Woodie Guide: Everything you need to know to be a Lumberjack

Woodie, believe or not, is a really great character. Alot of people will say other wise but alot people don't know how to use Woodie effectively. He has many perks to help you and others survive. And if you play his perks right, you can conquer the world, and I'll be showing you how to effectively use each perk he has and some tips about those perks to help you survive. But not only that, I'll be showing how our favorite lumberjack can go againsts our favorite magician. Maxwell, the "better" character then him.

Who is Woodie?

Woodie is a Lumberjack, his role in the game is a harvester, he gets supplies for his fellow survivors, so you and your team can build and survive, Woodie has many perks along with him. He cuts trees faster, gets sanity every pinecone, befriending creatures longer but his 2 main perks is his lovely axe Lucy and his curse, being that he turns into a Werebeaver, I'll show you how to use each perk effectively and with some tips how to dominate as Woodie

Woodie has 150 Hunger, 150 Health and 200 Sanity. He is pretty average for every stat, which isn't a bad thing.

Lucy the Axe

Lucy, who doesnt love Lucy? Lucy is your specialty axe that chops wood Alot quicker then any other axe. She has infinite durablility and can only be held by the player and not anyone else, she will talk to Woodie warning him about his werebeaver meter being too low, and she will say things that a normal talking axe would say

Woodie can chop down trees at a much faster rate then anyone else and Lucy can chop down trees with less needed hits, lets see how fast it takes to cut down trees compared to most characters with just a flimsy flint axe

• Large

Large trees will go down in 8 chops, in 2.50 seconds
Non Woodie & Lucy users would have to chop 15 times to cut the tree down in 6.50 seconds

• Medium

Medium trees will go down in 5 chops, in 1.50 seconds
Non Woodie & Lucy users would have to chop 10 times to cut the tree down in 4:50 seconds

• Small

Small trees will go down in 3 chops, in half a second
Non Woodie & Lucy users would have to chop 5 times to cut the tree down 2.50 seconds

These statistics were timed by just holding the action button (Space or hold M1) But you can chop trees even FASTER if you click your left mouse button(Or any mouse button. But it will only work with a mouse) repeatedly at a slighty fast speed! Chopping a large tree will go down around 2 seconds or less if you do it correctly, but it may take some time knowing how to click just at the right rate to due so. If not done right, you'll be chopping trees slower then just holding space.

Lucy shouldn't be used to kill or hunt any animals or monsters, she is one of the weakest things to use as weapons. Make a spear if you have the resources or if tight on materials, make an flint axe just for hunting and killing, killing just spiders will be alot harder if you use Lucy and doesnt even kill a rabbit in 1 hit. Just use her for chopping trees

You get Lucy every game at the start, she is a starter item and SHOULD ALWAYS be with you, if you do lose her, make a flint axe and chop a tree, it will turn into a another Lucy.

Turning into a Werebeaver

Woodie has a curse, he turns into a Werebeaver. When he turns into a Werebeaver, he will go on a tree-chopping rampage

• Being a Werebeaver

Being a Werebeaver is a blessing and a curse, in this phase you can chop down SO MANY TREES in a short amount of time! You can get around 40-60 logs if you chop down a small forest in just in a minute or 2. Thats the blessing. But the curse is that you will induce HEAVY insanity, so don't stay as a Werebeaver too long unless you want to fight shadow creatures for nightmare fuel. To turn into human form again, you're gonna need to gnaw enough trees down to refill your Werebeaver meter. Another way to turn back is too eat the wood that you chopped down, the meter will go up much quicker but you will be eating away your investment. You can also gnaw rocks, dig up twigs and grass and even fight other creatures while being in the Werebeaver form. But your mining will take alot longer and you will be digging up grass and twigs saplings. Fighting creatures isn't such a great idea because you're gotta occupy yourself getting your meter up but not only that, you deal low damage and barely have any resistance towards damage, meaning that if you die as a werebeaver, YOU WILL DIE in human form, and if your werebeaver meter is at exactly 0%, you will take damage as if you are starving. So just chop wood, it's the best investment you can make while being a Werebeaver.

