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Don’t Starve – PS4
The beginning: On your first day in Don’t Starve, the first thing you will need to do is prepare for the first night, as that is when you are at your most vulnerable and will get attacked if you don’t find a light source. Instead of setting up camp and pretty much wasting the night sitting around, your best bet is to gather enough supplies to make 3 Torches. Once you have those prepared, the rest of the day should be spent picking up Carrots, Berries, Extra Grass for farming, Flint, and extra Twigs to make Axes, Pickaxes and Shovels.
Torch: 2 x Cut Grass 2 x Twigs
Axe: 2 x Twigs 2 x Flint
Pickaxe: 2 x Twigs 2 x Flint
Besides gathering items, you should always be on the move. Remember, given that you have almost no idea of what the lay of the land looks like, you need to know where to find things when you need them ASAP, so keep moving and make sure you have 3 Torches to let you move through the night.
Setting up a base: As you explore the world make sure to take note of specific landmarks, such as Spider Nests, a Pig Village, Bee Hives and especially Beefalo. When you finally come across a herd of Beefalo, find a nice spot close enough to the Beefalo if you need protection or Manure, but with access to grasslands for farming.
Build a Fire Pit, a Science Machine and some chests, so that you can keep items and don’t need to spend as many resources constantly rebuilding fires.
Science Machine: 1 x Gold Nugget 4 x Log 4 x Rocks
Food: As you are searching around the map during the first few days, make sure to pick up food items along the way such as Carrots and Berries. But, once you have found a spot to build a base, you should start developing a farm as soon as possible.
Shovel: 2 x Twigs 2 x Flint
Basic Farm: 8 x Grass 4 x Manure 4 x Logs
Advanced Farm: 10 x Grass 4 x Manure 4 x Stones
Depending on the availability of Stone, it is usually easier and quicker to start out building a Basic Farm. Once you are able to build at least 2 of them, simply place them in a row, so that you can easily harvest them. Before anything can grow, you will need to collect Seeds and plant them, different Seeds will give a different type of vegetable.
Seed trick: Drop a circle of Seeds around you, leaving enough distance around you so that Birds will still land, but fly away when they see you. When they do fly off, there is a chance they will leave extra Seeds. Determining the perfect distance can take some practice, but it is a great way to generate an infinite number of Seeds/food.
On top of being able to grow crops, it is possible to use a Shovel to move bushes closer to your base, so that you can harvest them quicker and waste less time gathering in the future.
The final thing to know about food, is that once you are further down the line and able to make Crock Pots, they will stop food from going bad as long as they are sitting inside them. So, they make the perfect storage unit for food during the Winter season.
Crock Pot: 1 x Science Machine 3 x Cut Stone 6 x Charcoal 6 x Twigs
Surviving in Don’t Starve will demand proper usage of time, as well as making sure you prepare for the future. The world is full of things that can kill you, so make sure you don’t waste valuable minutes needlessly sightseeing or hoarding items you have no use for now or in the near future. Good luck!
Do you have any tips to survive? Are you having trouble getting past the first few seasons? Let us know what your experiences have been in the comments below. Also, if you have anything you think should be added or changed in this guide, email Dan.O@PlayStationLifeStyle.net, and make sure to follow @Foolsjoker for possible news on next week’s lesson.
