Don't Starve Together Character Tier List: Best Survivors Ranked

Don't Starve Together has 18 survivors at this point, and they're nowhere near equal. Some of them melt bosses in half the usual time. Others mostly just die faster. The skill tree updates shook the roster up too, so plenty of older tier lists floating around are working with stale info.

This list splits the difference between solo play and group play, since the same character can look very different depending on how many people are on the server. Every number here comes straight off the official wiki, so you can build around them without second-guessing.

Ranking Criteria for Solo and Group Play

Four things decide where a survivor lands on this list.

Raw damage output. Bosses are the wall in DST. Fuelweaver, Bee Queen, Crystal Deerclops, the lot of them. A character who shortens those fights is worth more than one who chops a bit faster, at least once your base is running.

Resource gathering speed. Food, logs, rocks, silk. The early game is mostly a grind for materials, and anyone who cuts that grind down is quietly carrying the run.

Team value. Some kits only really open up with other players around. Wortox healing, Warly's buff dishes, Wigfrid's songs. Solo, that same utility sits half unused.

How hard the kit is to run. A character with a punishing downside or a weird mechanic gets docked a little, because most people don't play perfectly. Wanda is amazing in the right hands and a disaster in the wrong ones.

Solo and group rankings pull in different directions more than you'd expect. Wolfgang is a monster alone, since his damage fixes every problem you'll face by yourself. Stick him on a six-person server and the picture changes, because now five other people can hit things too, and his perks don't help any of them. Wickerbottom runs the opposite way. Her books feed and support a whole team, so she scales up with player count while staying merely good solo.

One more caveat worth spelling out. Tier placement measures how much the character does for you, not whether the game is winnable. DST is knowledge-heavy enough that a good player clears everything on Wes, and a bad player dies on day six with Wolfgang. Take the tiers as a measure of how much free value the kit hands you.

S-Tier Characters and Why They Excel

Five survivors sit at the top. Each one bends the game in a way nobody else copies.

Wolfgang

The strongman, and still the easiest argument in the game. All three of his stats sit at 200, and his Mightiness meter runs from 0 to 100. Above 75 he enters Mighty form and deals double physical damage, works 25% faster, and shrugs off slowdown from carrying heavy junk. Below 25 he drops to Wimpy, loses 25% of his damage, and gets hungrier.

The catch is upkeep. Mightiness drains between 6 and 96 points a minute depending on how hungry he is, so you keep the meter topped up by lifting dumbbells or just working. Chopping and mining count as exercise, so a normal day of chores handles it. Since the skill tree landed, he can also push the meter past 100 at the gym, and the Mighty Weapons line adds up to +20 planar damage on top when he's buffed.

Two hundred health, double damage, and a work speed bump in one package. His only real downside is a sanity drain that runs 1.1x to 1.3x on the scary stuff, which mostly just means you cook a few extra cactus bits.

Wanda

The highest skill ceiling in the roster, no contest. Wanda has no health bar at all. She has an Age counter from 20 to 80, entering the world at 38 and gaining a year every 40 seconds. Taking damage ages her, at 0.4 years per point of damage. Hit 80 and she drops dead on the spot.

That sounds awful until you see the watches. The Ageless Watch winds her back 8 years on a 2 minute cooldown, and it's the only healing that works on her at all. The Backstep Watch teleports her backward with a window of invulnerability, which lets you dodge straight through boss swings once the timing clicks. The Second Chance Watch revives a dead teammate where they fell, on a 4 minute cooldown. Her weapon, the Alarming Clock, swings for 81.6 damage and scales with her age, since elderly Wanda gets a 1.75x multiplier on shadow weapons. Old Wanda with a charged clock hits well north of 100 a swing.

She costs 2700 Spools or a real-money chest, so she's one of the few survivors you have to unlock. Worth it, if you're patient enough to learn her. The backwards health system punishes sloppy play hard, and one interrupted watch animation in a fight can end the run.

Wickerbottom

The librarian, and pretty much the best support in the game. Her stats run 125 health, 150 hunger, and a fat 250 sanity. She starts knowing every Science Machine recipe for free, which skips a whole chunk of the early tech grind.

