📖 Chester Hunting 101: Sniff Out Don’t Starve’s Eye Bone Buddy
Where to Find Chester in Don't Starve – The Complete Guide
Everything you need to know about finding and using Chester across all game versions
Search-Intent Snapshot: Quick Answer
In Don't Starve, Chester is found by locating the Eye Bone – a special bone with a blinking eye – that spawns randomly in each world. Typically, the Eye Bone appears on the surface world near a cobblestone road in a Grasslands biome (often among ponds and beehives). In cases where it doesn't spawn there, check the edges of a swamp biome. Every world guarantees one Eye Bone, and once you pick it up, Chester will hop out of hiding and begin following you. Chester is a lovable, orange-furred chest-on-legs that provides 9 extra inventory slots, making him a valuable mobile storage companion.
TL;DR:
Follow the roads from spawn, search near frog ponds, beehives, or swamp edges, and grab that Eye Bone – Chester will soon be by your side!
Table of Contents
Introduction: Meet Chester, Your Furry Portable Chest
Chester is a one-of-a-kind creature in Don't Starve – essentially a living chest that follows you around, eagerly hopping after whoever holds his magical Eye Bone. Imagine a loyal puppy, but it's a stubby-legged chest with horns and a giant tongue, and you have the right idea. Chester doesn't fight or talk; his sole purpose is to offer extra inventory space (9 slots) and companionship in the unforgiving wilderness.
Players adore Chester not just because he's adorable (and he is ridiculously cute), but because inventory management is a huge aspect of Don't Starve. Having Chester is like getting a free backpack that follows you, meaning you can carry more stuff on adventures – whether it's hauling logs and stones, stockpiling food, or keeping emergency gear at hand.
Chester, your loyal storage companion
From the original Don't Starve to expansions like Reign of Giants and Shipwrecked, and in Don't Starve Together multiplayer, Chester has become an iconic part of the game. However, finding Chester isn't as straightforward as crafting an item or walking up to him – you have to locate the elusive Eye Bone in the world.
This guide will answer that in detail, covering where the Eye Bone spawns in each version of the game, and much more. We'll explain Chester's spawn mechanics, discuss his behaviors and how to use him effectively, how he changes in different DLCs, and how you can upgrade Chester into Snow Chester or Shadow Chester for additional benefits. Let's get started!
Chester Across Game Versions: How Each Version Handles Our Furry Friend
Don't Starve (Base Game & Reign of Giants)
In the original single-player Don't Starve, Chester spawns in any world (including RoG-enabled worlds). As soon as you generate a new world, somewhere on the surface the game has placed an Eye Bone for you to find.
Typical locations include:
- Cobblestone road winding through Grasslands or Deciduous biome
- Areas with several frog ponds and beehives
- Near a pig village without a Pig King
- At the edge of a lone Marsh biome patch (less common)
The Eye Bone that summons Chester
Note:
There is exactly one Eye Bone per world, so once you pick it up, no more will spawn (unless you use console commands or mods to force it).
Don't Starve Together (DST)
Chester in DST works mostly like in single-player with a few key differences:
- One Chester per server: Whoever picks up the Eye Bone first gets Chester. Others can open his inventory but can't "steal" him unless the Eye Bone is dropped.
- Eye Bone drops on disconnect: If the player holding the Eye Bone logs out, it falls to the ground where they stood.
- Caves and Chester: Chester does not spawn in caves. Instead, caves have Hutch, a fish-like creature summoned by the Star-Sky item.
- Chester doesn't board boats: If you step onto a boat with the Eye Bone, Chester will pace on land.
Shipwrecked DLC
In Shipwrecked, you won't find Chester or an Eye Bone in a newly generated world. Instead, Shipwrecked offers Packim Baggims, a floating pelican-fish hybrid that acts as a chest.
To get Packim, you need to find the Fishbone item on one of the islands (it can be anywhere except your starter island). Once you pick up the Fishbone, Packim spawns and follows you exactly like Chester would.
Shipwrecked Chester Trick:
If you're playing SW only, Chester is absent – but if you travel from a RoG world to a SW world via the Seaworthy, you can bring Chester along by picking up the Eye Bone mid-jump. This is advanced and not intended by devs, so consider it optional fun.
Hamlet DLC
Hamlet doesn't have a Chester or Chester-like pet. The world is smaller and has pig followers, but no portable chest. You can bring Chester into Hamlet towns if you world-hop from RoG (via Skyworthy), but he doesn't naturally belong there.
