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Sanity Meter
ā€œI get crazy when I don't sleep.ā€

ā€“Wilson

Sanity is the character's "mental health" in Don't Starve. The Sanity Meter Sanity icon, represented as a picture of a brain, is located near the character's Health Meter Health and Hunger Meter Hunger. Characters can gain and lose sanity in various ways. A small animated arrow appears over the Sanity Meter icon, indicating an increase or decrease in Sanity. The size of the arrow signifies the rate of gain or loss.

As sanity decreases, the player's vision becomes shaky, over-saturated, and bright, whispers are heard, and Shadow Creatures start to appear. These creatures become "physical" and aggressive and will attack the player when their sanity is below 15%. The sign that sanity is low enough for Shadow Creatures to attack is when the player's character covers their ears and closes their eyes while rocking back and forth, as if experiencing a bad headache.

Being alone in the wilderness will take its toll. Generally speaking, being in close proximity to Monsters, Darkness, Rain, eating bad or raw Food, or using various magic items decreases sanity; while wearing certain clothing, eating Jerky and Crock Pot food, being near friendly Pigs, and sleeping increases sanity. See the Sanity Tables below for a complete list.

Instant Sanity Table

Action Sanity
ā€¢ Resurrecting a Ghost Player (Don't Starve Together icon) +80
ā€¢ Sleeping in a Tent Siesta Lean-to

ā€¢ Eating Ice Cream Brainy Matter Lobster Dinner
ā€¢ Eating Gears as WX-78 Portrait

+50
ā€¢ Sleeping on a Straw Roll Fur Roll

ā€¢ Killing a Terrorbeak
ā€¢ Eating Banana Pop Surf 'n' Turf Caviar Iced Tea Spicy Vegetable Stinger Tea Salsa Fresca Creamy Potato PurĆ©e Moqueca

+33
ā€¢ Repairing a Relic Chair

ā€¢ Eating Melonsicle Seafood Gumbo

+20
ā€¢ Killing a Crawling Horror

ā€¢ Eating Taffy Pumpkin Cookies Jerky Cooked Green Cap Cooked Cactus Flesh Fresh Fruit Crepes Mussel Bouillabaise Sweet Potato Souffle Tropical Bouillabaisse Feijoada Steamed Ham Sandwich Cooked Lotus Root Royal Jelly Fancy Spiralled Tubers Puffed Potato SoufflĆ©
ā€¢ Prototyping a new item using Science Machine Alchemy Engine Prestihatitator Shadow Manipulator Piratihatitator Hogus Porkusator
ā€¢ Learning a recipe from Blueprint

+15
ā€¢ Eating  Small Jerky Cooked Blue Cap Electric Milk Lobster Bisque California Roll Snake Bone Soup Asparagazpacho Glow Berry Mousse Hot Dragon Chili SaladVolt Goat Chaud-Froid

ā€¢ Eating Monster Tartare(Shipwrecked icon) ā€¢ Shaving a Beard
ā€¢ Eating Banana Cooked Banana as Wilbur Portrait
ā€¢ Planting Seeds Grass Tuft Sapling Bamboo Patch Viney Bush Nettle Vine Coffee Plant Spiky Bush Pine Cone Birchnut Coconut Jungle Tree Seed Jungle Burr Seed Pod as Wormwood Portrait

+10
ā€¢ Eating Grilled Watermelon +7.5
ā€¢ Eating most Crock Pot Dishes except for those shown elsewhere in this table and Wet Goop Powdercake Guacamole Spicy Chili Jelly-O Pop

ā€¢ Eating Watermelon Cactus Flower Lotus Flower Fried Blooming Tuber Tribute Roast
ā€¢ Picking Flower Seashell Exotic Flower Flower rosewhen playing as any other character that isnā€™t Wormwood
ā€¢ Planting Pine Cone Birchnut Twiggy Tree Cone as Woodie Portrait (Don't Starve Together icon)

