Guides/Surviving In Lights Out

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In this guide will show you how to survive indefinitely on a Lights Out world. This guide works for vanilla Don't Starve, Reign Of Giants, and Don't Starve Together.

A Lights Out world is essentially a normal world with no day, no dusk, and you start out with some supplies. It is the hard mode of the Don't Starve series.

Don't Starve

Good Characters to choose would be Willow, Maxwell, Woodie, or Wendy. I usually play Wickerbottom as her advantage at the start of a 250 Sanity pool and already having backpack and shovel learned can get you ahead quickly early. However, because she cant sleep you will have to get constant sanity boosting foods and utilize Flowers and Top Hat + Winter Vest combo until you get your food supply set up.

You're going to spawn next to a Campfire and a Chest containing 6 Cut Grass, 3 Flint, 6 Twigs, 3 Logs, 1 Gold, and a Flint Axe at 100% durability.Grab the Items, and chop down Some Trees in the vicinity to fuel the Fire. Once you have enough Logs to make a Campfire, pre-build one.

If you're not Willow, make a Torch. Once you have a light source, wander around collecting essential Items such as Flint, Rocks, Berries, and especially Twigs and Cut Grass, because if you don't your torch will run out, resulting in yet another Death by Charlie. You can right-click on trees with you torch equip to set them aflame for a brief bright light to see whats around, just make sure to either collect all valuable resources nearby or pick trees with nothing around them so it doesn't burn up valuable things like flowers or grass tufts. Setting Trees to "Less" will make this easier to do while still providing plenty of them and they are easy to grow. You can also harvest them afterwards for Coal which is useful for both Drying Racks and Crock Pots.

Making a Garland out of petals from picked flowers will take 1\3 of the constant drain of night off which helps until you can afford Silk Hats, but keep the rest of your petals for Rot to transplant. If you come across a Boulder you can either place your pre-built Campfire and make a Pickaxe to mine it, or equip your Pickaxe and hold space bar until you hear it hit 6 times then quickly right-click your torch and collect. Note the latter is less expensive but puts a lot of strain on your Sanity as you will be in complete darkness, so keep an eye on it. If you can make a campfire near multiple boulders you can save a lot of sanity. Once you have enough Rocks, pre-build a Firepit.

A suitable place to build your base can be in many different locations, such as near a Pond for fishing, near a Sinkhole, or near some Pig Torches. The Pig King is always sleeping, and the Pigs don't ever leave their Houses, so a pig village is not an ideal location. Although if you build a pig house and demolish it with a hammer you will have a sleeping pig that you can feed things like flower petals and produce manure, just be aware they wake up during full moons and attack you. Eventually you are going to want to move into the caves indefinitely as will be explained later.

Once you have your Firepit you're going to want to start growing Trees near your base. 15-25 Trees need to be growing at all times if you want to keep that fire going indefinitely with Logs, but can be supplemented with Beefalow Wool, Terrain Pieces, Coal, Manure, and old armor - try to save your grass and log suits for fuel when they get less than 5% durability, they will max out your pit. Its also a good idea to plant random trees in open spaces far enough apart that they can be lit in emergencies and especially during winter for warmth without catching other things on fire as well. As soon as you build a Science Machine (or are playing as Wickerbottom) craft a Pitchfork and start tearing up the terrain for easy, long lasting fuel. Drop a few stacks near the Firepit for storage. 3-4 will get your fire to full capacity and last for about half a day. Eventually you will want to move to Lanterns\Miner Hats.

After you build a Science Machine, prototype a Shovel, it will let you dig up Grass Tufts, Saplings, and Berry Bushes. Once you've made a Shovel, craft 2 torches and as many resources to keep crafting them as possible, carry supplies for at least 2-3 campfires, and then search for Saplings, Grass Tufts, and Berry Bushes. Equip your shovel and press space bar to dig up the nearest intractable item then quickly equip your torch again and collect. Once you get an Alchemy Engine, craft a Thermal Stone. Find a good central location make a campfire and heat it up all the way. Once the stone is glowing you have about 45 seconds of hands-free light to go gather supplies before returning to the fire and reheating it. This can save a lot of time and resources. Just use your map to navigate near enough to them that pressing spacebar will target it.

