DST Guides PT 1: The Characters

Hello! This is DST Guides, and today I will be talking about the 12 characters in DST: Wilson, Willow, Wolfgang, Wendy, WX-78, Wickerbottom, Woodie, Wes, Maxwell, Wigfrids, Webber and Winona. I'll go over each characters advantages, disadvantages, and how well their mechanics work and also how they synergise with other characters. Let's get started!

Wilson

Wilson is the first of the 12 characters, and is the Gentleman Scientist. Wilson, as the starter character, starts out with 150 hunger, 150 health and 200 sanity.

Wilson's Beard

Wilson's only perk is his ability to grow a beard overtime. This beard will keep the player warm in winter, but will make them overheat quicker in Summer, so it is recommended to shave before Summer begins. Wilsons beard will also drop beard hair when shaven with a Razor. There are three tiers of beards that will grow overtime, here are the tiers:

•Short Beard: Takes 4 days to grow, provides 1 beard hair when shaven and gives 15 seconds worth of Insulation.


•Long Beard: Takes 7 days to grow, provides 3 beard hair when shaven and gives 45 seconds worth of Insulation.


•Magnificent Beard: Takes 15 days to grow, provides 9 beard hair when shaven and gives 135 seconds worth of Insulation.




Overall, Wilson is a very balanced character. His perk is incredibly useful for surviving winter. If you've just started the game and aren't sure how the game works I'd stick with Wilson as he has no downsides whatsoever. If you're new to the game then this charming scientist is the right guy for you!

Willow

Willow is the second of the 12 characters, she is the Firestarter. Willow starts out with 150 hunger, 150 health and 120 sanity. She also starts out with two unique items: her lighter and Bernie the teddy bear.

Willow's Lighter

Willow starts out with her own Lighter. It can be crafted by Willow using one rope, one gold and three petals. It functions similarly to the Torch but has a few differences. The lighter has a higher durability than the normal Torch, but has a much smaller light radius. Also unlike the torch, the lighter can be used to cook non-crock pot foods (I will get to foods in another guide). It can also be used by every character.

Willow's Fire Perks

Willow, being the Firestarter, adores fire. She will gain sanity if she is near any fire source (including torches or lighters). Since this doesn't stack, she can set many things on fire and get a ton of sanity as a result. Willow also has a resistance against fire, meaning she will take less damage against fire. This includes Fire Hounds, Klaus' Red Gem deer, etc. The fire damage will also take longer to affect Willow in comparison to other characters.

Bernie

Bernie is Willow's teddy bear, and can be crafted using two beard hair, two silk and two beefalo wools. At first glance he doesn't seem to do anything, however once your insane enough that Shadow Creatures become Hostile, he will activate and walk around. Once a Shadow Creature spawns, Bernie will begin taunting them and draw their aggro to him. This serves as a distraction for the player if they get overwhelmed. Bernie has 1000 hp and can be fully healed with a sewing kit.

Disadvantage

When Willow is at 42 sanity or below, she will start to get colder, but will not freeze unless it's raining heavily or Winter is starting/ending. As well as being near cold sources such as the Polar Star and the Endothermic fires. This is really bad if you're new and trying to survive winter. However, provided you can keep yourself insane, can use this disadvantage to get through Summer as provided you have a thermal stone aswell, won't have to worry about overheating.

Summary

Overall Willow is a character I wouldn't recommend. While it may be nice for newer players to get the sanity bonuses from fire sources, that's really all she's good for. Her lighter becomes useless once you obtain things such as Miner Hats and Lanterns, and even then the Torch is better in every way. Bernie can be useful if you're having a hard time with shadow creatures or if you want to easily farm nightmarefuel, but if you're a skilled player then fighting Shadow creatures shouldn't be much of a problem unless you're low on health and are getting overwhelmed. However if you want to try her out, then go ahead. In a way she could be considered a challenge character. She synergies well with Wilson and Webber due to the fact that both their beards provide the materials to make Bernie, and Wickerbottom who can use Bernie to draw away Shadow Creatures while she reads her books.

Wolfgang

Wolfgang is the 3rd of the 12 Characters, and is the Strongman. Wolfgang starts out with 200 Health, 300 Hunger and 200 Sanity.

Wimpy and Mighty forms

Wolfgang has a strong appetite (literally). Wolfgang has three different forms depending on his hunger, which are Wimpy, Normal and Mighty. Here is how they work:

Wimpy form

When his hunger reaches below 100, he will shrink into a pathetic little version of himself known as the Wimpy form. In this form, his 200 health will gradually decrease to 150 depending on how low his hunger is (e.g. 199 health at 98 Hunger.) and has a 0.75 damage modifier (same damage as Wendy) but depending on hunger eventually decreases to 0.5. His speed will also eventually decrease by 90% the more hungry he gets, and his hunger rate will increase, meaning he will get hungry faster. It's very important that you eat as quickly as possible as the health/hunger/damage/speed loss will become a huge problem very quickly.

