The Ruins Guide

Guide about everything regarding The Ruins in Don't Starve Together.

What are The Ruins?

Anyone who is any one has heard at least once about "The Ruins". Maybe you have no clue what that is, and that's why you're here. Well, if you're feeling suicidal, you've come to the right place.

To put it as short as possible: located deep underground, The Ruins are the most dangerous area in the entire game. They belong to, as the name suggests, the remains of an ancient civilization's architecture.

What civilization, exactly? There's not much to go off of, except for some murals both in-game and from a Don't Starve Together ARG, "Metheus Puzzles". In said Metheus Puzzles, we get these murals:











In-game, within the Atrium, which is the hardest part of the Ruins to access, we encounter "Ancient Murals". While they all look the same, different character examinations tell us some important information based on what the murals supposedly depict.



Mural 1
Wilson: "It depicts an old civilization. The people look hungry and scared."
Wickerbottom: "An ancient mural of non-mammalian civilization."
Maxwell: "A picture of the city, before the fuel."

Mural 2
Wickerbottom: "This mural panel is too eroded to decipher."
Wortox: "There's some magic residue on the stone. Not much else."

Mural 3
Wickerbottom: "A dark shadow, or perhaps a substance, overtakes the civilization."
WX-78: "THE PEOPLE ARE SUBMERGED IN BEAUTIFUL OIL"

Mural 4
Wickerbottom: "The citizens molt from their exoskeletons in this panel.
Wolfgang: "Monsters is bursting out of them!"

Mural 5
Wilson: "It shows a massive, technologically-advanced city."
WX-78: "IT SHOWS A CITY MADE OF SHINING METAL"

While it's still not understood exactly what happened, I think it is rather clear the evidence points to this "timeline":

1.
-A civilization of arthropod-like beings lives on the surface. They have two main leaders, one bearing a Cane and the other bearing a Torch. The Cane-bearer is named Metheus, while the Torch-bearer is named Cyclum. We know this because completing the Cyclum Puzzle rewards us with a Tragic Torch skin, while completing the Metheus Puzzle rewards an Ancient Cane skin.

2.
-Famine forces the civilization into the caves, as shown in both Metheus Mural 1 and Ancient Mural 1.

3
-They find, or construct, the Ancient Gateway, as shown in Metheus Mural 2.

4.
-Metheus somehow draws Nightmare Fuel from the Ancient Gateway, and uses it as a nearly limitless source of power, depicted in Metheus Mural 3. Because Ancient Mural 2 is said to bear magic residue, and Wickerbottom's quotes describe Nightmare Fuel as "ectoplasmic residue", it seems to suggest the mural is supposed to depict excessive use of Nightmare Fuel.

5.
-The Ancient Gateway appears to gain some sort of sentience as it has now grown an eye. So much Nightmare Fuel is radiating from it, the people start transforming into Shadow Creatures, shown in Metheus Mural 4 and Ancient Mural 4. At the same time, Cyclum fights against the Nightmare Fuel, preventing their own transformation.

6.
-According to Ancient Mural 5, they were once a prospering city. However, the Metheus Murals do not depict this.

7.
-The Ancient Gateway is somehow destroyed, but it is too late. Nightmare Fuel has killed the ancients, including Cyclum, by turning them into the very same Nightmare Creatures that haunt The Ruins. The sole survivor is Metheus, who introduced Nightmare Fuel to the ancients to begin with, and they now lie upon their throne in sorrow.

So, we now know why The Ruins became The Ruins. But what exactly happened to Cyclum and Metheus? I believe we find our answers in two NPCs:

Ancient Fuelweaver

This is a boss fight that is found in, guess what, the very same Atrium where the Ancient Gateway is located. This creature spouts lots of different semi-interesting quotes during combat, however three of them stick out like a sore thumb: "My city... In tatters..." and "I was wrong.", and "Metheus..."

Did you catch it? Yep, Metheus was the one who not only ruled the city along with Cyclum, but also in the final Metheus Mural realized their mistake all along. Because Metheus is name-dropped by the Fuelweaver, it practically confirms this theory true.

So, the Ancient Fuelweaver is Cyclum.

Ancient Herald

This is a boss fight found only in the single-player version of the game's Hamlet DLC. It appears during the "Aporkalypse", where Wickerbottom examines it: "A harbinger of some sort." Not only does it wear a robe just like the Metheus Murals depict, but it's also y'know, made up entirely of Nightmare Fuel.

In essence, the Ancient Herald is not only ancient, made of Nightmare Fuel, and acts as a Harbinger, but one of its attacks in-game is summoning 2-4 Nightmare Creatures. Yes, Nightmare Creatures, not Shadow. In case you didn't know, Nightmare Creatures are a unique version of Shadow Creature found ONLY IN THE RUINS, that can attack you even when you are sane. As explained earlier, the Nightmare Creatures are in fact the transformed version of the ancients.

So, the Ancient Herald is Metheus. But one question remains: What are they doing all the way in Hamlet, so far from The Ruins? I don't have a definitive answer, but my current idea is that as Metheus was the final survivor, at least for a time, they realized they would have to prevent the Constant from being entirely corrupted by Nightmare Fuel.

That lead Metheus to Hamlet, where what-do-ya-know, ancient ruins can be found depicting the Ancient Herald on top.



Inside these ruins is a passage to the fifth island of Hamlet, which contains the Aporkalypse Calendar. In case you didn't know, that calendar constantly ticks down unless the player stops it. If it is allowed to progress for 61 days, The Aporkalypse starts. During this event, the moon turns red in color and nighttime never ends, causing several effects that makes the game significantly more difficult. It is still uncertain whether the Aporkalypse is directly caused by Nightmare Fuel, and how Metheus even knows Hamlet exists, but this is simply the best answer I think we can gather up to this point.

And that's about it. Now you know the story of The Ruins, which is definitely the most lore-rich area of all Don't Starve. Now... Let's find out how to crack open its treasures for ourselves, shall we?

