Don't Starve Together (DST): Beginner's Sanity Guide

Summary / TLDR:

• Pick flowers 🌼 (Easy and effective)

• Prototype new items & structures 🔬 (Easy and effective)

• Wear a Garland or Top Hat 💐 (Easy)

• Eat cooked Green Mushrooms, cooked Cactus flesh and Jerky

• Sleep in a Tent (Very effective, but has cons)

• Befriend some pigs!

  
  

How to stay sane in Don't Starve Together (DST)

Sanity loss and getting killed from the resulting shadow creatures is a main cause of death for newer players in Don’t Starve Together. This guide aims to list out some fairly basic ways to keep your sanity in check for newer players while you learn gameplay mechanics and become more familiar with the game. This guide uses a relative 5 star scale to rank both ease and effectiveness.

You can gain or lose sanity instantly or over time with items and auras. There is a background -5 / min sanity loss at Dusk, Night and in Caves.

Make sure to keep an eye on your sanity meter as you can see if your sanity is increasing or decreasing and how quickly.

Pick Flowers 🌼

Ease: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
Effectiveness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
Instant sanity gain: +5

Picking flowers is one of the best ways to keep your sanity levels up. Each flower picked increases your sanity by 5. Do this constantly, especially in the first 10 days of the game. If you are constantly picking flowers you will have no trouble keeping your sanity levels high.

Prototype new items & structures 🔬

Ease: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
Effectiveness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
Instant sanity gain: +15

In order to craft certain items they must first be prototyped. Once prototyped you no longer need to be near a machine to craft the same item. When you prototype a new item or structure you get an instant sanity gain of +15.

This does not apply to crafting items you have already prototyped.

Wear a Garland 💐

Ease: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
Effectiveness: ⭐ (1/5)
Sanity gain: +1.33 / min

Using those flowers petals you picked earlier you can make a Garland by using 12 Petals in the Dress tab. You'll need to combine this with other methods of increasing your sanity, because alone it is not enough to negate the background sanity loss of dusk and night .

Wear a Top Hat 🎩

Ease: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5)
Effectiveness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)
Sanity gain: +3.33 / min

You can make a top hat from the Dress tab. It requires 6 silk which you can get from spiders or spider dens. So if you destroy a few spider dens early on, this is a good investment. Again it is still not enough to negate sanity loss at dusk and night but it comes close.

Eat mushrooms 🍄

Green mushroom

Red mushroom

Blue Mushroom

Ease: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)
Effectiveness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)
Instant sanity gain: +15 (Cooked Green), +10 (Cooked Blue)

Mushrooms are a great way to get an instant sanity boost. However finding them can be a bit trickier than flowers and you need to remember which ones to eat.

There are three different types of mushrooms each with their own behaviours and stats. For sanity you’ll want cooked Green or cooked Blue mushrooms. Green are the best of the two. Avoid Red mushrooms when trying to increase sanity.

Cooked Green Mushrooms: Health: -1, Hunger: 0, Sanity: 15
Cooked Blue Mushrooms: Health: -3, Hunger: 0, Sanity: 10

Eat jerky 🥩

Ease: ⭐⭐ (2/5)
Effectiveness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)
Instant sanity gain: +25 or +12.5 (Small Jerky)

Jerky is a fantastic food item because it takes a long time to spoil (especially when put in an Ice Box). Additionally the food hanging up does not spoil until collected. You will get regular or small Jerky depending on what type of meat you hang up.

How to make Jerky:

1. Create a Drying Rack (3 twigs, 2 charcoal, 3 rope). Charcoal can be obtained by burning down trees.

2. Obtain some meat and hang it up.

3. Wait for it to dry.

Sleep in a tent (Or sleeping roll) ⛺

Ease: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5)
Effectiveness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)
Sanity gain: 50 & +1/second (tent) or +0.67/second (bed roll)

Sleeping in a tent is a sure fire way to max your sanity. However you will use up a lot of hunger in the process. Additionally finding 6 silk can be challenging for beginners.

Eat Cooked Cactus 🌵

Ease: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5)
Effectiveness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)
Instant sanity gain: 15

Cactus flesh is gained from picking a cactus in the desert biome. You will take damage from picking cacti so make sure to equip a Log Suit or Football Helmet to mitigate the amount of damage taken. Make sure you cook it before eating!

Wear a dapper vest 👕

Ease: ⭐⭐ (2/5)
Effectiveness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)
Sanity gain: 3.3 / min

Put those hounds teeth to good use by making a dapper vest! This gives you the same sanity gain as a top hat so by wearing both you'll have a healthy 6.66 sanity per minute!

Befriend some pigs! 🐷

Ease: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5)
Effectiveness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)
Sanity gain: up to 25 / min

If you feed a pig meat or eggs it will become your ally and follow you around. When you are standing close enough you can gain up to 25 sanity per minute! However pigs will run away when you try get to close even if they are your allies.

Things to avoid to reduce sanity loss!

In addition to increasing your sanity it's important to know how it reduces in the first place! Aside from the background 5/min sanity loss during Dusk and Night you'll also want to limit your time around or avoid:

Spiders: Great for silk and spider glands but cause -25 / min sanity loss when standing nearby.

Worm Holes: Very useful but use sparingly and plan ahead!

Uncooked green mushrooms: -50 sanity if eaten

Monster Meat: Avoid eating if possible

Evil Flower: -25 / min when standing nearby

Beardlings: -40 / min sanity loss when standing nearby. Rabbits turn into Beardlings when you're sanity drops below 40%.

Additionally

• Rain will drain your sanity. (if you're using default settings rain is not too likely early on)

• Eating raw food

• In Winter Deerclops will decimate your sanity with a whopping -400/min so be prepared to also face some Shadow Creatures if you're planning on taking him on.
  

Good luck, have fun and Don't Starve Together!