Don’t Starve Together: Best Strategies For Team Survival

Klei Entertainment’s Don’t Starve Together was the perfect way to open up the original game in a multiplayer format. Now the challenge of surviving Don’t Starve’s fantastical, horror-filled world can be burdened across multiple players.

But this doesn’t have to present more difficulty. In fact, having more players will actually make survival in Don’t Starve Together a much easier task.

Updated October 28, 2021 by Rosa Baumgartl: With so many updates and developments in the Don’t Starve Together story, it’s important to keep this guide up to date. A number of new characters and secrets uncovered has increased the size of the Constant dramatically, which means team tactics need to adjust accordingly. To make sure we provide the best strats to survive as a team, we’ve added a couple of extra points to bear in mind, and freshened up details that have changed recently. The bullet points and more recent images should help when skimming the article, so you can get back to not starving with your friends quicker!

12 Create The Ultimate Team

• Put together a good team composition.
• Choose team members that have skills that work off one another.
• Take characters with unique skills that can help strengthen a team’s weaknesses.

Choosing the ultimate team members can seem like a daunting task, especially when it comes to survival. But Don’t Starve Together makes it easy. Each character comes with a special bonus that’s unique to that character, making it easy to choose different characters that bring variety to the table.

For example, Woodie’s Weregoose form provides him with huge speed buffs and even the ability to run on water, great for exploring the map. Wigfrid and Wolfgang are excellent in combat and therefore make great hunters. Maxwell and his minions, while lacking in seemingly basic survival skills, are good at collecting, which is a vital portion of the game. Wanda’s unique ability to teleport the whole team to a set point is useful in so many emergency situations. If players combine these attributes together, they’ll find themselves a well-balanced, ready-for-anything team.

11 Specialize Tasks

• Assign each team member a specific task.
• Make sure each team member is doing something productive based on the time of day and season.
• Keep a list of things that need to be done and delegate each task.

Division of labor is essential to surviving as a team. When everyone collects food there will be no one left to defend the camp when monsters attack. Tasks need to be split up. There are many facets of the game to consider when dividing tasks: food collection, defensive buildings and weapons, farming, science and technology, and combat, just to name a few. One player cannot handle one (much less several) of these tasks without risking the game. Therefore dividing up the day-to-day tasks is an efficient strategy for maximum resources and survival.

10 Spread Out

• Try to dedicate one or two people to exploring and uncovering the map.
• Keep tabs on important areas of interest.
• Keep a list of potential resources in each area for later gathering.

One of the biggest challenges of Don’t Starve Together is discovering the map. It’s massive and shows where some important resources are. It also shows the different terrains, which house different types of resources. With just one player, discovering the entire map would take days in the game, if ever. By having multiple players explore the map the task will be finished quickly. Once all the players know where resources are, Don’t Starve Together becomes a much easier challenge. To share the map you’ve uncovered stand next to a Cartographer’s Desk to craft a Map Scroll, which can be shared with all of your teammates.

9 Use The Chests

• Dedicate someone to crafting chests for the team to use.
• Keep chests organized to quickly find items.
• Place chests as “caches” in specific areas away from camp, making sure to keep them stocked with necessary survival items.

This is a very basic tool, but it can be extremely useful. The inventory space for each character is rather small, even with an added backpack. Chests are almost mandatory in this game for that reason. But with more and more chests, players can specialize and sort items more effectively.

This makes it easier to craft things and more prepared in the event of an emergency. It’s also easier to have sorted chests — knowing where items are when they’re needed instead of having to search for them is a major convenience. Mini Signs are a great way to communicate what’s in each chest. Placing a correlating item next to one, and then using a Feather Pencil will result in a life-like sketch on the sign. One Board will make four of these, so they’re pretty cheap too.

8 Keep Your Enemies Closer

• Try to build bases close to specific enemy types.
• Learn which enemies drop what items.
• Some neutral mobs (like Beefalo) can be used to protect players from hostile mobs, as they will fight against one another.

They say to “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” and in Don’t Starve Together this motto stands true. The intimidating Beefalo can be a combat menace when provoked. But when interacted with peacefully or even tamed, these beasts can be a real help. A smart strategy is to have a clear route to Beefalo settlements for a base camp. Not only can these creatures become a steed to ride on, but they will fight nearby monsters, eliminating a lot of combat for players. When Spring hits, steer well clear though, as Beefalo go through mating cycles. They become very territorial and downright aggressive, a tell tale sign of which is their red read ends.

7 Love The Monsters

• Some monsters drop insanely useful items.
• Keep tabs on what monsters are in which areas to be better prepared to combat them.
• Monster Meat can be used in a pinch to create better dishes when cooked.