After you get around 20 Saplings, Grass Tufts, and Berry Bushes, plant them within the light range of your Firepit, and as close together as possible. The Grass Tufts and Berry Bushes are going to be barren, so it will need some kind of fertilizer, such as Rot, Manure, Rotten Eggs, or Guano. Saving flower petals and letting them rot is a good way to get a lot really fast. If you feed 4 Monster Meat to a Pig he will become a WerePig who has no hunger limit and produces Manure - stacks of Berries, Petals, and Light Bulbs etc. will be transformed very quickly.

Once you have that done you're going to need to work on a safe renewable way to keep your Hunger up. Berry Bushes, Crockpots, and Drying Racks plus a few Spider Dens for Monster Meat will be crucial. Putting 4 berries in a crock pot will give a fist full of jam which gives 5 sanity, as well as any 3 filler items from red caps to berries and a single monster meat of course will yield MeatBalls which also give 5 Sanity and more health\hunger. You can make bee boxes by lighting one hive on fire with your torch which will eject the bees (while also destroying the honeycomb) and catching them with a bug net, then attacking and killing another for the honey comb. You can then catch more when you harvest the honey during Summer as they will attack you - Winter this doesnt happen making it easy to farm - so you only have to set the first one on fire. Make them at least 2 screens away so they will slowly regenerate and you can occasionally harvest honey - they will never get more than 1 stack and it takes about a day and a half to 2 days to regenerate. 3 honey and one twig or other filler in a crock pot will make taffy which gives 15 sanity and -3 HP, and 1 Honey 2 filler and 1 Monster Meat will give you Honey Nuggets which gives 20 HP as well as 5 Sanity. Even eating just plain Honey will heal you up quick in a pinch if you can get enough of it growing. Fishing in a pond is also a really great option once you get some silk as you can hang the fish up on drying racks and turn it into Small Jerky which gives 10 sanity and is completely renewable. Just make a second Firepit near a pond, plant a spider nest nearby (Dont worry they dont come out on their own at night unless a shadow creature walks near the nest) and a few Saplings or Spiky Bushes (Which grow during winter) and you'll have everything you need. Also take advantage of suspicious tracks and hunt koelaphant whenever possible. Walk in the general direction of the tracks for about 1 and 1\2 screens then walk in a small circle pressing spacebar - if youre near the tracks your character will walk to it. You can also set nearby trees on fire for a brighter light to find the tracks with. Use the trunk for winter clothes, they give passive sanity boost. DRYING RACKS ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND, AND CROCK POTS ARE NEXT. They both store food infinitely and allow for sanity boosting foods, so put as many resources into them as you can spare early.

You're going to need Spider Eggs to plant your own spider nest, this is necessary as you Need the Silk for Top Hats or Winter hats, bug nets and fishing poles, and the monster meat can be helpful as well. Make a fire a little ways off from a level 3 Spider Den, walk into the web until you hear them appear. They stop at the end of the webbing - walk close enough that they make a hissing sound, then take them to the other side of the fire and kill them. Using Kiting you should easily be able to defeat 3 spiders at a time until its cleared. Walk up to the nest, equip a weapon and hold F until you hear if hit 5 times then quickly re equip torch, repeat until dead - or build up the fire pit until you can see it. Another easy way to fight and you should look into getting this ASAP is a Miner's Hat. Fairly inexpensive at 12 cut grass (Straw Hat) 1 Firefly and 1 Gold Nugget, you can use bug nets as you walk around forests to catch Fireflies to refuel it. This should be used sparingly until you get your sainty under control because you cant be wearing your Top Hat while you use it, but it makes gathering and fighting 100X easier. Besides the easy to obtain Fireflies due to eternal night, you can also venture into caves every so often and collect Lightbulbs to refuel it and store them in an Ice Box to prolong their lifespan, giving you cheap, renewable, movable light that frees up your hands for whatever.