+5
ā€¢ Riding a wave on a Surfboard

ā€¢ Throwing Rawling
ā€¢ Eating Fish Heads on a Stick

+1
ā€¢ Using a Ice Staff Fire Staff -1
ā€¢ Sneezing -2.5
ā€¢ Eating Dark Petals Durian Extra Smelly Durian Monster Jerky Lichen Cactus Flesh Cooked Coffee Beans Coffee Cooked Bean Bugs Cooked Gummy Slug Gummy Cake Roast Onion Roast Garlic Stuffed Pepper Poppers

ā€¢ Picking Evil Flowers
ā€¢ Using Pile o' Balloons
ā€¢ Using Slotmachine
ā€¢ Picking Flower Seashell[Verification Needed] Exotic Flower as Wormwood Portrait
ā€¢ Digging up Tree stumps Grass Tuft Sapling Bamboo Patch Viney Bush Nettle Vine Coffee Plant as Wormwood Portrait
ā€¢ Eating Soul as Wortox Portrait

-5
ā€¢ Eating Spoiled Food

ā€¢ Eating Meat Morsel Drumstick Frog Legs Cooked Monster Meat Cooked Red CapBatilisk WingLeafy Meat Glow Berry Dragoon Heart Shark Fin Soup Limpets Seaweed Bean Bugs Gummy Slug Flytrap Stalk Lesser Glow Berry Potato Roasted Pepper Onion Garlic Fish Cordon Bleu
ā€¢ Digging up a Grave32
ā€¢ Digging through a Dung Pile using your bare hands
ā€¢ Crafting Brew of Phobic Abatement Brew of Phobic Abrogation Flask of Sanguine Mixture Canteen of Sanguine Mixture Dram of Psychic Fortitude Tumblerful of Psychic Fortitude Sulfuric Crystals of Lime Sulfuric Crystals of Saltpeter

-10
ā€¢Eating Monster Meat Blue Cap Deerclops Eyeball Rhino Horn Phlegm Shark Fin Mussel Eye of the Tiger Shark Pepper

ā€¢ Going through a Worm Hole Electric Isosceles
ā€¢ Using The Lazy Explorer
ā€¢ Entering map boundaries in Shipwrecked

-15
ā€¢ Eating Monster Lasagna

ā€¢ Eating Monster Tartare (Don't Starve Together icon)
ā€¢ Being attacked by Charlie
ā€¢ Using Star Caller's Staff Deconstruction Staff Moon Caller's Staff
ā€¢ Crafting Totally Normal Root
ā€¢ Picking up more than 20 Soul as Wortox Portrait

-20
ā€¢ Reading Applied Horticulture Sleepytime Stories The End is Nigh

ā€¢ Getting hit by lightning as WX-78 Portrait

-33
ā€¢ Eating Green Cap Glommer's Goop

ā€¢ Reading Birds of the World On Tentacles
ā€¢ Using Telelocator Staff The Lazy Deserter
ā€¢ Spawning Abigail build

-50
ā€¢ Using a Codex Umbra -55 Max Sanity
ā€¢ Resurrection via Life Giving Amulet Meat Effigy Touch Stone Set to 1/2
of maximum
ā€¢ Absorbing damage via Vortex Cloak Damage absorbed Ć· 3.4
ā€¢ Eating Grim Galette Set to Current health + 5

Temporal Sanity Table

Name Sanity (/min) Notes
ā€¢ Sanity aura of Music Box Hutch ā‰¤+40 Must be very close to benefit from aura.
ā€¢ Sanity aura of a Magic Flower +36 Decreases hunger (roughly 0.5 per second) in exchange for sanity.
ā€¢ Sanity aura of a Dwarf Star ā‰¤+25
ā€¢ Sanity aura of a friendly Pig Bunnyman Wildbore Bottlenose Ballphin, nearby or held Parrot Pirate, and Sand Castle

