Solos Guide to DST: Outlive, Outlast (& Mostly Out-Panic) Alone

Quick-Start: Setting Up a Solo World in DST

New to DST? Here's exactly how to get a single-player game going, step by step. Don't worry – it's easy:

Launch Don't Starve Together and click Host Game. This opens the World creation menu.
New World or Load: Choose New World (or you can New Game on an existing world slot).
Game Mode: Select Survival or Endless (explained below – Endless is recommended for solo beginners). You can leave PvP off (default).
Players: Set the player count to 1 and Server Type to Friends Only or Local. This ensures no one else can join your world.
Server Name/Password: Give your world a name. Setting a password is optional since it's friends-only; if Local, no one can see it anyway.
World Generation Settings (optional): Click World and Resources tabs if you want to tweak things (e.g. more daylight, fewer enemies). For your first run, stick with defaults.
Mods (optional): If you installed any mods, you can enable them on the Mods tab before starting.
Start the World: Hit Generate World. The game will create your world and take you to character selection.
Character Select: Pick your character. For solo play, Wilson is a solid default (simple perks, free resurrection via Meat Effigy).
Begin! You'll spawn from the Florid Postern (portal) into the world. Collect twigs, grass, flint, and get your camp started.

How to Pause in Solo:

By default, DST's pause function is unbound. Go to Controls and bind a key to the Pause function (look for "Pause Server"). Once set, hitting that key will freeze the world when you're alone on the server.

Offline Mode:

If you want to play completely offline, set the server to Local (Offline) when hosting. Keep in mind that an offline world is locked to offline – you can't invite friends later unless you start a new world.

DST vs. Don't Starve: Which is Better for Solo Play?

"Don't Starve Together is basically the sequel to Don't Starve." That's how one Klei developer described it. DST contains all the content from the base Don't Starve plus the first expansion (Reign of Giants), and has continued to get new updates, whereas the original single-player game stopped receiving major content after the Hamlet DLC.

Aspect	Don't Starve (Single Player)	Don't Starve Together (Solo)
Game Updates	Completed – Final DLC (Hamlet) in 2019. No new content since, aside from some bugfixes.	Ongoing – Regular updates with new bosses, biomes, events and character reworks. DST is treated as "Don't Starve 2".
Content Included	Base game + Reign of Giants. Optional DLC worlds: Shipwrecked (tropical islands) and Hamlet (jungle cities) – these are NOT in DST.	Base game + Reign of Giants integrated, plus many DST-exclusive additions (Caves built-in; ocean sailing, new bosses, celestial events, etc.)
Characters	17 characters (including DLC ones). Some abilities differ from DST versions.	All 17 original characters + 5 DST-exclusives. Many characters have been reworked or buffed (e.g. Woodie has multiple were-forms, Wilson has a skill tree).
Multiplayer	❌ No – strictly single-player (unless using third-party mods).	✅ Yes – up to 6 players or more. Solo play is optional – you can play offline or create a private world.
Pause Function	Yes – Opening menu (Esc) fully pauses gameplay.	Not by default – The world runs in real-time. However, if you're alone, you can bind a Pause key now (or use mods).
Difficulty Scaling	Balanced for one player. Bosses have "reasonable" HP (e.g. Deerclops 2000 HP).	Some enemies have higher HP to accommodate multiple players (Deerclops 4000 HP). No automatic scaling for solo players.

Community consensus: "Buy Don't Starve Together. It's the sequel and has much more content than the old solo Don't Starve... The only reason you'd buy the old Don't Starve is for Shipwrecked/Hamlet. Otherwise, stick to Together."

Is DST Harder Solo?

Some parts of DST can feel more challenging alone, mainly due to HP scaling and the absence of automatic pause:

Boss Health: Giants and bosses have much higher health in DST and don't scale down when you're alone.
Mechanics Meant for Teams: Certain DST-specific enemies were designed with multiplayer in mind (e.g., Ewecus' sticky spit).
No Free Pause: Time never stops in DST by default, which adds pressure.
Sanity Management: In DST with friends, players can help manage each other's sanity.

