In the “Constant” chaos that is Don’t Starve Together, players have a wide variety of highly unique characters to choose from. Klei did a great job making sure each character is a completely new experience. With different play styles come different challenges depending on who you play. As any seasoned Don’t Starve Together player will tell you, there are obviously way more things to factor into this indie survival title than what we have listed here, but these are some basic categories that can help beginners or those looking to try out a new character a good start depending on what your struggle may be. If you have any DLC you’ll see those characters (Wortox, Wormwood, Wurt, and Wanda) aren’t listed, we have started with just the 14 base characters, some of which are unlocked with experience.
Easiest Don’t Starve Together Characters To Battle As
Battling the mobs is key to creation in Don’t Starve Together. Since everyone has their own strengths, weaknesses, and style, there are definitely some characters built for the fight. If you plan on going after the big bosses to get the items needed for the best gear you should consider these characters.
Wigfrid
It doesn’t get much more battle-ready than Wigfrid. She is a method actress stuck in the role of a Valkyrie and she really goes all in. Wigfrid can craft a helm and spear that are specific to her character, but able to be equipped by any character. The Battle Helm takes 80% of all damage and the Battle Spear does 42.5 damage. When she enters the world, she has one of each already in her possession. These big damage dealers make a huge difference when battling large groups or bosses. Her Health and Sanity meters also improve when she kills enemies. Battle is her main focus making her the obvious choice for the best to fight as.
Wolfgang
Of course with a list of the best fighters you have to have the strongman himself, Wolfgang. However, Wolfgang requires prep and maintenance to be in his best form and do the most damage. He has three forms tied to a Might Meter. In order to get the Might Meter number high, Wolfgang needs to lift weights regularly. In his strongest Mighty form, whatever weapon he’s battling with will do twice the damage as normal. The rate of the drain on this form depends on how hungry Wolfgang is, so players should make sure he’s fed and has worked out before setting out on a boss battle or mob mission.
Winona
Although Winona isn’t a battle character in the traditional sense, her inventions make a huge difference when you get attacks coming through your base. Winona has a craftable catapult that only she can build. It’s powered by a generator or G.E.M.erator, which can also only be made by her. Each shot does 42.5 damage and if it has been attacked but not destroyed, it will self-repair over time. It’s a great defense against mobs in your base and is easy to craft.
Woodie
At the bottom of the battle list is the unpredictable Woodie with his wereforms. There are two ways for Woodie to transform into either the Werebeaver, Weremoose, or Weregoose. First is by eating two Monster Foods within four minutes during a full moon. Second is by eating a Kitschy Idol anytime, an item that is craftable only by Woodie. When going the full moon route, players will transform at random, but the Kitschy Idol allows players to choose their form.
In wereform Woodie cannot access any of his inventory and will have to rely on melee attack. As a Werebeaver he only deals 27.2 damage except against Treeguards and Birchnutters when that increases to 44.2. He is also protected against 25% damage. As Weregoose he can’t perform battle, so this will be useless for that unless you want to run away really fast. However where his real power comes in is as the Weremoose. This beast does 59.5 damage, is protected against 90% of incoming damage, and cannot be stunned. This is a finnicky benefit and hard to aim right, but if you get it just right, it has a big impact. However, you will want to have food prepared and close for once the wereform wears off as his hunger will be at 0 no matter where it was when you started.
Easiest Don’t Starve Together Characters To Feed
It can take quite a bit of time and getting used to the game to reach a point where you know how to efficiently keep your character’s hunger meter up. Building crock-pots, finding the right ingredients, and getting used to harvesting a lot of food can be challenging when you first start playing. Some characters are very picky about their food and different meals have different effects on all the characters. These are the easiest to feed.
WX-78
While being a robot has a lot of cool benefits with WX-78’s circuit abilities, one that may be the best for beginners is his ability to eat pretty much anything. Most characters have penalties to their Hunger, Health, and Sanity meters for eating certain things like spoiled food and stale food. However, WX-78 is totally unbothered by the condition of the food, so there’s no need to worry about anything going bad. However, WX-78 players will still want to watch out for sanity effects from monster food still.
Webber
As a boy trapped in a spider, Webber has gained a tolerance for monster foods. When playing with others, this can be especially useful because you can save all the morsels and other meats for those who have sanity drain from monster meat and have a big stash just for Webber. For those playing alone, it expands your options when it comes to meals and you can farm your own friendly spiders if you need to.
Easiest Don’t Starve Together Characters To Keep Sane
Being stuck in an alternate world where you’re surrounded by bizarre creatures and even your shadows are after you is bound to drive you insane sooner or later. But let’s shoot for later with these characters.
Maxwell
Without having to carry, make, or fix anything, this sharp dressed man has a constant sanity increase. You don’t have to wear anything special and it doesn’t take up any equipment spots. Maxwell just naturally gets more sane over time. However, this comes at a cost of having much lower health than most characters. But his Puppets that can fight for him make up for that. Maxwell does have his benefits from being insane, but is definitely the easiest to bring back to reality.
