How to Survive Indefinetly in Don't Starve

Do you have problems surviving? All your living attempts come to an end? Don't worry! This guide will teach you the basics of Don't Starve so that you can survive indefinetly and explore the rest of the game for yourself. As I know that part of Don't Starve's appeal is the mistery, you don't know whether that mushroom or creature is going to kill you or help you, this guide will not contain major spoilers, only the minimum necessary so that you can survive and explore all those things for yourself.

The First Night (Fire & Food)

Before the night comes, your first goal should be to gather materials to make a fire and gather enough food to keep yourself not starving.

First thing you can do is search for Twigs and Flit instead to make an Axe. With an Axe, you can cut down a tree for logs. Also look for Cut Grass on the way, it will be useful for many crafting items.

While you are looking for Twigs and Flit, you may find food on the way: Carrots, Berries and Seeds. These are enough to keep you fed in the early stages on the game when you roam across the map looking for materials and a good place to build your camp.

Seeds are not especially nutritious, they only restore a small amount of hunger, but they are better than nothing. They will become more useful after you've already established a base with Science Machine and want to build a Farm.

You will also encounter Flowers on the way, pick them up but don't eat them. Once you have 12 Flowers you can create a Garland that helps boost your sanity by a little. It's not much, but it's the best protection you have for sanity on all characters early game.

When it comes to fire, you have 2 choices: Campfire or Fire Pit. The former requires only 2 Logs and 3 Cut Grass, while the latter requires 2 Logs and 12 Stone. The difference is that the latter remains on the map even after the fire is gone. So the next time, you'll only need to add Logs to it to make a fire.

It's a minor difference, given that the so easy to find 3 Cut Grass everytime you make a new fire is not worth the difference for using 12 Stone once. It's mostly aesthethics, it looks better with the Fire Pit that you can always reactivate. However, in the first night, you may not be able to find 12 stone, for that you need a Pickaxe and to find Stone.

If the night comes, and you managed to: get an axe, gather food, gather logs and built a fire, you should be good.

Now, personally I like to explore the whole map before building my base, you don't have to literally explore every piece of the map, just the corners, that way, you will have a general idea of the layout of the map. It should take you about 6 - 7 days.

Just find water, and move along the water, going from biome to biome. Gathering Twigs, Flit, Logs and other types of resources on the way. As long as you have a fire at the end of the day, you should be good. The Hounds that are really difficult to kill unless you have an armor and weapon come around night 12. And if you want less of a challenge, you can disable them from the menu.

Additionally, a quick way to restore health early game is the Cooked Green & Raw Blue Mushrooms combo. Green Mushrooms appear before nightfall, Blue Mushrooms appear during the night. Cooked Green Mushrooms restore 15 Sanity but lose -1 Health, while Raw Blue Mushroooms restore 20 Health but lose -15 Sanity. The Cooked Green Mushrooms being used to mitigate the Sanity loss side effect from the Raw Blue Mushrooms. To cook any food, simply drag it into a fire.

Eventually, you will want to find some Gold to build a Science Machine, you can mine it with the Pickaxe.

TL;DR, things to remember here: when you are spawned into the world, get Twigs, Flit, Cut Grass, Carrots, Berries, Seeds, Flowers, Green Mushrooms and Blue Mushorroms. Use the Flit and Twigs to build an Axe and then cut Trees for Logs. Use Flowers to create a Garland and restore your sanity a bit. If you're feeling cocky, use Flit and Twigs to create a Pickaxe and mine Stone. When the night comes, either use 2 Logs and 3 Cut Grass to make a Campfire or 2 Logs and 12 Stone to make a Fire Pit that can be reused. Congratulations, you survived your first night! If you're having sanity problems used COOKED Green Mushrooms, remember that they must be COOKED. If you're having health problems use COOKED Green Mushrooms & RAW Blue Mushrooms combo. Remember: green ones must be COOKED, blue ones must be RAW. Green COOKED, blue RAW. You have no idea how easy is to mess this up. And if you're having food problems I feel bad for you son, I have 99 problems but carrots, berries and seeds ain't one. Then, go ahead and find Gold.

The Science Machine (Good Crafts)

If you decide to explore the map instead of looking for a place to build a base right away, after you explore the whole map, it should look something like this:
Even if only the coastline is explored, you can clearly see all the biomes of the map, the whoe map.

Regardless whether you explore the whole map or not, the next part into your survival and thriving on the island is building a Science Machine!

You've found Gold and built a Science Machine. The Science Machine is what moves you from the early stage of the game to the mid stage of the game. It allows you to unlock more sophisticated and useful crafts. The basic crafts you get at the start of the game can only get you so far.

The items unlocked with Science Machine are called Science Tier 1. After a while you'll unlock the Alchemy Engine which is science Tier 2, even more sophisticated and useful crafts are unlocked. There is also Prestihatitator for Magic Tier 1, Shadow Manipulator for Magic Tier 2, Ancient Pseudoscience Station for Ancient Tier 1 and Tier 2. But for now, let's focus on good crafts from the Science Tier 1 aka Science Machine.

When it comes to tools, the Shovel is your friend. It allows you to dig up graves for loot, aka unboxing. But most importantly, it allows you to dig up plants and move them where you want, more specifically in your base.

