The Best Characters to Play in Don’t Starve

There are a total of 25 playable characters spread out across Don’t Starve and Don’t Starve Together, the separate multiplayer version. Each character brings their unique skills and personalities into Don’t Starve’s deadly world known as “The Constant”.

Don’t Starve is a game about trial and error, and it can be difficult trying to find the character right for you. If you are looking for a smoother experience, here are some of the best characters to play in Don’t Starve.

The best playable characters in Don’t Starve and Don’t Starve Together

Our guide goes over what we think are some of the strongest characters in the game. Every character in Don’t Starve can make it to the end, but some of them have abilities better suited for different types of players. Likewise, each character has their strengths and weaknesses and different abilities between Don’t Starve and Don’t Starve Together. Some of them may be better in one version than the other.

Wilson the Gentleman Scientist

Health: 150
Hunger: 150
Sanity: 200

Wilson is the first character you start the game with, and for good reason, as he is the jack-of-all-trades character. As the original protagonist of Don’t Starve, he has no specific weaknesses and all-around stats, making him the perfect beginner’s character.

We highly recommend sticking with Wilson for a while if you are new to Don’t Starve. His special ability is… growing a beard. We know that sounds spectacularly mundane, but it is actually more helpful than you think!

During winter, which is probably the hardest season to get through as a beginner, Wilson’s beard provides him with insulation, giving him more resistance to the cold. When it is not needed anymore, you can shave the beard off to get Beard Hair.

Beard Hair can be used to craft Meat Effigies, which allow you to resurrect upon death. Meat Effigies are invaluable, and you should try to always have one built.

Wilson is a great character to play as in Don’t Starve, but in Don’t Starve Together, he is even better. As Wilson survives, he gains Insight points over time, which are exclusive to Don’t Starve Together.

Wilson can spend Insight points to learn passive abilities like increased torch duration and radius, increased beard insulation, and he can even learn how to transmute items into other items. Overall, Wilson can easily adapt to any situation, so he is a solid pick in any scenario.

Wendy the Bereaved

Health: 150
Hunger: 150
Sanity: 200

Wendy is a brooding young girl who is familiar with dark places, literally—being in the dark drains her sanity slower than the other characters. She is not great at physical confrontation, as she deals 25% less damage when attacking with weapons.

Her special ability is summoning the ghost of her deceased sister, Abigail. Wendy starts each new game with Abigail’s Flower in her inventory. After four days, it blooms, and Wendy can perform a summoning ritual.

Wendy needs to drop the bloomed flower on the ground, then a nearby creature must die. It does not matter if it is friend or foe, the flower simply needs any kind of soul as a sacrifice. This process costs 50 sanity from Wendy.

Once a mob dies near the bloomed flower, Abigail is summoned. Abigail is basically a bodyguard, as she follows Wendy around, attacking anything that is hostile towards Wendy. Having another target for enemies to focus on can help immensely with combat in Don’t Starve.

In Don’t Starve Together, Wendy is even better, as she has more control over Abigail. Wendy also gains access to the Ectoherbology crafting category, which allows her to craft elixirs that buff Abigail for a day.

Summon Abigail as soon as you can if you are playing as Wendy. Make Abigail soak up all the hits, and attack the enemy while they are distracted. It is not recommended to attack enemies without Abigail summoned, so be careful.

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Wickerbottom the Librarian

Health: 150
Hunger: 150
Sanity: 250

Wickerbottom has access to the Books crafting category, which allows her to craft enchanted books that cast magical effects when read. Reading a book drains some sanity, and they can be read up to five times before they break.

Wickerbottom’s special ability allows her to craft all the recipes that would normally need the Science Machine to prototype. Additionally, crafting the Science Machine allows her to craft the Alchemy Engine recipes. This effectively means that Wickerbottom never has to craft the Alchemy Engine.

In Don’t Starve Together, Wickerbottom gains access to even more books. Her books can cast all sorts of helpful effects, like dousing nearby burning objects, lighting up an area with a beam of light, summoning a full moon, and more.