Locating The Ruins

To put it as simply as possible: First, enter a Guano or Mush forest biome in the caves. Second, find the muddy biome. Third, go as far in as possible, you'll find lichen after a while. Fourth, you will eventually stumble upon the Village biome. The Village always connects to the Military and Sacred biomes, so basically, you made it! If you have absolutely no idea what those biomes are, please, continue reading.

Biomes (Part 1)

First off is The Muddy.



This biome is the first sign of the ruins. It has many lightbulbs, many stalagmites, and a few lesser glow berries. It is connected to the Guano Biome, Mushforest Biome, and rarely any normal biome, such as a Bunnyman village for example. In the image above, it is connected to the Guano biome.

As you venture further into the muddy, you should soon encounter The Wilds.



This biome primarily contains cave lichen, a blue vegetable sprouting from the ground, and "Algae Pillars" - large structures reaching into the ceiling that cannot be destroyed. Slurpers, banana trees, and depths worms also appear here.

If it is Nightmare/Dawn phase, nightmare fissures will show up in the wilds as well. Nightmare creatures will emerge from them to attack you even if you're sane, so watch out.

Deep into the wilds, you will eventually encounter The Village.




This ain't no resident evil, but you still might want to prepare for a survival-horror experience. In the village, you'll encounter Splumonkeys; pests that steal items on the ground and from Hutch, who run away if approached. There is also plenty of Dangling Depth Dweller webs, so watch your step. And finally, there is always some Slurpers as well, so be careful and dodge those as well.

So yeah, make sure you never drop anything while here, or it will be swiftly taken from you. Also, if you need to stay put for a moment, make sure no slurpers are nearby: they can quickly take off your helmet if you don't react in time, which Splumonkeys will rush to steal.

Also, Depths Worms may occasionally appear in the village. You should not fight them: instead, they will attack the first Splumonkey they see after wandering a bit. This will divert the attention of all Splumonkeys in the area, who will rush to defend against the worm, thus making you quite a bit safer.

Anyway, once you're in the village, you will want to scout the area to find the ruins entrances. While not all villages generate connected to the ruins entrances, the ruins entrances always generate connected to a village.

In general, two-to-three villages generate in the caves, but only one will connect to the ruins. So, you may have to explore several villages before finally finding the ruins.

You might be wondering: "When do we actually get to the ruins?" And here, my fellow survivor, is where things get interesting.

Biomes (Part 2)

Here is a map I've made of the ruins. Pictured here are ruins biomes that will always generate. Note that all of them, except the Atrium, are connected to a Village - that is how you will get to them.



The first thing you should know is that the ruins primarily consists of three Main Branches. These are: The Military, The Sacred, and The Atrium. The Military and Sacred are your primary target when looting the ruins, as they contain they most riches. However, The Atrium is exclusively used for fighting the Ancient Fuelweaver.

The second thing you should know is that the ruins consist entirely of Set Pieces. These are rooms that always generate in a specific pattern, making them equally dangerous in all worlds, and also easy to learn your way around surviving them.
(Also: While the biomes all have official names, the set pieces do not, so feel free to call them whatever you'd like. Whatever I call them here is arbitrarily named.)

Clockwork Shop



This set piece appears in both The Military and The Sacred. Here, you'll always find 2 Damaged Rooks, 1 Damaged Bishop, 5 Broken Clockworks, and 9-12 Thulecite Walls. They are typically the most dangerous room, although providing many Gems, Gears, and Frazzled Wires as loot.

When you battle the clockworks here, make sure to find the bishop first. Stand behind it before attacking it. This will make the rooks charge towards you, and ramming into the bishop in the process. Once the bishop is dead, use the rooks to charge down all the broken clockworks, before finishing them off for good.

Ancient Altar



This set piece appears in both The Military and The Sacred. It contains a fully-upgraded Ancient Pseudoscience Station, although it is guarded by 2 Damaged Bishops and 4 Nightmare Lights. It is highly inadvisable to infiltrate this room during Nightmare Phase, as the nightmare creatures emerging from the Nightmare Lights can easily overwhelm you.

When combating the bishops in this room, first attack one with a torch to ignite it. This will cause it to panic, and thus avoid attacking you for several seconds as you kill the other bishop. This will save you lots of damage during the battle.

The Military

This biome consists of the militaristic ruins once belonging to the ancient ones who lived here. In general, it is the most dangerous ruins biome, while also yielding significant loot. Its entrance always features 1 Ancient Statue, depicting a mage holding a staff, and four pillars on the corners.

Once inside the Military, be wary as there are two ways it can generate:

Barracks Military



Takes the shape of one large room, with damaged clockworks, broken clockworks, ancient statues and nightmare lights, and Broken Ancient Pseudoscience Stations lying about. If you wish to avoid combat with the robots, it is entirely possible to simply walk past them.

Corridor Military



Takes the shape of two or three long corridors that branch into more rooms. Due to their linear shape, unlike in Barracks generations, you will be forced to confront any robots that defend this area as they stand in the only path forward.

The Sacred

This biome appears to be the living quarters of the ancient ones who lived here, complete with casual areas and religious monuments. The Sacred is the most treasure-rich biome of the ruins, but also contains its fair share of trouble to deal with.

Its entrance always features relics, ancient tables, chairs and vases, as well as five pillars both around the corners and one in the very center. If you are desperate for sanity, broken relics can be repaired using 4-6 rocks to restore +20 each.

Ancient Library



This room contains a Broken Ancient Pseudoscience Station, 2 Ancient Statues, 2 Nightmare Lights and 2 Broken Clockworks, all standing before two rows of relics. What were the ancients teaching here? Who knows, but this room is a handy source of some extra thulecite and gears, and also a pseudoscience station to repair if you could not find, or can't risk to enter an Ancient Altar.

House of Worship



Known more simply as the statue room, this area contains a whopping 8 Ancient Statues, 6 Broken Clockworks, and 24 Thulecite Walls, all defended by 2 Damaged Bishops. With a similar layout to the Parthenon of Ancient Greece, one would assume this room is where the ancients prayed for mercy as the nightmare fuel slowly killed them all off. Jinkies...

