Face |
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60 | Head |
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120 | Head |
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120 | Hand |
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120 | Chest |
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120 | Hand |
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240 | Head |
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240 | Chest |
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240 | Head |
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60 | Hand |
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Immune 240 ![]() |
Face |
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Immune | Face |
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60 | Head |
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60 | Head |
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60 | Head |
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60 | Head |
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120 | Hand |
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240 | Head |
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.
Bugs
- In a vanilla slot, if it is compatible with SW or HAM, Overheating will sometimes be enabled and cannot be disabled when this occurs, even though Overheating is not included in the base game.