Hamlet Don't Starve Guide: Adapting to the Kingdom of Pigs

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Having learned the tricks of the trade regarding games journalism at Veryali Gaming, Alex is now a key member of the Ready Game Survive team, and loves nothing more than grabbing a controller and bracing himself for a devastatingly brutal battle for survival. Outside of traditional survivals, Alex loves immersive RPGs, has spent more time in Skyrim than he dare admit, and he also loves playing guitar.

Introduction

Looking for a fresh Don’t Starve experience? Then the Hamlet DLC is perfect for you. Hamlet was released in 2019 and threw the Don’t Starve fundamentals in the bin, slapping the pros across the face. Klei Entertainment once again mixes up the mysterious world of the Constant.

In Hamlet, a medieval pig society has formed; players will find pigs in expensive fine clothes browsing the shops that scatter Swinesbury in search of valuable goods. While on the fringes of Swinesbury, farms can be found dotted around the Cultivated biome, but the sophisticated lands of Hamlet are overcast by dangerous and fantastical rainforests and Painted biomes filled with new resources and terrifying and whimsical creatures. Welcome to a Hamlet Don’t Starve Guide.

Swinesbury Don't Starve Hamlet — Image by Alex Maksymiw

Now if this were an adventure movie, it would be insane. However, I’d be the unhinged guy who has learned to survive the horrors of the land and begin teaching the new survivors the secrets of the mysterious world, i.e., Hamlet.

All jokes aside, I’ve had a lot of fun playing Hamlet over the years, and I’m here to show you how you can thrive as a treasure hunter and haggle with these uptight oinkers. So without further ado, let’s delve into some ancient ruins and sell some treasure to fill our piggy bank!

Don't Starve Hamlet — Image by Alex Maksymiw

Key Details Up-Front

Is the Aporkalypse quickly approaching? Don’t have enough time to read the entire article? Don’t worry; I’ve put key details here on the best use of your time in the Hamlet world.

Hamlet is a blast to play but can be intimidating for new players. Everything is turned upside down; stick with it, and you’ll have much fun exploring the world.

While exploring, you’ll have to contend with three new seasons:

Temperate: Starts on day 1, Similar to Autumn in the default Constant. The player can freely explore and collect resources to prepare for upcoming hardships.
Humid Season: Starts on day 12. The Humid Season will begin on Day 12, issuing in Sanity, draining Fog and Rabid Beatles. To prepare for this Season
Lush Season: Starts on day 23. Sanity-draining Allergies cause sneezing and item drop.

Along with the nightmarishly annoying seasons, you must survive the Aporkalypse. This event occurs on day 60 when the sky will tint with a hellish red color and mobs become very aggressive, and Pigs will no longer trade with the player.

Complete Aporkalypse Quickly

Aporkalypse Callendar Don't Starve Hamlet — Image from Fandom

The Aporkalypse will only end once the player has reset the Aporkalypse Callendar, a reference from the Mayan Calender that claimed to predict an apocalypse event. This is probably one of the most complex parts of Hamlet; you must find the Calender before the Aporkalypse event if you want to survive and end the event quickly! The calendar spawns behind suspicious cracks within Ancient Pig Ruins.

Hamlet Key Features

The Three “Sneazons”

Hamlet only has three seasons, but I’m thankful each Season poses challenges, just like the base Don’t Starve game in the cold winter, where food is scarce, and temperatures can kill. The seasons in Hamlet are not your run-of-the-mill climates; no, Hamlet ups the ante, and you must prepare for each Season if you want to survive and escape the Constant.

The player will always start in the Temperate Season. This is a relatively safe season compared to the others. However, the Temperate Season only lasts twelve days, so the clock is ticking to prepare for the upcoming Humid and Lush seasons.

Temperate Season: Preparing for the Hardships to Come

In the Temperate Season, I recommend that you craft the following items before the Humid Season:

