Hunting | How to get food Don't Starve Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

Small game

Growing plants and picking berries are not the only available food sources. Your character can easily turn from a veggie into a carnivore. Still, it happens not without an influence on the naughtiness level.

Start learning how to hunt by catching several rabbits. You are going to need some sort of bait for that (any vegetable or fruit will do, e.g. Carrot) and a Trap.

You create the latter one with 6x Grass and 2x Twigs.

Place it several meters away from the animal, use bait on the trap and move away a bit. The rabbit should carefully approach the vegetable and get trapped as a result. You now need to collect the trap, and the meat will end up in your backpack. To turn the animal into meat, right click on it or carry it over to the fire to roast it. The upside of the alive rabbits is that you can store them for an extended period of time, so they are good for making provisions. There are also some other methods of hunting:

1. You can place the bait on the ground and wait for an animal to come and get it. While it is eating, you can hit the animal around the head with your axe. The upside of this method is that it does not use up the bait and does not require a trap.

2. Another method is by putting a trap right on the rabbit hole The animal will get trapped right after it comes out of the hole, without the necessity for bait to be used.

3. Driving animals into traps is also quite effective. It is a good idea, though, to put more than one trap to make sure that you succeed.

The last one of the methods is also very effective against aggressive animals. If you set several traps around a spider nest, you can easily get rid of unwanted neighbors. Animals like frogs, spiders die immediately after they enter a trap, and they leave meat and the remaining parts of the body behind.

Fishing

You can also ago fishing in the game. To do that, you need to equip your character with a Fishing Rod and find a Pond.

To craft a fishing rod, you are going to need 2x Twigs and 2x Silk, and the ponds are the easiest to be found in the swamps.

To catch a fish, click on the surface of the water and wait for the animal to catch onto the bait. You need to click onto the water (twice) and the fish is yours. The waiting times may be different each time between 2 and 20 seconds, which depends on the frequency with which you come fishing in an individual pond.

Fowl

Birds are another good source of food. To catch these, you are going to need a Bird Trap. To craft it, you are going to need z 3x Twigs and 4x Silk.

To catch one, you need to set the trap where you have noticed the bird and spill some Seeds on it. When you come back after some time, the animal will already be trapped..

Large game

Hunting larger animals is not that easy anymore. Beefaloes and pigs can give you several scars here and there, if you have not prepared properly. At the very beginning, the best arms you can afford is a Spear and a Log Suit.

If you want to get well prepared for hunting anyways, you can create a supply of Sleeping Darts. To create them, you are going to need 3x Cut Reeds, 1x Stinger and 1x Crow Feather.

The first one grows in the swamps, the second one, you can get by killing bees, and the third one is what a Crow sometimes leaves behind if you kill it. If you hit an animal with such a dart, it falls sleep, and thus becomes a much easier target to hit.

While hunting, remember at all times not to fight with too many enemies at once. While running away from a pack of beefaloes, always try to lure one of them away and kill it out of the others' sight. A very effective way to get rid of enemies is to set other animals on them. You can, for example drive a swarm of spiders mad and bring them to pig camp. The animals will start to fight each other, and afterwards, you will be able to collect the trophies they leave behind.

Koalefant

The last animal that requires a special notion is a Koalefant. The large creature that is a cross between an elephant and a koala bear is quite a challenge for every hunter. Finding it itself is a troublesome task.

Unlike in the case of the other animals, you cannot simply stumble into it. You need to find it first. To do that, you need to find randomly generated Suspicious Dirt Piles on the map . After you examine it, you will find traces leading up to another such pile. When you find the last one, your character will state the animal must be close. Go towards the designated area to find the animal.

Koalefant Will not allow you to approach unless it is attacked. Therefore, you need to strike from afar with a Boomerang or a Blow Dart. The former item requires 1x Board, 1x Silk and 1x Charcoal, and the latter 2x Cut Reeds, 1x Hound's Tooth and Snowbird Feather.

After you hit it, the animal goes mad and starts charging towards your character. To defeat it, keep running for as long as it performs a missed attack. That is when you will have some time to deal 3-6 blows. Repeat for several times until you finally hunt the beast.

Along with the feeling of satisfaction, you will also receive 8x Meat this way, as well as 1x Koalefant Trunk. The other item is very useful, as it can be used for crafting a Breezy Vest, which protects from cold.

Apart from a regular Koalefant, there is also a winter variety - a Winter Koalefant. The method of hunting down this one is the same as for the regular one, but the reward is different. Instead of the Koalefant Trunk, you will receive a Winter Koalefant Trunk. This trunk is a component of the best winter piece of garment called Puffy Vest.