Walter
Although Walter may not be easy to keep sane, it is easy to regain his sanity. As you may be able to tell from his uniform, he is a “Pinetree Pioneer,” which is like a boy scout. His Pinetree Pioneer hat makes it so he will only have half the sanity taken from him in any situation. Walter’s fascination with monsters allows him to be in the night and around certain monsters without losing sanity. Being near more than five trees is enough to begin boosting this Pinetree Pioneers levels in the case he isn’t at full sanity. In the evenings he can tell a story at a campfire or endothermic fire and increase not only his sanity, but also the sanity of anyone else around the fire.
However, Walter does have a big downside to his sanity too. He loses sanity consistently whenever his health isn’t completely full until it is again. Using clothes for sanity won’t affect Walter but if you can make his dog Woby big with some monster meat and quickly get to some trees by a nighttime fire, you should be able to recoup easily enough.
Warly
A professional chef with a taste for the finer things in life, Warly is a difficult character to keep fed. But when it comes to sanity, he has some perks. Although it can be difficult to get all the items needed, Warly has the exclusive ability to make Fresh Fruit Crepes with two fruits (only one can be berries), butter and honey, but note this may turn into Monster Tartare instead. When any player eats the crepes they get 15 sanity instantly as well as a large health and hunger boost. This is definitely not a character we recommend for solo play. A large party would be best.
Easiest Don’t Starve Together Characters To Start As
If you’re a true beginner, we definitely recommend trying to start as easily as possible to get used to the game mechanics and take in all the factors there are to consider for survival. A big piece of that is having a fairly well-balanced character so your character management isn’t taking away your focus while trying to figure out resource management and crafting. New players may want to try out a few servers, messing around with the server settings, different characters, and (if you’re playing with others) team combos to see what works. These characters should be the smoothest sailing.
Wilson
This is the main character, literally. Klei made Wilson first and debuted him in their 2012 Beta. He has all the base stats and little extra qualities to his character. The ease or difficulty of all the other characters’ different stat points were based on Wilson. His max health, hunger, and sanity levels are all the standard and he doesn’t have any disadvantages. He even has a beard that grows in and provides natural insulation against the cold in case winter sneaks up on you, so long as you don’t shave it before it grows in on time.
Willow
Although Willow has a lower max sanity level than Wilson, her health and hunger are the same, so you’re only combating one of your meters being below base level. Willow has a special perk to her and that is she comes equipped with a lighter. This can be used as a light while you explore in case you’re learning how long it takes to get from one part of the map to another and get caught in the dark or get hungry and need to cook. It can also be used to light things on fire in case you need a fire to sit around before you get a base settled or are looking to create ash. The lighter doesn’t ever break, but will be dropped if you die. You can either collect it, or craft a new one.
Wendy
Poor little Wendy has a dark outlook on life and the things around her. She has the same base stats as Wilson, but is shadowed by her twin sister’s ghost. This is a large benefit with some small drawbacks that should be easy to maintain when you first start. Wendy’s sister Abigail can be summoned through her flower and will even fight for Wendy. This makes it easy to take on spider dens, bees, an other small enemies that may seem overwhelming due to large numbers when you’re learning the game.
But Abigail does have a health bar and if she is attacked to zero, it takes sanity from Wendy. Wendy will also lose sanity if she decides to put her back in the flower. Abigail’s health bar comes in 3 levels depending on how long she’s been alive. It starts at 150 and is at 600 at maximum. There are even elixirs Wendy can make for her to help strengthen, heal, or shield her.
Easiest Don’t Starve Together Characters To Die As
Not everyone is looking for the easiest way to do the main pieces of the game though. While all the characters are brilliantly built and each one has their challenges, some are made to bring an extra spice to experienced players.
Wes
By far the hardest character in the game, and on purpose, is Wes. His whole purpose is to provide a challenge to the player. He only has a maximum of 75 in his sanity, hunger, and health, giving him the lowest stats of all the characters. He is a mime so he doesn’t speak, all of the other characters have certain phrases they say to warn the player of either mobs coming, hunger approaching, nighttime falling, or any other potential issues.
His special ability to build exploding balloons for battle cost him five sanity per balloon so it would be a huge sanity drain to build enough to be worth it. When it comes to basic tasks, he’s even made that difficult by being less efficient with tools. Hounds are drawn to target him over the other characters and so is lightning. He’s also more sensitive to conditions like overheating, freezing, slows, and others. He is the ultimate test of how much of a Don’t Starve Together expert you are.
Wickerbottom
This powerful librarian is definitely a very strong character choice. If you can play her correctly she is a powerhouse waiting to be unleashed. One of the things that put her in this category is that her special ability involves creating books, which requires collecting papyrus found in the swamp, one of the most challenging biomes. Creating these books also takes sanity to create and read but, Wickerbottom can’t use tents or rolls to restore her sanity which are some of the easiest ways to get a lot of sanity at a time for most other characters. Figuring out a good balance between making and using Wickerbottoms books takes some time. But if you can get her right, she’ll be worth it.
There’s More For You To Explore
All this said that’s only a starting point on all there is to take in about these characters, their unique abilities and tools, and this strange Constant world. There are more benefits, downsides, weird quirks, and tricks to learn as you play and this only covers a handful of them. No matter who you choose, be sure to enjoy messing with all the mechanics the game offers and have some fun with the chaos.
