In a tough game like Don’t Starve, all of your actions have consequences, and stress will undoubtedly negatively affect your character. In Don’t Starve, sanity is one of the basic metrics that are essential for survival; the mind is displayed as a brain icon in the upper right corner of the screen. Your sanity falls when there are monsters around, at night, and even if you just eat spoiled food. If your sanity drops to a critical level, you will have to fight Shadow monsters, and this is very risky when you are not ready to fight. Hence, it is best to always maintain a high level of sanity in Don’t Starve.
Steps
Part 1 of 6: Cooking Everything You Need
Step 1. Make the tools
You will at least need a pickaxe and an ax to get the necessary materials for life. Both tools can be found in the tools tab (icon with crossed ax and pickaxe). To make an ax, you need 1 branch (found in dry bushes that grow throughout the map) and 1 flint (an angular stone that is also found everywhere), and for a pickaxe you will need two units of the same materials.
To use the tools, select them (right-click on the tool on the PC or scroll to the desired tool with the right analog stick and press the right button on the D-pad on the PS4). Walk up to a tree (with an ax) or a stone boulder (with a pickaxe) and hold down the left mouse button (PC) or the X button (PS4) so that they disintegrate into materials that you can collect
Step 2. Gather the required materials
Now that you have the tools, explore and collect! Be sure to cut down some trees so that you have logs, which are the main material for creating the Science Machine. Also, first of all, collect the stones that fall from the boulders, as they are needed both for creating the Science Machine and for other structures and tools. Collect cut grass (tufts of tall grass sticking out of the ground) that are needed for fire and torches.
Step 3. Create buildings to create items and tools
In addition to the Science Machine, you will also need an Alchemy Machine to craft and replenish items. Both machines can be found under the Science tab (atom icon), but you need a Science Machine to create the Alchemy Machine.
- The Science Machine is made from 1 gold nugget, 4 logs and 4 stones, and to create the Alchemy Machine you need 4 boards, 2 stone blocks and 6 gold nuggets. You can make boards and stone blocks using the Science Machine in the Materials tab (diamond icon).
- You can get gold nuggets by exchanging them for meat with the Pig King (if you have one in your game world), breaking gold-veined stone boulders (mostly found in the Rocky Lands) or by searching in cemeteries.
Part 2 of 6: Setting Up for the Night to Sleep
Step 1. Stock up on food
Since sleep restores your health and sanity at the expense of a huge proportion of the third indicator - hunger, it is imperative to have enough food on hand. Even if you have a stock of berries and carrots in your inventory, you will not die of hunger.
By cooking almost any food over a fire, you can better satisfy your hunger. Just select a food, go to the fire and left-click or press the X button to cook the food
Step 2. Find a safe place
It is always best to find a good and safe place to camp. Ideally, of course, the place should be away from spider cocoons, beefalo herds and frog ponds. Why? Because hostile creatures (spiders and frogs, respectively) appear from spider cocoons and ponds in the evening and at night, and beefalo become aggressive during the mating season, when their croup turns red.
Keep in mind that you cannot sleep in a dangerous biome or when you are very hungry, so only sleep when you need to quickly regain your sanity and you are ready to lose points in another indicator or you have enough food with you
Step 3. Make yourself a bed
Most characters (except Wickerbottom) can relieve stress through sleep by relaxing in a fur sleeping bag, a straw sleeping bag, under an awning or siesta awning (in the Reign of Giants expansion). You can make a disposable sleeping bag from straw almost at the very beginning of the game, as soon as you assemble the Science Machine. To create a fur sleeping bag and awning, you need an Alchemy Machine, which can be made right after the Science Machine.
- If you plan to rest under an awning that is considered “semi-durable” (you cannot put it in your inventory, only break it with a hammer into materials, it will wear out after 6 uses), then it is better to make this place your main camp. The tent itself takes up a lot of space, and together with the fire it takes up even more space.
- The easiest way to make a sleeping bag from this list is from straw (you need a Science machine, 6 bunches of cut grass and 1 rope).
- Despite the fact that both tents and fur sleeping bags will be available to you, and a fur sleeping bag can still be taken with you everywhere, tents are more economical: to create a fur sleeping bag you will need 1 straw sleeping bag, as well as 2 hare tails, which can be found much later in game time underground. For the awning, you only need 6 cobwebs, 4 branches and 3 ropes, which are available on the surface.
Part 3 of 6: Making clothes (and decorating ourselves with flowers)
Step 1. Find the “Clothes” tab
Basically, your sanity falls due to the fact that you lose contact with civilization in the game world, and what better way to enhance the feeling that you are a civilized person than good clothes?
Right at the bottom of the tabs table (on the left of the screen) is a green hat icon. This is the Clothes tab where you can create clothes with different effects
Step 2. Collect flowers
It may seem silly, but by collecting flowers, you will restore your sanity; this method is especially suitable for starting the game. Each flower gives you 5 points of sanity, and when you have 12 petals, you can make a wreath (a piece of clothing that constantly restores sanity until it withers after 6 days).
Many items of clothing can only be made with the Science Machine or the Alchemy Machine, and the wreath is available at the very beginning of the game
Step 3. Think about what else from clothes would be useful to you
In addition to the wreath, you can make other items of clothing when you have gathered the necessary materials. One of the most efficient and easy-to-craft items of clothing available at the beginning of the game is a top hat, for which you need to collect 6 spider webs and start the Science Machine.
Some items of clothing, while not restoring sanity, perform important functions. Other hats are made from straw hats, a beefalo skin hat will help you keep warm in winter and will allow you to be near the beefalo during the mating season (they will not attack you), and a beekeeper's hat will give you almost complete immunity against bee stings of all kinds
Part 4 of 6: Stuffing Your Belly
Step 1. Make yourself a menu
Food (other than monster meat) is always a good way to satisfy hunger, restore health and sanity. At the beginning of the game, your main food source will be berries harvested from berry bushes, rabbits trapped and carrots. All this can be cooked over a fire and eaten to satisfy hunger. However, you will have to sweat to get food that will restore your sanity.