Chester's Behavior and Game Mechanics in Detail
Following & Distance
Chester will try to stay right behind you when you have the Eye Bone. If you sprint away, he'll bounce furiously to catch up. He has decent speed but can be outpaced; if you get too far, he eventually magically "teleports" closer.
At night, if you're holding the Eye Bone, Chester falls asleep when you stop moving – you'll see him snooze with a ZZZ bubble if you stand still in the dark.
Health & Regeneration
Chester has 450 HP which is quite tanky (for reference, a pig has 250 HP, a spider 100 HP). He regenerates 22.5 HP every 3 seconds, which is extremely fast.
This means in ~60 seconds (1 game minute), Chester heals from near-death back to full. You cannot manually heal Chester with healing items – he refuses those because he doesn't count as a "player" or normal mob.
Inventory Access
You can click on Chester to open his inventory (just like a chest). It's 9 slots (3x3 grid) by default. In DST, any player can open Chester and interact with his inventory (so be careful on public servers).
Death & Respawn
If Chester's HP hits 0, he dies with a sad whimper and falls apart. All items in his inventory spill onto the ground around him. The Eye Bone's eye closes (it goes from an open eye to a shut eye icon).
As long as the Eye Bone still exists in the world, a timer of 1 day starts. After one full day-night cycle, Chester will respawn near wherever the Eye Bone is at that moment. He comes back empty – any items he had that dropped are still wherever they fell.
Warning:
If Chester died while burning, any flammable items he carried will be burned to Ashes immediately.
Interactions with Other Entities
Chester is a passive mob. Most neutral creatures ignore Chester. However, hostile mobs that attack anything (like hounds, spiders, etc.) will attack Chester if he's close or if they target you and hit him accidentally.
- Spiders: If you play as Webber, spiders won't attack Chester. Otherwise, they'll attack if he gets close.
- Pigs/Bunnymen: Generally won't target Chester unless provoked.
- Tallbirds: Attack anything near their nest, Chester included.
- Lureplants: Eyeplants do not try to consume the Eye Bone.
- Krampus: Can't steal from Chester's belly, but can steal the Eye Bone if it's not on you.
- Bosses: Most giants/bosses will treat Chester as just another target if he's around.
Snow Chester & Shadow Chester: How to Upgrade Chester
One of the coolest features added in Reign of Giants (and available in DST) is the ability to transform Chester into two different upgraded forms. These forms, Shadow Chester and Snow Chester, each require a bit of magical tinkering to obtain, but provide special benefits.
Normal Chester
9 slots
Shadow Chester
12 slots
Snow Chester
9 slots (fridge)
Full Moon Magic
Both transformations rely on the power of the Full Moon. During a full moon, if Chester is alive and near you, that is the window when transformations can occur provided he has the right ingredients in his inventory.
For Shadow Chester:
Place at least 1 Nightmare Fuel in each of Chester's 9 slots
- Provides 12 inventory slots (3 extra)
- Food spoils 50% faster inside
- In DST, linked to Maxwell's shadow storage
For Snow Chester:
Place at least 1 Blue Gem in each of Chester's 9 slots
- Acts like a portable Ice Box
- Food spoils 50% slower inside
- In DST, also cools Thermal Stones
Switching Between Forms
You cannot have both forms at once; Chester can only be one thing at a time. Once transformed, Chester stays in that form until death. If a variant Chester is killed, he respawns as normal Chester (losing the special form).
Tip:
Some players intentionally "swap" variants by letting Chester die to revert. For example, use Snow Chester normally, but when you need a big hauling job, intentionally kill Chester when empty and set up for Shadow Chester on the next full moon.
Top Tips and Lesser-Known Tricks Involving Chester
Early Game Rush
If finding Chester is a priority, follow any cobblestone road you find on Day 1-2. Roads often lead to interesting biomes, and frequently one will lead to the Eye Bone. Since roads make you run faster, it's efficient to pick one road and follow it as far as you safely can.
Chester as a Meat Shield
In desperate situations, you can use Chester to soak up hits. For example, if Hounds attack and you're weaponless, you can kite hounds around Chester – they might chomp him instead of you. Chester's 450 HP and rapid healing let him tank a few hits.
Eye Bone in Chester
You can put the Eye Bone inside Chester's inventory. What happens? Chester will then stop following you. He will stay wherever he is when you do that. This is useful in DST to lock Chester in place that other players can't easily swipe. To get him following again, just open him up and take the Eye Bone out.
Chester on the Map
In DST, take advantage of the Cratered Moonrock / Celestial Orb trick – placing either of those items in Chester will make Chester's position visible on the map for all players in the server. This is extremely handy if you tend to leave Chester parked somewhere or if he wanders off.