The most important plant that you can dig at first is the Berry Bush. Simply go across the map at the places were you found Berry Bushes originally, take them, bring them to your base and plant them there. Now you will have a slow but steady supply of food in your base.

After you moved a Berry Bush somewhere, you need to fertilize it with Manure so it can actually start to grow back. You can find Manure from Beefalo in the Grass biome, the yellow one. They are not naturally aggressive, so you can simply go and take their Manure and leave, unless they are in the mating season then they will become aggressive, just run and take the Manure and leave.

From survival, the Backpack is very useful, since it allows you to carry more stuff, as the name suggests. As well as the Fishing Rod, which is more important than you think, because fish, while keeping you feed, is also an important part from a recipy that allows you to restore a lot of health.

When it comes to fighting, you have the Spear and the Log Suit, used in combination the allow you to beat the Hounds from night 12 with ease. It's useful if you stay on a road while fighting them, so you can move faster. You can hear a howling that gets louder and louder before they attack.

And last but not least, the Farm. The Farm is amzing because it allows you to grow your own plants in your base. Have an even further and better than the Berry Bushes source of food. Build a farm, in fact, build more farms, I think about 6 farms next to each other should be enough. Then when you find seeds, plant them in the farm, eventually they are going go fully grow into whatever was in that seed, and you can eat it.

When you reach Science Tier 2 with Alchemy Engine, you can build Improved Farms instead, which are exactly like Basic Farm except the food grows faster. Whether you want to go directly for Improved Farms or start with Basic Farms and eventually move to Improved Farms is up to you.

UPDATE: A recent Don't Starve Together update has completely changed farming. Forget everything I said about farms, except when playing the regular Don't Starve. In Don't Starve together. To build a farm you need to:
1. Craft a Garden Digamajig, you can find it in the food (carrot) tab.
2. Use the Garden Digamajig, to turn up to 4 tiles of land into arable land.
3. Dig up the debris using a shovel.
4. Craft a Garden Hoe and plow the arable land you just made.
5. Plant the seeds in the holes you just made with the Garden Hoe.

That's it. If you've done that, your plants will eventually grow regardless of what you do. Afterwards, repeat. It's not worth it in my opinion, too much work for too little return, but if you want a better harvest, there are a couples of extra things you can do:
6. Craft a Watering Can, fill it with water, and soak the plants now and then.
7. Talk to the plans, just click on them to talk to them.
There are also other things you have to do that are too complicated for this guide, in order to get giant plants that give you lots of beneift you need to not have more than 1 stress point for a plant by the time it is harvested, I recommend to look online if you want to go that way but remember that you can perfectly do fine without it.

The Drying Rack is extremely useful. It allows you turn regular Meat into Jerky in 2 days. A Jerky restores 20 health, 25 hunger and 15 sanity, so it's great in everything. It's a lot better to make a Jerky than cooked meat. And even better than using the cooker most of the time. It's best to craft multiple Drying Racks so you'll never run out of Jerky, they won't spoil until you pick them up from the rack.

Where can you get Meat from? Pigs, Tusk, Teenbird, Beffalo and Koalefant. The best of these options however at the Teenbirds since they are hostile mobs with no use other than to be killed. If you can dogde them. Use the F key for auto-attack and then retreat when they strike back. The Pigs on the other hand are useful, but if their home is still there they will respawn eventually. And hey, your 20 health, 25 hunger and 15 sanity is more important than a Pig's health, you do it on Christmas too.

TL;DR, things to remember here: get the Shovel to transport Burries to your base, get a Backpack to be able to carry more items, get a Fishing Rod to get Fish from a Pond which will be very useful later, get a Spear and Log Suit to be able to easily beat the Hounds, get a Garden Digamajig to start a farm and use the Garden Hoe to plow the land then plant the seeds and just wait for free food, get a Drying Rack and whenever you get Meat put in on the Rack to turn it to Jerky and don't worry because it never expires. If you're having health / food / sanity problems, everything I said in the previous TL;DR also applies here, but now you've also got the Jerky for a much easier source of health, and food but that's not its main thing so don't waste a Jerky just for food, for sanity I guess it's useful if you're really desperate but I would still prioritize COOKED Green Mushrooms over using the Jerky, simply because they are much more useful for health.

The Science Machine 2 (Refined Crafts)

Now we're getting to the really good stuff. You've seen some basic stuff the Science Machine can provide, but that's not all the Science Machine can provide, the most important items require refined materials, that can also be crafted from the Science Machine.

There are 3 main refined materials: Boards, Cut Stone and Rope. Basically advanced wood, advanced stone and advanced grass. Boards is made from 3 Logs, Cut Stone from 3 Stones and Rope from 3 Cut Grass. All of these can be found in the refine tab, with the diamond shape.


The most basic refined item you can make is the Chest, it costs 3 Boards meaning 12 Logs and with it you can store items in a set location, allowing you to have virtually unlimited items.

I usually make a Chest for wood, a Chest for stone, a Chest for grass, a Chest for weapons & armor, a Chest for Food, Chest for seeds, a Chest for rare materials, a Chest for common materials and so on.

But by far the most useful refined item is the Crock Pot. This will more than double your horizon of new possibilities.

If previously you could only eat raw food or cook it at a fire. Now you can make recepies, combine various foods into a new type of food.