Bug B’Gone: An item used to kill Gnat swarms and Rabid Beetles, it can be found under the Survival Tab and is crafted with 6 x Tubers and 1 x Flytrap Stalk. You can obtain Tubers by chopping Tuber Trees with a Machete in the Painted biome. Flytrap Stalks drop from fully grown Snaptooths found in the Deep Rainforest biome and are often surrounded by mobile Snaptooth Flytraps.
Pith Hat: Found under the Dress Tab, the Pith Hat provides 50% Water Resistance and provides +2 Sanity per minute. This hat is essential for getting through the Heavy Fog found during the Humid Season, as the player takes no speed penalty while wearing the Pith Hat; plus, it’s a stylish hat that every adventurer needs! You can craft the Pith Hat with 1 x Cloth, 6 x Cork, and 3 x Vines.
Cowl: The Cowl is a hat that emits sonar, making exploration during the night and Ancient Pig Ruins a lot easier. Moreover, the Cowl negates movement speed penalties while moving through Heavy Fog during the Humid Season and extends this to any Chest slot item. You will need 1 x Compass, 1 x Batilisk Wing, and 2 x Pig Skin. You can find Batalisks inside Ancient Pig ruins and outside roughly every five days.
Weevole Mantle: The Weevole Mantle will protect the player from the Rabid Beetles of the Humid Season and negate movement penalties for head item slots. Making this a great piece of equipment to pair with the Cowl altogether makes your player look like some Hamlet superhero. You can craft the Weevole Mantle with 4 x Weevole Carapaces and 2 x Chiten at an Alchemy Lab under the Fight Tab.

Humid Season: Blinding Fog and Beetle Plague

It’s day 12, and here comes the first stress test. The Humid Season arrives along with Heavy Fog that reduces your vision making exploration of new areas trickier to make matters worse, the dense fog will increase your Wetness meter, but it doesn’t stop there, though. The player will be subject to heavy rainfall when the fog lifts.

It’s tough to keep your character dry during this Season. However, there are a few strategies that I’ve come up with to deal with the cursed weather. Now wearing general clothing or armor during the Humid Season is pretty much impossible, apart from a few items I mentioned above, as the weather slows your survivor down to a snail’s pace.

It would be best if you acquired the equipment I mentioned above to counter the harsh weather. However, suppose you are struggling to keep your survivor dry and safe from the aggressive Rabid Beetles during the Humid Season. In that case, you can enter a Pig Shop or Slanty Shanty player home to dry up and compose yourself before heading back out.

Bear in mind that it’s straightforward to wait out the Season. But I recommend that you try and stay active during the Season as long as you can to prepare for the upcoming Lush Season.

Lush Season: Irritating Allergies

When the Lush Season rolls in, so does the face-scratching, nose-blocking pollen. Allergies will surround the corner of your screen, confirming that pollen is in the air.

Hay Feaver has a terrible sneeze-inducing effect on your survivor, which will drain your character’s Sanity, stun them, and cause them to drop their items. This can be incredibly annoying and dangerous as you do not want to fiddle around picking up your items and equipment in a fight! To make matters worse, you won’t be able to escape from pollen by entering buildings like Pig Shops and the Slanty Shanty.

However, as annoying as allergies are, there are ways to deter this invisible threat even If you haven’t had time to prepare for the Lush Season.

The most basic way is to eat Seed Pods that drop from Tea Trees in the Cultivated biome. Eating one Seed Pod will give you immunity to the pollen in the air; however, if you eat cooked Seed Pods, you’ll double its effects. So you could stock up on these items in preparation for the Lush Season. Remember that they do decay over time, though. Technically you only need four cooked Seed Pods to get through an entire day.

While I don’t think you should rely solely on Seed Pods to counter Hay Fever, I always ensure I have at least half a stack on me during the Lush Season, as they are invaluable.

Although you won’t be able to use this method if you’re playing as Wigfrid, as she only eats meat, the Gas Mask and Oscillating Fan are more permanent solutions to the pollen. Of the two, I much prefer the Oscillating Fan, as the Gas Mask drains your Sanity by ten points every minute!

You will need Gears to craft the Osicallting Fan, a rare material in the Hamlet world; however, you can purchase Gears from the “The Sty” Oddities Emporium Pig Shop in Swinesbury. Or you could loot them from Clockworks guarding the Stone Thing, although this is a bit trickier since the Stone Thing could spawn on the other sky island requiring you to travel through the Ancient Pig Ruins.

Hamlet Survivors

So I’ve established that Hamlet spices up the Don’t Starve gameplay. Strategies that players use in Shipwrecked and the base game are ineffective here. The Hamlet expansion included three new characters. I won’t have Wagstaff since he was released in an update for the main game. So let’s take a quick look at these charming fellows.

Wheeler the Adventurer

To unlock Wheeler, you must accumulate 3200 XP equating to 160 days in the Constant.