Anyway, thousands of years later, this room serves to be incredibly rich with Thulecite, so infiltrating them is always advised. Like with the Ancient Altar, make sure to ignite one of the bishops with your torch to make the combat a little easier. Also, before you mine the statues, I would highly suggest hammering down the Broken Clockworks first. If you get lucky enough to spawn a Rook, use him to smash down all the statues and walls.

The Labyrinth

The Labyrinth is where the Ancient Guardian lives, and thus it is very much recommended to infiltrate it in all ruins raids. It consists of a maze-like formation, full to brimming with Dangling Depth Dweller webbing, however you can avoid summoning the spiders from them by hugging the wall as you trek forward.

The labyrinth is filled with many dead ends, however each dead end contains an "Ornate Chest" unique to the Labyrinth. Like a pandora's box, they may do a good or bad thing when opened. As for exactly what, continue to "Ruins Structures".



This deadly maze always spawns attached to either The Military or The Sacred, instead of being connected to the village. Its entrance features a straight line of runic turf, surrounded by muddy flooring, as well as some light bulbs and lichen as pictured above. Simply follow the path to find the maze.

Once you have searched the maze long thoroughly enough, you'll discover the lair of the Ancient Guardian.

Ancient Guardian

10,000 Health
100 Damage
2 Attack Period
Speed: x2.8 Player Default

He takes the form of a massive minotaur, who very similarly to the minotaur of Greek mythology slain by Theseus, resides within the labyrinth. On the map, his lair will appear as this tiny little thing:



However, unlike the minotaur from the Greek story who eats children, the Ancient Guardian simply lives up to his name by defending the Ancient Key from anyone who wants to steal it. Well, he will eat children that try to fight him. But still.

Mechanically, the Ancient Guardian is the same as an ordinary clockwork rook - although as you can see by his stats, he is MUCH stronger. However, there is still quite a few ways to kill him, and all of them are viable even with early-game equipment, or equipment you picked up while exploring The Ruins on your way getting to him.

Cheese
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7gSoNYzKwU

Cheesing the AG can only be done by one person, as only one person can fit behind the pillar. So if you brought friends along, here's two other ways to speed the battle up!

Kiting - requires some skill and at least a 20% Movement Speed Boost
https://youtu.be/quSE5VY2jdc?t=57

Tanking
You can also simply tank the Ancient Guardian. I would only really recommend this if there is three or more people for the fight, as the AG's DPS is way too massive to tank alone without burning through tons of helmets and healing foods in the process.

As for what loot you receive for killing him: it's almost always worth it for what you pay in return, ESPECIALLY if you decided to cheese him.

Item	Chance	Quantity
Ancient Key	100%	1
Thulecite Crown	33%	1
Thulecite Armor	33%	1
The Lazy Explorer, or Star Caller's Staff, or Thulecite Club	25%	1
Ice Staff, or Fire Staff, or Telelocator Staff, or Pick/Axe	50%	1
Thulecite	75%	5-12
Thulecite Fragments	50%	12-36
Nightmare Fuel	75%	5-8
Red Gem, or Blue Gem, or Purple Gem	66%	3-5
Green Gem, or Yellow Gem, or Orange Gem	45%	1-3
Gears	33%	3-6

Ruins Inhabitants

Wow, the Ruins has dangerous enemies. What a surprise... anyways, here's how to fight them all, and such.

First up are the Damaged Clockworks. They will spawn in some Set Pieces, in random locations throughout The Military, and also have a chance to be summoned by destroying Broken Clockworks.

This is the

Damaged Rook.

Or as I like to call 'em, Special-Ed Rooks. No offense to the mentally handicapped, although all the offense to the rooks. Basically: Their AI is extremely stupid.

900 Health
40 Damage

Pretty much just reskinned Rooks, but their AI seems to get confused in the narrow spaces of the ruins. Ok, so, they charge at you, then they will stop charging mid-charge, just to charge in a completely different direction, before then actually charging at you.

Yeah, pretty confusing. So, your best bet for these is tanking them, since kiting them takes way too long. Or if you don't want to fight, you can very easily walk right past them.

This is the

Damaged Bishop.

900 Health
40 Damage

These fellows have a ranged attack, making walking past them (if you don't want to fight) rather difficult, though still possible. So yeah, honestly, just tank them. No point in even attempting to kite their ranged attack.

A good tip for fighting them is to light them up first by hitting them with a torch. While on fire, they will run around panicking instead of attacking you. However, their loot will burn if killed while on fire. To prevent this, assuming your weapon is a Ham Bat (which it should be), hit them 13 times after igniting them, then wait for the fire to burn out. Then, finish them off. If you are mighty Wolfgang, do 6 hits instead. Also, be careful as to not burn yourself on them when doing so.

And this is the

Damaged Knight.

900 Health
40 Damage

Also known as Knightmare, these are the most simple clockwork creatures. Get close to them, as they do their animation, hit 2-3 times, dodge, hit 3 times, dodge, if they do the animation of neighing again then do 2 hits, repeat. (It is possible to do 3 hits during their neigh, but it's difficult to pull off) If you want to play it safe, 2 hits is fine, and if you're lagging then try 1 hit and bait their attack.

Loot: All Clockworks drop 1 Gears, 60% chance of Nightmare Fuel, and 50% chance for Thulecite Fragments. Bishops will drop 1 Purple Gem instead of Gears.

-

Nightmarebeak, Crawling Nightmare

In The Ruins, Nightmare Fissures and Nightmare Lights will open up during Nightmare Phase and Warning Phase. They will spawn "Nightmare" versions of the typical shadow creatures, which have the same stats but attack you even when you're sane.

Either way, whenever a shadow creature appears, kill Them. If you are currently fighting something else when a shadow spawns, it is highly advisable to leave to a safe area and get rid of the shadow creature(s) attacking you before dealing with the enemy you were fighting before.

Loot: 1-2 Nightmare Fuel

-

Dangling Depth Dweller

400 Health
20 Damage

Mechanically the same as spider warriors, these bad boys will drop in on anyone, or anything who steps on their webbing in the village and labyrinth. In the labyrinth, you can avoid stepping on their webbing by hugging the wall as you move by.