Gameplay Changes in DST (What's Different When You're Alone)

No "Working in the Dark"

In single-player DS, you could interact with objects in complete darkness if you were quick. In DST, this was removed – if it's totally dark, you cannot perform actions. Always have a light source ready at night.

Sleeping (Skip Time)

In DST, sleeping doesn't fast-forward time like in DS. Your character will lie down, but the world continues at normal speed. Be careful – hounds could still attack while you're sleeping!

Crock Pot & Menu Freezing

In DS single-player, the game paused while you had crafting menus open. In DST, the world keeps going. Be mindful when cooking or prototyping – do it in a safe moment.

Lag and Performance

DST's engine is optimized for multiplayer, which means even solo you might experience tiny lags. If playing solo offline, you can turn Lag Compensation to None in settings for more responsive controls.

Saving & Exiting

DST works differently than DS when saving. The world saves on regular intervals and during significant events. If you hit "Disconnect", the server will save and shut down at the end of the current segment.

New Crafting & Tech

DST has things DS doesn't: Moon Altars, Ancient Pseudoscience stations, Archive crafting, and more. These provide new items and gear that can assist solo survival.

Character Options and New Abilities for Solo Play

One of the joys of DST (solo or not) is the expanded character roster and Character Refresh updates. Picking the right character can make solo play much smoother.

DST-Exclusive Characters

Winona

Solo Strengths: Can craft Catapults for automatic base defense and Spotlights for lighting areas.

Weakness: Gets hungry faster when doing quick crafts.

Solo Tip: Her catapults can even kill bosses for you while you dodge!

Wortox

Solo Strengths: Can collect souls from dead creatures to heal himself (20 HP per soul). Can teleport short distances.

Weakness: Hunger drains faster and souls spoil.

Solo Tip: Farm souls by killing butterflies or spiders for on-demand healing.

Wanda

Solo Strengths: Can craft teleportation watches and healing watches. Deals massive damage at old age.

Weakness: Complex to manage and needs gems for watches.

Solo Tip: Can solo bosses better than almost anyone once mastered. Her Alarming Clock does percentile damage!

Wurt

Solo Strengths: Can build a merm city and recruit merms as followers.

Weakness: Vegetarian (no meat meals).

Solo Tip: Build a King Merm to strengthen your merm followers for boss fights.

Enhanced Classic Characters

Wilson

DST gave Wilson a Skill Tree (2023). He remains a generalist with no special powers but no drawbacks.

Solo Advantage: Extra Meat Effigy crafting (beard hair from shaving) is nice insurance.

Wigfrid

Deals +25% damage and has 25% resistance. Can craft Battle Songs that buff her.

Solo Advantage: One of the strongest solo fighters. Heals and gains sanity from combat.

Wendy

Abigail, her ghost sister, handles crowd control. You can toggle Abigail's aggression and buff her.

Solo Advantage: Abigail can farm spiders, killer bees, hounds, etc., with minimal player intervention.

Wickerbottom

Can craft powerful books: Birds of the World, Applied Horticulture, and more.

Solo Advantage: Skip grindy tasks by using books. Grow a forest in a day or call down lightning on a boss.

Did You Know?

DST now has a skill tree system for several characters (Wilson, Woodie, Wolfgang, Wanda, Wigfrid, etc.). As you survive and gain insight points, you unlock permanent buffs or abilities for that character.

These don't exist in single-player DS at all. It's basically extra RPG elements in DST that help solo players customize their character's strengths.

Survival Modes: Survival vs Endless vs Wilderness

When hosting your solo world, you'll notice three Game Mode options. This choice has a big impact on solo play:

Survival Mode (Default)

This is the "standard" DST experience. If any player dies and becomes a ghost, a sanity drain aura will start affecting the living players. If all players die at the same time (i.e. everyone is a ghost), the world resets after a time.