Regular form

When his hunger is between 100 and 225, he will be in his Regular form. This form is achieved at the start of the game. He appears to be a bulky, slim man with slight arm muscle. In this form he gains no upsides to his speed/damage, however his hunger will decrease 1.5x faster meaning it's easier for him to revert into his Wimpy form, so it's best to make sure you keep an eye on your hunger at all times.

Mighty form

Once Wolfgang has 225 Hunger or over, he will grow into his Mighty form. He gains bigger muscles, and grows much bigger. In this form, Wolfgang gains a 25% increase in movement speed, and will gain a 2x damage multiplier at full hunger, if his hunger drains however it will lower to 1.25x. He also gains 100 extra maximum health meaning he can cap his health at 300 but will eventually lower the more his health drains. His hunger will decrease between 1.5x and 3x faster than normal. It's advised to not use his Mighty form normally. It's recommended to keep him Mighty for fighting bosses as he can easily tank them while dealing massive amounts of damage.

Sanity Drain

Wolfgang is not as strong as he seems on the outside. When in darkness or near monsters that drain Sanity, his sanity will decrease 10% faster due to being Nyctophobic. This can make it more annoying when fighting bosses that drain sanity such as Deerclops. Bosses like Deerclops will be killed quickly if in mighty form so the sanity drain won't matter too much, however for bosses like Fuelweaver it's important that you bring sanity restoration dishes. Also worth noting that it's only Monsters and Darkness that will drain your sanity quicker, Dark swords, Night Lights, etc will still drain your sanity at the same rate as other characters.

Tips

• Wolfgangs hunger drains insanely quickly, so it's recommended you kill some Slurpers and obtain a Belt of Hunger, as it will decrease hunger loss by 40%, meaning you can stay Mighty for atleast 5 minutes. It also raises sanity overtime which can be brilliant fighting against bosses.

• It's very important that you stock up on food when preparing to fight a boss, as you're always going to want to be mighty before the fight starts. Make sure you have a lot of food in your inventory!

•Wolfgang is really good for farming Nightmare fuel, especially at night due to his Monster/Darkness drain.

Synergies

Wolfgang synergises with most of the characters pretty well, but works the best with Wickerbottom and WX-78. Wolfgang and WX can tank bosses together easily, and Wickerbottom can mass produce food for Wolfgang to stay as Mighty as he likes.

Summary

Overall Wolfgang is an amazing character, if not one of the best in the game. He can easily kill most of the enemies in the game for his team. If mighty he is able to kill bosses like Deerclops in under a minute, however without any food he will basically be a lesser Wendy if not fed, so make sure your team always has food on the go.

Wendy

Wendy is the fourth of the 12 characters in DST, she is The Bereaved. Like Wilson, Wendy starts out with 150 Hunger, 150 Health and 200 Sanity. She also starts out with her own exclusive item nobody else can craft nor use (except another Wendy): Abigail's Flower. She also deals 25% less damage compared to the other characters.

Abigail

Abigail is Wendy's twin sister. Abigail will start out in her flower form, which will gradually bloom over 10-15 minutes, the flower has three tiers of growth:



•Tier 1: The flower will appear to be completely white. Wendy will say "This was my sister's flower, she's gone far away" if Abigail had just died. Eventually she will say "I can feel Abigail's presence growing stronger"

•Tier 2: The flower will appear as a pinky-red and the petals have bloomed a bit. Wendy will say "Abigail is almost here!" This is signifying that the flower is almost ready.

•Tier 3: The flower will be fully bloomed, appear fully red, and will levitate off the floor. Wendy will say "Abigail is ready to play, but she needs some space". This signifies that she is ready for a sacrifice.

Abigails flower takes 6 flower petals and 1 nightmare fuel to craft. When Abigail's Flower is fully bloomed, she needs to have something killed near her to spawn. Anything that dies near her will make her spawn, including other players. Other creatures killing each other will also spawn her in, Wendy is not the only one to spawn her in. Anything killed in your inventory will also spawn her in. This will drain 50 sanity from Wendy each time when summoned. If picked up by another character, Abigail will not spawn unless she is picked up by Wendy again.

Abigail has 600hp and deals 10 damage in the day, 20 damage at dusk and 40 damage at night, per hit. This is especially useful in the Ruins, as this always counts as Night. Abigail deals AoE damage, meaning she will attack multiple enemies within a certain radius at once. She is able to stunlock enemies such as Spiders, Bees and Splumonkeys/Shadow Splumonkeys which makes her great for farming Silk, Monster Meat, Honey etc. Once Abigail loses all her health, she will retreat back into her Tier 1 flower, and will begin blooming again overtime.