It requires 3 Cut Stone, 6 Charcoal and 3 Twigs. The Chargoal is actually very easy to obtain, just build a torch and start burning trees down. Be careful that you don't burn down an entire forest if you need that wood, but a few isolated trees where the fire can't spread should do it.

In another section I'll list the best recepies for the Crock Pot. For now I'll just say that the best recipies for health are Fishsticks, Pierogi, Honey Ham and Fruit Medley. For hunger the best recipies are Meaty Stew, Bacon and Eggs, Honey Ham, Turkey Dinner and Meatballs. For sanity the best recepies are Pumpkin Cookie, Taffy, Bacon and Eggs and Butter Muffin. And there are of course the universally good: Mandrake Soup, Waffles, Dragonpie and Fish Tacos. While the worst that you should never consume is Monster Lasagna. You don't have to remember all of that, pick a few you like best and stick to that. But now, let's get back to refined crafts.

The Straw Roll allows you to sleep at night. You lose -75 food but restore 33 sanity, so it's a good choice if you want to trade some food for sanity. Let's say you have plenty of food but ran out of COOKED Green Mushrooms and Jerky to restore your sanity. Otherwise, you are better off cutting trees or mining stone at night than sleeping in the Straw Roll.

When you build to the Alchemy Engine and get to science Tier 2, you can build a Tent instead, which basically does the same thing but better, still loses the same amount of -75 food, but restores a lot more 50 sanity and also a lot of 60 health. And has 6 uses instead of one. If you want something in between, you can always use the Fur Roll instead, basically take a Straw Roll and craft it with 2 Bunny Puff, which you can get from Bunnies, which you can get from Traps, it still costs -75 food but restores 30 health and 50 sanity and has 3 uses instead of one. I would only find the Fur Roll useful if you can't get the Silk from Spiders to build the Tent, but usually it's very easy to get, so I don't see the problem.

The Bug Net allows you to catch insects such as butterflies or bees. The Walls and Signs aren't really worth it, unless you want to remember certain areas of the map.

And now to the big players of refined crafts. The Lightning Rod is useful in case there is a storm so you won't be the tallest thing around. The Thermal Measurer is a nice to have, it shows the weather, goes red during summer and blue during winter. The Rainometer shows how likely there is to rain in the future. And of course, the Alchemy Engine that is the next step in the evolution of items crafting, leading you to Science Tier 2.

The wonders of the Alchemy Engine are beyond the scope of this guide, but I'll tell you this: in the fighting section you have the Tooth Trap that is amazing against Hounds. They are traps against mobs, and when the Hounds attack you, they are going to have a surprise.

TL;DR, things to remember here: get to the diamond-shaped crafting button and create refined items, use them to build chests, you can have different chests for: wood, stone, grass, food, weapons, rare items, common items and others for better management, get the start of the show meaning Crock Pot as this item is so useful I have a whole section dedicated to it, you can get the Chargoal need for that from burning down trees but be careful as you want to burn down trees not the whole forest, the Straw Roll is optional for desperate situations where you lack sanity, then build the Alchemy Enging to get to Science Tier 2, additionally, you can build Bug Net to catch insects, Lightning Rod which is very useful in your base in case of a storm, Thermal Measurer is a nice to have that shows you the temperature, not essential but it's good to have it there, same goes for the Rainometer but this time in case of rain. As for health / food / sanity everything else I said in the previous TL;DRs, the Straw Roll of desperate situations and now everything that can be cooked from the Crock Pot which I will talk about in the next section.

The Crock Pot (Health & Food)

The Crock Pot is a pathway to many abilities, some consider to be unnatural. Is it possible to learn this power? not from a Jedi. You can use the Crock Pot to easily keep your health and hunger to maximum. There's some recipies for sanity too, but overall food doesn't offer much increase in sanity. Stick to COOKED Green Mushrooms, Jerky and Straw Roll in case of sanity issues.

You don't need to learn all of the below, just 1 or 2 recipy from each cathegory that you can rely on. Combine this with the Drying Rack and you should be good for life.

I really recommend the Fishsticks because it's very easy to make and provides a lot of health benefits, that's why I said previously that the Fishing Rod is essential.

The best recepies for health are the following: Fishsticks, Pierogi, Honey Ham and Fruit Medley. I'm talking "best" as a mix between how much health it provides and how easy is to get the ingredients.

My favoruite is the Fishstick because you only need to find a Pond and have a Fishing Rod to get the Fish. While for Pierogi you need 1 Egg, 1 Meat and 1 Vegetable, it's not difficult to find either of each but it's likely you won't have all 3 of them at the same time, most of the time. The Honey Ham needs 1 Honey that you can take from Bees and at least 2 Meat. While the Fruit Medley needs to have 3 Fruits and no Meat or Vegetables, so 3 Fruits and 1 Twig.

When it comes to Meat, I recommend using any type of meat that isn't Meat TM, because Meat TM can be used on Drying Racks to create Jerky that restores 20 health, 25 hunger and 15 sanity using a single item, and also never rots unless you take it off the rack. By Meat TM I mean the classical meat, the one that says only "Meat" in the description, instead I recommend using Morsel or Drumstick for recepies that require meat. Also, you can use 1 Monster Meat as replacement for any type of food that requires meat, but use 2 Monster Meat and you get Monster Lasagna which is literally the worst food in the game, you're better off not eating it.