In solo play: If you die, it's game over – the world is done (you have a brief window to resurrect yourself with a Life Giving Amulet or similar, but assuming you can't, it's over).

Pros: Keeps the high-stakes survival feel; forces you to learn resurrection items or avoid death.

Cons for solo: One mistake can wipe out a long-running world, which can be disheartening alone.

Endless Mode

A more forgiving mode for casual play or learning. In Endless, death does not reset the world. You become a ghost indefinitely until you choose to resurrect.

In solo play: You can revive yourself by haunting the Florid Postern (spawn portal) at any time – it will revive you with a penalty of -25% max health each time (stacking).

Pros: Great for solo – you can always continue your world even after accidents. No sanity penalty for being a ghost.

Cons: Slightly lower stakes can reduce the adrenaline, and you might develop sloppy habits knowing you can revive easily.

Wilderness Mode

A unique mode where players do not spawn at a set portal. Instead, everyone spawns randomly in the world. If you die in Wilderness, you don't become a ghost – you simply respawn as a brand new character back at a random spawn point.

In solo play: It's a persistent world roguelike: the world doesn't reset, but you lose your inventory and start anew somewhere else.

Pros: Could be fun for challenge runs – no long-term death penalty except losing progress/inventory, but the world state remains.

Cons for solo: Highly disorienting if you die – you might respawn far from your base. Not recommended for long-term solo play.

Recommendation

For most solo players, Endless mode is recommended at first. It removes the frustration of a world wipe on death, letting you revive and continue. You can experiment, learn boss fights, and only reset the world when you choose to.

Survival mode solo is there for the purists who want true permadeath stakes. Many experienced players do solo Survival runs and enjoy the intense pressure.

Early-Game Priorities for Solo Players

1 Day 1

Grab essentials – twigs, flint, grass
Craft an Axe, pick some berries and carrots for food
Try to build a Science Machine on Day 1 or 2
A Science Machine needs 1 Gold Nugget, which you can find by:

Finding a Rock Biome and mining a gold-vein boulder
Finding Pig King and giving him trinkets or meat
Hammering a collapsed skeleton (sometimes yields gold)

N Night 1

Craft a torch before dark hits
Set up a temporary campfire to cook food
Craft a straw hat or backpack if you gathered enough materials

2-3 Days 2-3: Exploration

Map knowledge is power when solo. Explore to uncover:

Wormholes (mark where they lead)
Biome landmarks (Pig King, MacTusk camps)
Set piece locations

Drop a Science Machine wherever by Day 2 to prototype a Backpack, Spear, Log Armor

3-4 Days 3-4: Base Location

Aim to decide a base spot by Day 3-4
Good solo base locations:

Pig Village – pigs help fight hounds and provide manure
Beefalo herd – defense against hounds, manure for farms
Rabbit fields – easy food source for solo
Wormhole pair – fast travel between distant biomes

Set up a Fire Pit and your Science Machine at your chosen location

4-6 Days 4-6: Technology Rush

Rush a Crock Pot and Alchemy Engine
Cook in bulk. Harvest ingredients, then cook several meals at once for a stockpile
Craft a Chest or two to store resources

7-10 Days 7-10: First Hound Attack

Prepare with a Log Suit and Spear
Strategies:

Lead hounds to beefalo or pigs
Set up a field of traps
Kite them one by one (hit twice, back away when they growl to attack)

After the attack, collect hound teeth for later tooth traps

10+ Day 10+: Winter Prep

Kill Koalefants or MacTusk for a winter coat or Tam o'Shanter
Shave sleeping beefalo at night for wool to craft a Beefalo Hat
Craft at least one Thermal Stone
Stockpile food that won't spoil quickly (jerky, honey)
Prepare for Deerclops (winter boss) with gear, healing items, or a plan to lead him away

Solo Survival Tip

Set goals for yourself. Without teammates, you are responsible for your own motivation. Maybe aim to survive 1 year, or defeat Deerclops solo, or sail to the Lunar Island. Goals keep you focused and give structure to your solo adventure.