• How to prevent the curse

There are ways to stop the transformation of happening. Just like hunger, you have will to feed your Werebeaver meter, eating logs, twigs and grass will regain your meter. Your meter tops out at 100 points of "Beaverness", going below 30 points of your meter can make you turn, listen to Lucy too, she'll warn you, the more she seems frightened of you turning, the closer you are from actually turning. Every wood log you eat will fill your meter by 10 points, berries bushes, saplings, dug up grass will give you 10 points also, twigs will give you 5 points, grass will give you 1 point, boards will give you 15 but the holy grail of getting alot of meter points will be living logs. Living logs will give you 50 points, so eating just 1 will fill your meter up half way, eating 2 will give you a full meter but just eat 1 living log and some wood logs to save them when you really need it. Bring a shovel with you and eat the tree stumps, they will help you greatly and reduce losing too much wood, also just eat wood to fill your meter, wood is less expensive then twigs and grass.

• The Cons of being a Werebeaver

Being a Werebeaver can be completely bad at times, especially at full moon, when you least expect it, you can use this as your advantage if you know when full moon will happen, but most times when its full moon you're gonna need to chop down more than a forest at times. The goal when full moon happens is to get out of it as quickly as possible because it SEEMS like being a werebeaver has a longer lengh time when it's full moon, meaning you will have ZERO sanity by morning. The quick way to getting into human form again is eat alot of wood to transform back. It's up to you to use this time at your advantage because you can chop down more trees then you normally do. You're gonna have to run all night gnawing every tree insight until morning, but becareful from shadow creatures, you're gonna need to fight off your insanity in and after your Werebeaver form. But there is one great perk woodie has to help you with your sanity...

When you turn into a Werebeaver, you will drop all equipped items such as tools, chest and head items, when you transfrom into a human again, your Werebeaver Meter will go back to 100.

You also have night vision so you're safe from charlie at night, go buck wild!

But becareful not to die in the dark after you turn back

Pine Cones. Your Second Wind

Pine cones, this is gonna be your second wind to sanity. Only for Woodie, every pine cone or tree seed you plant, you will get 5 sanity back. Its as simple as that.

• Best Way to use em

The best way to use Pine cones is that you use em after being a Werebeaver. Your sanity will be halfway gone at most times(100 sanity) but the amount of trees that you cut down in your tree murdering rampage should get you enough pinecones to became fully sane again.

• Quick Maths

Planting 10 pine cones will give you 50 Sanity (25% of your sanity gained back if at 0 sanity)

Planting 20 pine cones will give you 100 sanity (50% of your sanity gained back if at 0 sanity)

Planting 30 pine cones will give you 150 Sanity (75% of your sanity gained back if at 0 sanity)

Planting 40 Pinecones will give you 200 sanity (100% of your sanity gained back if at 0 sanity)

• Tips

Eat green mushrooms to help your sanity, they give you 15 sanity if you cook em, but DO NOT EAT EM RAW! You'll lose 50 sanity if you do. You can only get them at dusk, but you can also get them if you have a mushroom planter, but it's a chance to get green mushrooms

If you see a group of trees together, chop down the large trees first, then the mediums trees and then the small trees
Large Trees produce 2 pine cones
medium trees produce 1 pine cone
small trees produce no pine cones

Twiggy Pine cones can also produce 5 sanity, they still count towards you sanity

Make sure not to chop down any lumpy shaggy trees unless you have to get wood immediately. They do not drop pinecones, you can never have too many pinecones.

Sometimes its best to turn into a Werebeaver if you are insane, chop as many trees as possible and dodge any shadow creatures that try to kill you, after you turn back into a human, pick up the cones and plant and run. Keep doing so until you are in a better mental state of sanity

Befriending Creatures

Creatures can be very helpful at times. Being a outdoorsman himself, Woodie knows how to get along with nature and its very few innocent creatures. You can befriend Pigmen, Bunnymen and Rock Lobsters. Each of these creatures can be befriended for a longer period of time then other non-Woodie characters.

• How to Befriend these creatures

To befriend a Pigman, you will have to give 1 piece of meat to one, these kinds are morsels, big meats or monster meat, but be careful not to give more then 3 monster meat, they'll turn into a hostile Werepig. Giving a morsel to a pigman will befriend you for more then half a day. Giving them any bigger meats such as Monster meat or big meat will make them stay for a day and half, but you wont be needing them that long because they end up going back home when dusk starts

To befriend a Bunnyman, just give em a carrot, they'll follow you and protect you while spelunking down in caves. Give em another carrot in a about 5 minutes if you still want them to protect you. Make sure to use the MANY carrots they have in their village to get some great long use out of them

To befriend a Rock Lobster you just need to give them a rock, a piece of stone is all you need to become friends with the gentle tank, they are slow but they will protect you. If you want them around longer, make sure to give them a piece of rock and they'll keep following you. If you give em around 10 rocks, they'll follow you for about 2 days.

