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Timber!!
Don’t Starve is filled with many cooky and interesting characters, but you won’t find a character who hates trees more than Woodie. And in survival games where chopping trees is a necessity, it helps to have someone like Woodie in your control. That is when you catch him on his good days. Woodie has the ability to transform into a beaver. However, he has little control over this curse, as you’ll find out by playing Don’t Starve.
Don’t Starve: Together sets Woodie’s powers into overdrive, adding extra Moose and goose forms to Woodie’s list of transformations. I’ve played countless hours of Don’t Starve as Woodie to help you control Woodie and show that his transforming abilities are more a power than a curse. Welcome to a Woodie Don’t Starve guide.
Key Details Up-Front
Is the full moon rising, and you haven’t got time to read the entire article? Don’t worry. I’ve placed all the key details about Woodie in this section.
To get your hands on the shapeshifting Canadian lumberjack, you will need to survive a total of 80 days in the Constant, equating to 1,600 experience points.
- Woodie’s stats are mediocre, possessing 150 Health, 150 Hunger, and 200 Sanity.
Woodie’s abilities are a stark contrast between Don’t Starve and Don’t Starve: Together.
In Don’t Starve, Woodie can shapeshift into a beaver randomly under a Full Moon or by consecutively chopping down trees. Woodie can chop trees down and eat logs to replenish his beaverness Meter in his Beaver form. In this form, Woodie will also be able to smash objects to the same effect as the Hammer and Pickaxe and dig up plants like a Shovel. Woodie will drop all items once he enters this form, and his Health, Sanity, and Hunger stats will be halved when he returns to his human form.
Woodie will not remove his backpack when transforming into beaver form. As a result, I recommend that you fill this backpack with supplies such as food, armor, weapons, a Thermal Stone if it’s Winter, and health items if you can spare them, as you can often find yourself surrounded by mobs or cold in the Winter.
- In Don’t Starve: Together, Woodie gets two extra animal forms, a goose and a moose.
The Goose can travel across water and has an increased movement speed, while the Moose has increased defense and melee attack damage. Moreover, Woodie can no longer transform by chopping down trees and must instead craft Kitschy Idols to transform.
I prefer Woodie’s Don’t Starve abilities over his update in DST. This is because his other forms are not nearly as strong as his beaver form in Don’t Starve. For example, although the Moose form has better stats Woodie in his Beaver can restore health much faster than in Moose by devouring logs.
The Crazy Lumberjack with a Secret
Doesn’t every good lumberjack need a Lucy? Lucy is unlike any other in Don’t Starve. Unique to Woodie, Lucy swings and chops faster, allowing Woodie to dispatch his tree foes quickly. As a result, you can collect a big pile of wood faster than any other character in the game.
Lucy is more than just a re-coat of red paint. She will keep Woodie company, offering him helpful advice and warning the player when Woodie will transform into his beaver form. When playing as Woodie, you never want to drop Lucy out of your inventory as she is superior to the craftable Axe in Don’t Starve; moreover, its swing speed enables you to transform into Woodie’s beaver form quicker than the average Axe, which can save your life if you’re starving to death or being attacked by mobs.
Woodie’s beaver form is his main special ability in Don’t Starve, and let me tell you, it’s a powerful ability but has a harsh aftermath. Woodie will transform into his beaver form once he’s chopped down too many trees within a short amount of time. You can see a list of Lucy’s quotes under the quotes section of the article to learn when Woodie is close to transforming.
Woodie’s Shapeshifting Abilities
Once Woodie has transformed into his beaver form, the player will not be able to access their inventory or map, and Woodie’s stats will be replaced with his beaverness Meter. Woodie can eat wood and samplings to replenish the Meter and stay in his beaver form.
While in his beaver form, his attacks are stronger, and he can dismantle objects with the same effect as a hammer, Axe, and shovel. Items will need to be picked up once Woodie transforms back into his human form.
You don’t need to worry about approaching nighttime as Woodie can see in the dark and will not be attacked by Shadow Creatures or Charlie at night. Moreover, if Woodie’s Beaverness meter is depleted at night, Woodie will wake up in the morning. With night quickly approaching, you can pull this neat trick if you are stranded in the wilderness.
Woodie’s Don’t Starve: Together Abilities
In Don’t Starve: Together, Woodie has had a major update allowing him to now additionally shapeshift into a goose and a moose. However, the methods of transforming have changed significantly. In DST, Woodie can no longer transform by chopping down trees. Instead, he now transforms by carrying out the following methods:
- Eat two Monster Meat to transform into a random creature.
- Craft and consume either Moose, Goose, or Beaver Kitschy Idols to transform into the corresponding creature.
- Thirdly, Woodie can randomly transform into the Goose, Moose, or Beaver during a Full Moon.