Monsters are terrifying and can certainly ruin an entire game of Don’t Starve Together. But they have their uses too. Their meat can be extremely useful on multiple fronts. Firstly, it can be used as bait for meat-eating creatures, such as Spiders or Buzzards. Secondly, monster meat can be cooked with other ingredients to provide a surprisingly high level of sustenance. Though it does lower players’ health and sanity, the effects are mitigated entirely when in a Crock Pot with three Berries for example. So in worst-case scenarios, monster meat is better than no meat.

6 Mods, Mods, Mods

• Mods work server-side and can be used by all players that join.
• Mods can unlock exciting new characters, strategies, and even “game modes.”
• Some quality of life mods make the cooperative experience even better.

One of the most exciting things about Don’t Starve Together is the prevalence and use of various mods to enhance the game. There are so many to choose from that it can be overwhelming.

But with mods like adding various resources or making it so that all players are visible on the map, who wouldn’t want to play with them? Like the multiplayer visibility on the map, mods can be extremely useful for team-based strategy. Without these, the game can be a lot more difficult.

5 Stable Base Camp

• A central base camp is best located near abundant and easy-to-gather resources and away from hostile monsters.
• Base Camp should be in an area that is easy to explore from.
• A good base camp should feature a lot of storage, food generation via crops, and should have defenses to protect it from monsters.

Just like any real fight for survival, having a stable base camp is essential. Players need a space to return to and drop their loot and resources. The Shadow Manipulator and Alchemy Machine need to have a safe placement so they can be used effectively. It also provides a defensive position at nighttime and when monsters come to call.

Building objects like walls will provide further defense. The base camp is also a convenient place to grow and store food, craft items, and act as a rendezvous point for all players. Without this, players will have to fend for themselves from turn to turn and play a more isolated game.

4 Be Green

• Constantly replant items and seeds.
• Days move quickly in Don’t Starve Together so players should regularly try to replenish resources.
• Twigs, Grass Tufts and Berry Bushes can be planted in rows and grids for easy farming.

The Don’t Starve Together map can sometimes be scant of resources (or hard to find), so the easiest way to make sure players have enough resources is to plant more. Whether it’s Grass, Twigs, or Trees, these resources need to be replanted — otherwise, they’ll be very difficult to find. Replanting or keeping farms of these resources near base camp is an excellent way to keep these vital and common ingredients close at hand, especially for a team. It ensures a supply for when the demand is there.

3 Winter Is Coming

• Always be actively preparing for Winter at the start of each game.
• The first Winter is arguably the hardest, and players need warm clothes to survive well.
• Teams should focus on Winter as soon as they have an established base.

Arguably the biggest challenge of Don’t Starve Together is surviving the first winter days. One of the biggest difficulties of this season is keeping the players from freezing — this means preparation. Crafting warm clothing, keeping fire close at hand, and carrying a Thermal stone are all excellent ways to combat the cold. In addition, new monsters are introduced, so being ready for combat is vital. Plants stop regrowing in the frost so players will have to find a reliable food source elsewhere. Winter is a tough part of the game, but with ample preparation, teams can be ready for anything.

2 Somewhere Safe For Summer

• Summer includes new game mechanics such as Overheating and Wildfires.
• Players will need a fireproof base.
• Protecting planted resources from wilting is important for a team’s survival.

If you and your team have survived Winter and are patting yourselves on the back, not so fast. Summer offers an entirely new set of challenges and items that need to be crafted. Wildfires spread quickly through base camps, engulfing rare loot and whole farms alike. Having a separate base that is protected from the heat is vital to not be caught out in the sun. The Oasis Desert is immune to Wildfire, but if you feel safest at home, try setting up Ice Flingomatics to cover your entire base. An Endothermic Firepit is a necessity, as well as a Luxury Fan to put out any fires that get past you. This is a huge job so delegation among teammates is essential to be ready for this next challenge.

1 The Plot Thickens

• Don’t Starve Together has a complicated plot that might interest some of the team.
• Events and bosses along the storyline are rare or difficult to find.
• Don’t let anyone miss out on the important and mysterious encounters along the way.

Not everyone plays games for the same reason. Some might go for Don’t Starve Together for the enduring survival aspect alone, whereas others are pulled in by the story. As Klei builds the game more and more around the plot it’s important to ensure that any major plot points are enjoyed by everyone interested. Some of them may be a one time thing, such as the Archive puzzles, or at least very irregular and challenging to initiate like the Moonstorms. Your teammates’ schedules may differ, but communicate and plan ahead as we edge closer to the game’s grand finale so no one misses out on the fun.