After doing that your Sanity may be suffering heavily, if you are Maxwell this is not a problem and probably never will be, but for other characters this will be a huge issue, to deal with this there are few options for vanilla DS, if your willow, a Top Hat and standing next to a fire for a while should fix the issue slowly, if your any of the other characters you have limited options. Sleeping in a tent may be your best option if you can manage it. If you can, wait until you have 27 Hunger or so, then go to sleep. Note: it will take out all Campfire and Firepit fires, so carry 2 torches or so in case something happens when you wake and you need to go somewhere, it will also lower your hunger to 0, and any clothing you were wearing will lose 1 days durability, so make sure to take it off before sleeping and have fresh food on or near you. For most characters, wearing a top hat and a breezy vest from a Koelaphant trunk is enough to stop the sanity drain of darkness and provide a much needed reprieve while doing basic chores - harvesting, fishing, building etc. and prototyping new stuff can give a short boost in a bind, so save some of the cheaper easier to craft things and the resources to do so just in case (I.E. Gold Tools, Hay\Stone\Wood Walls, Etc.). Leaving fields of flowers usually found near bee fields in case of emergency is a good idea. Also, dig up every green mushroom you find with a shovel - they never come out so they are only ever worth the one time use for 2 caps which is 30 sanity cooked. Forests and Marshes both have tons, the latter also having blue mushrooms which are 10 sanity each cooked and DO re spawn after it rains.

About now, Hounds have probably attacked you. Make sure to collect the Hounds Teeth, you may not be able to afford it now but later you can make Tooth Traps, which will make it A LOT easier to survive. Also, know where neutral mobs and Spiders are located, you can lure them past and run circles around them until the Hounds get distracted and they will thin out the heard for you. Recommended to have a field of at LEAST 15-20 tooth traps with a Firepit in the middle and some Spider Dens nearby. Note - keep away from anything flamable as summer hounds will burst into flame and destroy everything. These can also be used to help kill boss-mobs like Deerclops or Treeguards if needed.

You will want around 5-10 bee boxes, at least 30 berry bushes, 4 Spider Dens, around 40ish of each Saplings and Grass Tufts, at least 4 CrockPots (I try to store at least 2 with sanity foods - taffy - 1 with healing food - honey nuggets - and 1 with hunger food - meaty stew\MeatBalls - so whatever you need you already have waiting) and 8 Drying Racks (Enough to hang an entire Koelephant on), 20-25 Trees, a Lightning Rod, and a Tooth Trap field on the surface if you're planning on staying there. However, the easiest way to survive indefinitely is to abuse Caves.

Caves: Caves are not effected by the world generation settings. For instance, if you turn off Berry Bushes, they will still spawn in Caves where light leaks through. Also setting them to "More" has no effect. This includes the "Only Night" setting and while the majority of Caves are dark, there ARE places that will have normal Day\Dusk\Night cycles. Anywhere that light leaks through will have light during the day although your sanity will still go down. This however allows for things you cant do on the surface. Pigs\Bunnymen will come out of their houses allowing for meat farms and Spiders will wander around after Dusk and return to their dens in the morning. They also contain Light Plants which allow for the easiest most sustainable light source in the game, and Mushroom Biomes with tons of caps. This is by far the easiest place to set up a base.

Late Game (Don't Starve Together)

If you have found a way to successfully become self-sustained, there is a very risky but rewarding survival method.

