📖 Don't Sweat It: Surviving Don't Starve Summers Without Melting Down
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In Don't Starve, summer can literally roast you alive – but fear not. This gamer-to-gamer guide gives you the quick tactics and advanced tips to beat overheating. In a hurry? Stay in shade, stockpile ice, and craft a Thermal Stone – those are your lifelines. Below we'll dive deep into all of it.
🏃 Quick-Start (TL;DR)
Survive Summer in 5 Quick Steps:
- Prepare a Cooling Base: Build an Ice Flingomatic near your camp by end of spring. It will automatically extinguish smoldering objects to stop wildfires. If you can't get gears for it, plan to relocate to the Oasis desert or caves during summer (wildfires don't spawn there).
- Craft Key Gear Early: Prototype a Thermal Stone and keep it in an Ice Box (or Snow Chester) to pre-cool. Grab materials for endothermic fires (cut stone + nitre) to place at your base and on the go. If available, craft a Siesta Lean-to (2 silk, 4 boards) to nap through the hottest part of the day.
- Dress for the Heat: Equip summer clothing by Day 56. A Floral Shirt (cactus flowers x3, 5 silk, 2 rope) gives 240 insulation and even boosts sanity +3.3/min. Pair it with an Eyebrella if you defeated Deerclops in winter – it's the best headgear for rain and heat protection. Lacking those, use a Summer Frest (feather hat variant) or even just Straw Hat + Umbrella combo for some overheating delay.
- Cool on the Go: Always carry your cold Thermal Stone. When you start to overheat (screen edges go orange at 65°C), use a quick cool-down: swap in a Chilled Amulet for a few seconds (it cools 20° for 6 minutes), then unequip to save durability. Or use a Luxury Fan – one right-click can drop your temperature instantly, though it has limited uses.
- Appease or Fight Antlion: On day ~61, the Antlion spawns in the desert. If you ignore it, it will cause sinkhole quakes under you. Feed it a spare Thermal Stone (blue/gray) to pacify it for ~4 days, or go fight it if you're geared for boss combat (bring healing and armor). Defeating Antlion stops the sinkholes and yields valuable loot (its Desert Goggles blueprint and Trinkets).
Following these steps will keep you alive through summer. From here on, we'll break down why each step matters and detail all the best tools and tricks to keep your cool.
Summer Overheating: The Silent Killer
Summer in Don't Starve Together might look bright and easy, but the heat is lethal. Unprotected players will suffer damage above 70°C body temperature – about 1.25 HP per second as the game's equivalent of heatstroke. You'll know it's coming when a hazy orange vignette appears on screen at 65°C, accompanied by sizzling sounds and your character panting or complaining about the heat. Wait too long, and "Hot as heck!" turns into actual burning damage. In short, overheating is the summer's version of freezing – a constant timer that can kill you if ignored.
🔥 Environmental Heat
In summer (day 56-71 default), the world ambient temperature soars. At its peak noon, you can overheat in a minute or two without protection. Even at dusk or night, the heat buildup is merely slower, not absent. And unlike winter cold, which you can counter by standing near fire, in summer fire becomes your enemy – stand too close to a roaring campfire and you'll overheat even faster. You'll need cold sources instead.
🌋 Wildfires
As if the heat wasn't enough, summer drought causes spontaneous wildfires. Every 45 seconds in daytime, any flammable object near a player has a chance (20%) to smolder then catch fire. This can include trees, chests, even your Science Machine. One ignition can chain-react and burn your entire base down. The only places safe from wildfires are the Oasis desert (sandstorm area), caves, and areas under big leafy trees like fully grown Birchnuts or the giant Above-Average Tree.
🦁 Antlion
Summer is also when the Antlion stirs. This giant mob in the Desert biome isn't aggressive unless provoked, but if you don't "appease" it with offerings, it will periodically target players with cave-ins (sinkholes from below) and sand spikes. Sinkholes will damage structures and players – potentially wrecking chests or crock pots. The Antlion basically forces you to pay a "summer tax" of trinkets or thermal stones, or else fight it. We'll cover strategies for this boss in a later section.
