Don't Starve - Winter Strategy

[FlawlessHappiness]

Hello everyone!

Is there anyone out there playing Don't Starve?

With the new update "A winter's tale" the winter is arriving too in the magical Don't Starve-Land.

Now, what is your strategy against the winter?

My strategy is first to find that Koalefant, and get the Trunk and some Silk, to create a jacket. I also get the Winter Hat and a Heat stone.

For the food, I right now have a Crock Pot.
I cook lots of meat balls, since it's easy and fills good.
I had prepared several vegetables for this, with 6 Improved Farmplots.

I also have a lot of berry bushes around my base. To the left of my base is a lot of ponds, which of course are frozen in the wintertime, but i can prepare fishes and froglegs from there, when they've thawed.

I was lucky during the winter of day 63, i found a suspicious dirt pile, and tracked down that Snow Koalefant, so now i have a lot of meat for the rest of the winter. I really hope i'll survive this one.

I know i have a Touch Stone ready for if, against anything, i should die.

Hounds seem to be my only problem right now.

Got any good tactics about hounds? I have a lot of Tooth Traps near my base, just to be sure, but they don't kill them. Just hurt them.

I just found my tactic! There is a LOT of Beefalos near my camp. They're really good when it comes to killing Hounds. One Hound attacking a Beefalo makes all the Beefalos go crazy on it, killing it completely!

You may gladly post pictures of your base too!

Here is my base:

Spoiler below!

And here it is on the map:

Spoiler below!

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Hounds seem to be my only problem right now.

Wait till you meet the deerclops. It just destroyed my entire base, so no screenshots from me

As for hounds, I too found beefalos to be the most useful. Pigs are good fighters as well, but too much of a risk for me, due to their little problem with the full moon. So first thing I do when starting a world is locate a beefalo herd and camp nearby. Craft a beefalo hat and voilà: I've made new friends and also have a decent supply of poop for farming.

If I'm somewhere far from my herd when a big number of hounds attack, best tactic is to just run. Hounds attack anything, so chances are they'll get distracted by bees, spiders and whatnot somewhere along the way. They also give up the chase at some point.

My main tactic when it comes to food is bees. A handful of bee hives with a nice patch of flowers nearby and you can easily collect two full stacks of honey before winter comes. Great thing about honey: It can turn a piece of otherwise poisonous monster meat into delicious honey nuggets in the crock pot! (Don't use more than one piece of monster meat or it'll be monster lasagna instead) Extremely useful for when normal meat runs out during winter. Also useful for bandages of course.

I'm also using the drying racks quite extensively since jerky rots far slower than meat. Never used a touch stone yet, I always have a meat effigy decorating my fields like a scarecrow

I also tried to be smart with that Koalefant and caught one during summer. Chased it into a cage I made with walls and left it there as a poop supply and hoped it'd turn into a winter Koalefant during winter. Well, it doesn't. Winter Koalefants are apparently a separate mob that spawns in winter =/ Good thing my beard was already long enough to keep me warm! (Yes, a long beard counts as warm clothing! )

[FlawlessHappiness]

Wait till you meet the deerclops.

I've met it once. Luckily I had just found a freeze-staff, and froze it with 3 shots. Then I ran like hell. I was lucky that it had spawned far away from my base, because i was exploring.

What became a problem for me once, was the giant spiderqueens.

I managed to accidently spawn 2 spider queens (By standing close to a tier 3 spider-nest)... Stupid thing! Beware of that. They're kinda dangerous with their spider-horde.

My main tactic when it comes to food is bees.

How do you farm a bee-block? Don't the bees get angry? You maybe have the bee hat?

I'm also using the drying racks quite extensively since jerky rots far slower than meat.

Good to know! I should do that too!

Good thing my beard was already long enough to keep me warm! (Yes, a long beard counts as warm clothing! )

That is awesome! I didn't know that. I should let my beard grow then. Keeping me even warmer.
I advice you to keep the Koalefant until you run low on food. Or if you're gonna need a jacket.

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I managed to accidently spawn 2 spider queens (By standing close to a tier 3 spider-nest)... Stupid thing! Beware of that. They're kinda dangerous with their spider-horde.

Oh yes! It seems spiders get more dangerous with every update... what's great though: If there's a spider den in the swamp (or if you can get your hands on some eggs and plant one there) the spiders will wage war against nearby swamp monsters, flooding the battlefield with useful items every night. Awesome!

How do you farm a bee-block? Don't the bees get angry? You maybe have the bee hat?