While you should generally avoid them, because they drop spider glands, if someone with you in the ruins has died you can kill them to make Telltale Hearts for reviving your fallen comrade.

Loot: 50% Monster Meat, 25% Silk, 25% Spider Gland (100% for Spider Gland if Haunted)

-

Slurper

200 Health
30 Damage

Nothing worth your time. If your light bulbs are running out/spoiling, feel free to kill them as they drop 2 light bulbs. Otherwise, just run past them, they'll lose aggro quickly. If they successfully attack you, they will put themselves into your head slot, draining -100 Hunger per minute but emitting light.

They can be deadly in the village biome due to them knocking your helmet off if they reach you, to which a monkey will try to steal your helm. So yeah, it's absolutely advisable to simply avoid them.

Loot: 2 Light Bulbs, 50% chance for Slurper Pelt

-

Depths Worm

900 Health
75 Damage

Like most enemies here, not worth your time. They will start fights with monkeys which can buy you some time to run through a village during nightmare phase. When killed, they will drop a Glow Berry you can eat which makes you emit light, but this is pointless as your lantern will be all you need.

Loot: 4 Monster Meat, 1 Glow Berry

-

Splumonkey

125 Health
20 Damage

They will steal items from the ground, and from hutch. While that's bad as it is, they also have a chance to follow players they encounter, stealing loot as they traverse the ruins. They will have a 100% chance to follow players with a Banana in their inventory.

When approached, Splumonkeys run away from the player, so the only way to kill them without ranged weapons is to try to trap them against the wall. Oh yeah, and while they do not attack the player, they will throw their poop to deal -10 Sanity and stun you for half a second.

Not bad enough? Well, check this out-



During Nightmare and Dawn phases, they will become Shadow Splumonkeys. Not only do they now attack all entities, including YOU on sight, but they now use their bite attacks instead of throwing poop.

It is entirely because of this that you should understand the risks of entering the village during nightmare phase before doing so. Shadow splumonkeys are easily the most dangerous mob in the game, because they are not only impossible to kill in large groups but capable of stunlocking you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=najvW-m6MzM

Loot: 1 Cave Banana, 1-2 Morsels, 50% chance for Nightmare Fuel. 1-2 Beard hair if Shadow form.

-

Ruins Structures

Aside from local wildlife, you'll also find a handful of structures in The Ruins.

-

Ruins Pillar

A large, indestructible pillar. It spawns in the entrance to The Military and The Sacred, and around the Ancient Guardian.

While its only purpose is aesthetic, it can be used to your advantage in-game as Splumonkeys usually get stuck on it. This can be a great way to kill ones chasing you, as normally they run away when approached. Do be warned that you can also get stuck on it, should you get backed into a corner for whatever reason.

And the Ancient Guardian can get stuck on it too, as that's the primary strategy to cheese him.

-

Relics

Spawning naturally within The Sacred, in either their complete or broken forms. Broken relics can be repaired using 4-6 Rocks to regenerate an instant +20 Sanity. When a complete one is destroyed, it can drop a large array of things, however most of the time it's only rocks or a cut stone. So, I personally wouldn't waste my time destroying them.

Loot: Chairs drop 80% Rocks, 10% Cut Stone, 5% Frazzled Wires, 0.2% Gears, Green Gem, Yellow Gem, Orange Gem, Nightmare Fuel. Vases drop 10% a random Trinket, 0.9% for Silk, Sewing Kit, or Thulecite. Also a 0.45% chance for a Cave Spider, Spitter, or Splumonkey to be hiding underneath.

-

Thulecite Walls

They can be hammered down, or broken by a Rook. The tallest ones yield 2 Thulecite Fragments, while other tiers will yield 1, while broken ones yield 0.

It's a good idea to use Rooks to destroy them, especially since both Rooks and Thulecite Walls always spawn together in the Clockwork Shop Set Piece. However, actually hammering them is a bad idea, as you'll want to save your hammer's durability for smashing Broken Clockworks.

However, if you are Wanda, or there is a Wanda in the server, it can be worth it to sacrifice hammer durability for Thulecite Fragments as they are required to craft Time Pieces.

-

Broken Clockworks

1.

2.

3.


Coming in three different flavors, Broken Clockworks spawn in some Set Pieces within The Ruins. They also appear randomly throughout The Military. These are your main sources of Frazzled Wires and Melty Marbles (can be traded to Pig King in return for Gold), and first main source of Gems when looting The Ruins. They can be destroyed by either 4 hits from a hammer or a Rook charging into them.

Be warned: When destroyed, Broken Clockworks have a 10% Chance to summon a Damaged Knight, Rook, or Bishop as seen in the texture. 1. spawns either a Knight or Bishop, 2. spawns either a Knight or Rook, and 3. spawns either a Rook or Bishop.

Loot: 1-2 Frazzled Wires, 25% Chance for Gears, 25% Chance for Melty Marbles, 5% for a Red, Green, Purple, Yellow or Orange Gem, and 1% Chance for 1 Thulecite.

-

Ancient Statue

These are your main source of Thulecite and second main source of gems (alongside Broken Clockworks) in The Ruins. They can be broken with a pickaxe in 10 hits. During Nightmare Phase, they take on a grotesque appearance dripping Nightmare Fuel (although not actually dropping more). When destroyed during this phase, there is a 30% Chance for them to spawn a Crawling Horror or Nightmarebeak.

They also have a 50% chance to spawn with a random Gem (except Iridescent) that can be seen in their texture. They will drop the gem contained when destroyed. Like all structures, they can also be destroyed by a Rook.

Loot: 1 Thulecite, 1-2 Nightmare Fuel, 5% chance for an extra Thulecite

-

Ancient Pseudoscience Station, Broken

Allows access to Tier 1 Crafting of the Ancient Pseudoscience Tab. It can be repaired into its full form using 6 Thulecite. It also emits light when you stand near it, meaning you don't need to have your light source equipped while crafting on it.