Combat and Boss Fights – Solo Tactics

Combat in DST can be daunting alone because enemies don't scale down their HP. But with the right tactics, you can defeat every boss by yourself.

General Solo Combat Tips

Kiting is Key

Master the art of hit-and-run. Most enemies have a pattern – hit them during their recovery period, then back away before they attack. Practice on small mobs first.

Always Wear Armor

The combo of Log Suit + Football Helmet gives 80% damage reduction. Later, upgrade to Marble Suit (95% reduction but slows movement) or Night Armor.

Keep Healing Items

Always carry quick heals like Honey Poultices, Healing Salves, or even cooked foods like Pierogi (40 HP) or Trail Mix (30 HP). Butterfly wings are an easy 8 HP.

Use Followers

Befriend Pigs by feeding them meat, or hire Mercenary Pigs with gold. Even one pig can distract a boss or take hits for you. Rock Lobsters from caves are exceptional tanks.

Environmental Advantages

Use the world to help: lead Treeguards to fight hounds, kite Bearger into a forest to farm wood, or lure monsters to fight each other.

Special Items

Pan Flute puts mobs to sleep in an area. Weather Pain creates a tornado that damages groups. These are invaluable for controlling tough fights solo.

Solo Boss Strategies

Deerclops (Winter Boss)

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Moose/Goose (Spring Boss)

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Dragonfly (Summer Boss)

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Bee Queen

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Klaus (Winter Optional Boss)

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Newcomer Friendly Bosses

Not all bosses are huge fights. Some easier ones to start with:

Treeguards can be kited or pacified by planting pine cones.
Spider Queen - kite her and kill the spiders she spawns. Especially easy with Wendy's Abigail.
Antlion (summer raid boss) - feed it rocks to avoid sinkholes, or fight with healing during cooldown cycles.

Remember: You don't have to fight bosses the first time they appear. Prepare and face them when you're ready!

Ghosts, Death, and Resurrection

When you're solo, handling death is different since there's no one to revive you with a heart on the spot. Here's what you need to know:

If You Die in Survival Mode (Solo)

You become a ghost. In solo Survival, there's a timer (default 2 minutes) before the world will regenerate since "all players are dead". You have that window to revive yourself using:

Touch Stone

If you found one while alive, you can haunt it as a ghost to revive. It breaks after one use.

Always note Touch Stone locations while exploring.

Meat Effigy

If you crafted one (Wilson can craft without Health penalty), it will revive you automatically. Haunt your skeleton to revive.

Must be placed in the world before death.

Life Giving Amulet

If you were wearing one or had one in inventory, you can haunt it to resurrect. It breaks after use.

Keep one in your backpack or chest near dangerous areas.

If none of those are available and the timer runs out, the world will regenerate into a new random map. You effectively lose everything (unless you rollback to before death via host commands).

If You Die in Endless Mode

There's no auto-regeneration, so you can stay as a ghost indefinitely. To revive:

Florid Postern Revival

Float back to your Florid Postern (spawn portal) and haunt it. You will revive with a health penalty:

Each revival reduces your maximum health by 25% (cumulative up to 75% reduction)
You can restore this penalty with a Booster Shot (8 rot + 2 nitre + 1 stinger)
No items are recovered - you'll need to retrieve your loot

While you're a ghost, time still passes - your crops might wither, hounds can spawn, and seasonal bosses could damage your base.

Recovery After Death

So you revived at the portal with low health and all your stuff is far away... what now?

Prepare a spare kit at base: a chest with a spear, log suit, basic tools and food.
Consider waiting for day if you died in a dangerous area at night.
Use ghost tactics: Before reviving, lure mobs away from your body as a ghost.
Consider mods like Item Assist which can show a death marker on the map.