If you have the option, always use Twigs as a filler.

The Fishsticks are easy to make, find a Pond, use the Fishing Rod to get fish. And then cook something like: 1 Fish, 1 Twig and then either: Carrots, Berries, Mushrooms. These are easy to get and you can use other vegetables or honey. I don't recommend meat or egg as filler because meat and eggs are very useful for other recipies.

However, when you reach Alchemy Engine meaning Science Tier 2, swap your preference for Fishsticks with Pierogi. It's difficult to stack Fishsticks, you have to fish for a lot to get like 15 fish so you can have 15 Fishsticks. But Pierogi while slightly harder to get is overall a better option, you can easily stack them once you reach the Alchemy Engine meaning Science Tier 2.

Pierogi needs 1 Meat, 1 Egg, 1 Vegetable, 1 Filler. You can easily make Pierogi with 1 Meat, 1 Egg, 2 Carrots or 2 Mushrooms. Or you can use 1 Carrot/Mushroom and 1 Berry. Just don't use Twigs as a filler. Really, the only thing you have to worry about is Meat and Egg. If you have Meat and Egg is almost guarnateed you can make Pierogi, so how do you get a stackable amount of Meat and Egg ? Because the alternative is to fish a lot of time for Fishsticks.

For Meat: You can use 1 Monster Meat that you get from Spiders and others to make Pierogi, but also Morsel or regular Meat TM that you get from dead Pigs. Simply farm them and stack them.

For Eggs: You can get Tallbird Eggs from Tallbird Nests but that's not stackable. Instead, build a Bird Trap from the structure tab, plant a seed and catch a bird, build a Birdcage, trap her in the Birdcage and feed her meat (In Don't Starve Together you can feed her monster meat, in Don't Stave you can't) and she will drop 1 Egg. So with the Birdcage you basically transform Meat into Eggs and Vegetables into Seeds for those Vegetables.

You need Alchemy Engine because only then you can build Birdcage so you can stack Eggs. You can find the Pappirus material needed for the Birdcage in the evil biome, the one with the tentacles. Afterwards, if you have a steady source of Meat like a region where Pigs and Spiders fight each other or you simply attacking spiders, you can easily turn that into half-meat half-eggs, and for the vegetables, you can always use Carrots and Mushrooms but also everything you grow from the Farm.

While you may spend days to get 15 Fish for 15 Fishsticks, you can make 30 Meat for 15 Meat / 15 Eggs and 15 Pierogi in a matter of minutes. This is why when you get to Science Tier 2 switch to Pierogi.

Also, having like 6 Crock Pots would be ideal if you want to spam items. And a Chest/Frige next to it so you can easly put items from the Chest/Frige in the Crock Pots.

Fishsticks: 40 Health / 37.5 Food / 5 Sanity.
Pierogi: 40 Health / 37.5 Food / 5 Sanity.
Honey Ham: 30 Health / 75 Food / 5 Sanity.
Fruit Medley: 20 Health / 25 Food / 5 Sanity.

What about hunger, eh?

Best recipies for food are Meaty Stew, Bacon and Eggs, Honey Ham, Turkey Dinner and Meatballs. Being essentially food, good recipies can clear your hunger more than the best recipies for health or sanity combined.

Meaty Stew requires only 3 Meat and provides 150 Food, for most characters this means a fully belly. Bacon and Eggs are basically Pierogi without 1 Vegetable, they provide 2 times less health but 2 times more food. Lesson learned, vegetables are healthier but don't fill your belly as much.

Honey Ham provides a decent amount of health and hunger, it's useful for both. Turkey Dinner is slightly more complicated, as you need specifically 2 Drumstick from a Gobbler or Pengull and no vegetables, but given that it also restores 75 Food I believe it's worth mentioning. And Meatballs is basically 1 Meat and 3 Filles that won't randomly create any other food, avoid using 2 Monster Meat or else you end up with Monster Lasagna, instead, use 1 Meat, it can even be 1 Monster Meat and fill it with 3 Mushrooms or 3 Berries.

If for health I think the Fishsticks are most useful, in terms of food I think Meatballs are the most useful. As in easy to make. Don't use Twigs as a filler, you'll make another food.

Meatballs only cost you 1 Meat and 3 Fillers. So you can easily make Meatballs with 1 Monster Meat and 3 Carrots or 3 Berries or 3 Mushrooms.

You can use 3 Meat to make Meaty Stew instead, which is 3 time more nutrious than Meatballs, but since Berries and Mushrooms are so common I don't think it's worth it. Better use 3 Monster Meat for 3 Meatballs, since they give the same benefit.

Meaty Stew: 12 Health / 150 Hunger / 5 Sanity
Bacon and Eggs: 20 Health / 75 Hunger / 5 Sanity
Honey Ham: 30 Health / 75 Hunger / 5 Sanity
Turkey Dinner: 20 Health / 75 Hunger / 5 Sanity
Meatballs: 3 Health / 62.5 Hunger / 5 Sanity

That's how you find the ingredients and prepare the recipes.

TL;DR, things to remember here: get Fishsticks in Science Tier 1, Pierogi in Science Tier 2 and for hunger always use Meatballs, they are very easy to make and provide a lot of benefits.

