Maxwell (Don't Starve Together)

Maxwell

NPC

Don't Starve

DST

Origin

Quotes

Gallery

“Freedom suits me.”

–Maxwell

Unlocking

Like most characters in Don't Starve Together, Maxwell is playable for free.

Unique Items

Maxwell starts a new world with a Codex Umbra and 6 Nightmare Fuel.

Item	Utility
	Maxwell can use the Codex to create various Shadow Puppets and Shadow Traps, at the cost of Sanity. Puppets reduce Maxwell's maximum Sanity by 15% (-30) each until they disappear, while Traps instantly drain -15 . The Codex has a durability of 20 uses, but can be repaired using Nightmare Fuel. Shadow Servant: Mines, digs, and harvests for resources within a 4 tile radius for 2 minutes. Shadow Duelist: Assists Maxwell in combat against creatures he is attacking, creatures that attack him, or any that draw too close to them for 2 minutes (75 ). Their base damage is modified through equipping various magic or Shadow Aligned equipment. Shadow Prison: Traps nearby creatures inside of shadow columns for a brief period. Shadow Sneak: Creates a stationary shadow butterfly that awakens when a creature draws too close. Frightens all nearby creatures, while transforming Rabbits, Bunnymen, and Splumonkeys into Beardlings, Beardlords, and Shadow Splumonkeys.
	Equipped in the Head slot. Has the same effects as a Top Hat, but Maxwell can use it to access the Shadow Dimension.
	Storage Structure connected to the Shadow Dimension. There can only be one Chest per server.

Perks

• Maxwell has a constant positive Sanity effect of +6.75 /min, and is immune to negative Sanity effects from Shadow Items.
• Maxwell can read Books and use their abilities, but suffers an increased Sanity penalty than Wickerbottom of 2.5x.
• Maxwell's favourite food is Wobster Dinner, which restores an additional +15 than usual.

