Your first numbers
Don’t Starve is friendliest to players who read the stats early. The cached dontstarve-items.json and dontstarve-mobs.json give exact values, and the first days are all about three facts: a Carrot gives 12.5 hunger and 1 health and spoils after 10 days; a Twig gives 9.4 hunger; and the Hound that ends early runs has 150 health and 20 damage. Learn those and the opening week stops being random.
This guide quotes only cached numbers. The survival guide explains the three meters and the food guide ranks what to eat.
Day-one food math
| Food | Health | Hunger | Sanity | Spoil |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carrot | 1 | 12.5 | 0 | 10 Days |
| Twigs | 0.5 | 9.4 | 0 | Does not spoil |
| Flint | 10 | 1 | 0 | Does not spoil |
| Honey | 3 | 9.375 | 0 | 40 Days |
| Cactus Flower | 8 | 12.5 | 5 | 3 days |
| Trail Mix | 30 | 12.5 | 5 | 15 Days |
The data says: eat Carrots and Cactus Flowers early, save Honey (40 days) and Trail Mix (15 days) for later, and never panic — even Twigs (9.4 hunger) keep you alive. The items guide lists the gem and material foods too.
Your first weapon
The cached recipe for the Battle Spear is 2 Twigs, 2 Flint and 2 Gold Nugget at the Fight tab (tier 0), and the item itself deals 42.5 damage over 200 uses. That is enough to kill a Hound (150 health) in 4 hits. The crafting guide has the full recipe list and the combat guide the weapon math.
Early threats and their cached stats:
- Frog — 100 health, 10 damage, speed 4.
- Bee — 100 health, 10 damage, speed 4.
- Hound — 150 health, 20 damage, speed implied by a 2-second attack period.
- Catcoon — 150 health, 25 damage, can be befriended with toys.
Building a safe start
Light is non-negotiable. The cached light recipes include the Boat Torch (2 Twigs, 1 Torch) at tier 1 and the Boat Lantern (1 Empty Bottle, 2 Twigs, 1 Fireflies) at tier 2. A fire turns night from a death sentence into a crafting session. Then build a Science Machine equivalent and prototype your Battle Spear so the recipe stays unlocked everywhere.
“New players die to the dark, not the dark’s monsters,” the cached notes imply — a fire and a full hunger bar solve most day-one problems before they start.
What to do before day 5
Gather Flint (10 health if eaten), Twigs (9.4 hunger) and Gold Nugget (10 health, 2 hunger) for both crafting and emergency food. Stock Carrots and Cactus Flowers. Craft a Battle Spear. Then read the base building guide to pick a permanent spot and the seasons guide so the first giant does not surprise you.
More first-week numbers to memorize
The opening days reward players who internalize a few cached values. Food keep-time decides what you can gather once and forget: Honey (40-day spoil) and Trail Mix (15-day spoil) are safe to stock, while Cactus Flower (3-day spoil) and Banana Pop (3-day spoil) must be eaten or preserved. Berries and carrots rot in 2–10 days, so a beginner pantry should lean on the long-keep tier.
| Food | Health | Hunger | Sanity | Spoil |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honey | 3 | 9.375 | 0 | 40 Days |
| Trail Mix | 30 | 12.5 | 5 | 15 Days |
| Dragon Fruit | 3 | 9.375 | 0 | 6 Days |
| Sweet Potato | 1 | 12.5 | 0 | 10 Days |
| Pomegranate | 3 | 9.375 | 0 | 6 Days |
| Birchnut | 1 | 9.375 | 0 | 20 days |
| Juicy Berries | 1 | 12.5 | 0 | 2 Days |
Your first weapon math is just as important. A Battle Spear (42.5 damage, 200 uses) from 2 Twigs, 2 Flint, 2 Gold Nugget kills a Frog (100 health) in 3 hits and a Hound (150 health) in 4 hits — enough to defend the early base. The combat guide extends this to every mob, and the crafting guide lists what to build after the spear.
The cached notes are blunt about the opening: “the first five days are a race to a fire, a spear and a food stack.” Hit those three numbers — a light source, a 42.5-damage spear and a 10-day+ food reserve — and the rest of the world becomes manageable. The survival guide explains the meter logic behind why those three win the early game.
Your first five days, by the numbers
The cached data compresses the opening into three goals. Goal one: a light source — the Boat Torch (2 Twigs, 1 Torch) or Boat Lantern (1 Empty Bottle, 2 Twigs, 1 Fireflies) from the crafting guide. Goal two: a weapon — a Battle Spear (42.5 damage, 200 uses) from 2 Twigs, 2 Flint, 2 Gold Nugget, enough to kill a Hound (150 health) in 4 hits. Goal three: a food reserve of 10-day+ items like Carrot (12.5 hunger, 10-day spoil) and Honey (40-day spoil).
Hit those three and the first giants become manageable rather than fatal. The survival guide explains why hunger is the priority, and the winter guide shows how the same stockpile thinking scales to the cold. Most failed runs never reached goal three — they starved at night with a full world of Twigs (9.4 hunger) uneaten around them.
These opening numbers are the difference between a run that ends on day three and one that reaches the first giant. Keep a Carrot (12.5 hunger) in reach, a Battle Spear (42.5 damage) in hand, and a Honey (40-day spoil) stack in storage, and the early game stops being a crisis. The tips and tricks page builds the rest of the habit from there.
Where to go next
Move from survival to mastery with the winter guide and avoid the classic errors in common mistakes. The mobs database is there when you meet something new.