The books are the real deal. Horticulture, Abridged pushes up to 10 crop plants to their next growth stage per reading. Sleepytime Stories works like a Pan Flute and puts everything nearby to sleep, bosses included. Practical Rain Rituals toggles the rain off. On Tentacles spawns a tentacle pit that shreds hounds and Bee Queen for you. Each book reads five times and costs 33 or 50 sanity a go, which her giant sanity pool soaks up.

The downsides are real but manageable. She can't sleep, ever, so tents and bed rolls do nothing for her. She also can't eat spoiled food, and stale food only gives a third of its hunger with no health or sanity attached. Cooked cactus and jelly salad cover the sanity bill fine.

Solo she's strong. In a group she's close to mandatory, because her books feed and protect everyone at once.

Wigfrid

The valkyrie, and the easiest top-tier pick to actually play. Two hundred health with 120 hunger and 120 sanity. She deals 1.25x damage with everything and takes 0.75x from all sources, including planar. That damage reduction is the quiet star here. It applies to freezing, burning, and overheating too.

Her gear is cheap and shareable. The Battle Spear does 42.5 damage across 200 uses, and the Battle Helm blocks 80% of damage with roughly double a Football Helmet's durability. Teammates can wear the helm, which makes her a walking armor factory in the early days.

She also leeches health and sanity off every hit she lands. Smacking a spider with the spear gives back about 2 health and 2 sanity per swing. Fights basically fund themselves. Her Inspiration meter builds as she deals damage and unlocks up to three Battle Songs at once, team-wide buffs like slower weapon durability drain, sanity drain halved, or fire immunity.

The only restriction is diet. Meat and goodies, nothing else, so berry bushes and farms do nothing for her personally. Since meat is the most renewable food type in the game anyway, that barely hurts.

Maxwell

The old king, sitting at 75 health, which is genuinely scary. Everything else about him pays for it.

His sanity regenerates at +6.67 per minute passively, and negative sanity effects from shadow gear don't touch him. The Codex Umbra summons Shadow Servants that chop, mine, dig, and harvest everything within 4 tiles for 2 minutes each. A couple of servants can strip 70+ logs out of a forest while you stand there cooking dinner. Shadow Duelists fight alongside him. Each puppet knocks 15% off his maximum sanity while it's active, which his passive regen claws back.

He can also read Wickerbottom's books at 2.5x the sanity cost, so on a server without a librarian he covers that job part-time.

That 75 health is the whole downside. One bad stun near a hound pack and he's done, so armor discipline matters more on him than anyone. Play him carefully and he out-gathers the entire roster while duelists clean up trash mobs.

Mid-Tier Characters With Niche Strengths

These survivors are all good. Each one just has a ceiling, or a setup cost, or a downside that keeps them out of the top row.

Wortox

The imp, and the best pure support outside S-tier. Souls drop from anything that dies within 20 units of him, up to 20 held at once. Eating one gives 25 hunger and costs 5 sanity. Releasing one heals him and everyone nearby for up to 20, dropping by 2 for each extra player standing there. His Soul Hop teleports him up to 9 tiles, endlessly, for free, from minute one.

His problems are dietary and social. All food works at half effect on him, so feeding him takes twice the resources. Pigs, bunnymen, and catcoons attack him on sight, unless he goes Nice inclination on his skill tree, which calms all of that down. In a group his healing alone justifies the slot. Solo, half of his kit is talking to nobody.

WX-78

Base stats of 100 across the board, which is rough. Then the module system kicks in. Six circuit slots, filled by scanning creatures with the Bio Scanalyzer, turn WX into whatever you want. More health, more hunger, more sanity, night vision, heat resistance, cold resistance, light, or speed.

The Super-Acceleration Circuit is the headline. One gives +25% movement speed, two give +40%, three give +50%. That kind of speed makes ruins rushes and boss kiting way more comfortable. They eat spoiled food with no penalty and chew gears for 60 health, 75 hunger, and 50 sanity each.

The weakness is water. Above 15 wetness they take 3 to 9 damage every 5 seconds and bleed charge. Spring rain is a genuine threat until you plan around it. Early WX before circuits is pretty average, and late WX is a monster, so the power curve is back-loaded.