Damage Penalty

Wendy will deal 25% less damage than the other characters in the game. This is to make up for Abigail, who will do most of the damage for you. There are ways to overcome this. For example, taming a Beefalo and making it an Ornery beefalo. The damage penalty doesn't effect the Beefalo so you can do higher damage than normal. Or you can use higher tier weapons such as a Ham Bat or Dark Sword. And lastly, just attack with abigail and you'll find that the damage penalty won't be that noticable.

Sanity Drain

Wendy, being the edgy character that she is, will only lose 25% less sanity in the darkness, or when she is facing a monster that drains Sanity. However she can still lose the normal amount near Evil Flowers, Night Lights, Dark Swords, etc.

Synergies

I feel like Wendy has many synergies with other characters. She synergises well with Webber due to both being able to easily kill spiders, plus Wendy can do what Webber cannot: Make use of Pig and Bunny farms. She can also pair well with Wigfrid as she can provide her with easy meat and honey. And my personal favourite, Wicker bottom and Wolfgang. She can provide a sanity station (which I will get into in a second) to help Wickerbottom with her shadow creatures while reading her books, and she combined with Wickerbottom can produce a large amount of food for Wolfgang. She can also help them with Splumonkeys while exploring the ruins.

Tips

•Wendy can use Abigail Flowers to create a sanity station. A sanity station consists of a field of evil flowers that are created by placing Abigail flowers close together then waiting for them to turn to regular flowers, then you can haunt them to turn them into evil flowers. The Abigail flowers must be 0.75 units or 0.1875 turfs away. The Sanity Station will drain sanity rapidly, but can be used to gain huge amounts of sanity while wearing the Bee Queen crown. I recommend using this client mod to help with building it: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1309202175

Summary

Despite her 25% less damage, Wendy is still a great pick for your team. The less sanity drain is great for newer players as well as Abigail. Abigail is great for taking down hordes of enemies for easy food and items. She can help greatly with bosses that spawn minions such as Bee Queen, and she can be used to even distract enemies. The sanity station can also be a great essence to your team. Due to her abilities to do so much with Abigail. I'd say that she outclasses most of the characters including Webber and Wigfrid. If you're the kind of person who prefers using a minion to fight for you, then Wendy is for you.

WX-78

WX-78 is the 5th of the 12 characters, and is the Soulless Automaton. WX starts out with all of his stats at 150 (god knows why a robot needs hunger or sanity)

System Overload

WX's main ability is his System Overload (for the sake of me and this guide, we're just going to call it Overcharge). If WX is struck by lightning, he will gain a variety of perks, such as:

• Will gain a 50% increase in movement speed

• Gains complete immunity to freezing

• Emits a light in a small radius

• Loses 33 sanity but gains 100 health.

Upgrading

WX's second main perk is his ability to upgrade his Health, Hunger and Sanity by eating gears. A total number of 15 gears is required to fully upgrade WX. Each gear adds on 16.66 Health, 3.33 Hunger and 10 Sanity. Here's a small chart showing how much each gear adds:

• No gears - 150 of each stat.

• One gear - 167 Health - 154 Hunger - 160 Sanity

• Two gears - 184 Health - 157 Hunger - 170 Sanity

• Three gears - 200 Health - 160 Hunger - 180 Sanity

• Four gears - 217 Health - 164 Hunger - 190 Sanity

• Five gears - 234 Health - 167 Hunger - 200 Sanity

• Six gears - 250 Health - 170 Hunger - 210 Sanity

• Seven gears - 267 Health - 174 Hunger - 220 Sanity

• Eight gears - 284 Health - 177 Hunger - 230 Sanity

• Nine gears - 300 Health - 180 Hunger - 240 Sanity

• Ten gears - 317 Health - 184 Hunger - 250 Sanity

• Eleven gears - 334 Health - 187 Hunger - 260 Sanity

• Twelve gears - 350 Health - 190 Hunger - 270 Sanity

• Thirteen gears - 367 Health - 193 Hunger - 280 Sanity

• Fourteen gears - 384 Health - 196 Hunger - 290 Sanity

• Fifteen gears - 400 Health - 200 Hunger - 300 Sanity

If WX-78 dies, he will lose all his upgrades and will drop atleast 2 or 3 gears upon death. This is pretty bad if you die having eaten over atleast 8 gears.

Rain ( I'M DIEEEEEING IN THE RAIN )

Due to being a robot, WX will take damage from the rain and from Wetness. When it begins to rain, WX will take 0.5 damage every 3-5 seconds. This can be negated by wearing the Eyebrella or an Umbrella with a Helmet (football helmets, miner hats, Wigfrid helmets, etc). He can reduce the damage done by 0.25 by wearing items that give 50% protection from rain such as the Pretty Parasol. If it has stopped raining but he is still wet he will take 0.3 damage every 3-5 seconds instead. He will also emit sparks when he takes this damage which gives a tiny light which can ward off Charlie but will quickly end.

