Don't Starve Together Beginner's Tutorial (Days 6-12)

In case you missed it, be sure to check out our Days 1-5 tutorial here.

So you’ve mastered building a torch at lightning speed, explored the map and foraged enough food to get you through the first five days. Great start. Now this nomadic lifestyle can’t last forever so in this next phase of the game, you’ll be looking to set up a base which can sustain your needs longer term. Oh, and did you hear that howling in the distance? You’ll also need to be prepared for your first mob attack. Bring on the hounds.

What do I need to do?

• Choose a location

• Build your base

• Get planting

• Prepare for attack!

⛺ Choose a location

We suggested using the first five days to explore as much of the map as possible. A few days into the game, you’ll start finding that your inventory is looking rather full and grab-and-go food sources like berry bushes are looking increasingly bare. Setting up a base camp allows you to store excess resources, take stock of what everyone has collected (if you’re playing with friends) and grow crops.

You can set up a base anywhere but there are some locations that will be more ideal than others. Here are our main Do’s & Don’ts:

✔️ Do base:

• In a central location - If you’re on the outskirts of the map, you’ll have to travel a long way to get to different biomes. Time is precious.

• Near resources - Our first choice is basing in a spot with plenty of rabbit holes (usually in the savannah) as this offers a steady food source supply over autumn and winter. You won't find a spot with every kind of resource but aim to find a spot that is close to a several key resources.

• By worm holes - To connect you to other parts of the map that you’ll need to go to occasionally e.g. rockyland or the pig king.

• Near roads and paths - You can run faster along these, speeding up any journey to or from your base.

• In a clearing - Means that there is already some space for planting (see below).

• Near pigs - They're a friendly mob who can help you out if you end up in conflict with another mob during the daytime. Being near them also provides a nice sanity boost, especially if you've fed them! Just be sure not to have them right on your doorstep as they turn into werepigs during a full moon!

❌ Don’t base:

• Right next to a spider nest - Spiders do provide you with useful resources but if you base too close to them, they’ll constantly be swarming your camp (and eating up any food left on the ground)!

• In a meteor shower area - This is anywhere you see black stroke marks across the ground. If you get caught up in a meteor shower, your character could take a lot of damage and parts of your base could be destroyed.

• In the swamp biome - As you’re skipping home merrily with your berries, you don’t want to suddenly get wiped out by a giant spiky tentacle. There are much safer places to base.

• In the desert biome - There isn’t too much here that you’ll need on a regular basis.

⚒️ Build your base

In order to craft better structures, you’ll need some different resources to those mentioned in days 1-5. Stand next to a science machine to prototype the following:

• Boards - Refined from logs.

• Cut stone - Refined from rocks.

• Electrical Doodad - Made from cut stone and gold.

Boards

Cut stone

Electrical Doodad

You'll also need charcoal which is collected by chopping down burnt trees.

When setting up your base, you’ll want the following structures:

Firepit (logs x2, stone x12)
More robust than a campfire and stops the fire from spreading to nearby objects.

Alchemy engine (cut stone x2, boards x4, electrical doodads x4)
The upgrade of a science machine which allows you to prototype everything you need. Once you’ve built this, you can demolish your science machine to regain some of its resources.

Crock pot (cut stone x3, charcoal x6, twigs x6)
Allows you to combine four ingredients to cook a variety of dishes. These will generally boost your stats a lot more than eating food cooked over a campfire. Ideally you’ll want four crockpots so you can quickly make food, especially with more players.

Firepit

Alchemy Engine

Crock Pot

Chests (boards x3)
Allow you to store up to nine resources which protects them from getting waterlogged in the rain and nabbed by animals (moleworms will eagerly snatch up any minerals left lying around on the ground). You can even store live animals such as rabbits and birds in a box for a few days before they die.

Drying racks (twigs x3, charcoal x2, rope x3)
Hang various meats on these to dry. This turns them into jerky, increasing their shelf life and boosting their health and sanity benefits.

Chests

Drying Rack

🌱 Get planting

To create a sustainable base, you will need to plant up some key resources:

• Berry bushes

• Grass tufts

• Saplings

As we suggested in our Days 1-5 Tutorial, aim to collect at least 10 of each of these resources per player. Plant each of these resources in a section of your base. Right click on a resource to plant it.