Wendy

The mournful kid with the ghost sister. Her own damage is 0.75x, which stings. Abigail makes up for it. The ghost starts at 150 health, hits 300 after a day, and 600 after two more, with a bigger number if a decorated Sisturn is nearby. She handles crowds beautifully, since her attack hits everything around her and tags foes to take extra damage.

Wendy's own hits benefit from that tag too. Her 0.75x multiplier combined with the vex bonus works out to about 15.5% extra damage on tagged targets, so she's not as weak as the multiplier suggests. Ride a beefalo and it's better still, since the mount keeps the vex bonus but skips her damage penalty entirely, for a 54% bump.

Her sanity drain from darkness and monster auras runs at 0.75x, and the Sisturn with petals pumps out +25 sanity a minute, or +40 with skills. She's a comfortable, low-stress pick with a monster spider-farming game. The ceiling shows up in boss fights, where Abigail's damage stops scaling and Wendy has to lean on gear like everyone else.

Woodie

The lumberjack with three transformations. The Werebeaver gnaws down a large tree in about 1 second, versus 5 to 7 with an axe, and can dig, mine, and hammer without tools. The Weremoose swings for 59.5 damage with heavy built-in armor. The Weregoose crosses water and squeezes through gaps.

The Weremeter holds 100 points and drains while transformed, from 25 a minute down to 400 a minute at the fastest rate, with fighting or gnawing resetting the drain to slowest. Full moons refill the meter and halve the drain. All wereforms get night vision, 240 insulation both ways, and 70% wetness protection. The catch is a steady 6 sanity a minute drain while transformed, plus the moose being slow at 0.9x speed.

Lucy the axe never breaks. As a plain human he's a fine all-rounder with 45 free winter insulation from his beard. Very safe pick, just not a damage monster.

Winona and Warly

The builder and the chef, both better with company.

Winona crafts anything in half a second, paying 5 hunger for the privilege. Her catapults crank out area damage when powered, her generators run a day on nitre or six days on gems, and her tape patches clothes and boats. She dodges the first Charlie hit in darkness for free, which has saved plenty of runs. The skill tree lets her aim every catapult on the field at one target with a remote, and late-game catapult farms chew through boss health bars. Kind of boring to look at, quietly one of the best late-game kits around.

Warly cooks in half a second at portable crock pots and brings eleven exclusive dishes plus seasonings. One powder cuts incoming damage by 33% for 4 minutes. Another bumps damage dealt by 20%. One speeds up chopping and mining. Those buffs work on whoever eats the food, so he's a walking raid buff for the whole server. The price is harsh. He only eats crock pot dishes, his hunger drains at 1.2x, and repeating a dish cranks a penalty from 10% up to 70%. Solo, managing that rotation gets old. In a group, he's borderline S-tier value.

Wilson

The default, and better than his reputation since the skill tree landed. His beard grows over 4, 8, and 16 days, giving 15, 45, and 135 winter insulation, plus beard hair when shaved. The transmutation line is the sleeper. Three twigs become a log. Two red gems become a blue. Six different gems become an Iridescent Gem. Turning junk gems into the ones you actually need saves real time on ruins gear.

No downsides at all, which counts for something. He's just unremarkable compared to kits that break the game. Fine pick, rarely the best one.

Weaker Characters and Their Drawbacks

Nobody here is unplayable. Each one just costs more effort for less return than the picks above.

Webber

The spider boy. Spiders are neutral to him, meat buys up to three spider followers with no loyalty timer, and he plants dens anywhere he likes. His silky beard drops 1, 2, then 3 silk over 9 days. Monster meat goes down with zero penalty.

So where's the problem? Pigs, bunnymen, and catcoons attack him on sight, and his sanity cap is just 100. Spider armies need constant shepherding, and the webs annoy teammates. Wendy and Wickerbottom both farm spiders with less mess, which squeezes his whole identity. Solid in a big group that wants silk, mediocre otherwise.