Advanced: Mastering Temperature Mechanics
Every character has a core body temperature that tries to equalize with the ambient world temperature. In summer daytime, ambient can exceed 60°C or more. If your body temp goes above 70°, you start taking damage. The rate you heat up depends on insulation (from clothes) and any active cooling or heating sources around you.
Key mechanics to note:
- Insulation vs. Cooling: Insulation (measured in "points") slows the rate at which you gain temperature. Summer clothing provides high insulation to delay heating. Cooling effects (Thermal Stone, chilled amulet) actively reduce your body temperature. Ideally, use both.
- Ambient vs. Direct Heat: Being under shade or in dusk/night reduces ambient temperature influence. Dusk gives ~60 points insulation and night ~120 points by default. Conversely, standing next to fire raises local ambient temp – avoid regular fires in summer.
- Wetness as Cooling: Getting wet can help in summer, reducing temperature up to 30°C at max wetness. The downside is sanity loss and slipping tools. WX-78 should avoid this method (water damages them).
🧰 Tools: Warnings, Thermometers & HUD Mods
Your first tool against overheating is awareness. Use the visual warnings: when you see the orange screen haze and hear sizzling, do something now (cool off or retreat to shade) before that progresses to the red-ring warning at 70°C where damage starts. Characters also voice warnings ("I'm burning up!" etc.).
Thermometer
Craft a Thermometer (2 gold + 1 plank) in your base. This shows the ambient temperature, not your body temp. In summer it will hover at the top. Place it near your base or farms to monitor heat levels.
Combined Status HUD Mod
This popular mod adds a temperature readout next to your hunger/health/sanity meters. It shows "Player Temp: e.g. 50°→65°" in real time with color coding. It's client-side, so using it doesn't disable achievements.
Gear Up or Burn Out (Cooling Items)
Staying cool is all about the right equipment. By mid-late spring, you should start preparing your summer wardrobe and gadgets. Let's break down the options – from wearable clothing that slows down heat, to gadgets that outright cool you off.
Advanced: Insulation vs. Cooling Effects Explained
Not all "cooling" items work the same way, and it's important to understand the difference:
Insulation Gear
These items (mostly clothing) delay how fast you heat up. They have an "Overheating Resistance" value. Examples:
- Tier 1 (60 insulation): Straw Hat, Whirly Fan
- Tier 2 (120 insulation): Summer Frest, Pretty Parasol
- Tier 3 (240 insulation): Eyebrella, Floral Shirt, Ice Cube
Active Cooling Items
These tools directly lower your temperature when used or worn:
- Chilled Amulet: Cools 2°C per second while worn (6 minutes total)
- Luxury Fan: Instantly drops temperature by large amount in one use
- Endothermic Fire: Lowers temperature when standing near it
🧊 Top Summer Gear – Eyebrella, Ice Cube, etc.
A typical summer base with an Ice Flingomatic at the center, protecting structures from wildfires
Wearable Cooling Items:
| Item | Overheat Protection | Duration / Uses | Downsides |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eyebrella (hat) | 240 insulation (very high). Absolute rain & lightning protection. | 9 days (durability) (Sewing Kit repairs ~55%) | Only one per world (Deerclops drop). |
| Floral Shirt | 240 insulation. Sanity +3.3/min bonus. | 15 days (spoils like food) | Requires Cactus Flower (only available in Summer). |
| Ice Cube (hat) | 240 insulation and lowers player temp by 40° while worn. | 8 days (melts) | -10% speed; causes Wetness 1/sec up to 50 (hurts sanity). |
| Summer Frest | 120 insulation (medium). | 8 days (durability) | Moderate protection; cheap to craft (needs crimson feathers). |
| Fashion Melon (hat) | 120 insulation; cools ~55°C while worn (very strong). | 3 days (spoils) | -2 Sanity/min; causes Wetness 0.5/sec up to 33. |
Consumable/Active Cooling:
| Item/Tool | Cooling Effect | Uses / Duration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thermal Stone | When cold (blue), lowers temp ~10-20°C. When hot (red), adds heat (avoid in summer!). | ~8 "uses" of cooling before warming up | Micromanage by cooling in Ice Box or endothermic fire. Place in Snow Chester = auto-cool fridge. Loses durability when cycling temp. |
| Endothermic Fire/Pit | Creates a cold area (like a "reverse campfire"). | ~1-2 minutes per fuel | Requires nitre. Doesn't provide light at level 1 (low flame) – careful at night! |
| Luxury Fan | Instantly drops temperature by ~50+° (often from overheating to safe). Also extinguishes fires. | 15 uses total | Life-saver in emergencies. Don't use near your endothermic fire or it'll put that out too! |
| Chilled Amulet | Cools at 1°C per second while worn (total ~ -60°C possible). | Lasts 6 minutes (per amulet) | A must-have for Blue Gem owners. Don't let your temp go below ~5° or you'll start freezing. Swap on/off to regulate. |
Pro Tip
The Eyebrella + Floral Shirt combo provides 480 total insulation - enough to keep you cool all day long. Don't overlook cheap tricks: you can set a flammable object on fire, drop your thermal stone next to it, then douse it with a Watering Can – this super-chills the stone faster than an Ice Box freeze.