Tips

Codex Umbra

• During the first few days, it is effective to find an area with many Stage 3 Trees or Boulders, then summon several Shadow Servants to harvest them. This will allow Maxwell to attain large amounts of items for minimal resources, especially if he lacks materials to craft certain tools.
  • This can be done even during early nights; find a suitable location, craft a Campfire, and simply spend the night cooking food while the Servants clear the area.
  • One can also purposefully summon 6 Shadow Servants to bottom out their sanity to farm Nightmare Fuel while farming other resources at the same time. Given Maxwell has a hard time going insane, this is very efficient, and as long as you gain 2 nightmare fuel you will have made a profit from summoning servants.
• Shadow Servants make Maxwell one of the best characters for mass-clearing tree farms, alongside Woodie. With only one or two Servants, it is possible to attain more than 70 Logs within a short time, with stumps automatically dug up without any player effort. For this reason, he is also great for crafting anything that requires Boards, such as Chests and Boat Kits.
  • With just how many trees his Servants can chop down in a short period, Maxwell has a high chance of spawning a Treeguard or Poison Birchnut Tree, which gives him a reliable way of obtaining Living Logs close to his own base. They will usually aggro the Shadow Servant that summoned them, and after killing them they will aggro onto Maxwell, though sometimes they aggro onto him immediately. If Maxwell wants to protect his Servants, they'll likely need to grab the Treeguards' attention by attacking them. Maxwell should be readily prepared to deal with these Treeguards, so on older worlds (around 80+ days), it's advised to not summon more than 4 Servants so that the Treeguards' insanity aura will not turn you insane, causing you to have to deal with both Nightmare Creatures and Treeguards. It's wise to have either a stack of Pine Cones ready to pacify the Treeguards (though they will re-aggro if your puppets are still chopping) or weapons and armor to take on the Treeguards. Poison Birchnuts are much more difficult to deal with and are much better at killing your puppets, especially in high numbers, so when farming Birchnuts it's advised to not summon more than 3 Servants so one can summon 2 additional duelists (they do not have a sanity lowering Aura so you can summon 5 total puppets) to assist in disposing of the Poison Birchnuts.
    • Despite all the hassle in dealing with Treeguards and Poison Birchnuts, it is very much worth it, as Living Logs are some of the most valuable items in the game and for Maxwell in particular they're even more valuable. Maxwell's ability to mass produce Living Logs is a great asset for both himself and his teammates.
• Maxwell has a hard time going insane, which is overall a positive, but can prove problematic given how much he relies on Nightmare Fuel.
  • On the earlier days, one can hold onto any Green Caps they find, as they lower sanity by 50 when eaten raw, and whenever Maxwell is safe or needs nightmare fuel he can simply eat them. If one doesn't want to waste inventory space, they can also simply eat them as soon as they find them and kill the Nightmare Creatures that spawn until they're above 15% sanity again.
    • Utilizing Blue Caps as healing is also a good way to go insane, and with Maxwell's low 75 health, 20 healing is already ~1/4th of his healthbar, allowing him to get good use out of them.
  • Pairing with Teammates such as Wolfgang and Willow is also a great way to amass lots of nightmare fuel, as these players have the opposite problem and struggle to stay sane. The latter of the two can also utilize Bernie to effectively passively farm Nightmare Fuel at the base.
• Shadow Duelists can be used as an efficient method to kill passive mobs. For example, they can be used near flowers to kill Butterflies, near Berry Bushes to kill Gobblers, or near Rabbit Holes for Morsels. Birds can survive a hit from one duelist (since they do 20 damage, and birds have 25 health), though if you are holding/wearing any Tier 2 shadow item (such as a Magician's Top Hat), their damage will be boosted to 28 allowing them to kill them birds in one hit.
  • One can also most effectively farm Butterflies by planting a singular Flower in the base. The same amount of butterflies will spawn regardless of the amount of flowers.
• Summoning Shadow Duelists should always be done before initiating combat or during gaps in an enemy's attack pattern, since it takes around 2 full seconds before the player regains control of him.
  • The summoning animation can be cut in half by summoning another Puppet straight after, although Maxwell still won't be able to move till the animation is complete. This means you'll want to summon multiple Puppets at a time.
• When summoning Duelists, it's important to keep in mind that they will target the closest thing to them. You don't want them to target the wrong thing, so be sure to summon them as close to (or even on top of) whatever you are fighting.
  • When fighting bosses with Minions, such as the Moose/Goose's group of Moslings, Klaus's 2 Gem Deer, or Queen Bee's Grumble Bee's, it's crucial to ensure Duelists will target the main boss first and not it's minions. If a Duelist targets a Mosling, the Mosling will run away and the Duelist will keep chasing it until it inevitably goes out of your range and dies. Duelists attacking Gem Deer can potentially ruin the fight if they manage to kill it. Duelists are also simply not strong enough to take out all of Queen Bee's Grumble Bee's, and if they kill one in her 2nd, 3rd, or 4th phase, they can cause her to spawn even more. The easiest way to mitigate this problem is to actually summon Duelists in a place where the boss and their minions are not within the Duelists attacking proximity (the visible cirlce you see when summoning them). Duelists will not attack things out of this proximity, however they will move out of this proximity to attack things you are attacking. By summoning them out of the way, they will only come to attack what you want them to. Even after killing the boss, they will simply return to their proximity, allowing you to direct their attention on what you want again.

• Mobs will always focus their attention on Maxwell until his Shadow Duelists get a hit in, meaning that it is not recommended to summon Duelists for the sole purpose of distracting hordes (eg. a group of Spiders chasing from a Spider Den). Only summon them if you intend to fight them.
  • Hordes are also much better slowed down via use of the Shadow Prison.
• While Shadow Duelists are great against weaker foes, fighting stronger Mobs (Treeguards, Vargs, Krampus, etc.) will result in their death unless they're helped by Maxwell (or significantly buffed by higher tier shadow equipment). Great support weapons are the Ice Staff and Fire Staff. The Ice Staff can be used to stun enemies before they land a hit on the Puppets, preventing them from taking damage. The Fire Staff can stun mobs for longer while also damaging them but comes at the cost of possibly burning the dropped loot upon the enemy's death.
• By using Shadow Prison, and quickly afterwards Shadow Sneak on a group of mobs that have shadow variants (such as Splumonkeys) and then killing them, Maxwell can obtain heaps of Nightmare Fuel, since Shadow Sneak will guarantee one to drop from each.
• Due to Maxwell's low health & the fact that the item that boosts his Shadow Duelists the most is the Shadow Thurible, a handheld item that offers zero damage potential, he makes extremely good use out of Beefalo in combat. With a Beefalo, Maxwell also doesn't have to switch out his handheld item for a walking cane, allowing for maximum possible damage at all times. This makes an Ornery Beefalo a very appealing option for Maxwell.
  • An Ornery Beefalo with a Nightmare Saddle has no real issues kiting things a player would. The only boss an Ornery Beefalo with a Nightmare Saddle cannot dodge consistently that players can dodge consistently is the level 3 Shadow Rook, as it reaches a speed of only 8.37 when you need a minimum speed of 9.
  • Keep in mind that the Nightmare Saddle does not provide Maxwells Shadow Puppets with a damage buff despite it being a piece of nightmare equipment.
    • Even with a War Saddle, a Beefalo's speed is enough to dodge nearly every boss (again only experiencing issues with the level 3 Shadow Rook). Because the War Saddle is not nearly as valuable for travel, if one doesn't have access to the Nightmare Saddle yet, aquiring a Glossamer Saddle for traveling and switching to the War Saddle for combat is not a bad idea. If one doesn't want to go through the hassle of obtaining both the War Saddle and the Glossamer Saddle, it's reccomended to for the Glossamer Saddle instead, as it's speed will likely prove more useful in the long run (and it allows an Ornery Beefal to avoid the level 3 Shadow Rook).