Now I know what you’re thinking how a goose can be useful in combat? Well, from experience, they’re relentless buggers but casting my childhood memories of being pecked by geese aside. The goose form is quite handy for exploring the map.
While in the goose form, Woodie moves faster and can sprint across water. However, he cannot attack while in this form. The goose form serves as a form of escape and exploration.
On the other hand, the moose form slows Woodie’s movement and turns him into a tank with high damage resistance and high damage. While in his Moose form, Woodie can charge in a line damaging all mobs within range. This poses as a great way to farm big bulks of creatures such as Spiders and Frogs.
While Woodie’s Moose form sounds exciting, it doesn’t have as much utility in combat as you’d think, as Woodie has no way of healing while in this form. Moreover, in Don’t Starve: Together, transforming into any creature will deplete your hunger to zero and drain sanity points every second, posing the risk that Woodie may die after defeating a boss to Shadow Creatures from dangerously low Sanity and starvation.
Don’t Starve Beaver Form Weaknesses
With all that considered, Woodie doesn’t have a great hold on his buck tooth wood gnawing beaver form and can transform into his beaver form randomly on a Full Moon. This can easily ruin a run of Don’t Starve for several reasons. If the player is playing on a Shipwrecked DLC map and Woodie transforms into his beaver form while at sea, his raft will sink, and he will wake up on shore!
Once Woodie transforms into his human form, he will awake to half health, low Sanity, and half hunger, and at the last location where he was a beaver. Therefore, straying too far from where Woodie initially transformed can be dangerous, especially in the Winter season, where the cold temperatures can quickly kill the player.
Moreover, any aggressive mobs in the vicinity or mobs that were attacking Woodie in his beaver form will continue to attack Woodie in his human form, which can lead to a quick death.
While in Woodie’s beaver form, his health is linked to his beaverness Meter. Mobs that attack Woodie will decrease the Meter; therefore, being surrounded by a group of mobs like killer Bees or Hounds can be dangerous as they can surround and trap Woodie.
How to Unlock Woodie in Don’t Starve
Woodie is the sixth unlockable character in Don’t Starve and Don’t Starve: Together. Every day you survive in a run adds twenty experience points to your overall score and is rewarded to your account once you have died.
Because Woodie is the sixth unlockable character, you will need to obtain 1600 Experience points, equating to 80 days of survival in the Constant. Of course, you don’t have to survive 80 days in one go, as all experience points will be added up from each run.
This makes Woodie the final vanilla character to unlock. Suppose you own any DLC Reign of Giants, Shipwrecked, or Hamlet. In that case, I recommend that when you start a new game, you make it compatible with the specific DLC, as this will allow you to raise the experience cap and earn experience to unlock any new characters from the DLC that you own.
Woodie’s Playstyle
Woodie is one of my most played Don’t Starve characters for when I want to chill out and have some fun. He’s generally voted as one of the easier characters to play within the Don’t Starve community, and this is partly due to him having fast tree-chopping times and a permanent axe that enables players to dedicate the time that they would have spent chopping down trees to other survival needs such as researching new technologies or exploring the world.
Woodie’s uses have often been debated online, with many fans of Don’t Starve claiming that Woodie’s Beaver form is not all that useful; however, while I do agree that Woodie’s abilities in Don’t Starve: Together are fairly weak compared to other characters in the game. Woodie’s beaver form is very strong in the original Don’t Starve. This is because players can transform into the beaver form whenever they like presuming that there are enough trees in the vicinity.
The player can dodge starving to death being killed by mobs and skip a night if they need to by transforming into the beaver form. But because Woodie cannot transform in Don’t Starve: Together by chopping trees, making him less reliable until the player can get their hands on the three Kitschy Idols.
Early Game Strategy
Beginners will often make the mistake of settling down in one location too early in the game, stunting their map discovery, and leading to a lack of varied supplies later in the game when seasons change. For example, if the player relies solely on fish for food, they’ll be at a disadvantage in the Winter when ponds freeze over.
The player should use Woodie’s beaver form early in the game to both explore and leave a trail of destruction in his wake. Although Woodie’s Health, Sanity, and Hunger take a beating after he transforms back into a human, the player can pick up anything they have destroyed in Woodie’s beaver form.
This can give you a major headstart in the early game because you obtain a collection of Berry Bushes, Saplings to be planted later at a base, Bone Shards, Honey, Webs, and Spider Glands are all easily acquired without the need of building a Pickaxe, Hammer, or Shovel.
This is how I start all new games as Woodie; however, as discussed prior, transforming into the beaver form comes at a cost, and the player will have to spend a bit of time recouping on lost Sanity Health and Hunger.
Woodie can easily wipe out the first two waves of Hounds in Don’t Starve while in his Beaver form. However, bear in mind that if the Hounds deplete your Beaverness meter, you will transform back into a human with no equipment.
