Wilbur

Wilbur

“Oooh Oaoh.”

–Wilbur

Wilbur is one of the four playable Characters exclusive to the Shipwrecked DLC. It is one of the two of them that can't be unlocked via Experience. He is an intelligent monkey, albeit not talking human languages and is considered to be the king of monkeys.

Being a monkey, Wilbur gains Sanity when eating Bananas, will automatically produce Manure once every few days and can throw said Manure at his enemies. He also moves slower but starts running when continuously moving. As their king, Prime Apes are considered as permanently befriended to Wilbur and will not harass him. Wilbur has lower maximum Health and Sanity than normal, but higher Hunger, which drains faster when he's running. Wilbur's gameplay revolves around his hairy subjects, getting big benefits from their item flinging habits.

Unlocking

Main article: Tarnished Crown

Wickerbottom finding a crown-less Wilbur.

In worlds generated after the Wilbur vs. The Volcano update, and if not already unlocked, Wilbur may be found on a Raft in the Ocean (most often around the borders between the deep and shallow waters surrounding an island). In order to unlock Wilbur, one must return his Tarnished Crown to him. The crown has a 10% chance to drop upon the death of any Prime Ape or the destruction of any Prime Ape Hut, granted that it does not exist already in the current world or Wilbur hasn't been unlocked already.

Special Power

Wilbur's main advantage is his ability to run. This ability is triggered by walking without stopping for 3 seconds, at which point he will start to run and hold his equipped hand-held item with his tail. While running his base speed is increased to 8 (default value is 6), which is 33% faster than normal. This ability provides a significant advantage for getting out of situations that would otherwise overwhelm players, and allow him to explore faster on land.

Wilbur running on all fours.

Wilbur's second advantage is that the Prime Apes considering him as a friend. While they will not aid him in battle without making them followers with Bananas, they will also avoid their typical harassment, such as rushing to pick up harvested items. In addition, since they are friendly, they will continue their helpful actions, such as picking Grass Tufts and Saplings and tossing the harvested items to him. While same effects can be achieved for a limited time by other Characters by feeding a Banana to a Prime Ape, Wilbur can enjoy the benefits without having to find Bananas or periodically feeding Prime Apes, which is especially helpful early in the game. It should be noted that the friendly Prime Apes will still pick up or harvest any Food they can eat, including Vegetables and Fruits grown on Farms built by the player.

Wilbur's ability to produce Manure every 2-5 days is also a minor advantage, allowing access to Farms and easy fertilization without having to find Prime Apes, Water Beefalos or Wildbores, which may be hard to come by in some worlds. Wilbur can also equip a stack of Manure and use it as a ranged weapon. Each throw will remove a single Manure from the stack. Thrown Manure will travel through a parabolic path, unlike Prime Apes' more direct Manure throw, and will land on the target after a delay. When it hits the ground or water, it will deal 10 damage to all nearby Mobs. Thrown Manure is destroyed and cannot be recovered. Hitting a bird with Manure will stun it, allowing it to be captured alive.

Disadvantage

Most apparent disadvantage of Wilbur is his inability to speak. This makes it difficult to get announcements about incoming dangers, such as Volcano eruptions and Hound attacks, making it harder to prepare for them. Players will need to pay attention to other clues to get these warnings while using Wilbur.

While Wilbur can move faster than other characters while running, he is also slower while not running, with a speed penalty of -0.5 (5.5 total speed without additional modifiers, which is about 8.3% slower than normal). This puts him at a disadvantage when frequent stops are made while moving, since he needs 3 seconds of movement before starting to run. While running, his hunger will drain 33% faster than a normal character. However, he arrives at his destination 33% sooner than a normal character, covering the same ground for the same hunger.

Tips

• Despite it being made with a Banana, Wilbur will not gain extra sanity from Banana Pops.
• Even though Prime Apes are friendly towards Wilbur, the Prime Apes will steal and eat crops on Farms, as well as Berries from Berry Bushes. Players should keep this in mind before building a base near uncontrolled Prime Ape Huts.
• Splumonkeys do not recognize Wilbur as their king and will not be friendly to him.
• Wilbur's running will not trigger when sailing, and he'll move especially slower than normal when doing so since his walking speed penalty still applies. It is advised to equip speed boosting items such as a Sleek Hat when sailing.
  • There's no sailing in Vanilla or Reign of Giants worlds so Wilbur's running speed will come as a big bonus. There are no Prime Apes to be found in those worlds though.
• Despite low damage and delayed hit mechanic, throwing manure can be useful to aggro Mobs that typically run away from the player (e.g. Koalefant), to capture live Birds or to finish off immobilized Mobs.

Trivia

• Despite his inability to speak, Wilbur will actually say "'Nanas!" when examining a banana, this is the only instance however where he speaks in some form other than his usual monkey gibberish.
• Wilbur is voiced by a barrel organ (which is also referred to as a "monkey organ" after the popular street acts involving monkeys cranking the instrument).
• Wilbur was introduced in the Shipwrecked update Wilbur vs. The Volcano, making him the third Character to be implemented.
• Wilbur was added in the Chinese year of the monkey.
• Wilbur used to be on the Unimplemented/Speculated Characters page.
• When Wilbur is struck by Lightning it can be seen that his Crown has bones in it.

Gallery

Wilbur's silhouette. Wilbur portrait.png Wilbur's Portrait Wilbur in-game. Wilbur's icon in the Map. Wilbur frozen after the death of a Blue Hound. Wilbur asleep at the beginning of the game. Wilbur struck by Lightning. SW WilburVsVolcano smDPM.png Wilbur in the poster for the "Wilbur vs the Volcano" update.