Wheeler is one of the three survivors introduced into Don’t Starve in the Hamlet DLC. Wheeler has some of the weakest stats of all the survivors in Don’t Starve. However, she has a few tricks to keep her alive in the Constant.

Wheeler moves faster than most survivors in the game, but her movement speed decreases the more items she carries. However, I always craft a Backpack as she only has twelve inventory slots over the standard 15. This may sound like a problem, but Wheeler takes no movement penalty for carrying items in a backpack. Moreover, you can store a whole stack of things in her unique weapon, the Pew-Matic Horn.

Wheeler enters the Constant with the Pew-Matic Horn, a ranged weapon that fires anything you load into it. It’s a great weapon that synergizes well with her Dodge ability. Wheeler also has access to the Navigadget, an item that will point in a direction to the nearest item you place. This enables you to seek out essential items quickly. I found it brilliant in the early game, searching for Gold Nuggets.

I see Wheeler as the canon survivor for Hamlet as her description in the Compendium in Don’t Starve: Together describes her as an Intrepid Explorer and states:

“Maybelle Dorothea Wheeler is an adventure-seeking aeronaut who crashed her hot air balloon and became lost in The Constant.”

Wheeler is a solid pick for the Hamlet world as her dodge ability, and Pew-Matic Horn attack allow her to escape dangerous situations quickly. Giving her more survivability during the Aporkalypse and boss fights. Moreover, playing as Wheeler will enable me to quickly explore the map and save precious time collecting resources despite having fewer inventory slots.

Wilba

To unlock Wilba, you must kill Queen Womant and return the Royal Crown to Queen Malfalfa, located in the Palace on the second island.

Wilba is the princess of the Pig Kingdom, making her a great choice if you’re the kind of gamer that likes to cause mayhem in GTA. As the princess, you can get away with stealing from pigs and vandalizing Swinesbury and Pig-owned buildings at no penalty. Pigs will also gift you Oincs.

However, if you struggle with maintaining your character Sanity Wilba may not be your pick. She has a low cap of 100 Sanity and takes extra sanity damage in the dark. She can also turn into Werewilba, becoming immune to the annoying weather effects like Allergies and Heavy Fog, and is granted Night Vision and increases to attack.

So if you can maintain Wilba’s Sanity, she can be instrumental in getting through those harsh seasons and exploring Ancient Pig Ruins in the dark.

Wormwood

Wormwood has no unlocking requirements and is available to all Hamlet owners.

Awwh, Wormwood (one of my favorites) is adorable in his quotes and is one of the best characters to choose for playing in a Hamlet world. He can plant vegetables without farms and craft unique items to improve Wormwood’s defense and heal him.

Plant mobs like Snaptooths will not attack Wormwood, making him fantastic at exploring the Deep Rain Forest. However, Wormwood’s Sanity will drain when he witnesses the plant being destroyed. Thunderbirds and big mobs like Spider Monkeys that can ruin the environment around them can add insult to injury with Sanity draining destruction.

To counter this, you can improve Wormwood’s Sanity by planting plants and trees.

The Town of Swinesbury

There are two Pig settlements in a Hamlet world; Swinesbury is the first town you will encounter in your playthrough of Hamlet. Swinesbury is a bustling town home to dapper pigs with which players can trade items. However, amongst these pink snorts are shops where players can purchase valuable items.

When I start a Hamlet world, I’ll immediately seek out the Cultivated biome and Swinesbury after collecting essential resources. The earlier you find the town, the better, as you can start earning Oincs straight out of the bat, which can be purchased for an assortment of goods from the various Pig Shops in Swinesbury.

Here is a breakdown of all the most useful Pig Shops in Hamlet:

The Sterling Trough Deli: This Pig Shop sells Crock Pot meals costing from 3 Oincs to 10 Oincs. In my opinion, it’s a waste to spend your Oincs on food; however, if you’re starving to death, this Pig Shop could save your life.
Curly Tails Mud Spa: This Pig Shop sells all kinds of Healing items and is very useful as Silk is rare in the Hamlet world, so shopping from here can save a lot of time.
Pigg and Pigglet’s General Store: One of the most useful Pig Shops in Hamlet, this store sells various survival tools but, more importantly, the Miner Hat, a hat that produces a light for making cave and Ancient Pig Ruins exploration viable early in the game only costing 20 Oincs.
Swinesbury Mineral Exchange: This Pig Shop allows you to exchange minerals for Oincs
Swinesbury Academy: The player can sell Lost Relics for Oincs here.