It can also be hammered down for 2 Thulecite, Nightmare Fuel and Rocks... However I wouldn't personally recommend doing this, as breaking one has a very high chance to cause something strange to happen.

Possible mayhem that may spawn from hammering a station includes: spawning 1-4 Nightmare Creatures, 2-4 Splumonkeys, 5 Batilisks, 2 Cave/Spitter Spiders, up to 4 Trinkets or Gears, and very very rarely, 1 type of Gem or Staff.

-

Ancient Pseudoscience Station

Allows access to Tier 2 Crafting of the Ancient Pseudoscience Tab. Like its broken variation, it can be hammered, although I wouldn't recommend it.

-

Ornate Chest

Found within dead-ends of the Labyrinth, these chests, much like a pandora's box, bring good loot when opened, but also have a 66% chance to inflict a curse. Generally, I'd say they are worth opening.

Loot:

Item	Chance	Durability	Quantity
Football Helmet or Log Suit	20%	33%-80%	1
Spear	20%	33%-80%	1
Nightmare Fuel	20%	N/A	1-3
Thulecite Fragments	20%	N/A	2-4
Red Gem, Blue Gem, or Purple Gem	15%	N/A	1-2
Thulecite	10%	N/A	1-3
Green Gem, or Yellow Gem, or Orange Gem	7%	N/A	1
Fire Staff, Ice Staff, or Pick/Axe	5%	30%-50%	1
Bat-Bat	5%	30%-50%	1

Curses:
Unfortunately, I have run out of space for this section, so here's a screenshot from the wiki instead. Sorry!



-

Ancient Chest

Found within the Ancient Altar Set Piece, this chest holds only 6 slots and spits out items placed inside. It has only two purposes: it's used in completing the Metheus Puzzle, and it can also be given certain items to receive blueprints that allow you to construct the replicas of the Relics found in The Sacred.

Sadly, I still have no space left for this section, so here's once again a screenshot from Don't Starve wiki to substitute:



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Ancient Pseudoscience Tab

Items crafted at an Ancient Pseudoscience Station. Tier 2 items require a fully repaired Ancient Pseudoscience Station to craft.

Thulecite

Tier: 1
6 Thulecite Fragments
Thulecite is the building material for nearly all ruins gear. Having said that, you should absolutely craft all your fragments into Thulecite, as they have no other use. However, if your server has a Wanda, it's usually a better idea to save your fragments for them as they are required to build time pieces.

Thulecite Walls

Tier: 1
1 Thulecite, Crafts x6
Honestly, it's better to just save your precious thulecite, and craft stone walls instead of these.

Thulecite Medallion

Tier: 1
2 Thulecite, 2 Nightmare Fuel
The medallion will tell you what the current phase of the nightmare cycle is. However, that's pretty pointless as you can tell by how open Nightmare Fissures and Nightmare Lights are, so yeah. However, the medallion does have the ability of revealing where the Ancient Key is, which will lead to the Ancient Guardian if he's not already been killed. So if you're having trouble finding him, a medallion could help.

The Lazy Forager

Tier: 2
2 Thulecite, 3 Nightmare Fuel, 1 Orange Gem
Picks up items automatically in a 1 Tile radius around you, with 225 total uses. I would sooner shove that very same orange gem required to craft this useless thing up my *sshole then ever make one. If this thing WAS refuelable, it would be awesome! But it's not. So it's terrible. And you should never make it. Thank you.

Magiluminescence

Tier: 1
2 Thulecite, 3 Nightmare Fuel, 1 Yellow Gem
Increases speed by 20% and emits a small amount of light when worn. Lasts for 8 minutes, but can be refueled with a nightmare fuel for 37.5% of its durability back.
In my personal opinion? It's a great item, and I think if you don't grab at least one of these from a ruins rush, you're doing it wrong. Not only does it make kiting smooth as the quantum stabilized atom mirror, but it also allows you to wear a walking cane in the darkness. While a miner hat does that too, a miner hat doesn't grant a speed boost, so yeah. Use a magi, makes travelling the world extremely fast.

Construction Amulet

Tier: 1
2 Thulecite, 3 Nightmare Fuel, 1 Green Gem
Cuts the recipes of crafted items down by half, has 5 uses. In short, basically the best thing God ever blessed us with. If you wanna know, we'll get more into this in the Green Gem Conspiracy.
By the way, the game rounds 0.5 to 1. Basically, if an item requires 7 x to craft, then with the construction amulet on, x now equals 4, instead of 3 like we'd hoped. So sad. It's still good, though.

The Lazy Explorer

Tier: 2
2 Nightmare Fuel, 1 Walking Cane, 2 Orange Gems
Like a walking cane, but it can teleport you anywhere on your screen for -15 Sanity and 5% of its durability. It has 20 total uses.
The best use of this thing is during the Fuelweaver fight, as it allows you to teleport outside of the bone cage. Otherwise, if you got lucky enough for it to drop from the ancient guardian, congrats! It's a walking cane that teleports. No fuss.

Star Caller's Staff

Tier: 1
4 Nightmare Fuel, 2 Living Logs, 2 Yellow Gems
With 20 uses, and -20 Sanity to cast, it summons a Dwarf Star. Personally, I'd always make one of these. Makes Winter a real breeze.

Dwarf Star

+25 Sanity/min. Lasts 3.5 days. Can be used to cook food. Also emits as much heat as a fully-fueled campfire.

Deconstruction Staff

Tier: 1
4 Nightmare Fuel, 2 Living Logs, 2 Green Gem
5 uses, -20 Sanity per use. Breaks any craftable item or structure back into its original parts, by simply right-clicking it. Again, see the Green Gem Conspiracy for this.

Pick/Axe

Tier: 2
1 Luxury Axe, 1 Opulent Pickaxe, 2 Thulecite
No. No, I'm not even gonna tell you what it does. Just don't make it. Worst craftable item, EASILY. Thank me later.

Thulecite Crown

Tier: 2
4 Thulecite, 4 Nightmare Fuel
Yeeeaaahhh it's the best armor in the game, 100%. Make them. 90% Damage res, chance to summon a 100% Damage res force field when hit. 840 Health.