Base Design Under Fire (Wildfires & Base Defense)
Summer punishes your base if you're not ready. Ever had your entire crock pot farm go up in flames? It's soul-crushing. In this section, we focus on keeping your base intact through the heat: preventing wildfires, using layout strategies, and leveraging the environment to your advantage.
Advanced: Base Location – Oasis vs. Caves vs. Nomad
🏝️ Oasis Base
Setting up a secondary base at the Oasis desert (with sandstorm) prevents wildfires within that area. You'll still overheat but your stuff won't burn. The constant sandstorm slows movement (unless you have Desert Goggles). Remember that Antlion is nearby - either appease it or prepare to fight.
🕳️ Cave Living
Going underground essentially skips summer. Caves remain at constant cool temperature (no overheating) and wildfires don't occur. Downsides: caves have their own dangers (depths worms, darkness) and you'll miss surface-only resources. Your surface crops will wither without maintenance.
🎒 Nomad Approach
Travel light instead of maintaining a base. Carry a Thermal Stone and materials for quick endothermic camps. Explore the ocean, hunt for the Oasis, or do Moon Island events. With no one nearby, the game doesn't process wildfires in those chunks (out of loaded range).
Flingomatic Coverage
The Ice Flingomatic has a 9-tile diameter range (coverage is a circle-ish area ~4.5 tiles radius). You can hover over a placed flingomatic to see its area. Design your base so all important flammables (chests, farms, berry bushes, drying racks) fit inside that range. Include structures like Endothermic Fire Pit and Ice Box inside so if they smolder, the flingo will douse them.
Safe Placement
Put your Campfire/Fire Pit outside of flingomatic range. Otherwise, the flingo will waste fuel putting out your intentional fires. Use an Endothermic Fire Pit within base for light/cooling, and keep a regular fire pit on the periphery for cooking if needed.
Fuels and Triggers
A full flingomatic tank lasts 5 game days. Refill it with Rot or Logs regularly. Nitre is great fuel (19% per) but you may need it for endothermic fires. In DST, Emergency Mode is recommended - it only activates when multiple structures are burning, saving fuel.
🧰 Ice Flingomatic Setup & Alternatives
Flingomatic Details
- Crafting: 2 Gears, 15 Ice, 2 Electrical Doodads
- Function: Automatically shoots snowballs at fires or smoldering objects in range
- Secondary benefit: Un-withers plants within range (great for summer farming)
- Range: ~4.5 tile radius (9-tile diameter circle)
Alternatives & Backup plans:
Controlled Burn
If you have no flingo, move flammable items away from your important structures. Create a "fire break" by digging up grass and saplings around your base perimeter to stop wildfire spread.
Wickerbottom's Book
Wickerbottom can craft a Pyrokinetics book that extinguishes all fires on screen when read (costs 1 Papyrus, 1 Water Balloon, 2 Ash). Great for emergency wildfire control, though it costs 50 sanity per use.