ā€¢ Sanity aura of a glowing Brainy Sprout

ā‰¤+25 Must be very close to benefit from aura.
ā€¢ Playing as Waxwell Portrait +20,
+6.75 in Don't Starve Together icon
ā€¢ Being near a fire as Willow Portrait (Don't Starve Together icon) ā‰¤+11

per fire

Amount depends on strength of fire.
ā€¢ Being near a fire as Willow Portrait ā‰¤+10 Amount depends on strength of fire.
ā€¢ Wearing Lucky Beast Head Lucky Beast Body Lucky Beast Tail and using /dance emote +6.67 Can increase up to +20/min if there are other players nearby (wearing a costume piece and dancing).
ā€¢ Wearing Tam o' Shanter
ā€¢ Wearing Shark Tooth Crown while on a Boat
+6.67
ā€¢ Sanity aura of Glommer +6.25 Must be very close to benefit from aura.
ā€¢ Being inside Slanty Shanty +6.25
ā€¢ Wearing Hibearnation Vest Royal Crown +4.44
ā€¢ Wearing Top Hat Cat Cap Floral Shirt Dapper Vest Thulecite Suit Scalemail Fashion Goggles Desert Goggles +3.33
ā€¢ Wearing Feather Hat Summer Frest Breezy Vest Puffy Vest Life Giving Amulet Chilled Amulet Magiluminescence Construction Amulet The Lazy Forager Belt of Hunger Pretty Parasol Tropical Parasol Limestone Suit Windbreaker Sleek Hat Pirate Hat Pith Hat or holding Rawling +2
ā€¢ Wearing Garland Winter Hat +1.33
ā€¢ Wearing Spiderhat One-man Band Fashion Melon -2 For One-Man Band this is the default insanity aura without followers.
ā€¢ Insanity aura of Night Light -3 Only when active. Except for Willow Portrait
ā€¢ Rain ā‰¤-3.3 Sanity loss depends on "precipitation rate".
ā€¢ Wetness Reign of Giants icon Shipwrecked icon Hamlet icon ā‰¤-3.3 Sanity loss is not linear, e.g. at 50 Wetness the sanity loss is -0.98 instead of -1.67
ā€¢ Wearing soaked items. -6
per item
ā€¢ Being on land as Woodlegs Portrait -4.8
ā€¢ Dusk, Night and Caves -5
ā€¢ Total darkness -50
ā€¢ Freezing as Willow Portrait Don't Starve Together icon -60
ā€¢ Wearing Nightmare Amulet -3.3
ā€¢ Being Poisoned -6
ā€¢ Insanity aura of Houndius Shootius Build

ā€¢ Wearing Night Armor

-6.25
ā€¢ Wearing Silver Necklace to forestall a Werepig transformation -6.6
ā€¢ Wearing Gas Mask -10
ā€¢ Wearing Bone Helm or holding Dark Sword -12.5
ā€¢ Insanity aura of Ancient Herald ā‰¤-6.6
ā€¢ Insanity aura of Scorpion ā‰¤-10
ā€¢ Insanity aura of Cave Spider Spitter ā‰¤-15
ā€¢ Insanity aura of Pugalisk ā‰¤-16.7
ā€¢ Insanity aura of Evil Flowers Spider Slurper Depths Worm Dangling Depth Dweller Snaptooth Seedling

ā€¢ Insanity aura of Spider Warrior (Reign of Giants icon)

ā‰¤-25
ā€¢ Insanity aura of Slotmachine ā‰¤-25 Increases by approximately -5/min per 20 coins collected
ā€¢ Wearing One-man Band and having Pig or Bunnyman

befriended

-2
(-25 per follower)
ā€¢ Insanity aura of Hound Red Hound Blue Hound Spider Warrior Beardling Beardlord Tentacle Baby Tentacle Ghost Build Nighthand Shadow Tentacle Crocodog Yellow Crocodog Blue Crocodog Sea Hound Spider Warrior (Venomous) Snake Poison Snake Crab (insanity) Pirate Ghost Viper Spider Monkey Snaptooth Flytrap Ancient Spirit Antlion Stalker minion1 Stalker minion2 Clay Hound ā‰¤-40
ā€¢ Insanity aura of Nightmare Light ā‰¤-40 Shadow Creatures spawned from Nightmare Lights are not present during the "warning" phase of the Nightmare Cycle.
ā€¢ Insanity aura of Treeguard Crawling Horror Terrorbeak Werepig Palm Treeguard Swimming Horror Shadow Knight Shadow Bishop Shadow Rook