Stale/Spoiling Food

Due to being a robot (again), WX will not gain penalties from stale/spoiling food. For example normal players wouldn't gain the sanity from eating ice cream due to the food being stale, but WX will still get the sanity even if the food is yellow or red quality. However he cannot eat it once the food has turned into rot. He also still gets the disadvantages from Monster Foods or raw food such as Mushrooms, Meat, etc.

Tips

•WX-78 can be Overcharged by Wickerbottom or Maxwell if they are equipped with the End is Nigh book, which will stack and can nearly last an entire season, make sure your Wicker/Maxwell is wearing any headgear or body armor that prevents damage from Lightning such as the Rain Coat or Eyebrella.

• WX-78 can also use the Telelocator Staff to charge him, it's good to do this if you have plenty of untouched Purple Gems.

• Moslings can be another great way to be Overcharged if there are no readers on your team. Once the Moose/Goose has been killed, the Moslings will aggro onto you and will start spinning, which will attract lightning around them until they stop spinning.

• Being Overcharged is great for exploring the map, and can be a good way of exploring the caves/ruins during Winter and Spring as you won't freeze.

• If you are fully upgraded as WX you are great for distracting bosses or tanking them if your team needs to heal/ need someone to take aggro

Synergies

WX-78 can work well with most of the characters but is probably most known for being synergised with Wolfgang and Wickerbottom (to an extent, Maxwell too). Wolfgang can tank enemies and bosses with WX. He can be overcharged by Wickerbottom with the End is Nigh books (or by a Maxwell if there are any End is Nigh books around your base). He can also help with map exploration and is able to eat any of the leftover food in the fridge that Wickerbottom can't eat due to her penalties with stale/spoilt food.

Summary

Overall WX-78 is a pretty good character. He may not be as useful as the other characters early game but late game is where he excels greatly as he can easily tank enemies, explore the map both above and below ground, and can make excellent use of any spoiling foods. (Provided he has been Overcharged and has eaten enough Gears)

Wickerbottom

Wickerbottom is the 6th of the 12 characters, and is The Librarian. She starts out with 150 Health, 150 Hunger and (due to her intelligence) 250 sanity. Wickerbottom's starting items are two papyrus.

Intelligence

Wickerbottom has all of the recipes available from the science machine available from the start and is able to craft books to assist her. Reading them causes her to lose sanity. Her Initially available book recipes are Birds of the world and Applied Horticulture. Her books can be also used by maxwell and his sanity regeneration make them a sweet combination.

Books and usage

Birds of the World: 2 Papyrus and 2 Eggs

Nice early book in case it is needed for some morsels but its most known use is for krampus farming. It is ideal on turf which spawns red or blue birds, or with a scarecrow which will allow the spawning of canaries. Coloured birds give 2 naughtiness points when killed and thus are preferred over crows.

Applied Horticulture: 2 Papyrus, 1 Seed and 1 Manure.
A book which allows any kind of plant or farm to regrow instantly. Best used in the last days of autumn in the beginning on a nicely concentrated farm/plantation. Can not be used on winter for any plants that don't grow normally on winter. Allows to mass produce any vegetables/fruits desired as well as regrowing twigs/grass and tree farms.

On Tentacles Needs to be prototyped on the Alchemy Engine: 2 Papyrus and 1 Tentacle Spot.

Used for boss farming, preferably for Bee Queen. It can be used on Dragonfly and seasonal bosses but isn't recommended. It also gives a nice supply of tentacle spikes in the process. If put around Splumonkey Pods it can be used to farm Shadow Splumonkey for easy Nightmare fuel, Bananas and Morsels.

Sleepytime Stories: Needs to be prototyped on the Prestihatitator or Shadow Manipulator: 2 Papyrus and 2 Nightmare Fuel.

A slower Pan Flute which can be mass produced. Like the pan flute its effect can be life saving and fairly necessary for Dragonfly and beneficial for the Krampi who are spawned by Klaus. It can also be used in combination with Birds of the world to farm birds to spawn Krampi.

The end is Nigh: Needs to be prototyped on the Shadow Manipulator: 1 Red Gem and 2 Papyrus.

99% of the cases it is used for overcharging WX-78 granting him his overcharge abilities. It's better if wickerbottom is wearing an eyebrella or other electrically nullyfying items to avoid getting damaged.

Picky eater

Wickerbottom has reduced benefits from stale(yellowish/orangeish) food items and additionally a small penalty in sanity when eating spoiled foods. She gains full benefits from fresh food items.

Insomniac

Wickerbottom can't sleep so she gains no advantages from tents, siesta leons, straw rolls and fur rolls. She can though fall sleep if she or someone else while in pvp near her eats a raw mandrake. She will regain some sanity from that but it is not a recommended use of mandrakes.

Therefore her sanity regain is based on cooked blue/green mushrooms, cooked cacti and other sanity restoring items/foods like tam o shanter. Regarding health she can use dragonpies, pierogies, trailmixes, fishsticks and so on depending on what is more readily available/ easily acquirable.