Willow

The firebug. She's immune to fire damage, adds 50% extra fuel value to every fire she feeds, and regains up to 11 sanity a minute standing next to a raging blaze. Bernie the bear taunts nightmare creatures when she drops below 18% sanity, which turns her into a passive nightmare fuel farm.

The numbers fight her though. Her sanity cap is 120 and every sanity effect runs 1.1x stronger on her, good and bad alike. She hates the cold, taking extra freezing damage with negative insulation working against her winter gear. The ember spell kit from her skill tree is fun and genuinely strong in the right hands. For most players she's a middle pick with a self-destructive streak.

Wormwood

The plant. He plants seeds anywhere with no tools, gains 10 sanity per planting, and his bramble gear hits everything around him when he takes a hit. Full bloom in stage 3 gives +20% move speed and free farm tending around him.

Then the big one. No food heals him. Not pierogi, not jellybeans, nothing. Healing comes from compost wrap and fertilizers, so one bad fight costs you resources instead of a snack. That single restriction pushes him down a tier on its own, because combat sustainability is most of what makes a character safe. Great farmer, squishy everything else.

Wurt

The merm princess. Her whole kit is a merm village. Feed the King fish and every merm gets stronger, her health jumps from 150 to 250, and guards fight, chop, and mine for her. She walks 30% faster on marsh turf and sees hidden tentacles.

Three problems stack up. She eats no meat, eggs, or fish, so the most renewable food in the game is off the menu. Pigs attack her on sight and she can't trade with the Pig King. And the merm economy needs a swamp and a lot of setup before it pays out. On a swamp-heavy map with a patient team she's nasty. On a bad seed she's a vegetarian with an attitude problem.

Walter

The scout. His slingshot fires from range without pulling aggro, Woby carries his bags and turns into a ride, and he's flatly immune to negative sanity auras. Free mobility, free storage, cheap ammo.

The damage lets him down. The slingshot swings 50% slower than melee, and even the good rounds top out around 51 damage. His health is a thin 130. Then the killer. Every point of damage he takes costs him 2 sanity, so a single spider bite is 20 health and 40 sanity, and being below full health drains up to 12 sanity a minute on its own. One rough fight and he's fighting shadow creatures too. Bees do +10 extra damage to him through armor, for some reason. Fun kit, painful numbers.

Wes

The mime. Intentionally terrible, and Klei has never pretended otherwise. His stats are 75 across the board. He deals 0.75x damage and works at 0.75x efficiency. Hounds prefer him over other targets. Every balloon costs 5 sanity to inflate.

His one trick is the speedy balloon, +30% movement for 2 minutes. That's the entire upside. Wes is a challenge pick and a meme, and picking him is a statement about your own skill rather than a strategy. If you clear Fuelweaver on Wes, you've earned the bragging rights.

Best Character Picks by Playstyle

Here's the short version, matched to how you actually like to play.

| You want to... | Pick | Why | |---|---|---| | Melt bosses | Wolfgang | 2x damage in Mighty form, 200 health | | Play the hardest kit well | Wanda | Backstep invulnerability, 1.75x shadow damage when old | | Support a big server | Wickerbottom | Books feed and buff the whole team | | Start fighting on day one | Wigfrid | 1.25x damage, 0.75x taken, shareable gear | | Gather everything fast | Maxwell | Shadow servants harvest a 4 tile radius | | Roam and explore | WX-78 | Up to +50% movement speed from circuits | | Never worry about crowds | Wendy | Abigail clears spider packs for free | | Play it safe and boring | Wilson or Woodie | Real downsides: zero | | Feed a raid group | Warly | Seasonings buff everyone who eats | | Suffer on purpose | Wes | 75 HP and 0.75x damage, as intended |

A few pairings work better than the individual parts. Wigfrid helms on a Wolfgang is cheap armor on the best damage in the game. Warly's garlic dish on Wortox turns the imp into something that just doesn't die. Maxwell and Woodie together strip a forest in minutes. Wickerbottom plus Winona covers food, sanity, and boss-killing infrastructure between two players.

If you're only picking one, the honest answer is Wolfgang for solo runs and Wickerbottom for groups. One doubles your damage with no setup beyond a dumbbell, and the other turns the hardest parts of the survival loop into a book you read twice a week.