The Crock Pot 2 (Sanity & Avoidance)

Best recipies for sanity are Pumpkin Cookie, Taffy and Butter Muffin. Unfortunately, the Crock Pot doesn't offer much sanity, but even some sanity is better than no sanity. If you have to, use Taffy.

Pumpkin can be obtain from Farms, afterwards you can feed Pumpkin to a Bird in a Birdcage and it will give your more Pumpkin Seeds in return. Combine that with 2 Honey and you get the Pumpkin Cookie. A lot more complicated than the recepies above and only offers 15 sanity. But as I said, in the realm of food recipies from the Crock Pot, sanity isn't king.

Objectively the best are Ice Cream, Jelly Salad and Wobster Dinner. Each restore 50 sanity, but their ingredients are a lot more complicated to get than any of the ingredients listed here.

Taffy on the other hand, is the best choice available. Taffy is twice as easy to make than Pumpkin Cookies, because you only need 3 Honey and no Pumpkin. But also, while it restores 15 sanity, it's the only beneficial food that makes you lose -3 health. It's not much, and you can probably easily compensate with 1 food that increases health, but since it gives you a negative, even as a minor one, I didn't post it as the first choice.

If you're willing to overlook that -3 health per Taffy by using either 1 Fishstick or 1 Pierogi, this is how you make stackable Taffy so you can restore your sanity whenver you want.

Taffy is made with 3 Honey and 1 Filler in this case Twigs so we aren't going to worry about fillers. To get Honey you have to: built a Bug Net, catch Bees but NOT killer Bees, build about 3-4 Bee Box away but within reaching distance from your base because bees will turn hostile once you take the honey from them. Place Flowers around the Bee Box so that the bees have what to make Honey with. Make sure you place Bee Box on a small distance from one to another, so you can easily run all of them and get all the Honey without fighting the bees.

Do that, and you have Honey for life. So Taffy for life, so +15 sanity food items for life. But beware and remember the -3 health.

Ice Cream may give you +50 sanity but it's a lot harder to make needing 1 Honey, 1 Milk/Butter, 1 Ice, 1 Filler (not Twigs, usually another ice). You can get the same effect from 3-4 Taffy who are dirt cheap, and also -9 or -12 health but you can easily mitigate that. So Taffy is better than Ice Cream.

While Butter Muffin is an interesting overall choice, because you need 1 Butterfly that you can get with a Bug Net, 1 Vegetable and 2 Fillers. It gives a decent amount of health, food and sanity, not too great not to terrible. Other than these you can take any other recipe from above since they also increase your sanity by 5.

Pumpking Cookie: 0 Health / 37.5 Hunger / 15 Sanity
Taffy: -3 Health / 25 Hunger / 15 Sanity
Butter Muffin: 20 Health / 37.5 Hunger / 5 Sanity

There are also universally good recipies: Mandrake Soup, Waffles, Dragonpie and Fish Tacos. The reason I made a special cathegory for these is that they are very rare, you won't encounter them often, but when you do, they are very useful.

Mandrake Soup gives you a whooping 100 Health, 150 Hunger and 5 Sanity and only requires 1 Mandrake with any 3 fillers, but good luck finding a Mandrake. Waffles needs Butter, which is difficult to get, other than that you only need Eggs and Berries, and gives you a lot of health. Dragonpie is again an item that only needs a single ingredient beside fillers: Dragonfruits, which are rare and can be found in Farms. Fish Tacos are a lesser version of Fishsticks, they restore as much hunger but only half as much health, no reason to make Fish Tacos over Fishsticks, but it's interesting that you have to use Corn.

However, in the Magic tab, you can only make Pan Flute using Mandrakes. The Pan Flute puts monsters to sleep so it can be very useful. It only has 10 uses but can be dismembered and remade back with 100% durability using a Deconstruction Staff. So making a Mandrake Soup may be tempting, but you can always use other foods to get the same type of effects you get from Mandrake Soup, however, when building the Pan Flute the Mandrake cannot be replaced.

You can get Dragonfruit from random seeds when you plant them in a Farm. There is a very low chance to get a Dragonfruit therefore is a rare item. But when you have it, the Dragonpie only needs 1 Dragonfruit and 3 Twigs. Unlike Mandrakes, the Dragonfruit is worth making Dragonpie with them, because you don't have any other good use with them out there.

Mandrake Soup: 100 Health / 150 Hunger / 5 Sanity.
Waffles: 60 Health / 37.5 Hunger / 5 Sanity.
Dragonpie: 40 Health / 70 Hunger / 5 Sanity.
Fish Tacos: 20 Health / 37.5 Hunger / 5 Sanity.


While the worst that you should never consume is Monster Lasagna. Any type of food that has at least 2 Monster Meat in it becomes Monster Lasagna.

Food with 1 Monster Meat is allowed, either as part of the recipy or as a filler, but anything with 2 instantly becomes the terrible Monster Lasagna. The only thing that gives you is food, and not much 37.5. But instead you lose 20 health and 20 sanity, so in the vast majority of times Monster Lasagna is not worth it. You are better off cooking Monster Meat at a fire and eating it like that if you're desperate.

Monster Lasagna: -20 Health / 37.5 Hunger / -20 Sanity.

Beware the Monster Lasagna!