Wickerbottom cannot use Tents, Bed Rolls, or Fur Rolls. Unfortunately, this means she lacks an easy way to restore sanity, so you need to be careful reading her books.

Wickerbottom also hates stale and spoiled food, so try to only eat fresh food with her. Stale food’s effectiveness is reduced, and spoiled food reduces her sanity.

Wigfrid the Performance Artist

Health: 200
Hunger: 120
Sanity: 120

Wigfrid starts with two unique items, the Battle Spear and Battle Helm, both of which can be crafted by her as well. The Battle Spear and Battle Helm are basically better versions of the regular Spear and the Football Helmet, respectively.

Wigfrid is a natural-born fighter, as she deals 25% more damage to enemies and takes 25% less. She regains health and sanity whenever she downs an enemy, based on how strong the enemy was.

In Don’t Starve Together, Wigfrid is even better, in our opinion. She regains health and sanity per hit now instead of kills, making it much easier for her to stay in fights longer.

She also gains an entirely new ability called Battle Songs. Fighting enemies causes her Inspiration to increase, and when she has enough, she can play Battle Songs that buff her and nearby allies, making her an excellent character choice for multiplayer.

Her only weakness, and it’s a very big weakness, is that she only eats meat and Crock Pot dishes with meat. Failing to secure a reliable source of meat can be deadly for anyone playing Wigfrid.

Willow the Firestarter

Health: 150
Hunger: 150
Sanity: 120

Willow starts with her unique item, Willow’s Lighter. Her lighter functions just like an infinite torch, providing light and a fire source. To add to her pyromaniac vibes, Willow is completely immune to fire damage, and being near fire restores her sanity slowly.

Keeping track of Willow’s sanity is very important, as she will start lighting fires on her own if she is below half her maximum sanity. You can easily lose a base to a fire if you leave her sanity unchecked.

Conversely, she hates low temperatures and gets colder much faster than other characters, causing her to lose health and sanity faster.

In Don’t Starve Together, she no longer starts with her lighter and instead must craft it on her own, and it does not last forever anymore.

However, she gains another unique item, Bernie, her favorite teddy bear. Willow can hold him to slowly gain warmth and sanity. In emergencies, Willow can drop Bernie on the ground if she is dangerously low on sanity, and he will come to life as a powerful, overgrown teddy bear!

In this state, Bernie can target nearby enemies and attack them, while forcing them to attack him in return. Bernie reverts back to normal if Willow regains her sanity, or falls apart if he loses all his health. He can be revived with a Sewing Kit.

Although a bit chaotic, Willow is a good character suited for solo adventures if you are more experienced. She has a somewhat reliable way to regain sanity, albeit a bit destructive, and she gains a powerful ally if you are playing Don’t Starve Together.

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Wolfgang the Strongman

Health: 150 – 300
Hunger: 300
Sanity: 200
(All stats are maxed out at 200 in Don’t Starve Together)

Wolfgang is your quintessential strongman, able to turn into a hulking beast of a man. Wolfgang’s special ability makes him super strong, increasing his attack damage and defense. Although, he is scared of the dark, causing him to lose more sanity from being in the dark.

Wolfgang has three forms: regular, mighty, and wimpy. Wolfgang starts out in regular form and transforms into mighty form when his hunger is high enough. Conversely, he shrinks into wimpy form if you let his hungry drop too low.

Wolfgang’s stats are determined by his current form. He deals less damage and is more vulnerable in wimpy form, while mighty form increases his attack damage and defense.

Keeping food on you is important to playing Wolfgang effectively, as he can be an absolute powerhouse against bosses when in mighty form.

In Don’t Starve Together, Wolfgang instead must deal with the Might meter. The Might meter determines which of the three forms he takes, and you can refill Might by working out at his unique building, the Mighty Gym.