ā€¢ Insanity aura of Klaus (enraged)
ā€¢ Insanity aura of Klaus2 (normal)

ā‰¤-100
ā€¢ Insanity aura of Deerclops Spider Queen Bearger Dragonfly Sealnado Reanimated Skeleton Caves Reanimated Skeleton Forest Reanimated Skeleton Atrium

ā€¢ Insanity aura of Klaus2 (enraged)

ā‰¤-400
ā€¢ Insanity aura of Pig Head Merm Head Wildbore Head during a Full Moon Reign of Giants icon Shipwrecked icon Hamlet icon

ā€¢ Insanity aura of Vampire Bat Queen Womant BFB Head
ā€¢ Being swarmed by Gnat Swarm

?

Character Specifics

Wilson fear

Wilson looking around from paranoia.

Sanity maximums:

150-300 Max Sanity - WX-78 Don't Starve Together icon (depending on upgrades)
100-300 Max Sanity - WX-78 (depending on upgrades)
250 Max Sanity - Wickerbottom
200 Max Sanity - Wilson, Wendy, WolfgangWoodie, Maxwell, Walani Shipwrecked icon, Warly Shipwrecked icon, Wormwood Hamlet icon, Wheeler Hamlet icon, Winona Don't Starve Together icon
150 Max Sanity - Wes, Wagstaff, Wilbur Shipwrecked icon, Wortox Don't Starve Together icon
120 Max Sanity - Willow, Wigfrid Reign of Giants icon, Woodlegs Shipwrecked icon
100 Max Sanity - Webber Reign of Giants icon, Wilba Hamlet icon

Characters with the potential to stay sane longer:

Wendy - 0.75x Sanity is lost while in darkness or near monsters.
Willow - Gains Sanity while near a fire.
Wolfgang - 1.1x Sanity is lost while in darkness or near monsters, but this is compensated by fights being shorter if fighting while 'Mighty'.
Woodie Don't Starve Together icon - Gains Sanity when planting Trees.
Maxwell - Sanity is restored at a rate of 12.5 points per minute.
Maxwell Don't Starve Together icon - Sanity is restored at a rate of 6.25 points per minute.
Wigfrid Reign of Giants icon - Gains Sanity after killing Mobs.
Walani Shipwrecked icon - Due to her drying off quicker, the combined Sanity loss from wetness would be reduced over time.
Warly Shipwrecked icon - Gains more Sanity from Crock Pot meals.
Wormwood Hamlet icon - Gains Sanity when planting most Plants.

Insanity Effects

Complete Insanity

The screen when at 0 sanity.

Sanity Meter ā‰¤ 80%

Sanity Meter ā‰¤ 65%

Sanity Meter ā‰¤ 60%

  • Eyes appear in the darkness.
  • The screen starts getting distorted.
  • Lighting is desaturated in the Surface World and Caves. Lighting brightens in the Ruins.

Sanity Meter ā‰¤ 50%

Sanity Meter ā‰¤ 45%

  • Whispering can be heard.

Sanity Meter ā‰¤ 40%

Sanity Meter ā‰¤ 15%

  • The screen is surrounded by red tendrils.
  • Crawling Horrors and Terrorbeaks will attack.
  • Player holds head with hands and rocks back and forth.
  • The "day to night" transition jingle becomes warped.

Sanity Meter ā‰¤ 10%

  • Lighting becomes dim..

Placeholder Trivia

  • Sanity was added in the Insanity! update.
  • Distortion can be turned off in the Options menu, removing the blurry effect on the edges of the screen that occurs from Sanity loss. This can also boost performance on slow systems.
  • When on Lunar Island in Don't Starve Together, Sanity becomes Enlightenment.

Blueprint Gallery

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