Utilizing these Pig Shops is excellent if you fall behind on resources and need specific tools like the Miner Hat. However, if you save 50 Oincs, you can purchase the Slanty Shanty player home in Swinesbury.

You don’t have to purchase this home. However, the safety from monsters and infinite lightning makes it invaluable to survivors. That said, I mainly set up a base on the fringe of the Cultivated biome as this saves time traveling to other biomes. Swinesbury often spawns a considerable distance from the Rainforest and different resource-dense biomes. Therefore, using the Slanty Shanty as your main base will quickly eliminate the daily daylight traveling from your house.

You can outfit the Slanty Shanty with structures and expand its interior; remember that Hay Feaver inside the house will not protect you, so you must prepare for the Lush Season, but I’ll return to that later.

The Slanty Shanty also grants the player Sanity recovery, so even if you don’t plan on using it as your main base, I recommend at least owning it for those dire situations.

Becoming a Millionaire in Swinesbury

You must use Swinesbury and the Pigs that inhabit the town; otherwise, what’s the point of playing Hamlet? You can make a small fortune from Pigs with even a basic knowledge of the different types of swine trotting around in the town.

Many Pigs will trade specific items with the player, and their appearances easily distinguish them; for example, the Farmer Pig wears Blue Dungarees and a straw hat, while Florist Pigs wear dresses.

Depending on your world and how close resources are to your base and Swinesbury determines what Pigs you should trade with. This isn’t a hard rule, but it’s one that I play by. Instead, there is no reason to focus on all of the pigs, which gives you the most Oincs.

Florist Pigs: Trade Flower Petals for an Oinc once a day.
Shopkeeps: Run the Swinesbury Fine Grocer’s and The Sterling Trough Deli; you can trade Hedge Clippings for an Oinc at no limit. One of the best ways to make money is in Hamlet. Use a Razor or Shears to
Farmers: Grass, Twigs
Worker Pigs: Trade Wood Boards, Rope, and Cut Stone for two Oincs once per day. It would be great if you could spawn a load in.
Professor Pork: Trade Lost Idols for 10 Oincs with no trade limit. Run through the jungle early in the game to find eroding totems or idols that can be found there or in the regular Ancient Pig ruins.
The Collector Pigs: These Pigs will trade Oincs for an assortment of items such as Stingers, Silk, and Spider Glands at no trade limit per day.
Mayor Truffles: This Pig will trade you five Oincs for one Gold Nugget!

If I were to have a favorite, it would be Professor Pork, and the Shopkeepers of The Sterling Trough Deli and Swinesbury Fine Grocer’s, as these Pigs have no day trade cap, allowing me to make a ton of Oincs off of Lost Relics and Hedge Clippings.

One of my haphazard strategies early in the game while playing Wheeler is to roughly explore the Deep Rainforest Biome, searching for Lost Relics that spawn on the ground. Wheeler’s speed and Dodge’s ability make avoiding Snaptooth Flytraps and Spider Monkeys easier.

Annoying Creatures and How to Deal with Them

Collecting wood can be a pain in the ham. In the Hamlet expansion, you’ve got all kinds of critters to contend with, from Pog’s, fox-like creatures rummaging through your chests for food, to Snakes and Scorpions falling out of tree canopies onto you to the cheeky squirrel-like Piko’s who steal Twigs and Logs that you chop from trees.

While these creatures don’t deal a lot of damage or some no damage at all, they take your valuable time as you shoo away Pikos from your resources. So here is how you deal with the annoying critters.

Taking the Fight to the Piko

You may think these little guys are cute. Well, these sneaky blighters will relentlessly seek after your Logs and Twigs. They’re fast and can climb trees; you can know a tree down only for the Piko to steal another item and run off to another tree! So this is what I do.

Craft a bunch of Traps and set up a perimeter around the trees you’ll be chopping. I leave a little gap between traps as they have a great trigger range. Pikos will helplessly run into these traps, unable to resist the Logs and Twigs. The same trap method can be used to hunt them, place a Log on the ground, and surround it with traps.

Note that Pikos is very small, so you will only get a Morsel for killing them, and it can take up a lot of time hunting these guys.
Pikos are neutral mobs that will only attack you in self-defense. However, catch them on a Full Moon or in Aporkalypse season, and their eyes will glow red with rage, and they’ll become hostile, attacking you on sight and steal your items!