There are many recipies in Don't Starve, you don't need to keep them all in mind, just enough to have an idea on how to easily restore your health and hunger. Learning 1 or 2 easy recipies from health & food should be enough. As for sanity, almost all give you 5 sanity, which isn't much, but unless you want to go for Ice Cream, Jelly Salad or Wobster Dinner, you're going to have to find other means to improve your Sanity.

TL;DR, things to remember here: Not much to do with the Crock Pot in terms of Sanity, the best choice is by far the Taffy beacuse it's easy to make as long as you have Bee Box, but even that is only 15 sanity so you need to make a lot of them. Ice Cream can be very good restoring 50 sanity but it's difficult to get something like honey, milk/butter and (2x) ice. Stick to the original method of COOKED Green Mushrooms, Jerky and Straw Roll in case of sanity issues. There are some super-foods but hard to get. But Mandrakes are better used to get the Pan Flute under the Magic tab. You can get Dragonfruit from random seeds in the Farm and they are one of the best plants you can have, it's worth making Dragonpie as they have no other better use like Mandrakes. And never put 2 Monster Meat in the same recipy.

That's it.

You can literally end this guide right here. Now, you know how to survive in Don't Starve. But if you want more, I've made more.

The First Camp

As you may have seen, there are roads that allow you to move faster on the map as well as friendly pigs that can help you in a fight, especially if you bring them food and make them friends.

If you didn't know that, don't worry, it isn't a major spoiler, you would have found that out anyway in the first hour of playing the game.

One of the safest places to put your base is right inside the main base of the Pigs, the one with the Obelisk and the very fat pig. If you're attacked, either by Hounds or anything else, there's a big chance the Pigs will rush to your defense.

However, sometimes the pigs may turn hostile due to unforeseen events in the environment, not wanting to give spoilers, so if you want to build your base next to a big base, build it next to the big base, not right inside the pig base or right next to your base but within reaching distance, so they don't outright attack you if they turn hostile.

Additionally, the Pigs have plenty of Berries in their base and if there happens to be a Spider Nest nearby you can occassionally get free dead Pig items and free dead Spider items.

And very importantly, the main base of the Pigs is almost always connected to a road, which will allow you to move faster throught the map.


However, while a camp inside the Pigs' main base is safer, it might be further away from the resources you need, if you want to take the riskier approach, you can build your base away from the Pig's base at the intersection of 3 biomes.

You can have the base on the road at an intersection between a forest biome, a stone biome and a savanna biome. Or better yet, at an intersection of roads, so you can go in 3 or 4 directions as fast as possible.

While it is possible to build your own road with crafting is a terribly slow and not worth it process, you might as well make use of what you already have.

And while you have your main base somewhere in the center of the map, you may have mini-bases in other areas of the map, with a Fire Pit, a Science Machine, Chests and Berry Bushes for food, to give you a decent amount of protection when crafting.

Personal Play - Character

When I first start the game the first thing I do is pick my character.

Wilson is the "default" character since he has no specials going on for him and a basic 150 health, 150 hunger and 200 sanity.

1. Willow-> However, I prefer Willow who although is 150 / 150 / 120 she has a lighter that can come in handy very often, like having a free eternal torch, and she is immune to fire damage.

But be careful, the downside is that when her sanity reaches 60, which is less than 50% sanity, she randomly lights a small fire at her feet without warning, you don't want that to happen next to your base. So if your sanity is low, be wary of that, recover your sanity and don't stay near your main base.

2. -> XY-78 -> He starts with very low stats 100 / 100 / 100 and slowly loses health when in water, such as when raining and you have no protection.

But eating Gears, permanently upgrades your maximum Health, Hunger, and Sanity. Each gear increases 20 health, 6 hunger and 13 sanity. After a total of 15 Gears you can reach the mindblowing stats of 400 / 300 / 400.

Gears cannot be crafted, they are found randomly throught the map, and especially in the region with robots that look like chess pieces, however they are very strong, but you can get them to fight one another or someone else.

3. -> Woodie -> The werewolf. You have an axe named Lucy with permanent durability.

But, you will transform into a beat if you eat 2 monster foods (food from monster meat) within 4 minutes of each other or if you use Lucy too many times during a full moon, at night.

I enjoy most playing with Willow, infinie light from Lighter and it's all good as long as you keep your sanity up.

Personal Play - First Night

The first thing I do in the world is start collecting as many small things as possible: Twigs, Flint, Cut Grass, Berries, Carrots, Flowers, Mushrooms, Seeds while going towards water.

When I reach the water, I either go left or right on the land. I basically speedrun the whole map's edges. It takes a few days, probably 6 - 9 days, but eventually I reach back the place where I started.

Then I will have a complete understanding of the map. I can easily tell which resource is where juding from the biomes and where it's best to set up my camp. Usually in the middle of the map at the intersection between 3 biomes, so I can have quick access to all resources.

When the evening comes, during my exploration, I use 2 Twigs and 2 Cut Grass to make a torch. I don't even need to build an Axe and cut off some tree so that I can make a Firecamp for the night, I don't need a Firecamp but a Torch because I want to keep moving. If I have Willow, I don't even need a Torch as I already have the Lighter.

Personal Play - Base & Science Machine

When I find a place to settle down, ideally next to a road and between 3 biomes in the center of the map, I build a Firepit so that it remains there forever and cook whatever food I have: carrots, berries, seeds.