You will need to fertilise the berry bushes and saplings using rot or manure. You can obtain rot by leaving flowers or food in your inventory. You can get manure from pigs or beefalo. Feeding each of these animals will make them poop. Scoop up all you can, feed it to your plants and watch them spring to life!

💥 Prepare for Attack!

A-woooo! Has your character suddenly started asking “Did you hear that?” “There’s something out there.”? From these first warning signals, you’ll have two minutes to get organised before the hounds will be heading in your direction.

You can expect your first hound attack between days 6-13 (usually around day 8). To prepare, we suggest the following:

• Prototype a spear (flint x1, rope x1, twigs x2)

• Prototype a log suit (logs x8, ropes x2)

• Find your mates (so that they can kill the hounds for you) 😉

• Ensure you have a campfire light source if the attack happens at the end of dusk (you can’t hold a torch and weapon at the same time). If the hounds attack you at night, you’ll want to have a decent fire already rolling.

The fight!

Drop your backpack, don your log suit and equip your spear. When the hounds come running in, try to get one alone at a time as this will give you the best chance of killing it. You will take a lot more damage if you stop moving and have three hounds attacking you at once. Note that you can’t outrun the hounds unless you’re running on a trail or road.

Mobs in DST each have their own kiting pattern. Hounds have a slightly random attack mechanic in that they may attack, then do nothing or attack and then start barking. If the hounds start barking you can usually get 2 or 3 hits in without getting damaged.

Generally speaking the pattern will be: Dodge attack, hit, repeat.

You can press Ctrl + F to attack the closest target automatically.

If you happen to be near a mob such as the spiders, bees or pigs (during the day time), you can lead the hounds to them and the two mobs will engage in combat. You might not be completely off the hook, but this will provide a much-needed distraction if you’re feeling overwhelmed.

If you live to tell the tale, you will not be attacked for at least the next 6 days so make use of the uninterrupted time to continue building up your base and farms to prepare for winter!

📋 Days 6-12 checklist:

1. Map is largely explored (at least the perimeter)

2. Alchemy engine built

3. At least one crockpot (4 in total is ideal)

4. Berry, grass and sapling farms each with at least 15 crops

5. The remains of the first pack of hounds you’ve defeated! 💪

The next tutorial will cover Days 13-20 and include all you need to know in the lead up to winter!

📊 Appendix: Maintaining Stats

Struggling to keep your hunger, sanity and health stats up? Here are three easy ways to boost each of your stats:

🐇 Hunger

• Rabbits - Make a trap using cut grass x6 and twigs x2 and place over rabbit holes. Either leave the traps and return the next day or you can try scaring the rabbits to run straight into your traps.

• Moleworms - Leave a stone next to a moleworm hole as bait, wait for a mole to scurry over to the stone and then knock it on the head. Pick up your stone then rinse and repeat!

• Meatballs - Your go-to recipe as soon as you have made a crockpot! There are loads of variations of recipes but an easy one to start with is meat x1 and berries x3.

🤪 Sanity

• Picking flowers - By far the simplest way to increase sanity by +5.

• Green mushrooms - Find these at dusk and cook before eating to gain +15 sanity. Use a shovel to get two mushrooms instead of one but be aware that this will prevent any further mushrooms spawning there which will make life harder for you in the future.

• Prototyping - Stand next to a science machine or alchemy engine to craft items for the first time. Each time you do, you’ll gain a sanity boost of +15.

For a more comprehensive guide to sanity, check out our Beginner's Sanity Guide! 🍄

➕ Health

• Butterfly wings - Eat these to restore +8 health. Instead of running around trying to catch a moving butterfly, wait until one is hovering over some flowers then hold down Ctrl + F to move in and punch it.

• Spider glands - If you engage in combat with a spider or perhaps discover the aftermath of a spider/pig fight, then you can pick up a spider gland which, when eaten, will give +8 health. Additionally, you can use spider glands to make a healing salve.

• Blue mushroom - When eaten raw, these boost health by +20 but be warned that this comes at the cost of -15 sanity. These mushrooms are only found at night time.