Synergies with other characters

Wickerbottom is such a great character that she synergises with every character. However one of the most popular synergies out there is Wickerbottom, Wolfgang and WX-78 (and to an extent, Maxwell). Wickerbottoms Applied Horticulture provides a lot of food for Wolfgang, and her End is Nigh book can overcharge WX-78. Wolfgang and WX-78 can then fight bosses for Wickerbottom, and finally WX-78 can explore the areas of the map for the rest of the team. Also if the team has a Maxwell, he can use Wickers books, and can be beneficial by chopping trees, digging up saplings, Tufts/Berry bushes, and mining rocks.

Summary

Overall Wickerbottom is regarded as the best character in the game as she can do everything other characters do and much more, such as: Mass producing crops, food, and trees, Making boss farms, Making mobs fall asleep and overall providing your team of survivors with everything they need to survive. Wickerbottom is a very essential character for your team as her books help immensely. (Having a Maxwell present if Wickerbottom also works as he can read her books)

Woodie

Woodie is the 7th of the 12 characters in DST. His playstyle specialises in Resource gathering, while also providing a safer alternative to Maxwell, as his max health is not half of the usual amount like Maxwell's health is. This means he has 150 hunger, 150 health and 200 sanity along with a hidden "Beaverness" stat at max 100, but that'll be explained later on in Woodie's guide.

Woodie's Woodchoppin' Woodbilities for gathering Wood

Woodie starts out with his trusty axe companion and probably wife Lucy. She never breaks, which makes his passive quick chop ability good for old fashioned wood chopping. She also talks when picked up dropped or when Woodie chops too many Trees. Should Woodie chop regardless of Lucy's warnings, he will enter...

Werebeaver Form

Woodie enters the Werebeaver state when either the afformentioned beaverness stat reaches 25, where one chop as a human reduces it by 1, or by Woodie being above ground during fullmoon. Should he start gnawing objects like trees, rocks, etc as Werebeaver, he will gain 1 beaverness per gnaw and if 100 beaverness is reached, Woodie transforms back to his regular form. You also gain quite a bit of beaverness when eating logs, twigs, grass and other normally unedibble items originating from plants.
In Werebeaver form, you can't use tools or weapons meaning you are relatively defenceless, only dealing 25 damage when attacking, while also rapidly losing sanity. The only way to return to human form is to eat enough logs, as dying, unlike singleplayer Don't Starve, will merely transform you into a beaver ghost, causing you to remain in Beaver form even when you are resurrected.

Woodie's lesser known perks

Woodie gains 5 sanity for each Treeseed he plants. This is likely to compensate for the sanity loss as a Beaver when chopping large amounts of trees and can actually be relatively effective if you gathered a lot of Treeseeds.
Furthermore, he has a passive cold insulation of 45 seconds because of his... Hairy nature.
This is even more extreme in Beaverform, in which he has 240 passive cold insulation and 70% wetness resistance.
To top the madness off, followers will follow Woodie twice as long as any other character per food item given.

Summary

All in all, Woodie is a resource gatherer for those not brave or skilled enough to try on Maxwell with his low health. While a good Woodie can certainly benefit the team, Maxwell outclasses Woodie in most categories of need and is easier to farm large amounts of resources with if whoever is playing him can deal with his 75 max health and flexible sanity cap. Still, Woodie may actually be the better choice for Boss fights, as it is harder for Woodie to get killed and Maxwell's minions usually aren't of much use during Boss fights.

Wes

Wes is the 8th of the 12 characters, and is the Silent. Wes is the challenge character aimed at more experienced players, and thus has only 112.5 health, 150 sanity and 112.5 hunger. He also has a 0.75x damage multiplier and a hunger rate multiplier of 1.15x. Lastly, he starts with the pile o' balloons, which allows him to spawn balloons at a cost of 5 sanity per balloon. Balloons can damage mobs around them, dealing roughly 5-10 damage upon being attacked. Should he ever lose his pile o' balloons, he can prototype one at a science machine, using two waterballoons, however only other Wes players can use it.
He also can't talk unlike other characters, so you could potentially be caught off guard if there is an upcoming hound/depth work wave and you turned your volume down.

Balloons and their benefits

At first glance balloons may seem more or less useless, seeing as how making them drains sanity, while offering little benefit. However, this very same fact can be used to your advantage, through being able to stay insane for nightmare fuel farming. While, yes, Wes is not the most optimal character to do nightmare fuel farming with, he is certainly not incapable to do so. It's not like he has low health and lower damage outpu--
...wait a minute.

Mimes and their weaknesses

As mentioned earlier, Wes deals 25% less damage, while also having lower than average stats. This means direct combat as Wes is usually a bad idea, as he will not only take longer, but also waste more durability off of weapons for individual enemies, not be efficient when using weapons with high damage output and will die easier than most other characters. Pair that with his higher hunger rate and subpar hunger, and you will see that Wes is certainly not the best, despite the memes.