How I have to worry about my health, hunger and sanity. For hunger, it goes without saying that those carrots, berries, seeds will be useful. For a quick dose of health & sanity the mushrooms are my best friends.

Cooked Green Mushrooms provide: -1 / 0 / 15. They restore 15 sanity at almost no cost. The green mushrooms only appear in the evening. While Raw Blue Mushrooms provide: 20 / 12.5 / -15. So if I want sanity, just eat Cooked Green Mushrooms. If I want health, just eat Cooked Green Mushrooms and Raw Blue Mushrooms, the former will cancel any negative effect of the latter.

Red mushrooms that apprear during the day are terrible. Raw ones provide -20 / 12.5 / 0 and cooked ones provide 1 / 0 / -10. None of them are worth it alone or in combination with something else.

Once I have a basic way to take care of my health, hunger and sanity. My next goal is getting 1 Gold from gold rocks, most likely in the rocky biome, to get a Science Machine.

Personal Play - Science Machine Builds

With the Science Machine, my priorities are building: Spear & Log Suit for protection, this will allow me to fight the Hounds when they attack. Shovel & Backpack and then I go looking for scattered Berry Bushes on the map and move them to my base with the Shovel. And a Drying Rack for an instant source of health, food and sanity.

Note that for the Berry Bushes and other useful things such as Grass to grow after you replant it, you need to fertilize it with... Manure, that can be taken from Beefalo in the Grass biome. Note that Beefalos aren't naturally aggressive, except when they are in the mating season, so if one of them gives sings that he may be aggressive, you might want to back up a little bit and run.

Fishining Rod is another useful item you can get from the Science Machine. But you need to find a Pond, kill the frogs around that pond and then fish for fish. Because fish is necessary for a very easy to do recipy that will restore you a lot of health, so you won't have to rely on mushrooms anymore.

Chests are another useful items you can create. I usually make multiple chests with different functions:
1. Basic Materials Chest (wood, stone, flint, cut grass, twigs).
2. Rare Materials Chest (Gold)
3. Random Materials Chest (Nitro)
4. Basic Food Chest (Mushrooms, Carrots, Berries, Seeds)
5. Cooked Food Chest (Anything that results from the cooker)
6. Farms Food Chest (Anything that results from seeds from farming)
7. Fighting Chest (Weapons and armor)
8. Tools Chest (extra Axes or Pickaxes or Shovels, etc)
9. Random Chest (anything else that don't fit nicely anywhere else)

That seems like a basic, from then on you can expand your chests, i.e make dedicated Wood chests or Stone chests. Make 2 chests for the same type, i.e Basic materials chest 1 and basic materials chest 2. Or make chests for completely new things i.e Magic chest.

As for the inventory, you have 15 slots, excluding extra slots with Backpack.
- In the first 5 slots I will always put: Cut Grass, Twigs, Wood, Stone, Food. You never know when you need them, and the food is important.
- In the last 5 slots I will always put basic equipment: Axe, Pickaxe, Spear, Log Armor, Sovel, Fish Rode. Both of these can expand in the middle if you need, for example, sometimes you might need Flint or Gold as well to carry.
- In the middle 5 slots I will put extra things I need from the first 5 or last 5 as well as things I pick up during the road.

I don't build Basic Farms as I usually build Improved Farms right away, skipping over the basic ones. UPDATE: I build Garden Digamajig and Garden Hoe right away, since now you can find all of them in the Science Machine.

I also make the Crock Pot so that I can start cooking. And lastly but not least, the Lightning Rod. Trust me, you don't want a base without a few Lightning Rods scattered around here and there. There are thunderstorms in Don't Starve and your base is very... flammable.

Personal Play - Crock Pot Recepies

At the Crock Pot, for health I focus on: Fishsticks & Pierogi, sometimes Fruit Medley. Hunger is not usually a problem but Meaty Stew & Bacon and Eggs will do. And for sanity I go for Pumpking Cookie & Taffy.

For Fishsticks you can use: 1 Fish + 1 Twig + 1 Monster Meat + 1 Monster Meat or 1 Fish + 1 Twig + 1 Mushroom + 1 Berry. It provides 40 Health / 37.5 Food / 5 Sanity so it's a great deal. Very easy to find, to store and to create. It's blueprint is 1 Fish, 1 Twig, 2 Fillers but the fillers cannot be more twigs, you needs Fruits, Vegetables or Meats, including other Fish but that's a waste. Just make sure you don't accidentaly create other recepies such as Fish Taco by using Corn & Berries.

For Pierogi you can use: 1 Monster Meat + 1 Egg + 2 Mushrooms or 1 Monster Meat + 1 Egg + 2 Carrots. It also works with any kind of meat instead of Monster Meant but not with Berries since they are fruit. And the blueprint is: 1 Meat, 1 Egg, 1 Vegetable, 1 Filler. The most difficult things to get here are the Egg are easiest to obtain by feeding an imprisoned bird any type of meat. For that you need BirdCage which needs Alchemy Engine.

For Fruid Medley you can use: 3 Berries and 1 Twig. Fruit Medley only restores 20 health instead of 40, but simple to make it's useful when you lack something else. All you need is 3 Fruit and 1 Filler. Make sure the filler is a Twig so you don't create Fist Full of Jam.