Maintaining Might is a little easier than making sure Wolfgang is well-fed all the time, so he might be a little easier to play in multiplayer. Regardless of what version you are playing, Wolfgang is a strong boss destroyer if you can keep his resources up.

WX-78 the Soulless Automaton

Health: 100 – 400
Hunger: 100 – 200
Sanity: 100 – 300

WX-78 is a tricky character to master, but when played right, it can be extremely effective. WX-78 starts out with the lowest max stats of all characters, so you need to be very careful.

In Don’t Starve, WX-78 takes damage from rain and needs an umbrella or some kind of cover to stay safe. They can eat Gears to permanently increase their stats.

WX-78 is not too great in Don’t Starve, but in Don’t Starve Together, they are one of the strongest characters due to their potential with the new Circuits mechanic.

In Don’t Starve Together, WX-78 can no longer eat Gears, but they can use new items called Circuits. WX-78 can craft a unique item called the Bio Scanalyzer, which can be used to scan creatures.

Scanning certain creatures unlocks new crafting blueprints for Circuits. There are a variety of Circuits that WX-78 can craft, and they can be equipped to a circuit board. There are six pins on the board, and each Circuit takes up a different amount of pins.

Equipping the Circuits is not enough to activate them, as the pins must be charged with electricity as well. There are a few ways to gain charge:

• Every 90 seconds when well-fed and not wet
• Being struck by lightning
• Absorbing the energy from a recently struck Lightning Rod
• Eating Electric Milk or Volt Goat Chaud-Froid
• Absorbing the energy from Winona’s Generators and G.E.M.erators

The Circuits grant various effects, like increased maximum stats, movement speed, minimum temperatures, and even night vision! They are extremely helpful, so experiment with them to see what you like.

WX-78 requires a bit of finesse since they are so weak at the beginning, but if you can make it to the point where you get lots of Circuits, they become incredibly powerful.

Warly the Culinarian

Health: 150
Hunger: 250
Sanity: 200

Want to be the team cook? Warly is your guy! Warly’s special ability is being able to craft his signature Portable Crock Pot, which allows him to cook up scrumptious meals on the go.

Warly also has his own unique recipes that he can cook in his Portable Crock Pot. He can also craft the unique Chef Pouch, which acts as a backpack that keeps food from spoiling for longer.

Since he is an esteemed chef, Warly loves variety and does not like to eat the same dishes consecutively. Eating the same dish in a short period of time decreases the stat gains. Also, raw and uncooked foods are less effective in restoring stats for him, and any foods with negative effects are amplified.

In Don’t Starve Together, these penalties are greatly emphasized, as Warly cannot eat raw foods at all and only accepts dishes made from a Crock Pot.

To make up for this disadvantage, Warly can craft two unique items, the Portable Grinding Mill and Portable Seasoning Station, only in Don’t Starve Together.

The Portable Grinding Mill accepts raw ingredients and crushes them into fine spices that you can use to season food, which is done through the Portable Seasoning Station.

Seasoned foods grant bonus effects in addition to the dish’s normal effects, including increased damage, defense, healing, and even faster harvesting speeds.

Warly’s Portable Crock Pot also gains new recipes in Don’t Starve Together, with one of the most notable ones being the Volt Goat Chaud-Froid, which turns your outgoing damage into electric damage, increasing it by 1.5 times.

Warly’s recipes can really give your teammates the strength they need to take down the harder bosses, which makes him an excellent choice for multiplayer.

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Winona the Handywoman

Health: 150
Hunger: 150
Sanity: 200

Winona is an expert engineer that is playable only in Don’t Starve Together. Her special power is exclusive access to the Engineering crafting tab; Winona can use her engineering smarts to create helpful contraptions.

In the Engineering crafting category, she can craft Trusty Tape, which allows her to repair armor and even boat leaks. She can also build Winona’s Catapult, an automated defense system that requires power from Winona’s Generator.

Winona’s Generators require Nitre for fuel, and they power any nearby contraptions. Her catapults are a fantastic form of defense, able to take care of hounds easily, and they can help take down bosses.