Fire-resistant builds
Some structures can't burn – like the Scaled Furnace (from Dragonfly). Use more stone materials and flooring in your base to reduce flammable surfaces and create fire barriers.
Antlion Sinkholes
If you choose not to fight or feed Antlion, it will periodically cause sinkholes around players. These can damage structures and walls. Either feed the Antlion (trinkets or cold thermal stone every 4 days), go kill it (manageable with 2-3 people or careful solo kiting), or park yourself away from base during sinkhole events.
Cool, But At What Cost? (Sanity & Strategy)
By now, you have a handle on not burning to death – great! But staying cool in Don't Starve often comes with side effects: chiefly, Sanity loss and sometimes hunger issues. Let's discuss the mental toll of summer survival and how to keep your mind as intact as your body temperature.
Wetness & Sanity
Many cooling methods make you wet (Ice Cube, Fashion Melon, Water Balloon splashes). High wetness will drain your sanity steadily – up to -20/min at full wetness 100. For example, the Ice Cube hat can max you at 50 wetness, which is around -10 sanity/min.
To mitigate: swap out wet items once cool enough, use a Straw Roll or Tent to sleep off some wetness, dry off near a small fire in evening, or pair wetness-inducing gear with sanity boosters like Tam o' Shanter.
Siesta Lean-to
This structure (4 boards, 3 rope, 2 silk) is basically a hammock for daytime naps. Use it during day (not at night) to skip to dusk while gaining a modest sanity boost (+50) and cooling down.
It consumes 1/3 of your hunger bar though. Pro tip: If multiple players use it at the same time, you all skip together. Coordinate "crew naps" at high noon to wake at evening with cooler temps.
Food Spoilage & Sanity Management
Summer heat makes food spoil faster (1.25x normal in DST summer). Use Ice Boxes or the Insulated Pack to counteract this. Drying racks are slower due to heat but still work – carry jerky for sanity. Cactus Flesh is your friend: when cooked, it gives +15 sanity and some hunger. Just wear armor when picking (they prick you for 6 HP each).
Balancing Tasks:
Sanity tends to be the stat you sacrifice to keep cool. Make a sanity maintenance plan: bring a Tam o' Shanter into summer, keep Cooked Green Caps ready from spring, build Mushlight or Glowcap for light without fire heat. Plan the high-intensity tasks for dusk or night, and do light tasks during peak heat.
🧰 Tools: Foods, Rest, and "Therapy"
Cactus Fruits
During summer, desert cactus is harvestable. Cooked cactus flesh gives +15 sanity and decent filler food. Make regular trips to pick a bunch (wear armor to negate the poke damage).
Jerky and Ice Cream
Both give high sanity. Small Jerky gives +10 sanity, Large Jerky +15. Ice Cream (Ice + Dairy + Sweetener + filler) gives +50 sanity, -10 temp, but 0 hunger - a pure "sanity dessert."
Thermal Therapy
Set up a "Cooling Spa" - an area with flooring, surrounded by endothermic fire pits, with some decor. Retreat there when things get rough to chill (literally) while your sanity recovers.
Beyond Basics: Character Perks & Community Innovations
By now, we've covered the core survival tactics for keeping cool. This section explores character-specific advantages and new content that can help with heat management.
Character Heat Perks (and Quirks)
🔥 Willow
The Firestarter handles heat better than others. She overheats 50% slower and takes 50% less damage from overheating. Her Lighter provides light without much heat. Her downside: freezing faster in winter. Use Bernie if insanity is an issue.
🤖 WX-78
The Automaton should avoid water-cooling strategies as he takes electric damage when wet. If struck by lightning (overcharge), he gains speed, emits light for days, and becomes immune to overheating damage (he'll still get the visual warning but won't be hurt).
📚 Wickerbottom
Her Pyrokinetics book extinguishes all fires on screen. Her Applied Horticulture instantly grows crops - useful for Watermelon in late spring to make Fashion Melons for cooling. She can summon birds anytime for feather farming (Summer Frest).
🌱 Wormwood
Stay Bloomed for 60 insulation bonus. He doesn't lose sanity from planting in summer (even if plants wither). Use Compost Wrap to heal and extend bloom duration. Careful with flingomatic hits - they can freeze him solid since the game sees him as a plant.
