Don't Starve (mild spoilers)

[NearLifeExperience]

"Oh cool, I crafted a shovel! Maybe I could dig up those graves I saw earlier? Yeah, let's do that! ..Oh hey an amulet, cool. And fake teeth? Hmm. oi! What's going on, why am I tripping balls? Must be because I'm on a graveyard, let's just keep digg.. O SHIT!"

My first night on Don't Starve didn't go so well This game is so goddamn unforgiving. It's called Don't Starve, but starving has been the least of my problems. Longest I survived was 28 days. by that time winter had arrived, and I was out fighting the elements with nothing but a lukewarm hotstone, trying to find some trees that I haven't cut down yet and ingredients for my ratatouille when those frickin HOUNDS attacked me again. Other than the frequent hound attacks, keeping up the sanity meter is proving to be very hard as well. I remember this one run where I just couldn't find any gold to build my Science Machine, the game had dropped me in a huge area where everything was either grass or forest >.> so Wilson slowly started going insane, ultimately leading to this death. And of course, when you die you have to start all over again, losing all your equipment (unless you've activated a touchstone, so I've discovered last night)

It's a cruel and unforgiving game that drops you in the middle of things with no information no nothing, but I still intensely enjoy it. Actually, I'm going to play some right now.

Tell me your stories, fellow escapists got any advice for someone who just picked it up?

 

[Pink Gregory]

Since you survived for 28 days, I'm going to assume that you understand the importance of having a logsuit for emergencies, that's pretty much the only thing that gets me through the hound attacks.

Other than that, don't underestimate the importance of replanting trees; plant them close together and you've got a handy-dandy reliable source of charcoal.

You don't actually *lose* all your equipment when you're revived at a touchstone, it's like Minecraft, you just drop all of your stuff in the place where you died.

As for gold, digging up graves + pig king = HELLA GOLD.

FInd the nearest tribe of pigmen, they're useful to have around, plus if you hammer their houses flat it's a good source of boards and pigskin in an emergency (or if you don't want to murder them for pigskin, and why would you want to?)

 

[Skeleon]

I don't know the exact number of days, but funnily enough my longest survival ended the same as yours did, OP. Winter. I had some rabbit ear muffs and a nice fire going, when the friggin' hounds came back. I eventually died, only to resurrect near to a touchstone that had a walrus nearby. It sicked its huskies on me and while running for my life, I had no chance to start a new fire or anything and died to the cold while running. And then I was dead for real. With none of my attempts have I made it through the winter yet. I can only imagine that things get easier again after that, at least for a little while. Awesome game, especially when you learn more about the mechanics, try different things etc.. Getting some good farms going, being near a herd of beefalo and having some holes in the ground for rabbits has probably been my most successful "basecamp placement" as yet. I just never have quite enough poop for all of my farming endeavours. But if you can't find beefalo anywhere near you, just feed the pig men mushrooms and other stuff you don't want. They'll produce poop just as well. Keeping up sanity has not been that big a problem for me lately, because I ration flowers and garlands quite restrictively. I haven't lived long enough to run out of easy sanity-recovery in a while thanks to my change in "flower-tactics". Of course, that doesn't really help if I simply die to something else.

 

[Loop Stricken]

I've never made it through winter, personally.

Ah, the good ol' days of very early beta when treemen were so goddamn prevalent. Ah the hours I spent gleefully running away from those bastards as I twat them with my torch and wait for them to ever so slowly incinerate.
Good times.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

I think the longest I've survived for is... Forty-something days, I think. Certainly through the first Winter. Even then I got myself killed on purpose because I wanted to get the XP to unlock other characters. It's a really fun game, with way more depth than you expect if you're willing to look for it, but I do have a big problem with it.

Basically, if you want to find all the cool and useful stuff like pigmen, beefaloes and so on, you're going to have to go exploring. But the rest of the time, the game encourages you to stay at your base camp since that's where all your stuff is and developing your camp is one of the most important things in the game. So basically the problem is that you always seem to be running back and forth to your camp if you're trying to discover anything new. You can camp out in the wilderness for a few nights, but even with Chesty and a backpack you soon feel like you need to run back to drop off stuff you've found. It gets a little frustrating, over time.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

Well you've survived much longer than I have at this point, I've never even made it to winter. So maybe I'm the one who needs advice.

 

[Zeckt]

I was so proud I lasted through winter and that my base was actually becoming pretty successful and very self sufficient. But oh man, that hound attack. Seriously, 6 hounds all at once and there was not a thing I could do about it. Worst thing is that it is garunteed to happen and you have to prepare for the bigger and bigger hound attacks! next time, I'm going to make my base by a herd of Beefalo.

So the best advice I can give is if you intend to continue to play remember you CANNOT take on all the hounds alone so it is literally required to make a base by some kind of animals. I heard bee's are good vs hounds too, I should try that. Also, if your cutting tree's and piss off a tree lord plant as many tree's with the pine cones in view of him ASAP!! It sucked when a tree lord popped up against me from my tree farm that I created myself, but all I did was lure him to my fall back camp and leave him there.

It's a good idea to make more fire pits not too far off of your base incase you don't have enough time to get back to your main base during winter. Anyways, I'm going to quit the game till next update.

 

[NearLifeExperience]

I had everything set up near a large pig village with a king, lots of resources and farms and everything. I survived the first winter, and then I got myself killed by accidentally pissing of a herd of beefalo Q.Q instadeath stomp. I wasn't wearing my logsuit cause I needed that slot to carry my bagpack.. >_<

I've also stumbled upon some sort of creepy living chess board with pieces that attack me on sight. Nicely done, that scared the fuck out of me when I was out on a nightly stroll ..

I like where this game is going, let's see how this update will work out. I'd like to see more biomes and stuff. And the swamp biome being less of a death trap.

Other than that, don't underestimate the importance of replanting trees; plant them close together and you've got a handy-dandy reliable source of charcoal.

Not a problem, I usually end up burning entire forests down anyway

 

[nexus]

The game is incredible. I hope beyond all hope this becomes a new genre, the updated modern "Rogue-like" unforgiving genre. It's very fun, but I've since mastered "Default". I'm on Day 170, and just kind of mucking about. I'll likely start a new game and disable Touchstones (as well as "Meat Effigies"), and possibly disable Rabbits, because they're too easy to subsist on.

Spoiler: Rabbit Strategy

You can set traps directly on a rabbit hole, without the use of bait, and you will have an unlimited supply of Rabbits. If you set it near them, they will also just "run into it" sometimes. You can also use the same method to trap spiders, by luring them into the traps for a carefree silk farm

They're adding caves in the next update (you'll know if you play, as they show update plans on the main menu).