What we can see from this is that playing Wes as a new player is not really advised. However, if you are a more experienced player and want to get nagged on by everyone else you play with take on the challenge, then maybe try it out.

If that is not the case however, then for the sake of your team, don't.
It's gonna spare everybody involved some sanity not to tryhard your way through the game and actually help, instead of picking the objectively worst character in the game. Jk Wes is best

Maxwell

Maxwell (William Carter) is the 9th of the 12 characters, and is the Puppet Master. Maxwell starts out with 75 Health, 150 Hunger and 200 Sanity. He starts out with his book the Codex Umbra, 4 nightmare fuel, a Dark Sword, some Night Armor and a Purple Gem.

Codex Umbra

The Codex Umbra is Maxwell's personal item, and can be crafted using 2 Papyrus, 2 Nightmare Fuel and takes away 50 health. Only Maxwell can craft it, and use it. However other players can still pick it up. The Codex Umbra, when placed down on the floor, will give Maxwell a new tab in his crafting bar. Four minions are craftable in this menu, they are:

•Shadow Logger, created with 2 Nightmare Fuel and a normal Axe.

•Shadow Duelist, created with 2 Nightmare Fuel and a Spear.

•Shadow Miner, created with 2 Nightmare Fuel and a normal Pickaxe.

•Shadow Digger, created with 2 Nightmare Fuel and a normal Shovel.



The Shadow Logger, Digger and Miner will remove your maximum sanity by 20%, whilst the Shadow Duelist will remove your maximum sanity by 35%. This leaves you with limitations on what you can craft. You can craft 2 Duelists and 1 Harvester, 1 Duelist and 2 Harvesters or 4 Harvesters. When the minions die, they will drop a piece of Nightmare Fuel and will give Maxwell his lost sanity back. They will only drop Nightmare Fuel if Maxwell kills them, anything else that kills them won't make them drop Nightmare fuel.

Shadow Logger

Shadow Loggers will chop any tree in the Vicinity of Maxwell. This makes them an easy way of chopping trees, especially if you have 4 of them. This is also a great way to get tree guards to spawn.

Shadow Duelist

Shadow Duelists behave similarly to Abigail in that they will attack anything that attacks Maxwell, as well as attacking anything that Maxwell attacks. They will swing at an enemy, dealing 40 damage, Kite, and then swing again, repeating the process. Due to the extra sanity reduction and the fact that they die so early it is not recommended to summon the Duelists.

Shadow Digger

Shadow Diggers will only dig up tree stumps, they will not dig up any other diggable object, likely due to the Shadow Diggers ruining bases by digging up grass/twig/berry bush farms. They are good for cleaning up the area after chopping.

Shadow Miner

Shadow Miners will mine Boulders, Moonrocks, Ice, etc. But will also mine Sinkholes or Glommers statues, so make sure they are not around if you don't want them destroyed. These are very handy as Pickaxes run out faster than other tools and are used more often, so it's nice to basically have an infinite pickaxe. It's even better having 4 miners as you can quickly farm rocks and gold.

Dapperness

Due to being one Dapper fellow, Maxwell will regain sanity overtime, so it's like a permanent Garland. This means it's easier for him to keep his sanity in check due to how low his health is, however it means it might be harder to stay insane.

Health Penalty

Due to having so many upsides, especially with his sanity, Maxwell only has 75 HP. This means that you have to be more careful when it comes to fighting, and make sure you have plenty of Armor. Never go without Armor, as enemies such as Depth Worms can instantly kill you and most will leave you heavily wounded. If you're fighting bosses it's advised to carry a lot of Armor and healing items.

Tips

•Maxwells shadow miners will mine ice in only three swings, making them great for quickly obtaining ice.

• If you spawn in 2 Duelists and a Harvester you can constantly be insane, making it easier to farm for Nightmare Fuel.

• If you plant a lot of trees, and have atleast 3 Choppers and a Digger, you can have an easy Treeguard farm (assuming you're lucky).

Synergies

Maxwell can synergise with any character due to his role as the Gatherer/Harvester. He synergises better with characters like Wickerbottom as he can read her books, plus she can grow his trees for an easy Tree farm. He also synergises with Woodie as they both specialise in collecting wood.

Summary

Overall Maxwell is a brilliant asset to your team as he is able to gather resources better than other characters, it is advised to let your Maxwell gather things like Wood and Rocks/Gold. However he isn't the best in combat due to his low health, so you will have to mostly rely on other characters to do most of the combat. He is considered much better than Woodie as he does his job much better and can do much more. But that's not to say Woodie is bad, he's still very good.