🍲 Warly
Use his culinary prowess - Asparagazpacho (Asparagus + Ice + filler) drops temperature 40° below ambient for 5 minutes. He can also make Ice Cream for +50 sanity cooling treat. Stock ingredients in spring for summer cooking.
⛺ Walter
Use his Portable Tent for quick sanity regen and skipping hot parts of the day. Walter loses sanity from taking damage - overheating causes repeated hurt ticks, which will tank his sanity fast. Keep extra cooling items for him to prevent damage-sanity-shadow spiral.
🧰 Skill Trees, Mods & Future Content
Wolfgang's Thermal Dumbbell
Wolfgang's skill tree update gave him a craftable dumbbell that can cool him while he trains. This lets him multitask strength training with temperature management. It can even be offered to Antlion as tribute.
Ice Crystaleyezer
Added in late 2023, this structure periodically grows Mini Glaciers and cools the surrounding area. It can even cool Thermal Stones placed nearby. If you've ventured into the Lunar Grotto, this device provides a permanent cooling station at your base.
Useful Mods:
- "Smarter Ice Flingomatic" - Improves flingomatic AI to not waste fuel and have configurable range and triggers.
- "Heat Indicator" - Lightweight mod that adds a temperature UI element.
- "Combined Status HUD" - Shows temperature alongside other stats for better monitoring.
- "No Overheat" - For sandbox lovers who want to remove the mechanic entirely (though that takes away the challenge).
In Summary
Summer is a test of preparedness and adaptability. When you manage it well, you can actually thrive – your crops grow faster (with flingo), you can gather rare resources (desert exclusives), and enjoy long days of productivity.
As one veteran put it, "Summer is like Winter's evil twin – once you know its tricks, it's no worse than dealing with freezing, just different".
Think of DST summer like being stranded in a desert in real life – you'd wear light clothing, stay in shade at noon, and ration your water. The game's logic isn't far off! Keep cool, stay smart, and you'll come out of Day 70 feeling like you just conquered the sun itself.
📜 Patch History
August 2023 - Antlion Tuning Update
Change: The Thermal Stone now pacifies the Antlion for 4 days (up from ~2 days). Beach Toy tribute lasts 3 days (up from 1).
Gameplay Impact: Easier Antlion appeasement – you don't have to feed the Antlion as frequently during summer. This gives players more leeway to survive without immediate boss confrontation. It also made Thermal Stones even more useful in summer as dual-purpose tools.
September 2023 - Quality of Life Update
New: Added the Ice Crystaleyezer Kit (craftable structure). When placed, it periodically spawns Mini Glaciers and can cool the area, even affecting thermal stones.
Tweaks: A subsequent hotfix increased the Ice Crystaleyezer's effect range and improved performance of its hail effects.
Gameplay Impact: This gave late-game survivors a new method of generating ice and cooling their base. Mini Glaciers provide infinite ice over time, solving ice supply issues in long summers.
2024 Updates
Bug Fix: Fixed the ice overlay warning UI when near an Ice Crystaleyezer (it now properly shows you when you're in its cooling radius).
Other: Doubled Polar Bearger Bin preservation (a winter storage, indirectly helping keep food longer into summer). Improved Willow's shadow fire targeting (indirect buff to Willow's sanity and control over fires).
Gameplay Impact: Mostly quality-of-life improvements. The Polar Bearger Bin buff means if you got that item from Winter's Feast event, you can preserve ice/food even longer into summer.
Further Resources
For a complete breakdown of Don't Starve Together seasons, check out the Guide to All Seasons which covers Autumn baseline strategies and Winter cold survival (the yin to summer's yang).
Also, the Caves Guide can help if you plan to underground summer. If you have specific questions, the Don't Starve wiki's Overheating and Summer pages are excellent detailed references.
Don't hesitate to experiment in-game – sometimes the best lessons are learned by almost catching fire and then narrowly saving yourself, giving you a story to share with fellow survivors around the campfire (the endothermic campfire, that is!).