• What can they do?

Pigmen can help you chop down more trees! You can have ALOT of pigmen if you wanted too(More then 8 pigs can follow you at a time) Give a pigman a morsel or 1 monster meat, and they'll help you for most of the day, they'll dance and love you as if you were their own. (Until they get hungry and forget about you) To get them to start chopping trees, well... just start chopping a a tree and they'll help. You chop 1 tree, they'll chop 1 tree also, so you're doubling you tree cutting. I recommend getting atleast 2 or 3 pigs and maybe possibly 4 but nothing over 4, it gets too expensive with food and some of them wont be able to chop trees due to how crowded it is, but keep a reminder of the day, Pigmen are scared of the dark so when dusk happens, they'll run back to their homes and leave you. Do this at the start of the day so you can get the most out of the pigmen, they'll help you greatly without you having to eat trees to stop your Werebeaver meter from going down, or you can embrace your inner werebeaver and chop even more trees with the help of your friends. Ending up with about 80-100 logs by halfway during the day.

As for guards, they arent too bad of protecting you but they can be easily killed by getting overwhelmed by spiders or bees quite easily.

Bunnymen can be used to protect you while in caves, as long as you dont have any meat or eggs on you, they won't attack you on sight, this also includes crockpot meals too such as meatballs and meaty stews. They're quicker and deal more damage then pigmen but they have less health. Give them a carrot and they'll follow you, but make sure you have enough carrots for your journey.

Bunnymen aren't really used for guarding you unless you have a big group of them but rather for farming REALLY WELL. They can be great when they're in groups and can shred through pretty much any mob, and can be very helpful when taking down giants above the surface, so if you have a bunnyman farm, they aren't that bad when it comes to giving you food from farming and also giving protection.

Rock Lobsters are TANKS! They grow in different sizes but their smallest stage of size has them by atleast 1000 health! Thats nothing to scoff at. But their biggest stage of size has them about 1800 health! But what makes them so special is that you can have your very own pet rock/Lobster! You can befriend them to fight at your side! They deal HEAVY DAMAGE, regenerates health and can become even tankier when they hide in their shell! But they have 1 big flaw, they move slow... Real slow, so unless you have alot patience, you can let them follow you for long distance traveling, but keep in mind, rock lobsters are the best guards EVER! You can kill pretty much anything with these guys. Even giants! If you can get them to the surface, you can conquer the entire world if you wanted too. Thats how good they are. No Bearger, no Dragonfly, nothing can stop you when you have these guys on your side!

Your Semi Magnificent Beard

Your beard will keep you warm! By 45 insulation... It isn't that special but it will come in handy when you need as much warmth as possible. Putting on a nice winter hat(120 Insulation) and a hot
thermal stone will help keep you warm for a few minutes before needing a fire. Your beard isn't as good as Webber's or Wilson's (Wilson beard is the best beard with 135 insulation) but it will keep you warm for abit. But dont rely on it too much. Here's some setups about how to stay warm until you reach spring

• Luxury Setup

A Puffy Vest with a winter hat and a thermal stone that is hot. +305 insulation. Should keep you warm for many minutes to come until you need a fire. Short answer, you'll live and stay warm all Winter

• Mid End Setup

A Breezy Vest with a Winter hat and a thermal stone that is hot. +225 insulation.
Isnt as great as the Luxury set up but it will keep you warm, you will have to make more stops for a fire and you'll freeze more, but it shouldn't be much of a problem

• A Poor Man's Setup

Winter Hat/Rabbit Earmuffs with a thermal stone that is hot. 105-165 insulation or more.
You will freeze... Alot... But not that Alot, this is the easiest setup outta all of these but it can make you survive winter, its gonna be hard and you're gonna need alot of campfires to warm up again, but if you cant get the Mid end or the Luxury set up. Then this will help you get through winter, but to be honest if it comes down to that. Just wear this and find a koalaphant and its trunk for a breezy vest or a puffy vest. It will be much worth it... Unless you die... Which can happen but in the land of Don't Starve, anything can kill you.

Woodie Vs. Maxwell. Who is the Best?

There was always been a feud between these 2, Woodie Vs. Maxwell. People always said that
Maxwell was the better character, Woodie was absolutely absolete. Let me tell you why he isn't.