On top of that, she can build a semi-permanent light source in the form of Winona’s Spotlight. As long as you top off your generators, you never have to worry about lighting a campfire in the dark ever again.

Speaking of the dark, Winona can negate a single hit from the darkness if she is caught in it for too long. Her sanity does not decrease, either.

The only disadvantage to Winona is also sort of an advantage. Winona crafts items much faster than any other character, but loses a bit of hunger every time she does so. Her crafting speed is drastically reduced if her hunger is too low, so make sure to keep her well-fed if you are planning to build a lot.

Winona is a pretty balanced character in that she has no obvious weaknesses, and she brings a lot to the table. We highly recommend her as her contraptions help out a lot in both solo and multiplayer games.

Walter the Fearless

Health: 130
Hunger: 110
Sanity: 200

Walter is a young Pinetree Pioneer scout, accompanied by his pet dog, Woby. He is another character playable only in Don’t Starve Together.

Walter’s special ability is his experience as a Pinetree Pioneer, which lets him craft all sorts of helpful survival items like his signature Trusty Slingshot, a ranged weapon that has no durability but must be loaded with ammo. Walter can craft different types of ammo, including Freeze Rounds, Marbles, Slow-Down Rounds, and more.

Walter can craft the unique Camper’s Tent, which has the regenerative properties of a regular Tent, but with the portability of a Fur Roll.

Unlike the other characters, Walter loses sanity in addition to health whenever he takes damage. He can go insane very quickly if you are not careful around enemies, which is why he is best suited for ranged combat using his Trusty Slingshot.

Walter can also craft the very important Pinetree Pioneer Hat, which reduces his sanity loss from damage by half. Walter also loses sanity over time when he is not at full health, so it is critical to keep him healthy.

Walter is also accompanied by Woby, his pet dog. She follows Walter around and essentially acts like another form of Chester, with 9 slots to store extra items in. If you feed her Monster Meat, she will temporarily transform into a mighty beast, and Walter can ride her like a tamed Beefalo.

Transformed Woby cannot attack herself, but Walter can still use his Trusty Slingshot while riding her, which makes it very easy for you to attack and dodge at the same time.

Finally, Walter does not lose sanity from being around the dark or monsters. He can even tell campfire stories around fire pits, which restores the sanity of nearby players.

Walter is a great character with a bit of learning curve to him. If you can manage his sanity, he is a proficient boss killer with all the different ammo he can fire off, and he can help manage the team’s sanity with his portable tent and campfire stories.

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Wanda the Timekeeper

Age (Health): 20 – 80
Hunger: 175
Sanity: 200

Wanda is one of the newest characters, and once again, she is playable only in Don’t Starve Together. Wanda is a time traveler, and she is easily the most complex character in the game. She costs 2,700 Spools to unlock.

Wanda’s special ability is the power to control time. She does not have a normal health bar like the other characters in the game, instead opting to use time to her advantage. She distorts time to avoid direct damage, but this causes her to age at an unnaturally fast speed.

In terms of gameplay, Wanda’s health is replaced by an age clock. She ages naturally over time and whenever she takes damage, and if she gets too old, she dies on the spot.

This brings us to Wanda’s second special ability, Clocksmithy. Clocksmithy is a unique crafting tab only available to her, and it allows her to craft tools and watches that help her manipulate time to her advantage.

The most important item from Clocksmithy is the Ageless Watch, as it allows her to rewind time to keep herself alive. The other watch is very helpful too, as they can do things like revive other players, teleport short distances, and more.

Wanda’s biggest weakness is that she cannot be healed through conventional means, due to the time mechanic. The only way to “heal” her is to use the Ageless Watch.

As you can probably expect, Wanda requires a lot of skill to be played effectively, but she brings a lot of utility to the table with her watches. A skilled Wanda is a great asset to any team.

Which character do you think is the best in Don’t Starve? If you’re starving in the game, here’s our take on Don’t Starve – Best Food Recipes to Cook.