Wigfrid

Wigfrid is the tenth of the 12 characters, and she is The Performance Artist. She starts out with 200 Health, 120 Hunger and 120 Sanity. She has +25% damage output and +25% armor. Wigfrid starts out with 4 Meat, A battle spear and a battle helm.

Meateranian

Wigfrid being a true warrior only eats meat and meat related products with the exception of jellybeans. If a player attempts to eat anything not meat related she will make a jesture of disdain exclaiming that "This fööd is not befitting a warriör!."

Perseverance

In don't starve together, when she hits an enemy she gains a small bonus in health and sanity making her able to regenerate both health and sanity in long drawn out fights or when fighting multiple enemies. This bonus is dependant on the type of the enemy. Here are a few examples.

• Butterflies every 4 hits 1-2 health
  
• Spider every hit 2 health 2 sanity
  
• Deerclops and beefalo every 3-4 hits 1-2 health and sanity
  
• Pigguard 1,5 health and sanity everytwo hits
  
• Normal pig 1,75 hp and sanity per hit (in game its translated in 2 hp per hit for 3 hits and then 1 on the fourth, same for sanity)
  
• Krampus 2 health and sanity on each hit
  
• Knight 1,25 hp and sanity on hit(1 hp per hit until 4th in which you gain 2)

Battle Factory

An additional perk is creating battle helms and battle spears. This recipes are always available to her and are exlusive to every wigfrid making her a mobile weapon and armor factory. Her helmets cost 2 gold and 2 stone to craft and provide the same absorption as a battle helm (80% damage reduction) and 20% water resistance and have 525 durability. Her spears, with 200 uses and 42.5 damage, cost two twigs, two flint and two gold in order to craft, making it a fairly cheap weapon with a great amount of damage and durability. In the hands of a wigfrid its damage is comparable to a tentacle spike. This ability to produce these items makes her a great and irreplaceable asset to the team.

Weakness and ways to compensate

The weakness of Wigfrid is her dependency on good fulfilling meat products to maintain her hunger of 120. This causes her to become relatively dependant on crockpot food, namely meatballs, since her total hunger of 120 make meaty stews go to a bit of a waste when used on her .
Another easy early game way for a Wigfrid to survive without any crockpot is to eat a good amount of meat raw and monster meat either cooked (lose 3 hp and 15 sanity and gain 25 hunger) or raw for 25 hunger and lose of 20 hp and 15 sanity in an emergency.

The good thing is that with her passive ability she can easily regenerate stats and if her sanity is mantained low, farm some nightmare fuel which is always needed. An obvious to old players, but not so much to newer ones, philosophy which rings true for every character but especially for WIgfrid is that you must always explore and be on the move. An idle wigfrid in base will most certainly die and soon run out of meat related products to consume.

Synergies

Wigfrid works well with every character due to her ability to kill bosses and craft helmets/spears. She works well with characters like Wolfgang and WX-78 to easily kill bosses. She can work well with Wendy and Webber as they can provide her with easy meat, plus due to her sanity/health regen she can kill the spiders with them both.

Summary

Wigfrid is a jack of all trades and because of that she is outshined by other characters in their respective fields. Despite that fact though her maneuverability and selfreliableness make her an invaluable part of any team. Wigfrid's damage, despite being outshined by wolfgang, is consistent and doesn't require great amounts of food to be sustained, making her excellent for an aggressive early game. She is the best character for fighting spiders on her own, due to the fact, that with proper kiting her sanity regeneration outclasses the sanity drain of spiders.

Despite that fact, her spider farming capabilities are outclassed by Webber and Wendy. Nonetheless, farming spiders is one of the easiest and best ways to regain health and sanity as a wigfrid, due to the easily predictable kiting patterns of spiders and the amount of health and sanity they restore in comparison with other mobs (2 sanity and health per hit).

Additionally, to an experienced player that understands the majority of the kiting patterns in the game, Wigfrid will very rarely need normal healing or sanity regeneration allowing the rest of her team to benefit from these resources while easily allowing her to keep fighting and getting additional necessities.

Webber

Webber is the eleventh out of the twelve characters, and is the Indigestible. As a semi-challange character, he starts out with 175 hunger, 175 health and 100 sanity.

Webber's Beard

Similarly to Wilson, Webber can grow a beard, however they differ greatly from each other. Firstly, instead of giving beardhair when shaved, Webber's beard gives spidersilk. Secondly, Webber's beard takes less time to grow it's individual tiers while also giving less drops in total. Here are it's tiers:



•Short Beard: Takes 3 days to grow, provides 1 silk when shaven and gives 11.25 seconds worth of Insulation.



•Long Beard: Takes 6 days to grow, provides 3 silk when shaven and gives 33.75 seconds worth of Insulation.



•Silky Smooth Beard: Takes 9 days to grow, provides 6 silk when shaven and gives 33.75 seconds worth of Insulation.

