Differences in Don’t Starve Together

Our most recent Co-op game has been Don’t Starve Together. We both really like playing Don’t Starve, but as I said before, couch co-op games are one of my favorite. Don’t Starve is a Rogue-like game.  This means that every time you play, the game is different.  You start out in the middle of a randomly generated world, and a creepy guy named Maxwell shows up next to you.  He tells you not to die, and vanishes into a puff of smoke.  It doesn’t really get easier from there.  The game does not explain much of anything.  You can walk up to random items and interact with them.  One button will try to pick up the item, if you can, and the other will make your character give you some hint about the item.  There are normal things you might find in nature, such as rocks, trees and flowers.  Eventually, there are some really weird things that maybe Alice would have seen after she’d been smoking with the caterpillar.  The game is drawn in a gothic style, kind of like if Tim Burton drew a comic book.  The game always reminds me of Peter and the Wolf.  Characters don’t have a voice actor, but any time they say anything on screen, a specific instrument plays.  The only real indicators that you have are three circles with a brain, a stomach and a heart.  It quickly becomes evident that they relate to your sanity, your hunger and your health.  As you interact with other items in the world, they will make your stats move up or down.

We did not have the expansions to Don’t Starve. There have been a lot of surprises in the way Don’t Starve Together works compared to the original game.  Most of the biggest changes have to do with the special abilities of the characters.  Some of these surprises were actually put in place in either the Shipwrecked DLC or the Reign of Giants DLC.  Here is a little bit of what to expect to be different from traditional Don’t Starve to Don’t Starve Together.

My favorite character is Willow.  Almost all of the characters are a little more nerfed.  Willow is traditionally the second character unlocked in the game.  In Don’t Starve Together all of the characters are unlocked at the beginning, so I can pick her right away.  There was a character I’d never gotten to play before called Webber.  He can be friends with spiders, so that’s kind of cool.  In previous versions of the game, I had some trouble killing spiders.  Webber’s beard will give you silk when you shave it.  None of the characters from Shipwrecked are currently playable.  There is also some customization available so if you’re playing with a group online, you can tell who you and your friends apart. It was a huge surprise when Willow’s lighter was no longer permanent object. It had a duration and at first I was really worried that I would lose it. I found out after I had built my science machine that I would be able to build another one fairly easily if I made the first one run out.

Willow is no longer immune to fire.  They also added a new game mechanic where characters can overheat.  In the main game, if Willow was starting to lose too much sanity, you lit a bunch of random things on fire and stood practically on top of the flames.  It would make her sanity go up even at night.  In Don’t Starve Together she will overheat if you stand too close to the fire for very long.  These two changes completely nerf this character.  She is weaker than so many other characters, it makes her difficult to play effectively.

I think Woodie is also a more difficult character, but I seem to be in the minority there.  In the normal game, Woodie has a magic axe that speaks to him.  The axe never breaks.  He’s very good at chopping down trees.  It warns you when you chop too many trees too quickly that something bad is going to happen.  When a full moon comes around, Woodie turns into a were-beaver.  His normal stat bars go away and he only has one bar left.  I think it looks like a wood-o-meter.  You do not have access to your map or your inventory.  Most of your actions are taken away.  You can gnaw through trees like it’s your job.  After they’re on the ground, you can eat logs or twigs to increase your wood-o-meter.  I have read other places that it is called the Beaverness meter.  You can feel free to choose.  When the meter reaches zero, Woodie is transformed back into himself with all of his stats at about half.

In Don’t Starve Together, Woodie’s at rest UI has four stats.  He has his health, sanity and hunger; but then he also has a constant wood-o-meter.  You can more easily manage when you may turn into a werebeaver.  It was strange to get used to at first; I was expecting Lucy to tell me about my upcoming changes, but since you have the wood-o-meter, she does not have different lines when you get close to being a werebeaver.

One of the best changes they made to Woodie in Don’t Starve Together is that Woodie’s beard does give you extra warmth in the winter now.  It still cannot be shaved like Wilson’s or Webber’s.  I did not play through a summer that I had an issue with, but I would imagine that it could cause overheating.  They also made it almost as easy for Woodie to gain sanity as it was in the normal game for Willow.  Every time you plant a pine cone or a birchnut you gain sanity.

What’s a birchnut you say?  There are new biomes in Don’t Starve Together.  Birchnut trees grow in their own forests.  When they are fully grown, the trees drop two birchnuts.  One can be eaten and the other can be replanted so you have more next time.  Tumbleweeds occasionally saunter across the screen.  If you can catch them, they’re usually full of resources.  It’s a great way to get items you usually have to give up sanity to acquire.

Playing the robot, WX-78, is a little harder.  Rain always had made him lose sanity at a higher rate and actually hurts him as well.  In Don’t Starve Together, there is also a wetness meter.  If your gear gets wet, you can drop it, some of it rots quicker.  It seems to rain a lot in Don’t Starve Together.
These are a few of the things that we were most surprised with in our playthrough.  I’m sure there are a bunch more.  Tell us what you were surprised with most in our comments or on our Don’t Starve post on Facebook.