First you must go underground and find two Yellow Gems, then make a Star Caller's Staff. It's easier said than done, but once you have acquired the Staff, return to the surface, and place it in the Moon Stone. If you can survive the Full Moon event by any means, then a Moon Caller's Staff will be produced, leave the staff in the stone, and it will provide infinite light, however this light has a cost, as it will slowly freeze you, and this can cause some problems.

In order to deal with this, it is overwhelmingly advised to get a Scaled Furnace, as it is eternal free heat, and with these two structures, light in this area will never be an issue again!

Lights Out "Hardmode" - Caves-Only Challenge

Once you get used to Lights Out Game mode and are looking for more of a challenge, this is the hardest playthrough I've successfully lived through. First set Lights Out then turn ALL settings to None. Then turn Sinkholes back on and Rabbit Holes - or you will never be able to craft Magic. Try to survive using ONLY what the caves have to offer.

As soon as you start out collect the items in the Chest and craft a torch and a Pickaxe. Head out in a single direction in pure darkness flickering your torch as quickly as you can everytime you hear Charlie approaching (For me this doesnt even drain the torch and I can flicker it at no cost as long as it's at 100%. I think it's a bug but your Sanity still goes down super fast). You have about a day and a half to find a Sinkhole before you will be running from shadow monsters so move quick. You know youre getting close if you start to see trees because trees around Sinkholes also ignore world settings. Get into a cave ASAP, the more sanity you have saved up the better.

As soon as you enter start looking around for light holes where Grass, Saplings, and Berries are growing in a bunch of trees, your first goal is to make a Lantern which requires 2 Rope (6 grass) 3 Twigs and 2 Lightbulbs plus an Alchemy Engine. Your second goal is to get a Top Hat going or find a Green\Blue Mushroom Biome or at least some caps, whichever you come upon first, to even out your sanity. They dont respawn so dig them up with a shovel. You may have to fight off shadow creatures already unless you got lucky and a Top Hat drastically improves the time until you have to do it again.

You are going to want to explore as much of the caves as you can until you find a LightBulb Field, a Bunnymen Village or at least some houses, some Spider Dens, a few Rock Lobsters, and as many light holes and mushrooms as you can. Feed the Rock Lobsters, then go back to the surface - they should have come with you. Then go back down into the cave. This will unmark their "home" and allow you to leave them wherever you want - I.E, near some Bunnymen. Use them to kill the BunnyMen by clicking to attack one then clicking off - it will issue an attack command. Alternatively if you have meat on you just walk near one and they will attack you, click to attack to run the command then walk past your Rock Lobsters and they will kill it easily for you. They Respawn very quickly.

Drying Racks are difficult to produce because Grass is so limited but definitely worth it. Pick as many LightBulbs as you can, they respawn fast and you can use them for Rot. Eventually you'll want to set up your base near the Bunnymen and transplant all the Grass Saplings and Berries there. Because you will be using mainly Top Hats and Lanterns you wont use a whole lot of Grass or Twigs. Until you get Drying Racks set up your diet will be mostly MeatBalls and Green\Blue Caps, which aren't renewable so get it done ASAP. The Carrots help a lot as filler as they are dropped by the BunnyMen.

From there it's just like any other Caves Run. Eventually you can head up to the surface. There will still be Set Pieces on the surface worth exploring for, for example some of which have Pig Heads on a Stick which when hammered gives Pig Skins and allows for Pig Farms, and any other resource you can't find naturally can still be found in these. Also, there are 3 Sinkholes in each world so when you deplete your resources or want more Grass Tufts or Saplings go find another and gather theirs. When you find the Things and teleport to the next world you've passed the challenge.

Bugs

• During a full moon, there will not be light. To fix this, exit and reload the world.
• "Flickering" a Torch with 100% in vanilla DS will not cost durability allowing for an infinite light Torch
• After reloading the world, there will be light until exactly one night after the full moon is supposed to end.

(Note: This Guide Is A Work In Progress, It Has A Few Problems, I Will Make Time For It And Work Out The Bugs As Soon As Possible)