Thulecite Club

Tier: 2
3 Living Logs, 4 Nightmare Fuel, 4 Thulecite
It has 200 uses, deals 59.5 Damage, increases movement speed by 10%, and a 20% chance to summon a Shadow Tentacle with each hit, that deals 6 Less damage than a normal tentacle but it targets your enemies. If you have the living logs, sure. It's a great weapon, but pricy.

Thulecite Armor

Tier: 2
6 Thulecite, 4 Nightmare Fuel
With 1,260 HP and 90% Damage res, strongest armor in the game. But, it's also pricy, and you can't wear a magiluminescence with it. So, I'd personally say stick to crowns, unless whatever combat you plan on doing REALLY requires you to wear something important in your head slot, that makes using crowns a no-no.

Houndius Shootius

Tier: 2
1 Ancient Guardian Horn, 1 Deerclops Eyeball, 5 Thulecite
It can be used to make extremely late-game automatic mob farms, but you'll have to look those up yourself. It's just a more accurate Winona catapult, really, at 1,000 Health + 65 Damage + 12 HP regen/sec. Also, it cannot be hammered or deconstructed, so watch where you place it.

Premier Gardeneer Hat

Tier: 1
1 Gardeneer Hat, 4 Thulecite Fragments, 1 Purple Gem
Allows access to your plant registry by right-clicking it when worn. It also shows you the quantity of nutrients in the soil, and allows you to assess whether a plant is stressed or not, and if so what's causing the stress. Normally during a ruins rush, it's better to avoid making this thing as the default gardeneer hat required to make it will just slow your run down way too much. Besides, a player who knows what they are doing when farming should already be able to tell why a plant would be stressed.

The Green Gem Conspiracy

How exactly is this gem so much better than the other ones? Well, you know, other than splitting all crafting recipes in half. Well, heh, I've mentioned earlier that this goes in tandem with the Thulecite Suit and Deconstruction Staff/Amulet. Just follow these steps.

Step 1: Acquire 3 Green Gems
Step 2: Make Construction Amulet and use it to make Deconstruction Staff
Step 3: Use amulet to make as many thulecite suits as possible
Step 4: Deconstruct all the thulecite suits
Step 5: Collect all of their loot

And congrats. Follow those steps; you now have nearly DOUBLE the thulecite you had before.

If you were not lucky enough to acquire 3 Green Gems, or Living Logs to make the staff, you will unfortunately have to skip making the staff, and just the make the amulet and then make whatever you wanted to with all the thulecite.

Reanimated Skeleton

In the Muddy biome, you will encounter "tall" Stalagmites, and in the Underground Rocky biome you will encounter both "full" Stalagmites and Spilagmites. So, what do they do?



A full Stalagmite, as pictured above, drops 3 Rocks, 1-2 Flint, 1-2 Gold, and very small odds to get a Blue or Red Gem. However, they also have a 10% chance to drop Fossil Pieces.



A tall stalagmite, as pictured above, drops 2 Rocks, 1-2 Flint, 1-2 Gold, and very small odds to get a Red Gem or a Log. However, they also have a 10% chance, once again, to drop Fossil Pieces.



A Spilagmite, as pictured above, drops 2 Rocks, 1-2 Silk, sometimes 1 Spider Gland, and 1-2 Fossil Pieces. Be warned, a Spilagmite is a spider nest, and they will always contain at least 1 Cave Spider and 1 Spider Spitter.

So, what are Fossil Pieces, exactly? Simple: you can place them down, and then begin repairing them. With 8 total Fossil Pieces, you can create an "Odd Skeleton". There is three different variations, however the one pictured below is the "Correct" Odd Skeleton.



No one knows exactly what the skeleton once belonged to, however one thing is certain: Correct Odd Skeletons can be revived under the proper conditions, once given a Shadow Atrium, which is dropped by the Shadow Pieces. What the hell is a Shadow Atrium? It is a drop received by defeating the Shadow Pieces. As those aren't ruins related creatures I won't cover them here, but feel free to look them up if you so wish.

Oh yeah, and Reanimated Skeletons will follow anyone carrying a Shadow Thurible, or will stay put near one on the ground. The hell is a Shadow Thurible? See Ancient Fuelweaver, Part 2.

Anyway, the first reanimated skeleton is called a

Forest Stalker

Health: 4,000
Insanity Aura: -400 per minute
Breaks Structures it walks over

It is summoned by giving a Correct Odd Skeleton a Shadow Atrium on the surface, during night. It constantly summons Ferns, Light Bulbs, and Lesser Glow Berries around itself, and it will fall apart back into its individual components when day comes.

First of all, yes obviously you can simply just use it to farm Foliage, Light Bulbs, and Lesser Glow Berries by holding Space around it to pick the plants. Do be warned though, unless you are carrying a Shadow Thurible it will wander off, making collection harder. Also, I would recommend wearing a Bee Queen Crown when doing so to negate its insanity aura.

The Forest Stalker can also farm logs and moon rocks, at very fast rates too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkJyJaW7Gns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q9AY79z8EI

Next up is the

Cave Stalker

4,000 Health
100 Damage
4 Attack Period
Each 3rd attack traps its targets in Bone Cages
Breaks Structures it walks over

It is summoned by giving a Correct Odd Skeleton a Shadow Atrium anywhere in the caves, except in the Atrium itself (which does nothing if attempted). The Cave Stalker is naturally aggressive to all entities near it, including other Cave Stalkers. However, you can prevent it from attacking you or other players by holding a Shadow Thurible. When it dies, it will drop everything used to make it, with a bonus of 2-4 Nightmare Fuel.

Its only real good use is to help clear the Ruins after they reset, since it is both capable of destroying Broken Clockworks, Ancient Statues and Thulecite Walls by walking over them, and can also easily combat all mobs found in the Ruins.