• 
  
• What are Maxwell's perks?

Maxwell's main perk is to generate minions to help him survive, his starting items is a book called a codex umbra and some nightmare fuel, he needs both of these for his shadow puppet minions. You have 4 different kinds puppets to choose from, a wood cutter, a miner, a digger and a
fighting duelist. You can have 3 shadow puppets at the same time, but every shadow puppet you create, your sanity will go down and stay down no matter what. Each shadow that is a Digger,
a miner or a woodcutter will take away 20% of your sanity, but a duelist will take away around 35%
of your sanity each. But if a shadow puppet dies you will be able to get back that loss sanity. But Maxwell has a second perk to help you deal with sanity, he is dapper, meaning he will constantly have a high sanity gain at all times, making him hard to go insane and stay insane. Which can be a down fall because he needs to be insane to be able to collect nightmare fuel. But if you manage to get 2 wood cutters and a logger, you can go on a tree chopping rampage all day and all night. Making him VERY effective when getting wood. However he has only 1 downside, he only has 75 health, making him very fragile

• Is Woodie even comparable to Maxwell?

People say that Maxwell is always a better character for harvesting materials in every way. But people don't actually see the how Woodie can compete against Maxwell. When it comes to surviving, it isn't who can chop wood the quickest, its who can do the most important things constantly without much trouble and what you can do to survive when it's needed, there is a difference between them

• "How is there a difference?"

Woodie

Woodie can constantly use his perks to help him in many situations. He can survive really well if you use his perks well enough. He can chop as much wood as Maxwell can if you keep your sanity at a good level if becoming a werebeaver. And with help from pigs, you can go toe to toe with him and his shadowy figures, and quite possiblely getting as much wood as he can if the pigs dont go back home before the day even starts. But Chopping wood isnt everything, Woodie has the health to tank things if you have the right armor, when giants come to cause havoc, you're gonna be glad you have 150 health, and when you're below 75 health, you're gonna be even gladder. When you need as much warm as possible, your beard is gonna come in handy to help you survive precious seconds to help you not freeze to death. Trying to become sane is gonna be alot easier with pinecones. And if you want the best guards to help you, bunnymen, rock lobsters or the occasional pigs will help you survive many harsh moments. Doing all these things with your health and perks can help bring food, materials and a supply of goodies for your friends so they wont die, making you the king of the game.

It doesnt matter what your skills are, what matters is what you do with your skills.

Maxwell

As for Maxwell you really are the quickest and one of the best characters to chop wood, you can get around 200-300 wood in 2 days if you chop down a forest all day and all night. But if you don't get any nightmare fuel, you can't use your shadow puppets to do your work, you'll just be a really sane and a frail low health character. But if you do keep up with getting nightmare fuel, your shadow puppets can help you get ALOT of materials if you take a day or 2 getting all those materials. Your duelist puppets aren't so bad either, many people say they are bad, but these guys will help you take down some mobs and become good distractions so you can take the kill for yourself. But once your shadow puppets die off in 2 days and half, you'll gonna have to get more nightmare fuel to do it again, going insane shouldn't be too hard to do, but will be tougher because you are dapper. Get help from friends if they're brave enough to take down shadow creatures so you can gain back your powers and unlock many of the magic tabs creations, many of those items are VERY good but can be abit differcult to obtain. Using magic items drains sanity, but for Maxwell being dapper, the sanity loss isn't bad compared to the goodness of those items such as night armor and the dark sword. Maxwell will need good protection so night armor or even a log suit can help him shrug off damage, but you dont need armor if dont get hit, so learn to kite. Maxwell is gonna need as much as he can get, because the more nightmare fuel and powerful items he holds, the more he can do to become the king of the world from once he was.

• A VERY Helpful tip

If you just started a world and want as many wood logs as possible without any treeguard problems. Cut down as many trees you want until after day 3. Treeguards won't appear within these 3 days. So keep chopping until you are happy with your amount. You can get a total 200 or even 300 logs if you keep chopping until the end of day 3

• Who is the Winner?