Webber's spider perks

Webber can befriend spiders by feeding them any meat item including, but not limited to, Morsels, Meat, Monster Meat and their cooked and dried variants. If he befriends a spider close to more spiders he can befriend up to 3 spiders with a single piece of meat used. This allows him to easily build up a huge group of followers and to farm spider drops more easily than most characters.
Furthermore, Webber does not get any penalties from eating monstermeat at all, which makes it easy for him to quench his hunger. Besides that, Webber can craft spidereggs with six spiderglands, six papyrus and twelve silk, which can allow you to gain more spider followers. Lastly, he can upgrade spiderdens up to the next tier with 5 silk respectively to gain even more spider allies faster.

Webber's disadvantages

Since Webber is a monster, certain mobs will naturally be hostile towards him. These mobs include Pigmen, Bunnymen and Catcoons. This can render the process of building pigman and bunnyman farms quite difficult.

Summary

All in all, Webber can be challenging for beginners, since his playstyle is so different from most others in addition to having very low max sanity. However, he can be very helpful if used effectively and if structures like pighouses are not placed too close to the main base. Other than that, he is a good pick for players who feel unsave fighting because of how he can befriend spiders. Even if the spiders aren't a big help, he still has higher than average health. All of that being said, Webber still only really synergises well with other Webbers because of his downside.

Winona

Winona is the 12th character, and is the Handywoman. Winona starts out with 150 Health, 150 Hunger and 200 Sanity. She spawns in with 3 Trusty Tapes (her own item which I will get into)

Trusty Tape

Winona has the ability to craft Trusty Tape, a cheaper version of the Sewing Kit. It can be crafted with 3 Grass Tufts and 1 Silk. It can also be used by any other character. Meaning if you have no sewing kits and you have a Winona, it's a good idea to craft some tape as it is a much cheaper item than the sewing kit early game, however late game it will probably be a better idea to craft sewing kits instead.

Sisterly Love

Winona is Charlie's (The woman who attacks you in darkness) sister, and apparently fought with her a lot! When in Darkness, Winona can dodge Charlie's first hit in darkness, she will shout ''HA! I know all your moves.'' If you turn on your light, then go back into darkness, you will still dodge her attacks, meaning you can dodge, quickly switch to your light source then turn it off again. This is extremely useful as it will save a lot of durability on items like Moggles or Miner Hats. It can also be a great way of losing sanity early game!

Craft Time

Being a factory worker, Winona will craft 0.5 seconds faster than other characters. This can be handy in many situations. If you have a Winona base building, she will take a lot less time to build everything which makes her perfect for that. She an also use it as a quick craft if she's in danger (e.g building a spear if she's being chased by a monster).

Synergies

Winona synergises well with pretty much all the characters. She synergises well with Webber as he can provide her with easy silk for her trusty tape. She also works well with Wendy who can also farm spiders very easily. Otherwise she works decently with everyone else

Summary

Winona is a decent character. Her tape can be pretty handy early game, or if you've ran out of sewing kits. And her lower craft time can be handy for Base building and for quick getaways. She's basically a better Wilson in that she has no downsides whatsoever. However she doesn't have much going for her other than her tape in terms of usefulness, much like Wilson and his beard hair. She's still pretty good however, there are just more useful characters than her.

Conclusion

Overall each character can be quite useful in their own ways. Some are more suited to team play than others but that doesn't make them completely useless. It solely depends on your playstyle. If you prefer supporting the team, play Wickerbottom or Maxwell. If you prefer to fight bosses, play Wolfgang or Wigfrid! If you prefer minions to do your bidding, use Wendy or Webber! It's completely up to you.

I hope this guide helped you understand how each character works and how they can be used to your advantage. A big thanks to Macmilan and Gentleman Gatekeeper for helping me write this guide! If you think I missed anything, let me know. Or if you liked the guide, leave a comment below! See you in the next guide!

[Parusoid]

There are still bunch of incomplete, incorrect and outdated informations, smh

[Juny Pear]

Maybe just rerelease the guide later on who knows

[Juny Pear]

I think it might be best to wait with updating the guide until all updates regarding characters are done. This way we not only can check everything off at once, but also we'll have had plenty of time playing them, thus being able to give more tips n such

[Jeikku]

Yeah I don't know when it'll be but I will add Wortox, and also update Winona and Willows parts

[commanderdemon]

W O R T O X

[Mittens]

oh add wortox

[Juny Pear]

Also out of her 2 downsides, only one of them can be a small bit annoying at worst. And that only in DST as well. So she may just as well not have one.
Same with Wolfgang, his downside is so minor it isn't even a downside at this point.

[Juny Pear]

Imo the books are a little too beneficial while being a little too boring.
It's like a mod character in a way where they didn't know how the character is supposed to trigger the effects they came up with, so they just give her books that activate the effect with rightclicking

[Aether]

I *Never* use the books anyway.

[Juny Pear]

Probably gets nerfed to ♥♥♥♥