Food Stealing Pog’s

Pogs are another irritating feline creature that will first make you go AWWWHH! A minute later, ARGHHHH!!! These creatures will walk up to you and beg for food; in return for feeding them, they will become your ally for a short time. However, they’re not worth the hassle.

Pogs will steal all food items that drop in their vicinity; they will even search through your chests, littering the ground with your items, looking for food (even if there is no food in the chest!). So if you see Pogs, I recommend giving them a swift whack with a Ham Bat or running away.

Pogs are an excellent source of food bear in mind that killing them will raise your Naughtiness level by 2 points.
In the Aporkalypse, Pogs will turn feral and aggressive and can damage you over time, so avoid them if they are in a pack.
Pogs are neutral creatures, and you’ll often find them fighting Weevoles in the large clumps of Grass.

Hamlet Goals

To beat Don’t Starve: Hamlet, you must collect all five Teleporto items, the Lever Thing, Stone Thing, Rock Thing, Iron Thing, and Relic Thing. Remember that you cannot escape the Constant, and the Teleporto will teleport you to a new world with your inventory items; you’ll gain all XP you accumulated in the previous world.

The creatures of Hamlet are odd, and the four new bosses are the most bizarre yet! Here is a breakdown of all the bosses you can encounter in Hamlet:

Pugalisk: Found at the Fountain of Youth on the second island accessible from Ancient Pig Ruins.
Large Iron Hulk: If you’ve explored the Rainforest Biome, you’ll have spotted large robotic parts that can be mined for Iron but will come alive and attack you. If you lure these mechanical limbs together, they’ll combine to form the Large Iron Hulk! As a result, it’s one of the easiest boss fights to start.
Queen of Womant: In the depths of the Deep Rain forests, Mants scurry around foraging, not bothered by the player’s movements. However, their leader, the Queen of Womant, is aggressive and the next behemoth to cross off the list. You’ll find the Queen of Womant within Mant Hill.
Ancient Herald: The final boss in the Hamlet DLC. The Ancient Herald will only spawn in the Aporkalypse.

FAQs

Question: How Do I Cure Poison in Don’t Starve: Hamlet?

Answer: If you are poisoned in Don’t Starve, you can either wait three days for the poison to run its course, or you can offer treasure to Wishing Wells found in Ancient Pig Ruins for a chance to be cured of the poison. Alternatively, you could drink Magic Water obtained from the Fountain of Youth. However, interacting with the fountain will spawn the Pugalisk. The easiest way I find using Anti Venom purchased from the Curly Tails Mud Spa found in Swinesbury.

Question: How do I Explore the Gas Rainforest Without taking Damage in Don’t Starve: Hamlet?

Answer: The Gas Rainforest is inaccessible due to poisonous gas that deals damage over time to the player. To explore this biome, you will need to craft a Gas Mask by combining the following items at an Alchemy Station:

• 4 x Peagawk Plumes
• 1 x Cloth
• 1 x Pig Skin

I recommend only using the Gas Mask in the Gas Rainforest biome, as it will drain your character’s Sanity by 10 points every minute!

Question: How do I Obtain Stone in Don’t Starve: Hamlet?

Answer: Stone can be mined from Gnat Mounds in the Painted Biome. However, you must watch out for Gnat Swarms will latch onto you and drain your Sanity, and Thunderbirds, which will shock you with electricity if you get too close to them. Alternatively, Stalagmites found in caves provide a source of Stone.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Hamlet expansion is fresh air for players looking for a more challenging Don’t Starve experience. I’ve had a lot of fun playing Hamlet; however, that said, it could be frustrating to deal with each of the seasons and the creatures that roam the world. That said, the beauty of Don’t Starve is that it’s entirely the player’s fault if they die.

Whether it’s from misjudging your enemies and fights to poor stat management like Hunger or Sanity, Don’t Starve is a race against the clock and a prepper’s dream game. You must constantly prepare for the future and upcoming seasons that shift the gameplay beats. You will falter later in the game if you fall behind or fixate on one aspect too much.

Hamlet is hard, theres no doubt about that. However, the bartering feature and Slanty Shanty give new forms of survival. If the player has enough Oincs in their piggy bank, they can avoid death when desperate. The Deep Rainforest biome and Ancient Pig Ruins capture that explorer aesthetic and feel.

Hamlet Don’t Starve Guide: Adapting to the Kingdom of Pigs