Story Line

This page contains major spoilers for the plots of Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together as well as the story details of puzzles. Read at your own risk.

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The Story Line of Don't Starve is not just contained within Adventure Mode. The developers have expanded the lore through supplemental material such as animated promotional videos or hidden puzzles. Some clues can also be gleaned from character quotes. The Story Line continues in Don't Starve Together, the sequel to Don't Starve.

In 2014, Klei developer Kevin Forbes posted a rough timeline for Don't Starve. This page will incorporate this, however as it has been many years since this post, its accuracy can be questioned. For instance, this post was written before the reveal of Shipwrecked.

See also: William Carter Puzzles, Forbidden Knowledge Trailer Puzzle, Cyclum Puzzles, and Metheus Puzzles

Pre-Game Events

• July 26, 1901: William Carter, a stage performer, departs from Liverpool, England aboard a ship named Quest to move to the United States.
  • In America, William Carter tries to make a living as a stage performer. However, he finds himself in debt. He receives a postcard from a relative named Jack, who lives on the West Coast.

• August 15, 1904: Someone, presumably William, buys a ticket for a train going from New York City, New York to San Fransisco, California.

• August 23, 1904: The Daily Speaker newspaper has a story about a passenger train striking an Abernethy & Parker Circus wagon at the Old Mill crossing. Dozens are injured and one man is missing and presumed dead. The description of the man makes him most likely William Carter. This is the third incident at this crossing since its construction in 1873.
  • After the train accident, William writes a postcard to Jack from North Fork, Nevada, in which he reveals he is alive and that he has found a book containing "terrifying new possibilities." He does not elaborate any more for fear of attracting "unwanted attention," assuring Jack he will tell him all about it when they meet. It is not certain that Jack ever got the postcard, nor that William ever met him. Note that in the image from which this information was gathered, the circus poster, newspaper, book page, and postcard appear to be sitting on the dry, cracked ground of a desert. The crash occurred in such a place, which was a reason for the difficulty in finding William after the crash.

• June 6, 1905: William Carter requisitions advertisements in The San Fransisco Call for a lady assistant. He appears to be working under a new name: "Maxwell The Great." He no longer wears glasses, and appears very confident. He is now living in San Francisco, California.
  • Maxwell appears to be holding rituals and summoning strange beings. He is writing notes about what he's seen.
  • Maxwell has acquired an assistant, Charlie, and has become a very popular act. He is using the Shadow Creatures from his book as part of his performance. In a letter to Maxwell, Charlie talks about working on a new finale when she comes back from her sister's place.

• April 17, 1906: The night before Maxwell and Charlie's last show, Charlie visits Maxwell's apartment. She finds his hidden room behind the fireplace. As she takes a look at his book, shadowy hands appear in the other room. They are vanquished by Maxwell who magically manifests from a photograph on the wall. He appears exhausted afterwards. Charlie uses his lantern to look at the walls of his secret room, where Maxwell has scribbled troubling words and strange symbols. Distressed by what she sees, she runs out of the apartment with his outfit. She leaves a letter revealing that he had been out of contact with her for days.
  • That night, Maxwell and Charlie perform their final act. Maxwell attempts to pull shadows from the book, but they try to pull him in. Multiple shadow hands emerge from the book, grabbing Maxwell and Charlie.
  • A Shadow Watcher stands in the ruined remains of Maxwell's apartment.
  • Maxwell takes the Nightmare Throne becoming the "king" of The Constant, bending it to his will and creating many creatures to inhabit it. Charlie becomes the Night Monster.

• 1906 - 1910ish: Unknown "crazy stuff" happens.

• 1910ish - 1921: Over this time period, Maxwell starts taking people from the real world into The Constant. They are forced to survive the nightmare world he created.

• March 24, 1911: A library in New York City burns down.

• 1919: The Voxola PR-76 radio is manufactured in Sidney, Ohio. The factory is destroyed in a fire days after production. Only a few radios remain, one being in the possession of Wilson. The founder of Voxola, Robert Wagstaff, went missing the same night as the fire. Someone presumed to be Wagstaff is sucked into a strange portal in his office. Factory worker Winona runs to investigate while the other workers escape. She is unable to save Wagstaff and the portal breaks down. Winona repairs and reactivates the portal, and sees her missing sister Charlie. She tries to pull Charlie through, but Charlie's Night Monster side takes over and pulls Winona into the portal as well.

• 1921: Wilson, depressed after failing a scientific experiment, receives a message from his Voxola that he may be able to succeed with "secret knowledge", if he thinks he's ready for it. Wilson accepts the offer, and is given the knowledge to build a strange contraption. He is ordered to pull the device's lever by the Voxola. Upon doing so, shadowy hands appear from below Wilson, pulling him into The Constant. The Voxola was Maxwell all along.

In-Game Events

Don't Starve and Reign of Giants

• Wilson spends an indeterminate amount of time in The Constant, dying multiple times.
• The events of Adventure Mode begins, as Wilson finds Maxwell's Door and survives his challenges.
• Wilson replaces Maxwell on the Nightmare Throne, and Maxwell becomes one of the survivors.

Don't Starve Together

• Charlie banishes Wilson back to The Constant and takes the throne for herself.
• Maxwell and Wilson meet, form a truce, and build the Jury-Rigged Portal, which joins the survivors' dimensions. Wendy, Wes, and Wolfgang arrive through it just as Charlie takes the portal over and turns it into the Florid Postern. All the other survivors (excluding the Shipwrecked and Hamlet crew) arrive through the Postern and join forces.
• Wilson, Wendy, Wickerbottom, and Webber fight the Ancient Fuelweaver. Eventually, the Fuelweaver is taken away by Charlie. The Ancient Gateway destabilizes.
• Winona arrives through a portal similar to the Ancient Gateway, attempting to rescue her sister. Her profile can be seen through the Ancient Gateway as Charlie picks a rose from the ground.
• Wickerbottom activates the Gateway with the Ancient Key. Wickerbottom, Wilson, Willow, Wigfrid, Wendy, and Wolfgang enter it. Charlie appears at the activated Gateway and draws a white energy out of the structure, though the exact nature of her interference remains unknown. The survivors arrive in a dimension known as The Forge. The inhabitants were banished here by "the Throne". Their leader, Battlemaster Pugna, calls the survivors "Gatekeepers" and accuses them of attempting to return his people to the Throne. The survivors battle a series of increasingly difficult enemies in Battlemaster Pugna's arena before defeating the Grand Forge Boarrior. Pugna surrenders and allows them to use the Molten Gateway.
• Directly after the events in the Forge, Wilson, Wickerbottom, and Wendy find themselves in a new dimension: the Elder Bog. For years the goat-like inhabitants of this dimension have been under the threat of The Gnaw, a giant wyrm in the sky that turns those who fail to satiate its appetite into Merms. Only a few beings remain alive, and the world has been left in ruins by the wyrm's rage. The survivors, with the help of Mumsy the goat woman, must cook to satiate The Gnaw and eventually earn enough favors to charge the Ancient Key and grant them an escape. Mumsy, who also considers them Gatekeepers, mentions that "another of [their] kind" passed through her dimension once. The survivors succeed, making their exit through the Mossy Gateway along with Mumsy and her son Billy.