However, it does have a secondary use: Farming Nightmare Fuel. Because Cave Stalkers naturally fight each other, and they drop extra Nightmare Fuel, you can let them battle to the death to produce Nightmare Fuel. Personally, I would avoid doing this as there are much faster ways to obtain Nightmare Fuel, just one example being my personal favorite: Splumonkey Farm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KssON6LBOgU

Anyway, the final Reanimated Skeleton is the Ancient Fuelweaver. But just before you can summon the Ancient Fuelweaver, you'll first need to know how to get to its home: The Atrium.

Atrium, Heart of The Ruins

The Atrium, as shown on the map above, is the third biome of the ruins, and the hardest one to get to. Its name refers to both the atrium in architecture, which is a skylight that shines into a building's interior just as how light shines onto the Ancient Gateway, and in anatomy—the atrium is a part of the heart that receives blood from the veins, just as The Ruins received Nightmare Fuel from the Ancient Gateway. The update that added the Atrium is even called "Heart of the Ruins"! Good job, Klei! You've certainly done your homework.

Anyway, to get the Atrium, you must defeat a Big Tentacle and jump inside it. In case you didn't know, big tentacles are the underground version of wormholes. On average, eight generate per world, however only one of them leads to the Atrium.

Killing a big tentacle is easy: first hit it two times, then back up as it will spawn many baby tentacles. Kill the baby tentacles (it only takes 1 shot even from an axe!) until you can safely attack the big tentacle again, and simply repeat.



Once you're on the other side, what you'll encounter is essentially a breed between The Ruins Sacred, Military, and Labyrinth: all in one.



It's heavily defended by Damaged Clockworks and Dangling Depth Dwellers, although you should be very well able to handle it if you could handle the Military and Sacred. However, make sure you bring a Nightmare Amulet with you to the Atrium. There are two unique structures that spawn here:



The Ancient Fence stays up and prevents mobs from passing through them, however they lower right back down to let players through. During Nightmare Phase, they begin glowing, and will no longer lower for you.



And then there's Obelisks, just like the pig king surrounds himself with. There are both "sanity" and "insanity" obelisks. They will either lower only when you are sane, or when you are insane. This is why you need a Nightmare Amulet, to bypass them.

Once you reach the end of the Atrium, you'll find this:

The Ancient Gateway.

It doesn't look like much, but once you insert the Ancient Key into it...



An "Activated" Ancient Gateway will lock the Atrium into Nightmare Phase, permanently, until the Ancient Key is removed.. Please be aware that the Atrium has a separate nightmare cycle from the main Ruins, so no, plugging the key in won't force Nightmare Phase everywhere.

Because the Gateway's opening is protected by Ancient Fence, which no longer lower during Nightmare Phase, you cannot leave the room without teleporting. So, what exactly does the Active Ancient Gateway do?

Only one thing... When a Correct Odd Skeleton is built within the room, and is given the Shadow Atrium, it will become...

The Ancient Fuelweaver

The Ancient Fuelweaver is a major boss fight in Don't Starve Together. It can be viewed sort of like a reverse Terraria's Wall of Flesh, because the loot it drops will make the game much easier thereafter, although the battle itself is without a doubt one of the hardest that the game has to offer.

To spawn him, you have to give a Correct Odd Skeleton a Shadow Atrium while the Ancient Key is inserted into the Ancient Gateway. Yeah, that's quite a few steps. No one said this boss was easy! Anyway...

Spawning the fuelweaver also costs an instant -40 Sanity penalty, as with other Reanimated Skeletons.



Health: 16,000
Damage: 100
Attack Period: 3
Movement Speed: 70% of a normal character's
Insanity Aura: -400/min

Abilities:

Fossil Spikes: Summons his fallen skeleton brothers' remains, and launches them into the floor, dealing the same damage at a range. If you are within the Fuelweaver's melee range when he hits the ground when doing this attack, it deals 100 damage.
It's just a really easy to dodge ranged attack.


Mind Control: Instead of making us jump off the edge into the abyss to our sudden death, he prefers flooding our frontal lobe with horrifying images, I guess. Can only be used if the player is insane.
Stuns the player for 5 seconds.


Unseen Hands: Provides a shield for the Ancient Fuelweaver, that gives him 100% Damage Resistance. ALL of them must be destroyed for him to take damage. Can ONLY be attacked by insane players.


Woven Shadows: As his name implies, he begins to Weave shadows in Stage 2. He will get down, completely unable to do any attacks or whatever, and eat these things if they reach him for 400 hp back. Of course, this is countered by them all only having 1 health, and 1 tornado from a Weather Pain usually kills them all. Of course, being the huge nuisance that he is, he will almost 100% of the time trap you in a bone cage before summoning these, so if you don't have a Lazy Explorer or Weather Pain, you'll probably end up losing the fight.

Bone Cage: It's a player size cage... it traps you. Oh, and if you are within the Fuelweaver's melee range when he traps you in this, it deals 100 damage.
Makes the player immobile for about 10 seconds, however they can teleport outside of it using The Lazy Explorer, or Wanda can escape it using Backstep Watch.

How to fight this thing?

It's simple (no it's not): To kite the Fuelweaver, just get close and run away (bait), hit 3 times, 2 for safe, if you're lagging you're f*cked, dodge, repeat. When he calls down the bone cage, just get out of it instead of attacking 2-3 times, repeat the kiting process.

After losing 6 Thousand health, he will reach Phase 2. Get ready to tire the heck out of your arm, by the way.

To kill the woven shadows, hit them with something that cannot break (to save weapon durability), but not your fists (as fists attack slower). A good thing for this is The Lazy Explorer. If you are going to do this strat, make sure you are ready to telepoof outside of the bone cage that he will 100% spawn. Or, if you have a Weather Pain, just hit "Use Gadget" on the Fuelweaver or where most of the woven shadows are and bam, mission saved.

To break the Unseen Hands, just use your Lazy Explorer or Weather Pain once again. If you aren't already insane, you can use a Nightmare Amulet to go under insanity effects, but make sure you quickly take it off because shadows will spawn much more frequently with the Nightmare Amulet insanity, and because Fuelweaver will use mind control when you're insane.

To combat the very high sanity drain, there's a few options:The first is to wear a Bee Queen Crown as it turns the aura into +200 sanity per minute.[/b] Just make sure you equip a different helm, preferably Football/Battle right before he attacks so you don't take 30% of the damage and use up some of the crown's durability.