It's quite simple really. No one is better. They're both good. Woodie can get things done in a faster and easier time. But Maxwell can do things better if you have the tools and the supplies needed to get those things done. The same goes for getting supplies, fighting and surviving. Woodie gets less but in a faster, easier way. But Maxwell can do it better but in a longer and more expensive way. Choose a character, non of them are better, non of them are worse. It just depends on how you play, a fighter, a builder, a harvester or all of the above. You can make both of them just as good as one another

Conclusion

If you made this far, thanks for reading my guide, this is my first guide and hopefully it isn't the last. Writing is fun! But the idea of me making this guide was that people always thought Maxwell is always the best harvester, and also how people thought how Woodie is a bad mess of a character and is just a bad character overall. But I never could wrap my brain around that assumption because Woodie is my favorite character and he really is a great character if you do know how to play him correctly, and thats why I made this guide. Theres alot of Don't Starve Elitists out there saying that Maxwell is overall THE BEST HARVESTER KNOWN TO DON'T STARVE! And also stating how Woodie is just terrible or obsolete character compared to him, which is very wrong. Some people justify this in every video game and never really sit down and use abilities, perks or items that are considered "bad" and never go outside the "best" abilities, perks or items. But whats the fun of never exploring things outside your comfort zone? Theres many things to play and test out, there's no such thing as a bad character in Don't Starve, each character has their use. Even Willow is good and so is Wes! Who doesnt want a meme following them around and surviving. As long as your good with the character, you shouldnt have a problem playing the game with others or even yourself. Nor should you ever make any excuses of hating a character because people said so. But some people are sheep and they rather follow someone elses dislikeful opinions rather then following their own dislikeful opinions. But hey, I respect everyone opinions. Thanks for reading this guide! I hoped you enjoyed it and even learned something new about Woodie or even Don't Starve in general, it was really fun to make it and hopefully people will think differently of Woodie, and might even play Woodie with a changed mind! Thank you again and have a fantastic day! -NotEvenBeyond

P.S. I like to say "Alot" because it should be a word. Somehow "Abit" is fine but "Alot" is bad. Like... Wut? How stupid would it be if I wrote "Would you like a lot of videos games?" Sounds like I want a property lot worth of videos games, like. Do you know how to "english" english? But still a lot of video games is still "alot" of videos games. Ok Bye, see you people later

[DAYDRMER!]

Your welcome!

[NotEvenBeyond]

@CorgiPlays I always loved him because he was a different alternative to Maxwell, a more constant and easier source of getting supplies, but its less effective then going all out with Maxwell! And Im glad you like it! I would've never guess someone would still comment on this guide but thank you for enjoying it and commenting on it! Always makes me happy to see people like my guides! :D

[DAYDRMER!]

This is my kind of guide, I'm sick of all those woodie haters out there

[Shiki]

I was kinda expecting for the whole content in this thread to be "don't"

[Fau]

Ya x3

[NotEvenBeyond]

Yeah, Maxwell can truely chop trees faster then Woodie, it's really satifying when you have your minions chopping and digging trees for you. But I like to play Woodie for his health. I like to have a better chance of living and I just love using every perk he has to offer. But health won't be much of a problem for Maxwell if you excel at kiting. And his duelist aren't so bad either, but Maxwell as a character is VERY fun character to play and really great for surviving :D

[Fau]

I usually farm 40 nf during my first 20 days (that's the time i explore the whole world) and another 40 nf during summer when i'm in the caves to get rabbit hutches. Soo... Maxwell is a good woodchopper early-game too, IF you know how to play as him.

Woodie chops trees MUCH faster than maxwell, it's just that maxwell can pick up items while other trees get chopped what makes him the best wood gatherer (he's even better than any character+bearger/toadstool)

[NotEvenBeyond]

I do have to agree with you Potatoes(Potatos are awesome by the way) Maxwell can produce much more logs then Woodie can. Woodie can always chop wood faster then Maxwell(Without Shadow Minions) at any given time but if Maxwell has his minions to cut and dig trees he is much faster then Woodie. The sanity trick will become VERY handy for Maxwell's shadow minion making. Woodie can get Wood easier then Maxwell but Maxwell has to invest into his wood cutting, but in return will get ALOT of wood. But if you can master Maxwell downsides and upsides. Getting nightmare fuel can be a breeze

[Abatato]

In my opinion its this: woodie=early game maxwell=late game as maxwell can EASILY farm nightmare fuel when you have a complete base with no food problems as he can just use the minion trick to stay completely insane and after he got lots of nightmare fuel he does woodchopping even faster with 2 lumberjacks and a digger, woodie can do this immediatly but later does it less faster then maxwell could.

[NotEvenBeyond]

Thanks :D And no problem, don't need to cause any fires