The premise is simple. The execution, not so much. I stumbled across Don’t Starve (DS) and its co-op play alternative, Don’t Starve Together (DST), via Twitch.tv. After watching a few streams I wanted to try my own hand at not starving to death. From the outside looking in, it appeared to be The Sims meets Minecraft Survival Mode meets Harvest Moon. Okay y’all, I’m in.
I’m not much of a solo RPG fan. I tend to get bored playing games alone after having found MMOs so I really liked the idea of the coop option for DS. A few days after seeing people play it for the first time, I owned both version of the game due to a $19 bundle on Steam that included both versions of the game and a copy of DST for a friend. Although I’m mostly looking forward to playing DST with family and friends I decided to get my feet wet on DS first.
Test Drive
My first two attempts at DS weren’t very stellar. In both cases I was dead after the hounds arrived on day 9. I have an absolutely atrocious sense of direction combined with difficulty in finding an area to collect stone and gold nuggets put me way behind. I wasn’t starving. In fact, I was managing my hunger, health and sanity pretty darn good but desperately needed stone for a permanent fire pit and gold to create the science table. Still wandering around aimlessly by day 8 wasn’t conducive to being prepared to fight the hounds when they arrived. *sigh*
Disappointed in my showing, albeit making it to day 9 on my first attempt was better than other new players I’d seen, it wasn’t good enough for me. Reading through a few Reddit threads I picked up on the suggestion to uncover your map by walking along the shoreline while sustaining yourself on the go. Viola! That sounded like the perfect answer to my problem of getting lost trying to locate the resources you should start harvesting right off the bat.
Using the tip to follow the coastline helped me uncover the map more quickly and identify the various resource terrains without getting lost every few minutes. This time around I had established my base camp by day 4. I gathered the further distances during the day and parked in an area to chop trees at night using only a campfire.
My basecamp is in full swing but I feel a little under prepared for the harshness of a DS winter. Combat is a weakness for me in DS/DST. There’s something about the staccato movement that throws me off. As a result I’ve avoided spiders. I DO NOT WANT TO DIE. There’s no one to resurrect you when you die. It means game over. I could change the default settings to support resurrection after death but that removes part of the immediacy and tension of your choices.
On the flip side, no spiders means no meat drying racks or anything else that requires spider silk for traps. I haven’t found any gears which means no ice box. I’m eating hand to mouth, as I have no way of preserving food products. In my favor is that I’ve camped near the shore so my back is protected. I enclosed the remaining sides using bales of hay. I’m in the middle of a Pigmen camp. If anything attacks me, my strategy will be to run to them for protection. I’ve also made sure I'm near rabbits too. I have 10 rabbit traps down at all times and collect the critters a couple at a time so the meat doesn’t spoil. I planted berry bushes. grass and saplings around my camp to have them close at hand.
Winter's Chill
With my base is as established as it’s likely to be, given my choices, I want to explore more but it’s too cold to take the chance. Winter is in full swing. Last night a group of penguins flew out of the water and trapsed through my camp. The next morning all the bunnies where covered in white fur. Brrr - it's here for real now. Recently I saw people heating up rocks. I’ll have to figure out how that works. It might let me venture a bit farther without freezing to death. My character has a beard to provide warmth during the winter but it’s not as long as it should be. Trying to figure out how to get fur from Beefalo I accidently shave it clean off 2 days before winter started. *wah-wah*
I think winter lasts 30ish days. That’s only a week or so to go. Will I survive?? *Smile*
Just a note that you can trap spiders - it's my preferred way of taking them on as I hate getting hit by anything, log armor or no log armor. A little patience and kiting will empty out a den.
Posted by: Jeromai | January 25, 2015 at 06:42 AM
This is on my Steam big list of games that I really need to play through. :(
Maybe one of these days...
Posted by: Winged Nazgul | January 25, 2015 at 08:17 AM
Thanks for the tip. I'd subsequently seen a streamer do that and am now all about the traps for spiders!
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | January 25, 2015 at 12:02 PM
It's a don't miss title. Solo and co-op are equally good. My daughter and I just started our first DST server last nite.
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | January 25, 2015 at 12:03 PM