Now for the hunger-focused recepies. Pretty much any food restores hunger, but for the cases when you really need it:

For Meaty Stew you can use: 1 Meat + 1 Monster Meat + 2 Frogs Legs or 2 Meat + 1 Monster Meat + 1 Carrot or 2 Meat + 1 Monster Meat + 1 Egg. The blueprint is 3 Meats + 1 Filler. Make sure the 3 Meats are not 2 Monster Meats otherwise you end up with Monster Lasagna. But you can use 1 Monster Meats instead. Filler can be anything: Eggs, Carrots, Berries, Twiggs.

If two or more Monster Foods are used in the pot, the crock pot produces Monster Lasagna unless Twigs are added or higher priority food is available. So if you use 2 Monster Meats in a meal, make sure you also add a twig otherwise you risk creating Monster Lasgna.

For Bacon and Eggs you can use: 2 Monster Meat, 1 Egg, 1 Twig or 1 Monster Meat, 1 Meat, 2 Eggs. The blueprint is: 1 Meat, 2 Eggs, 1 Filler. Make sure you don't use something like 2 Monster Meat and 2 Eggs for it has a 50% change of creating Monster Lasagna.

Now for sanity. Restoring sanity using the Crock Pot is kind of difficult, almost all meals restore 5 sanity, but if you have to, there are some easy to make meals that restore more sanity than others, but you need a lot of Honey:

For Pumpkin Cookie you can use: 1 Pumpkin + 2 Honey + 1 Twig. The blueprint is 1 Pumpkin + 2 Honey + 1 Filler and Twig is usually the ideal filler, there's plenty of it and it's not food. To get Honey, it's quite a long journey. You need to make a Bug Net to catch Bees and store them in your own Bee Box. For the Pumpkin, it can only randomly grow in a Basic Farm or Improved Farm after you use seeds on it.

For Taffy you can see: 3 Honey + 1 Twig. As long as you have Bee Boxes and a Bug Net to catch and store bees there, restoring 15 sanity which each Taffy bite or Pumpkin Cookie bite should be a piece of cake for you. The only real difference is that Pumpkin Cookie restores more hunger and Taffy makes you lose -3 Health, but it's manageable if you also have the previous recipies.

Personal Play - Alchemy Engine

Once you have the Alchemy Engine there are countless possibilities, but I would focus on getting: Improved Farms, Bees and Tooth Trap. Then Golden Axe & Pickaxe, Miner Hat, Birdcage and Tent.

You look for what items you need for Improved Farms, build some Improved Farms next to you, about 6 would be good. Get seed from birds and watch your plants grow and food coming steadly.

You can already do the Bee Box from tier 1, the Science Machine but there are other more important priorities back then.

While the Tooth Traps made from using fallen Hounds' Hound's Tooth, and will protect you in your base from further Hounds attacks.

The Golden Axe & Pickaxe are the same as the Axe & Pickaxe except 4 times more durable and using gold instead of flint.

The Miner Hat is good if you want to explore the caves, as it provides better and longer light than a Torch and you have your hands free while doing so.

You can build a Birdcage to get birds for eggs.

The Tent restores 50 Sanity and 60 Health at the cost of 75 Hunger, so it's good if you have lots of food but not much of everything else. A lesser Straw Roll version exists in the Science Machine, but it's not recomended as it only restores 33 sanity and consumes 75 hunger.

That's pretty much it. You can then do things like Wooden Flooring or Carpeted Flooring to decorate your base and explore the rest of the Don't Stave.

The magic of Don't Stave is that more often than not you don't know what to expect, it's a magic immagined world so most of the time you don't know whether that thing will kill you or help you, do you good or do you bad, and I don't want to take that from you. But know you know the necessary to survive, so go out there and explore the rest of the Don't Stave, good luck adventurer!

Summary & Ending

In summary:

Want a decent source of health early game? Cooked Green & Raw Blue Mushrooms combo.
Want a decent source of sanity early game? Cooked Green Mushrooms.
Want a decent source of food early game? Berry Bushes and Carrots.

What a decent source of everything mid-game? Drying Rack from Science Machine.
Want a decent weapon and armor? The Spear and Log Suit from Science Machine.
Want a decent source of storage? The Chests from Science Machine.

Want a constant source of food? Move the Berry Bushes to your main camp with Shovel. And build Farms from Science Machine, you don't have to constantly water them.
Want a constant source of health? Using the Crock Pot that can also be used for great food, cook Fishsticks, Pierogi, Honey Ham or Fruit Medley.
Want a constant source of sanity? Sleep inside a Straw Roll from Science Machine and later a Tent from Alchemy Engine. Takes Bees, build Bee Box and cook Taffy. Also Drying Racks.

That's all folks, good luck!

[Gundalf]

Nice thanks.

[Akfiz]

I could copy-paste the guide on Don't Starve, but that would mean 2 copies of the same guide. I may make a Don't Starve guide with a redirect link to this guide so you guys can use it with SHIFT + TAB while in Don't Starve. But I decided to make it for Don't Starve Together because it has more players and it's basically the same game with extras.

[black_sh33p24]

Niceeeeeeee

[Mr. Toilet47]

ye put as don't starve

[Pink Milk ❤]

f

[rastarocks]

put it as dont starve, not dont starve together