- Carrots grow in the ground, like berry bushes, all over the world. You can collect them by pressing the left mouse button / X button.
- You can make a rabbit trap by collecting 6 clumps of cut grass and 2 branches. The trap is in the Survival tab, depicted as a rope noose. Place the trap near or on the rabbit hole (small holes in the ground that are found in savannah or grassland) and wait until the rabbit is caught. The rabbit trap inside will shake and bounce. It is worth picking up the trap, and it, along with the rabbit, will be in your inventory. Then you can use the trap again 7 times. You will need to kill the rabbit before you can get meat out of it. To do this, select the rabbit in your inventory and right-click on it (PC) or press the control button (PS4).
- With the Science Machine, you can also make a bird trap (3 branches and 4 webs) in the Survival tab. This trap works the same as the rabbit trap, except that birds are caught in it.
- To create a farm bed, you will need at least a Science Machine. The bed is in the “Food” tab, which is depicted as a carrot growing in the ground, it needs 8 bunches of grass, 4 piles of manure and 4 logs. Dung can be found in the savannah where Beefalo live (appears regularly at random intervals). You can also get manure by feeding a pig (individually they can be found anywhere, collectively they live in villages at the end of the roads) with something other than meat: berries, carrots, vegetables and fruits grown in the beds, cave bananas, and etc. After you build a garden, you can plant grain there by selecting it in your inventory or by interacting with the farm. You can either wait for the plant to germinate slowly throughout the day, or fertilize it with manure until it matures at an accelerated rate. Once something is ripe, simply interact with the vegetable or fruit to harvest it. Hooray! You now have food!
Step 2. Make jerky
A piece of jerky and jerky deteriorate more slowly and slightly restore all the main characteristics of the character. To cook jerky, you need to make a dryer first. The dryer is made with the Science Machine and requires 3 ropes, 3 branches and 2 pieces of charcoal.
- Charcoal can be obtained by burning trees. You can burn a tree by making a torch, picking it up, and then right-clicking on the tree. Each tree burned and then felled with an ax drops 1 piece of charcoal.
- Once you have made a dryer, you can then hang any meat on it, including frog legs, mouselisk wings, and monster meat, by going to the dryer and clicking on it with the left mouse button or pressing the X button. After a few days, the jerky can be eaten!
Step 3. Prepare food in a cauldron
Kazan is another item for preparing food; you can make a cauldron using the Science Machine (you will need 6 pieces of charcoal, 6 branches and 3 stone blocks). To cook a dish in a cauldron, you need to put 4 products in it (each has its own slot), the finished dish will appear in about a minute. Most cooked dishes will restore your sanity significantly, you just need to pick up the recipe.
- You can replace any of these four foods with twigs, so you don't have to waste more valuable edible foods.
- Be careful when adding monster meat and durian to the cauldron. If you add too much monster meat without twigs, you get a monster lasagna that takes a lot of health and sanity.
Part 5 of 6: Finding Friends
Step 1. Find a pig
Sometimes, exploring the world, from time to time you stumble upon huge pigs that roam in some area near the huts. These are pigs, which are supposedly the most intelligent creatures in the gaming world. You can make friends with these strange piglets and restore your sanity when you are around!
Step 2. Feed the pig
You can befriend the pigs by giving them meat, and then they will follow you and help you fight and cut down trees. Plus, if you stay close to the pigs, your sanity is constantly restored. Different types of meat can be more or less valuable; the more valuable the meat you serve to the pig, the longer they will be friends with you!
- Feed your pigs as regularly as possible with a type of meat that will not make them hostile.
- Be careful with the monster meat! If you give the pig 4 pieces of monster meat, it will turn into a werewolf pig, which will not only start attacking you, but also lower your sanity on close contact!
Step 3. Stay close
While your pig friends are around, you can restore your sanity, but in order to significantly raise this indicator, you need to be very close. As long as the pigs remain friendly, you will regain sanity with close contact.
Step 4. Feed the hare
Later in the game, you will encounter giant hares that live underground. Unlike pigs, they attack if you have meat with you, but they are easy to tame with the carrots that grow on top. They serve a similar function to pigs, helping you regain your sanity by being around them.
Part 6 of 6: Restoring Relics
Step 1. Explore the ruins
Occasionally, you may stumble upon objects and colored piles of stones called relics. The relics (and broken relics) are left over from an ancient civilization that once apparently ruled the world in which you are now. Archaeologists would consider these objects a real miracle, but we, forced to survive in a harsh trap world, can either use them for our own purposes, or eliminate them as a hindrance.
Step 2. Collect some stones
The rocks are full of underground and renewable resources, so don't hesitate! Take as much as you can as it is valuable material.
Step 3. Repair the relics
Now that you come across a relic on your way, you can either break it down into its constituent materials, or restore it. Blasphemously destroying relics with a hammer, you can get unusual, probably vital resources, and restoring them with stones, you will get 20 points to your sanity. For those who have been in the game for a long time, each relic can become either a reward or a burden, it all depends on the resources and mental health of the character. Choose wisely as relics are not regenerated.
Advice
- Under the awning, you can also restore health and hide from enemy attacks.
- Before going to bed, remove all items of clothing and remove items that are wearing out from your inventory so that they remain in the same state when you wake up.
- Different characters can recover their sanity in different ways: Wilson only needs to shave off his beard, Willow recovers his sanity next to the fire, WX-78 can restore and increase his maximum sanity when he eats gears, and Maxwell constantly recovers his sanity with his outfit.