Oh yes they get very angry! Since you can't harvest honey directly from the natural hives you need to destroy those to get a honeycomb that you can use to build your own beebox. Hit and run from the killer bees or use a boomerang to destroy it. Beehat helps a lot of course
The self-made bee box then won't spawn killer bees if you just harvest it, only normal ones that you can outrun easily.
To plant flowers you need to catch butterflies with the bug net and plant those into the ground. Science!

Don't build your bee farm too close to your base though: When the hounds attack they'll often fight against the bees who can kill them if there are enough - and if there's a fire hound inbetween them your whole base can burn down!

Good to know! I should do that too!

It does have lower nutritional value than real beef but it can be used in crock pot recipes without a malus I think.

[Kreekakon]

Oh sweet jesus stop it guys! You're making me want to shelve out my money on yet another game! D:

[FlawlessHappiness]

Oh sweet jesus stop it guys! You're making me want to shelve out my money on yet another game! D:

I know and I'm sorry. I find this game very good, and the fact that they update it often makes it better.

I've heard a bird sing about a multiplayer function one day... Really hope it comes.

I feel like it's worth the money, but maybe you should just wait to see if it's part of the Summer sale? (If that comes)

How do you farm a bee-block? Don't the bees get angry? You maybe have the bee hat?

Oh yes they get very angry! Since you can't harvest honey directly from the natural hives you need to destroy those to get a honeycomb that you can use to build your own beebox. Hit and run from the killer bees or use a boomerang to destroy it. Beehat helps a lot of course
The self-made bee box then won't spawn killer bees if you just harvest it, only normal ones that you can outrun easily.
To plant flowers you need to catch butterflies with the bug net and plant those into the ground. Science!

That's what I'm gonna do then! When winter is over, I'm gonna get some bees, and start to make a bee-farm!

Do you have any tips on how to get meat? Is that just Goblers and Koalefants?
I will not kill birds or rabbits, since they raise my naughty meter, and the chance for Tree Guardians to spawn, and those are a serious threat to my camp right now. There's trees everywhere!

[Kreekakon]

I know and I'm sorry. I find this game very good, and the fact that they update it often makes it better.

I've heard a bird sing about a multiplayer function one day... Really hope it comes.

I feel like it's worth the money, but maybe you should just wait to see if it's part of the Summer sale? (If that comes)

Bleh I was joking with that post, and if anything it was meant partially as a compliment to how good the game sounds ^^

I've played the demo, and it really does seem like an interesting game to have, so still trying to make up my mind if I should get it, or not.

Plus the game is made by Klei, who also made Mark of the Ninja which is an epic game

[FlawlessHappiness]

I know and I'm sorry. I find this game very good, and the fact that they update it often makes it better.

I've heard a bird sing about a multiplayer function one day... Really hope it comes.

I feel like it's worth the money, but maybe you should just wait to see if it's part of the Summer sale? (If that comes)

Bleh I was joking with that post, and if anything it was meant partially as a compliment to how good the game sounds ^^

I've played the demo, and it really does seem like an interesting game to have, so still trying to make up my mind if I should get it, or not.

Plus the game is made by Klei, who also made Mark of the Ninja which is an epic game

That's great to hear!


Anyway,
Day 72:
The rain has washed away the snow. It's still cold, but now i can finally fish again...
Have I overcome the winter?

Yes, I have! Woo! Second winter, has been slain!

[Kreekakon]

Anyway,
Day 72:
The rain has washed away the snow. It's still cold, but now i can finally fish again...
Have I overcome the winter?

Yes, I have! Woo! Second winter, has been slain!

Oh dear bejeezzus, you can fish in this game!? I wouldn't know since the demo only gives you 15 minutes of game time.

The sounds better, and better the more I hear about it!

[FlawlessHappiness]

Anyway,
Day 72:
The rain has washed away the snow. It's still cold, but now i can finally fish again...
Have I overcome the winter?

Yes, I have! Woo! Second winter, has been slain!

Oh dear bejeezzus, you can fish in this game!? I wouldn't know since the demo only gives you 15 minutes of game time.

The sounds better, and better the more I hear about it!

The longer you hold out, the more there is to find.

I have no started the farming of bees.

2 bee boxes so far, and a couple of flowers.

I seriously need some silk soon. Any tips on getting silk? Yes, you get them from Spiders, but right now they're being patroled by large spiderqueens... Pretty dangerous.


Oh, I've also managed to get several Dragon Fruits, by feeding them to my bird. So now i can make a lot of Dragon Pies, to heal myself.