How to play Wes (but not a joke guide)

C'est La Vie.

1) Why Wes?

Practically? There's no reason to play Wes. You're not playing Wes because you want everyone to think of you as a huge help. Every Wes player, regardless of how skilled they play, will inevitably be insulted by someone for picking the 'burden' character and have their every action scrutinized 5 times harder than even the willow who immediately asks where base is.

Unpractically? There's a few reasons. I personally enjoy doing flower% death runs in public servers. Some people enjoy the challenge, while others enjoy the bragging rights. But the REAL Wes mains? I have no idea why they enjoy it, because they haven't spoken since April 23, 2013.


That all being said, if you feel like getting into the chicanery that is playing Wes and not dying on the first day and saying 'wow that sucked', then this guide may be for you.

2) Let's talk cons.

I'm gonna level with you. Wes is mostly cons. I know this isn't a groundbreaking fact, but I feel like the disclaimer should be there that Wes sucks in a Wes guide. Now that we've acknowledged the elephant in the room, let's go over the downsides before we talk about the upsides, since they're more game-play defining:

1) He has the lowest stats! 75 in every stat. This means Wes is tied to be the most fragile character in the game with Maxwell, and will begin starving in a single day on a full stomach. The silver lining here is that Wes's sanity is a lot easier to manage on both ends, since a little restoration or deterioration goes a long way when your sanity is so low.

DISCLAIMER: Wes DOES NOT drain hunger faster in DST. He is only hungrier when he's lonely, in the original Don't Starve game.

2) He does 25% less damage. This means he does as much damage as default Wendy, but without the rampaging death machine known as stAb-agail to buff his attacks or provide support. Don't worry about wasting weapons though; your durability compensates for your weakness, so you still get the same amount of overall damage as a normal character per weapon.

3) Wes is more susceptible to overheating, freezing, and grogginess. I'm not going to go into the specifics of these, mostly because they don't affect how you actually interact with most things. If you are in a hot/cold season, you should already be prepared for it, especially as Wes, and taking more time to stand up after you fall asleep shouldn't matter since if you get stunned at all as Wes you might as well be dead regardless of the extra time in the stun.

4) Wes is less efficient at using tools. This basically just means it takes longer to gather stuff, since the tools break less fast if you mine less fast. But you weren't picking Wes solely to gather stuff anyways, so this shouldn't matter too much.

5) B A D L U C K. Wes players are RENOWN for being unlucky, and that's because the game hates them, not because they're unlucky. This basically boils down to a higher chance that more hounds will target him, as well as currently spawned hounds having a chance to swap off their current target to go attack him every time they bark. He also has a higher chance to be struck by lightning! Not as high as WX, though, so if he's around he'll steal your thunder.

6) He can't talk. Apart from the soul crushing downside that is the fact we will never be able to talk to our favorite boy so he can tell us he loves us, this has a very minor impact in that he will not call out hounds and he cannot talk to plants. Considering the B A D L U C K we just talked about, you should be extra vigilant for distant barking.

3) Let's talk pros.

Alright now that all those pesky downsides are out of the way, let's look at Wes's Upsides:

Balloons. This one simple addition to Wes's character means he has AN upside to talk about compared to his roughly 6 downsides. He can make 5 balloons, and they all have a unique use! They also all cost 5 sanity to craft. Keep in mind this means you can make 13 balloons before going completely insane, so you can use this to farm nightmare fuel even if you don't need the balloon items.

All balloons pop when damaged, dealing 5 damage to everyone around it when it does pop. This means, similarly to sanity, if you pop 13 balloons (without armor), you will die.

a) Balloon: This is default Balloon. It has the same effects all balloons do, but without any actual use outside of the fact that sometimes, enemies will attack it instead of you. You can hold it in your hand, and decorate with it, so maybe the moral support is worth it.

b) Speedy Balloon: Something the people who chase 'meta' will even agree this is useful. Makes you run faster while you hold it in your hand, but progressively gets worse until it turns into a normal balloon with a unique color scheme! Don't put it on the floor until it's 0% durability or it'll fly away, but feel free to give it directly to other survivors. This degrades at all times, regardless of if it's equipped, so don't feel bad leaving it in your hands.

c) Party Balloon: An actually useful, though often overlooked item due to the fact sanity is so easily obtained. This balloon, when popped, will spawn a little confetti 'aura'. This aura gives sanity equal to 4x the amount of players in it's radius. This scales up to 4 players, for a maximum of 16 sanity per balloon. While Wes only technically gains 11 sanity, since he needs to craft the balloon, for everyone else this is free sanity. That is, of course, given that you can convince them to use it in the first place, since without other players you at best lose 1 sanity every time you craft one.

