With standard settings, autumn lasts 20 days and winter starts on day 21. Before then, prepare light, food, cold protection, armor, and resurrection options so you can leave base to gather resources.
What is Don't Starve Together?
A standalone multiplayer expansion to the uncompromising survival game Don't Starve. You are dropped without explanation into a hand-drawn Gothic world and must survive while managing hunger, health, and sanity at once. Remain in darkness and an unseen presence kills you; lose your sanity and hallucinations become real and attack. Seasons change, bringing freezing winters and spontaneous summer fires, with different preparations needed each time. Starting without a guide almost guarantees you will not survive the first winter; sharing that unforgiving experience is part of co-op's appeal. Over 540,000 Steam reviews, rated Very Positive. Japanese is supported.
Scope: PC Don't Starve Together without mods, on a standard surface world starting in autumn with normal season lengths. Distinguish it from standalone Don't Starve and worlds with modified season settings.
Mechanics checked: October 04, 2026
With standard settings, autumn lasts 20 days and winter starts on day 21. Before then, prepare light, food, cold protection, armor, and resurrection options so you can leave base to gather resources.
18 / 18 items
Progression from day 1 through day 20
Days are guidelines. World generation and character choice change resource needs and travel time, so these are not deadlines that must be met on specific days.
Wide tables scroll horizontally.
| Approximate timing | Goal at that stage | Prepare before moving on |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1–3 | Gather grass, twigs, and flint, and secure light for the night | Prepare a Torch or Campfire before entering darkness |
| Days 4–7 | Find gold and rocks, and build a Science Machine | Start prototyping a Backpack, tools, armor, and a Crock Pot |
| Days 8–12 | Choose exploration routes and a base, and establish cooking | Do not build beside dangerous nests or bosses just because materials are nearby |
| Days 13–17 | Prepare an Alchemy Engine, Thermal Stone, and winter clothing | Check that you can warm the stone by a fire before taking it outside |
| Days 18–20 | Check spare fuel, food, armor, and resurrection options | Do not enter winter with empty food storage on the assumption you can keep gathering |
| Day 21 onward | Keep winter trips shorter and warm up when returning | Daylight is shorter, so secure the return route and light first |
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Changing the world's seasons or starting season also changes the day counts. Check mode settings such as Relaxed, cave conditions, and character-specific resistances separately.
Materials for the first winter
Basic materials for ordinary characters. Do not mix character-specific exceptions such as Wickerbottom's prototyping into the general starting conditions.
Wide tables scroll horizontally.
| Item to craft | Materials | Preparation and use |
|---|---|---|
| Science Machine | 1 Gold Nugget, 4 Logs, 4 Rocks | Available from the start. Stand near it to prototype new recipes |
| Alchemy Engine | Boards 4・Cut Stone 2・Electrical Doodad 2 | DST materials. Do not confuse this with standalone tables listing 6 gold |
| Crock Pot | Cut Stone 3・Charcoal 6・Twigs 6 | Prototype at a Science Machine. When burning trees, prevent fire from spreading to your base or resources |
| Thermal Stone | 10 Rocks, 1 Pickaxe, 3 Flint | Prototype at an Alchemy Engine. Warm it near a fire before taking it outside |
| Log Suit | 8 Logs, 2 Rope | Prototype at a Science Machine. Body armor competes with a Backpack for the equipment slot |
| Football Helmet | Pig Skin 1・Rope 1 | Prototype at an Alchemy Engine. Head armor lets you keep a Backpack in the body slot |
| Telltale Heart | 3 Cut Grass, 1 Spider Gland; crafting costs 40 HP | No machine required. A living survivor gives it to a ghost to resurrect them |
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Crock Pot basics and a Meatballs example
A Crock Pot takes 4 ingredient slots. Meat categories, ingredient quantities, and other recipes' priorities affect the result, so do not predict it from ingredient names alone.
- The first example uses 1 Monster Meat and 3 ordinary Berries to meet the meat requirement for Meatballs. Increasing Monster Meat to 2 risks producing another dish.
- Once you can gather Ice in winter, 1 Monster Meat plus 3 Ice is another Meatballs option. Do not use Twigs as Meatballs filler.
- Meatballs restore 62.5 hunger but are not a major health-restoring dish. Prepare separate healing food for after combat.
- Harvested food spoils. Check ingredient freshness and cooking timing instead of preparing huge amounts before winter and leaving them for a long time.
- Characters have dietary restrictions. When playing Wigfrid, Wurt, or similar characters, check whether they can eat the dish.
Adding eggs, fish, vegetables, or other ingredients may trigger a higher-priority recipe. Do not generalize this example into 1 meat plus any 3 ingredients.
Do not rely on a Thermal Stone alone for winter
A Thermal Stone does not stay warm forever simply because you crafted it. Combine it with a place to heat it, clothing, and a return route.
- Before leaving, warm the Thermal Stone near a fire and check its state. It cools away from fire, so plan your route home first.
- Combine winter clothing and a Thermal Stone, returning to a fire as body temperature falls. Do not confuse a light source's role with that of something that provides warmth.
- Carry fuel and fire-maintaining materials such as grass and twigs. Reserve enough for night and cold before filling your inventory with gathered resources.
- Berries and similar resources stop regrowing in winter. Combine cooking, hunting, and storage instead of expecting food to replenish while you wait at base.
- When Deerclops is due, do not start the fight in front of your base's buildings. If sounds or other signs warn of its approach, take what you need and move away from buildings.
Thermal Stones wear out in DST. Do not assume their lifespan or winter's arrival based on values from another game, different world settings, or special characters.
Gathering inventory and combat equipment
Armor improves survival, but trading blows until it breaks should not be the default approach. Check remaining durability and an escape route first.
Wide tables scroll horizontally.
| Situation | Switch to | Caution |
|---|---|---|
| Exploring and gathering | Carry a Backpack and light, using head armor if needed | If changing to a Log Suit before combat, remember where the dropped Backpack is |
| Approaching enemies such as Spiders | Check equipment durability and practice moving away after attacking | Avoid attracting too many enemies at once |
| Fighting in darkness | First arrange a way to maintain light | Check whether switching weapons extinguishes your Torch's light |
| Wearing a Helmet and Log Suit together | Use DST's armor calculation | Do not calculate 80% plus 80% as 96% protection as in standalone Don't Starve |
| Close to death | Check your resurrection point and recovery route | Do not repeatedly return to the same enemies to retrieve belongings |
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Resurrection after death and world modes
Prepare separate options for resurrection with a teammate and resurrection points usable solo.
- If a teammate is alive, check materials and the crafter's HP before making a Telltale Heart. It costs 40 HP, so do not try to craft it while near death.
- A living survivor gives the crafted heart to the ghost. A ghost cannot resurrect merely by Haunting a heart on the ground.
- After resurrection, also check the reduction in maximum HP. Restoring that with something like a Booster Shot differs from ordinary healing.
- Solo players cannot give a heart to their own ghost, so identify usable resurrection options such as Touch Stones while exploring.
- Resurrection at the starting point in Endless differs from the reset conditions when everyone dies in Survival. Read the mode descriptions when creating a world.
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