Healing Trick
Chester's fast regen can be exploited for healing the player. Using a Bat Bat (lifestealing weapon) on Chester lets you siphon health without retaliation. Each hit heals the player, and Chester quickly heals back the damage.
Warning:
Your own followers (pigs, bunnymen, rock lobsters) will get angry if you attack Chester, so do this only when alone or with passive followers. Also, the Bat Bat drains your sanity, so use sparingly.
Fire Safety
Keep flammables in Chester with caution. If Chester is killed by fire (e.g., enraged Dragonfly or a burning tree), all burnable items turn to Ashes on death. It's wise to not load Chester with your only stack of grass/twigs if fire hounds are imminent.
Conversely, Chester himself cannot be frozen by ice attacks, which is good in winter fights.
Light Source
A quirky trick – if you place Fireflies inside Chester, he emits a very small amount of light (a tiny glow). It's not enough to replace a torch or miner hat at night, but it looks charming and can help you spot him in the dark.
Additionally, if you light an item on fire inside Chester (for example, a red bird feather using a torch), Chester will panic and run around providing light, effectively becoming a walking fire-pit – though he may also set nearby things on fire, so this is more a fun gimmick than practical strategy.
Troubleshooting Chester Problems (FAQ)
I've explored my whole map and I still can't find the Eye Bone! Does Chester sometimes not spawn?
Chester should spawn in every standard world. If you haven't found the Eye Bone, there's likely a small area or biome you missed. Double-check all roads, especially branching cobblestone paths that may lead to a dead end with some ponds/bees (that's a prime spot). Also inspect swamp boundaries – players have reported finding the Eye Bone on a lone swampy patch on the map's edge.
It's also easy to miss behind trees or in unexplored corners. Zoom in your camera when combing forests. Rest assured, the Eye Bone won't spawn in unreachable places or caves, so it is out there.
PC Console Tip:
c_gonext("chester_eyebone")
This command will teleport you to the Eye Bone's location. Use as a last resort in single player.
Chester was following me, but now he's gone! I still have the Eye Bone (open eye), so where did Chester go?
If the Eye Bone's eye icon is open, Chester should be alive and trying to pathfind to you. He may have gotten stuck somewhere. This can happen if Chester was following and got caught behind an obstacle (like fenced areas, or sometimes he can get stuck on rough terrain or a pen).
Retrace your steps – you might find Chester bumping into a rock or tree, unable to get around it. If you truly can't locate him, try walking a significant distance away and dropping the Eye Bone, then pick it up – this can reset Chester's position.
In DST, if you went into caves or logged off with the Eye Bone, remember Chester will stop following (Eye Bone drops on ground when you left), so you'll have to pick it up again on the surface.
Chester died – is he gone forever?
No, luckily! Chester is immortal in the sense that he respawns after 1 game day each time he dies. You don't need to do anything special; just keep the Eye Bone safe. The Eye Bone's eye will close while Chester is dead and reopen when he resurrects.
He'll respawn where the Eye Bone currently is – so if you want him to respawn at base, leave the Eye Bone at base. If you keep it on you, he'll pop up next to you after the day passes.
Exception:
If the Eye Bone itself is lost or removed, then Chester won't respawn because the "link" is broken. For example, if Krampus somehow stole it and vanished, that's irreversible.
Can I bring Chester to another world or into caves?
In Don't Starve Together, Chester is surface-only. You cannot take him into caves – if you go down a sinkhole, the Eye Bone drops and Chester stays up top. Instead, the caves contain Hutch, a glow-in-the-dark fish-like chest summoned by the "Star-Sky" item.
In single-player DS (RoG), Chester can actually be brought into caves because the game treats it more like continuous world (though he can sometimes get stuck on exit/entry).
As for traveling between overworlds: in vanilla Adventure Mode chapters, the Eye Bone doesn't transfer (it burns up). However, between DLCs (RoG <-> Shipwrecked <-> Hamlet), creative players have used the Seaworthy or Skyworthy to bring Chester across. The trick involves dropping and quickly picking up the Eye Bone during world transition.