The second option is summoning tons of dwarf stars around the arena, as each one restores +20 per minute. My personal least favorite honestly, as Star Caller's Staves are hard to come by.

And finally, sanity food. Cooked Cactus Flesh is the cooked cactus best, as usually each person only needs 20. They restore +15 Sanity when eaten. There is also Taffy, which could be better if you don't yet have bundling wrap as it lasts much longer. And finally, Cooked Green Caps. My least favorite but whatever.

Also: If you can, bring a Winona with you to this fight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f7dwPjp-7U

Catapults' AOE removes the need of a Weather Pain, and will keep the Fuelweaver stunlocked kinda during its Unseen Hand shielding phase. Just make sure you avoid standing near the catapults themselves, as Fuelweaver's bone cage attack can break them.

Ancient Fuelweaver (Part 2)

Yeah, sections have a character limit. Part 2 will discuss the loot of the Ancient Fuelweaver.

Shadow Thurible


Holding the Thurible in your hand makes Reanimated Skeletons follow you. With the Cave Stalker, it will now also no longer attack players, and will attack whatever you attack. It's easily the best item obtained from the Fuelweaver, for its uses see the Reanimated Skeleton section.

Just know that the Thurible no longer has any effect when it runs out of fuel. It also burns through fuel when placed on the ground, which makes Reanimated Skeletons stay put near it, however the Cave Stalker will still attack players who approach.

Lasts for 540 seconds, 1 Nightmare Fuel restores 180 seconds back.

Bone Helm


70% Protection, 945 Durability. Induces the insanity effects- except all Shadow Creatures will run up to the wearer, scream, and walk away. Oh but if you take it off, they will instantly aggro you and become the "hallucination" version. The helmet also makes you lose 20 sanity per minute, so you'll be insane if you take it off and everything still attacks you, unlike the Nightmare Amulet where you'll be perfectly fine. And as usual, hitting one shadow even while wearing this makes all others aggro you. To make matters worse, for some reason auto-attack will target shadows when wearing this, so you're very likely to hit one by complete accident.

In conclusion- It's mostly just garbage you can wear on your head. Sure, it makes being insane no problem-o, but you could also just wear a Tam o' Shanter for the same effect except you aren't at risk of accidentally attacking a shadow and getting yourself killed. However, the Bone Helm does still have two good uses:

1. As stated in the Reanimated Skeleton section, it helps a ton when clearing the Ruins using the Cave Stalker as he won't target the Nightmare Creatures that spawn during Nightmare Phase.

2. Nightmare Fuel Farm!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlO-oJIoCC8

Bone Armor


Every 5 seconds, gives you 100% protection against any form of physical damage (except for fire). After absorbing 16 hits, it will not break, but no longer work. 1 Nightmare Fuel adds 5 Hits back.

Basically, if you're good at kiting, you will literally become Invincible.Well, only if it's a single enemy though.

With 2 sets of this armor, you can become 100% invincible against single enemies. How does it work? Yet again, simple.

After taking a hit, swap to the other Bone Armor ASAP. Repeat.

Yep. Just that simple. Make sure you keep both sets fueled up, if it's a long fight, such as Dragonfly for example.

So yeah, Bone Armor's pretty damn useful! Especially if you won't kite, because you're a lazy motherfu-

Rose


For whatever reason, the Fuelweaver plants a rose exactly where it dies. Might as well pick it, I dunno.

Ancient Fuelweaver (Part 3)

3 Parts? Wow, this guy is like, so complex. So, we're discussing the cheese strategies now. A lot of the community doesn't like cheese for some reason, but then continue to use Dragonfly walls anyway, so... Click here if you'd like. VVV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKSVxuDi_0c

The first strategy we have here is to use 5 or more Lureplants and at least 1 Houndius Shootius. This strategy is pretty doo-doo, though. Houndius Shootius' have a super low DPS, so it's a pretty long and boring "fight"... I'd recommend you have some fun instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSNSEM3f8aA

They way better strategy...

It costs only 1 Lureplant, like 1 Pierogi, a Thulecite Crown and 3 dark swords I guess also a Lazy Explorer / being Wortox.

Pretty straight forward, honestly. While the loot can and easily could fall into the abyss, you can simply open Sever Commands in the Pause Menu and initiate a Rollback to try the battle again. Wearing a Lazy Forager could also help catch the loot before it drops into the abyss.

Tl;dr- thank you James, very cool!

that's it

Well, In Conclusion...

The Ruins has some pretty fricking cool stuff.

Credits

Pretty much all of the gifs used
https://forums.kleientertainment.com/topic/76686-game-update-beta-211169/?page=11

Ruins Items pngs
http://share-mystyle.blogspot.com/search?q=Ruins

In-game Screenshots
Me

[ϕ]

o no... it got entirely censored

[aaaaa]

thank you very much for this. it's very well researched, analyzed, and written. infinitely grateful.

[bigzthegreat]

can you add a how to prepare for the ruins section

[bigzthegreat]

MAJOR TIP: 2 military branches can form where 1 has ancient guardian

[bigzthegreat]

if it has a crap ton of chairs and the 6 statues 2 bishops set piece, it's the sacred.

if it has a much wider area and starts with a statue, its the military.

It's better to go to the sacred cause it has way more statues and it has less clockworks, and if you have moggles it's even easier.

[terrorarian]

I tried this and yeah it works, as long as you're not Lakurion and don't act like a piece of **** then you'll be fine

[bigzthegreat]

wear football helm. it's fine if you go into the ruins during nightmare phase as long as you are patient and can run.

[The shiny snivy]

Lakurion? Aren't you that guy that told someon to kill them self, because they disagreed with your Wortox video and then you saId how you were being toxic to get more comments and then get reccomended more. Good thing you can't make money off of your videos and are probably a corporate drone.

[Speno]

Wow Lakurion you're a dick.

[Vro Pluschi]

idk probably by wearing a football helmet and not going into the village at nightmare phase