I generally ignore crafting spears if I’m playing Woodie in Don’t Starve. This is because Woodie can easily dispatch Tentacles found within the Swamp biome to obtain a Tentacle Spike. A fantastic weapon to acquire early in the game that can be used to kill spiders in two hits and easily take out hounds thanks to significantly higher damage than the Spear.
Recouping Stats after Transformation
I either collect flowers while working my way back to Lucy as each plucked flower restores five points of Sanity. In addition, twelve flowers can be used to craft a Garland, a type of hat apparel that grants Woodie 1.3 points of Sanity every minute. However, if I was able to destroy any Spider Nests or kill Spiders on my beaver rampage and able to collect six Spider Webs, I’ll craft a Top Hat instead, a hat that grants 3.3 Sanity points every minute.
You won’t have to worry about starving at this point in the game as a Don’t Starve run starts in a friendly season, either Spring or Autumn, where food is plentiful. Moreover, Woodie can bypass starvation by transforming into his beaver form as a last resort.
Eating food will typically heal your character in Don’t Starve by 1-3 points of health. So you could spam berries to heal Woodie after his transformation. However, this leaves you vulnerable and will take up much precious time. I prefer crafting Healing Salves by collecting Spider Glands from spiders I’ve killed during my beaver rampage and combining them with two Ash and one Stone.
- Ash is a very easy resource to come by. All you have to do is craft a Torch, and light everything up in your path!
Fighting the Giants of Don’t Starve
The Constant is a dangerous realm filled with all manner of silly and hostile enemies; none, however, are as dangerous as these upcoming bosses. Don’t Starve is truly an unforgiving game, and when these bosses show up, your game can be over in a matter of seconds. However, with Woodie on your side, you have a significant advantage.
Spawning in the Winter Deerclops is typically the first boss the player will encounter in the game. (That is, if Woodie hasn’t angered a Tree Guardian).
Deerclops can absolutely destroy you just when you’re getting your footing in the Winter. However, Woodie has the advantage of being able to turn into his beaver form to fight Deerclops.
Now, if Woodie’s beaverness Meter reaches zero, you’re a goner, so make sure you fight Deerclops with a big supply of logs nearby. I recommend you knock down the trees before engaging with Deerclops, as this will save you time when you need to heal. As long as Woodie has a constant supply of logs, he can’t be killed by Deerclops.
If you own Reign of Giants, you must consider that Deerclops behaves differently and is even harder to defeat. No thanks, Deerclop’s new freezing ability will freeze anything Deerclops hits twice frozen solid. If this happens, you won’t be able to recover health from eating logs so if you’re hit, make sure to stand within the vicinity of a fire.
Reign of Giants: Bearger
Bearger is a giant boss introduced in the Reign of Giants DLC and spawns in Autumn but never on the player’s first Autumn. Bearger is not inherently aggressive. He’s just very hungry. Once Bearger spawns, he will slowly walk toward the player and gobble up food from Bee Boxes, Chests, and Ice Boxes; you name it, he’ll eat it.
This can devastate the player’s food supplies for the Winter. However, Woodie doesn’t need to rely on food for survival as he can transform into his beaver form when he’s about to starve.
Bearger can be an absolute pain to fight against, thanks to his big AOE and weapon-dropping effect. However, if you fight Bearger as Woodie in his Beaver form, you don’t need to worry about this. Moreover, Bearger will grunt at the player if they take food within the range, indicating that he wants it back and that he’s angry! So Woodie can safely chow down on logs in his beaver form without annoying Bearger.
It’s even better that Bearger demolishes everything in his path, including trees, meaning that there will be hundreds of logs for you to eat and replenish your Wereness Meter.
Enemy of the Trees
If you’re going to chop down an entire forest of trees, it may be a good time to mention that while in Woodie’s human form, Tree Guards have a slightly higher chance of spawning. Tree Guards are powerful boss enemies resembling trees and will be angered if they spot the player chopping them. As you can see from the Trees a Crowd animated short, Woodie and Tree Guards don’t get along.
If you stumble across these towering evergreen giants, there are a few ways to dispatch them. Tree Guards have very high health; for the most part, you’ll want to avoid them. You can pacify them by planting trees within their vicinity or playing the Pan Flute. However, if you need to kill them, I suggest crafting a campfire and kiting them into the fire.
Spider Queen
The player can take on the Spider Queen by transforming into the beaver form in Don’t Starve. However, ensure you have a supply of logs nearby to heal. If you want to kill the Spider Queen faster, I recommend luring the beast to a nearby Killer Beehive or Pigs. The longer the Spider Queen is distracted by other mobs, the better, as this will grant you time to heal and put in some damage.