Other

• Since Maxwell has a natural regeneration of Sanity, players are recommended to do sanity-consuming things that other players would suffer from. For example: picking Evil Flowers, using Magic and Ancient Items, or eating sanity draining Food.

• Sanity-regenerating items such as the Tam o' Shanter, Tent, Taffy etc. are unnecessary for Maxwell (though it's still wise to bring them during boss fights due to negative sanity auras). This allows him to wear armor such as the Football Helmet while still rapidly regaining Sanity. This also makes exploring during the Night or in Caves and Ruins ideal as the Sanity drain from darkness is negated.

• Due to Maxwell's low maximum Health, it is advised to have revival items on standby. Life Giving Amulets allow him to revive on the spot, but at the cost of Nightmare Fuel, which he might need to fuel the Codex Umbra. Meat Effigies can let him revive near base, but requires sacrificing more than half his current health, and requires the relatively rare Beard Hair from shadow mobs.
  • It is necessary to keep track of Maxwell's currently equipped armor for the same reason: if the player accidentally goes into combat while wearing seasonal equipment like the Breezy Vest and Winter Hat, Maxwell will most likely die within seconds.
• Maxwell's low maximum health means that he requires much less healing items than most of the characters: two Healing Salves are enough to heal more than half his health, and most foodstuff that give health points can fully heal him within two or three consumptions. He can even use Spider Glands directly to heal decent amounts of health.
• Thanks to his Sanity regeneration, Maxwell will not lose Sanity even with 100 Wetness. However, he will start losing sanity if he equips wet tools or equipment.
  • While this is usually not desirable for other characters, equipping wet items will allow Maxwell to lower his sanity over time to start farming Shadow Creatures.
• Once crafted, the Magician's Top Hat gives Maxwell a large inventory to store whatever he wants. Its inventory can be opened by wearing the hat and then right-clicking it from the Head slot, or by holding ALT while right-clicking it in the inventory. Take note of its durability, as it will still go down when worn. The Magician's Chest is simply a chest variant one can place at base to access the same inventory.
  • Avoid placing food inside Maxwell's shadow inventory, as it shares the same inventory and gimmicks as Shadow Chester (where food will spoil 50% faster), though this can be used to deliberately create Rot.
  • The Surface and Caves both have a separate shadow inventory, which can be used to stockpile useful items for either environment (eg. having a Lantern stored in the cave inventory).
  • It is recommended to store items that are useful while exploring but would otherwise take up precious space, such as Nightmare Fuel (for refueling the Codex Umbra), Healing Salves (for healing) or uncommonly used tools (such as a Razor for shaving Beefalo).
• Maxwell's affinity to shadow magic means the player should prioritize getting a Prestihatitator or Shadow Manipulator crafted at their earliest convenience: his Shadow Duelists will gain an increase in damage when he wears magic items, and magic equipment are powerful enough to offset Maxwell's frailty.
• If Maxwell is able to find some Evil Flowers, dropping some captured Bees near them will spawn more flowers, which then can be used to craft Nightmare Fuel.
• Maxwell will find trouble navigating lunar biomes such as the Lunar Grotto due to his constant sanity regeneration, meaning he will eventually get attacked by Gestalts. Any option for lowering his sanity will be useful in said biome, such as the Seawreath or sanity-lowering foods.