Recent Changes & Patch History for Chester
| Date | Update | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| March 2013 | "Spoiled Rotten" Update | Chester and the Eye Bone were first introduced to Don't Starve. |
| Winter 2013 | Early Patches | Fixed Chester's behavior, such as allowing him to sleep at night properly (patch notes noted "Chester's insomnia cured"). |
| May 2014 | Chester Plush Kickstarter & Updates | Added Shadow Chester and Snow Chester to the game after a successful Kickstarter campaign. Fixed transformation mechanics. |
| June 2014 | Reign of Giants full release | Adjusted Snow Chester to be a "less efficient fridge". Fixed cave-related bugs. Webber's spiders no longer attack Chester. |
| April 2015 | DST Early Access | Made it so meteors can't obliterate the Eye Bone or Glommer's flower. Added multiplayer mechanics like Eye Bone dropping on disconnect. |
| November 2022 | Maxwell Character Refresh (DST) | Shadow Chester was linked to Maxwell's shadow storage. This affects Maxwell players specifically. |
| April 2025 | Recent DST Patch ("Balatro" Update) | Fixed an edge bug: if a player holding Eye Bone used the new teleportation skill, Chester wouldn't get stuck. |
Fun Fact:
According to Klei, Chester's "full name" is Otto von Chesterfield, Esquire – a humorous touch indicating he's a distinguished little gentleman chest. The name "Chester" itself is a pun on "chest" (container).
In summary, Chester today behaves very similarly to how he did years ago, with the exception of the added variants and DST-specific behaviors. Klei has shown they consider Chester a stable, core feature – changes to him are rare and usually to improve quality of life or integrate new mechanics.
We hope this guide helps you find and make the most of Chester in your Don't Starve adventures!
Last updated: 2025-06-13 • Based on Don't Starve up to the Balatro Update
Chester Finder Tool
Use this interactive tool to track your progress in finding Chester. Select what you've already checked off to narrow down where the Eye Bone might be!
Biome Checklist
Check off areas as you explore them. The tool will provide customized advice below.
Community Mods for Chester
Don't Starve's community has created numerous mods to enhance Chester's functionality or help you find him more easily. Here are some of the most popular ones:
Personal Chesters
Gives each player their own Chester in DST, solving the "who gets Chester" problem in multiplayer. Each player needs to find their own Eye Bone.
Compatibility: DST
Chester Family
Adds new Chester variants with unique abilities, like a fireproof Chester or one that provides light at night.
Compatibility: DS, RoG, DST
More Map Icons
Adds an icon for the Eye Bone on the map, making it much easier to find Chester right from the start.
Compatibility: DS, RoG, DST
Insight
Shows on-screen indicators when you're near important items, including the Eye Bone. A lifesaver for finding Chester quickly!
Compatibility: DS, RoG, DST
How to Install Mods:
Steam Workshop (DST): Browse the workshop and subscribe to mods you want. They'll automatically be enabled next time you launch the game.
Single Player Don't Starve: Subscribe through Steam Workshop or download from forums and place in your mods folder (usually at Documents/Klei/DoNotStarve/mods/).
Console: Unfortunately, console versions don't support custom mods at this time.
Chester vs. Hutch vs. Packim: Companion Comparison
Don't Starve features several living storage companions across its various versions. Here's how they compare:
| Feature | Chester (DS/DST) | Hutch (DST Caves) | Packim (Shipwrecked) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summon Item | Eye Bone | Star-Sky | Fishbone |
| Inventory Slots | 9 (12 as Shadow Chester) | 9 | 9 |
| Health | 450 HP | 450 HP | 450 HP |
| Special Abilities | Can transform into Snow/Shadow variants | Light source in dark, Shield when charged | Can evolve to Fat Packim when overfed |
| Quirks | Cannot be frozen | Only appears in caves | Eats fish-type items from inventory |
| Location | Surface world only | Caves only | Islands (not on starter island) |
| Game Availability | DS, RoG, DST | DST only | Shipwrecked only |
Chester
Hutch
Packim Baggims
Share Your Chester Stories
Do you have a funny or memorable Chester moment to share? Perhaps you found him in an unusual location, or he saved your game with his storage capacity? Let us know in the comments!
Community Chester Tips
"If you need a quick light source on the go, put a Miner Hat on Chester by dropping it in front of him. He won't wear it, but it makes for a cute mental image!"
— WoodieAxeLover
"I make a little pen for Chester at my base using fences and a gate. When I drop the Eye Bone inside, he stays put like a good boy until I need him for adventures!"
— MaxwellsApprentice
"In DST, we have a Chester rotation system - each player gets Chester for one in-game week, then passes the Eye Bone to the next player. Works great for sharing!"
— WickerbottomMain99
"I once found the Eye Bone in an absolutely tiny island of swamp in the middle of a desert. Looked everywhere else first. Always check those biome borders!"
— SurvivalExpert2025