Remember that the Spider Queen can have a maximum of sixteen spiders, including annoying jumping Warrior Spiders accompanying her while she fights you. Unfortunately, Woodie can easily be swarmed and transformed back to his human form, and if that happens, you’re dead!
Charging the Spider queen and her minions as the Weremoose in Don’t Starve: Together is a good idea, as you can wipe out an army of Spiders while dealing damage to the Spider Queen. However, the AOE and increased damage output come at a cost to Woodie’s Sanity. In DST, Woodie’s Sanity drains while he’s in creature form, and on top of that, the swarm of Spiders and Spider Queen will drain Woodie’s Sanity even faster.
- Â I suggest you lure the Spider Queen away from her Spider Dens so that no more Spiders can spawn and then deal with all the nasty blighters before taking on the queen.
Key Quotes
If you’re going to play Woodie, I suggest you learn these Lucy quotes. Yes, that’s right, I’m telling you to listen to the red sentient Axe, and yes, Lucy is sentient, as confirmed within the Woodie section of the compendium.
Lucy pretty much comments on every action Woodie takes with her, such as attacking enemies to dropping her on the floor or even in a chest. However, her dialogue is more than just flavor text. Some helpful quotes by Lucy will indicate how close Woodie is to transforming into a Beaver.
If Woodie has begun chopping down trees, Lucy will say the following lines of dialogue: (Don’t worry if you see these lines)
- “You look distracted, Woodie”
- “Are you okay?”
- “It’s just a tree! Calm down!”
The next lines of dialogue indicate that Woodie is at a medium level of transformation:
- “Don’t chop too fast. You know what will happen!”
- “You might want to slow down a bit.”
- “Woodie? Can you hear me?”
- “Careful, you’re getting yourself worked up!”
These are the final lines of dialogue Lucy will say before Woodie transforms into the werebeaver:
- “Woodie! Be careful!”
- “It’s starting!”
- “You’re not looking so good!”
- “Your teeth are growing!”
- “Watch out! You’re going to turn!”
After you’ve heard Lucy’s final warning that Woodie is going to transform into the werebeaver, she will inform Woodie once his transformation level has reset. He can begin chopping trees down again:
- “That was a close one!”
- “I think we’ll be alright.”
- “You’re looking much better now.”
- “It’s passed. For now.”
- “It’s back in the lodge. Phew!”
FAQs
Question:Â Can you Play Don’t Starve DLC on Don’t Starve: Together?
Answer:Â Klei Entertainment stated that there are no plans to implement the Shipwrecked and Hamlet DLC into Don’t Starve: Together, as they were designed with Don’t Starve in mind. However, a majority of the content from Reign of Giants has been implemented into DST.
Question:Â Can you Shave Woodie’s Beard in Don’t Starve and Don’t Starve: Together?
Answer: Although Woodie has a beard, it cannot be shaved in DS and DST. Despite not being recognized as a beard, it provides 45 points of insulation from the cold. This means it’s easier to keep Woodie warm in the Winter, but it’s equally as hard to keep him cool in the summer. Woodie will say “A true lumberjack never shaves.” If the player attempts to shave his beard.
Question:Â How Does Krampus Spawn in Don’t Starve?
Answer: The player can spawn a thieving Krampus by increasing their Naughtiness to 30-50 points. Naughtiness is a hidden mechanic, and the Meter in Don’t Starve that increases every time the player kills an innocent creature. Even killing Rabbits, Birds and Butterflies will yield 1 point of Naughtiness. While killing Beefalos will raise your Naughtiness by 4 points. Woodie can still increase his Naughtiness meter while in his Beaver form.
Krampus is a mob that will steal items from the ground and your chests in your base. He will run away from the player, but if the player gets too close, then he will hit back hard for 50 points of damage. Each time a Krampus spawns, the player’s naughtiness meter will reset to zero. The player can reduce their Naughtiness meter by 8 points if they do not attack a friendly mob for a full day.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Woodie would tear down every forest in every biome of the Constant if it weren’t for Lucy, his trusty and caring Axe. The animated shorts created by Klei Entertainment often reveal information regarding a character’s back story.
However, Woodie’s Tree’s a Crowd animated short reveals little about his story and instead cements the stereotypical Canadian lumberjack wearing a red flannel shirt and big bushy beard and showing off his DST powers. And thats all he needs!
If you love chopping down tree after tree in survival games, then Woodie is the character for you. His unique Axe Lucy chops trees faster and serves as Woodie’s companion. It’s also a great indicator of when Woodie is gonna go Beaver and gnaw everything to pieces.
Yes, Woodie’s ability is powerful, but that doesn’t mean you can use it willy-nilly like another animal hybrid superhero’s uncle Ben once said, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Players that main Woodie knows that Woodie’s strength doesn’t come from his beaver form but from knowing when to restrain transformation.