Treat each death as a learning experience. Check the Morgue screen to see cause of death and improve next time!

World Customization for Solo Play

One of DST's strengths is the ability to tweak World Settings when creating a world. As a solo player, you might want to fine-tune the world to better suit having no comrades:

Day & Season Length

Longer days give you more time to get things done alone. You can set day to "long" (which makes dusk/night shorter).

Similarly, if winter is too challenging solo, you can set seasons to be shorter or more temperate.

Resources

Bump carrot, berry bush, flint, twig and grass spawn rates to "more" so gathering is easier.

This helps compensate for not having teammates to split resource collection duties.

Enemies

Reduce or remove creatures you hate dealing with alone:

Spider population could be set to less
Frog Rain can be turned off or reduced
Wildfires in summer can be disabled

Bosses

You can toggle seasonal giants or adjust their frequency:

Turn off specific giants like Dragonfly
Set Bearger to "less" so he's not guaranteed every autumn
Adjust Hound Waves frequency

Disease

Plant disease is On by default (grass, berry bushes, etc. can wither). As a solo player maintaining farms, you might disable disease for a more relaxed experience.

World Regrowth

Keep this On (default) - it slowly regenerates some plants when picked or burned, making your world more forgiving long-term.

Is it cheating to change settings?

Absolutely not. Klei provided these options for a reason. Think of DST as a customizable sandbox – you can dial the survival up or down to your liking. Playing alone is already a handicap in some ways, so there's no shame in giving yourself a gentler world.

For quick setup, try the official "No Sweat" preset which sets a bunch of easier settings. As you get better, you can revert to default or try "Lights Out" for an extreme challenge.

Top Mods for Solo Players

Mods are a solo player's best friend. Since you don't have the quality-of-life of friends helping, mods can fill that gap. Installing mods in DST is easy via the Steam Workshop – just subscribe and enable them in the Mods menu.

Quality of Life Mods

GP

Geometric Placement

Gives you a grid snap when placing structures, so your base can be organized perfectly. As a solo builder, this saves time with no friend needed to eyeball alignments.

CS

Combined Status

Consolidates the Hunger/Health/Sanity meters into one HUD element, shows exact numbers, season clock, moon phase, etc. Having all this info at a glance is super helpful solo.

SM

Show Me (Insight)

Hover over an item or creature to see details: weapon damage, food values, mob HP, etc. As a lone player without someone telling you "eat that, it gives 30 HP" - this mod does it.

Game Balance Mods

SPH

Single Player Health

Reduces DST enemy health to DS levels. Makes combat length in solo DST the same as it would've been in single-player (e.g., Deerclops from 4000 down to 2000 HP). Perfect if bosses feel like damage sponges.

DSA

Don't Starve Alone (Shard Offline)

Pauses the cave world when you're on the surface and vice versa. Reduces lag and CPU usage. If you have caves enabled and notice performance issues, this mod helps a lot.

AQ

ActionQueue

Allows you to queue up actions by dragging the mouse. In solo play, this reduces repetitive strain – you can queue tasks like chopping multiple trees and let your character do them sequentially.

How to Install Mods

In Steam, find the mod in the Workshop and click Subscribe.
In DST main menu, click "Mods", then enable the mod.
The game will automatically download and install the mod.
Always read mod descriptions – some require keybinds or have configuration options.

Start with just 1-2 mods and add more as needed. Each mod can slightly affect performance or potentially cause conflicts.