D) Inflatable Vest: This vest seems really useful, until you realize what it does. This acts like a 'life-jacket', which saves you from drowning if your boat dies or you fall in the ocean! It shares the properties of every other balloon, in that if you take any damage it will pop, dealing 5 damage to you. So, you have to equip it right before you'll drown, without taking any damage. HOWEVER, you can't drown in this game anyways, you will just wash up on shore. So what does this thing ACTUALLY do?? Simple. When you drown, you lose permanent health as if you were resurrected with a telltale heart. If you're wearing this when you drown, you don't lose that health. That's 100% of the functionality, it does not save your items or anything in that vein, so don't count on it.

E) Inflatable Helmet: Last, and certainly not but very close to least. This is an equippable item that increases your sanity by .8 a minute, and it lasts a day. This means it's VERY NEARLY worthless for yourself, giving a total 6.4 sanity and a net profit of 1.4 sanity if worn the whole day after you craft it,. It also shares the property of popping when you take damage with the inflatable vest, dealing 5 damage to you and destroying it instantly. So, while technically good, you better never get hit if you decide to use these. They are marginally more useful for your allies, who don't have to sacrifice 5 sanity to wear them. They also provide 20% wetness resistance, a trait they share with every hat in the game.

Overall, though Wes has a lot of potential uses for his balloons, most lean just outside of practical. The speedy balloon is a notable exception, and is crucial for your early days. Do keep in mind that the ability to make balloons makes Wes one of the best characters to manually go insane, meaning you should have no issues dealing with enlightenment or farming nightmare fuel. This does give Wes some late game privileges, but how do you actually reach the late game?

4) Finally playing the game.

Alright. You're here. You're ready to finally learn to play Wes like a GOD. You're ready. How are you going to be the cream of the crop that destroys servers on Wes?

You just play the game really safely. No, really, that's all. This isn't a general gameplay guide, so I'll give some pointers on things specifically Wes should do:

1) Base as early as possible. Luckily, you have speedy balloons so this is easier than normal for you. Meatballs are almost a full stomach per, so having a crock pot ASAP gives you a lot more leniency when it comes to foraging.

2) Build armor even before you base. You are the only character who should consider a grass suit if you can't get a science machine down quickly. You are the most fragile character in the game, and the normal characters die in 8 hits by a spider. You need armor, and you need to watch your health even with the armor.

3) Prepare for season swaps early. Wes sucks at weather, so have something to deal with it before you have to try and live with it while making something to deal with it.

4) Consider taming a beefalo. If you're able to, beefalos can help counter Wes' low damage issues and their large health pool offers him extra protection.

That's about it, really. If you do all of these things, you can play the game almost as normal, just with less risks than other characters hopefully. That's all there is to Wes, there's no secret key to being the best with him other than just improve your general Don't Starve Together skill. See, Wes is actually really boring, just with the added downside of also being bad. But if you DO succeed in playing Wes, then every other character you play will feel just like cheating.


One more piece of advice, from the man himself:

[GlassOfGrass]

I have always wanted to experiment with the balloon vest to see what happens, thanks for letting me know how useless it truly is before I found out the hard way.

[PUSSY MILKER]

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[Robert the cat󰀀]

i was hoping that people would see this guide and like make a comment thats just like 1 or 2 words but  nope but also













balloons is a pro

[33GamingBrother]

wes + 40 bugnets + deerclops = wes with eyebrella

[♡ Webber]

wes was my main for awhile and i never really had issues playing him (though i would be forced to change character even though i would do fine against fuelweaver) occasionally i would die to some things but it wasn't really all that different playing him than any other character, sure i die probably 2 or 3 deaths more than when i play maxwell but really i don't see why people consider him a burden if the player is good, then it just becomes wilson but with less damage output, and i would try to avoid taking food from everybody else and just focus on stuff like honey, i remember carrying as wes and everyone else was at base complaining about the lack of food and i had to feed everybody else as wes, his speed balloons make him a pretty okay early game food gatherer.

[ferrocianeto]

Also tame a Beefalo. Beefalos counter Wes' low damage issues and offers him extra protection. It really helps a lot.

[whoaheadrush]

legitimately laughed out loud, thank you!! Also actually helpful!

[DIABEATER]

sounds fun trying to play him

[Meowskers]

this is a good guide