In-Game Console Commands (Cheats & Debug)

DST has a developer console where you can type commands to manipulate the game. When you're solo, you have full admin powers on your world. The console (opened with the ~ key) can be used for:

Fixing Glitches

If your boat glitches or an item falls underground, you can spawn replacements or delete bugged objects.

                    c_spawn("item", quantity)

                    TheInput:GetWorldEntityUnderMouse():Remove()

Practice & Simulation

Want to test fighting a boss without risking your world? Create a test world and spawn the boss.

                    c_godmode()

                    c_spawn("dragonfly")

Second Chance

If you die stupidly and don't want that to be the end, you can resurrect yourself.

                    c_respawn()

                    AllPlayers[1]:RespawnFromGhost()

Creative Building

Enter creative mode for building without resource constraints.

                    c_supergodmode()

                    c_give("item", count)

A Note of Caution

Using console commands is essentially "cheating" and will disable the ability to get certain accomplishments. It's recommended to not abuse console in your main world if you want the authentic survival experience.

There's a saying: "It's your solo world, there are no rules except the ones you make." If spawning an item after many failed attempts makes the game more fun for you, do it. Just be aware you might reduce the challenge and sense of progression.

Fun & Useful Commands

c_light() - Creates a temporary light at your position
c_speedmult(2) - Doubles your movement speed (use c_speedmult(1) to reset)
c_announce("Message") - Display a server announcement (useful for notes to yourself)
c_save() - Force a world save
c_rollback(days) - Roll back the world by X days
TheWorld:PushEvent("ms_setphase", "day") - Force daytime

Conclusion: Thriving Alone in The Constant

By now, it should be clear that yes, you can play Don't Starve Together all by yourself, and not only is it possible – it can be incredibly rewarding. You'll experience that unique mix of lonely tranquility (those quiet autumn evenings farming by your base) and heart-pounding terror (the growl of hounds in the dark when you have only a torch and a half-broken spear).

Klei's developers have explicitly stated that DST is intended to succeed the single-player game as a standalone experience. Over the years, they've tweaked DST to be more solo-friendly – from adding Endless mode for easy revives, to introducing powerful items/skills that a lone player can leverage to overcome group-sized threats.

Your Solo Journey

Playing DST solo often becomes a personal journey of growth:

Year 1 might be tough – learning curves, maybe a death or two in winter.
Year 2, you've got it down – seasons don't faze you much, you have a beefalo pet, maybe defeated a few bosses.
Year 3+, you're deep into "mega-base" or "boss rush" territory, tackling raid bosses or building impressive structures – all on your own time.

And if at any point you feel like spicing it up with co-op, you can simply send a friend your server ID or switch to online mode. They can jump into the world you've cultivated solo – maybe they'll be impressed at your self-sufficient setup!

Action Steps Recap

Host a Solo World: Use Friends-Only or Local mode, set Players = 1, choose Endless for a forgiving start.
Pick a Character You Like: Wilson for balance, Wendy for easy mob control, Wigfrid for combat, etc.
Secure Early Game Needs: Establish a base near useful biomes, rush a Crock Pot & Alchemy Engine.
Use World Settings & Mods to Assist: Don't hesitate to adjust settings or add mods for a better experience.
Learn Enemy Patterns: Practice kiting common mobs before taking on bosses.
Have a Revival Plan: Always keep a Life Giving Amulet or know where Touch Stones are.
Take Breaks and Enjoy the Solitude: Pause when needed and appreciate the hauntingly beautiful world of DST.

In the end, whether you survive 100+ days and build a mansion with an army of befriended pigs, or die hilariously to a Treeguard on day 7 and laugh it off – DST solo is your story to write. And with each attempt, you'll get better.

The Constant doesn't care if you're one person or six – it will test you regardless. But now you're equipped with the knowledge to not just survive alone, but truly conquer the wilderness on your own terms.

So go ahead: launch Don't Starve Together, start that lone adventure, and remember the survivor's creed – "Whatever the world throws at me, I can handle it… or I'll die trying!" Good luck, and have fun not starving, together (with yourself)! 😜

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I miss out on anything by playing DST solo instead of with others?

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Can I pause the game when I'm alone in DST?

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Should I start with Don't Starve (single-player) before DST?

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Can I use my solo world to play with friends later?

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Are there any fun challenge runs for solo DST?

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