There is no denying that being adept in combat makes up a huge component of surviving Don’t Starve, and this is something that can sometimes be intimidating to undertake. Thankfully, there are a myriad of weapons available to craft and find in the gameworld, arming you with a slightly different instrument of war to face up against these hardships. While wearing the right armour can sometimes be just as important, knowing which weapon to use and when to use it can be the difference between life and death.
This article will look to cherry-pick the best weapons that Don’t Starve has to offer, and separate them into their appropriate game stages. Of course, the game allows you to use any weapon at any time, however you might see fit, but it’s important to acknowledge that some are going to prove more accessible than others. Different problems call for different solutions.
For this list, I have excluded any weapons that are considered character specific, such as Wigfrid’s battle spear. I have also discounted weaponry that is exclusive to the Shipwrecked and Hamlet DLC’s - and ones which are only found in Don’t Starve Together.
10. Spear (Early Game)
Simple to craft; the humble spear shouldn’t be overlooked.
- Weapon Stats: 34 Damage, 150 uses.
- How To Get Your Hands On One: 2x Twigs, 1x Rope, 1x Flint, with a Science Machine.
It wouldn’t quite feel right to start off this list by not talking about the spear. The bread-and-butter of your weapons arsenal, this sharpened rock on a stick is the earliest introduction you’ll get into the world of fighting mobs. Whilst its damage output is wholly average, this doesn’t mean you should disregard its usefulness, as it is incredibly straightforward to rustle one together.
Building the spear merely requires the use of a science machine - the only weapon on this list to do so. This makes it an undeniably reliable choice for your first few major battles. The ingredients are all extremely common too, meaning that you can pretty much always have one upon your person.
9. Boomerang (Early Game)
The boomerang is a solid choice for dealing damage from afar.
- Weapon Stats: 27.2 Damage, 10 uses.
- How To Get Your Hands On One: 1x Cut Boards, 1x Silk, 1x Charcoal, with an Alchemy Engine.
Hailing from a land down under, this nifty, aerial club will provide you with your first opportunity to perform a ranged attack. As you can run the risk of absorbing too many hit-points by fighting enemies up close, a boomerang can relieve some of this pressure for you. Just be sure to remember to catch it when it comes back to you, or you too will incur some of the damage intended for your foe!
Despite being pretty easy to craft, the boomerang doesn’t particularly do much damage, which can be a little frustrating. Battles will therefore take significantly longer, and you may end up resorting back to your melee attacks anyway. Its attack distance, however, cannot be overlooked as putting a bit of space between you and your enemy is sometimes all you need to give you that winning edge.
8. Tentacle Spike (Early-to-Mid Game)
While they can be difficult to come by, the tentacle spike gives newer players a chance at nabbing a higher level weapon.
- Weapon Stats: 51 Damage, 100 uses.
- How To Get Your Hands On One: Uncraftable; it is instead an item drop of tentacles upon their destruction.
Next up we have the tentacle spike, which could have had the potential to be one of the games top ranking weapons - if obtaining one wasn’t just so unreliable. While this prickly rod has a respectable damage output and a decent number of uses, it is impossible to craft your own. This makes it something of a rarity, as coming across one in the gameworld can be dangerous and a little too reliant on random chance.
On the flipside however, not having to build one for yourself can also be something of a plus. The tentacles from which this weapon comes from hail from the marsh biome, which is also home to the overly aggressive merms. And more often than not, these two warring factions will completely ignore you and do battle with each other instead. This leaves you free to swoop in afterwards and pinch up all of the goodies, including this weapon.
7. Hambat (Early-to-Mid Game)
Who’d have thought that this tasty treat would also double up as an effective melee weapon?
- Weapon Stats: 59.5 - 29.75 Damage (depending on how fresh it is), lasts for ten days before it turns to rot.
- How To Get Your Hands On One: 1x Pigskin, 2 Twigs, 2x Meat, with an Alchemy Engine.
While it may not be the most conventional usage of a hunk of meat, the hambat is notable nonetheless for its effectiveness at killing mobs. Once you have yourself an alchemy engine set up, crafting one of these requires some fairly obtainable resources, and provides you with one of the strongest melee weapons in the game. You’ll have to be quick though; because overtime it will start to decompose (and slowly lose its damage potency) until you are left with only a pile of rot.
Fortunately, you are not limited by the number of times you can use it until this happens, making this a fantastic choice if you’re planning on going up against several enemies in a short space of time. Instead of crafting lots in advance, perhaps consider holding on to the building ingredients right up until the time is just right. And remember, you can prolong the hambats life by leaving it in your icebox when not in use.
6. Blow Dart (Mid Game)
Defeat your foes with nothing more than the power of your lungs!
- Weapon Stats: 100 Damage, single usage.
- How To Get Your Hands On One: 2x Cut Reeds, 1x Hound’s Tooth, 1x Azure feather, with an Alchemy Engine.
When it comes to ranged attacks, you can’t do much better than the blowdart. With a single hit dealing a whopping one-hundred damage points, even the strongest of opponents will feel its sting. By also allowing you to utilise the element of surprise, this weapon can be a great way of getting in a critical strike on your enemy before they have even realised the battle has begun.
The main difficulty here is that it is a little trickier to craft, requiring some more specialised items that can be harder to simply go out and forage for. And for your trouble, you will only receive a single blowdart, meaning that you will have to use it carefully and wisely. Doing so can be a little fiddly sometimes, so make sure you are concentrating when you do!
5. Gunpowder (Mid Game)
Don’t forget to plug your ears and stand well back.
- Weapon Stats: 200 Damage, single useage and must be manually ignited.
- How To Get Your Hands On One: 1x Rotten Egg, 1x Charcoal, 1x Nitre, with an Alchemy Engine.
Technically not a weapon in itself per say, but gunpowder can still be utilised to deal some high level damage to a specified area all the same. Crafting it can be a little bit of a hassle, but after you survive your first winter then you should have enough rotten eggs to keep your gunpowder supplies fully stocked.
Gunpowder is arguably best used as an effective secondary source of attack when battling enemies with higher health. This is mainly due to the fact that it can be placed down in advance. The only problem with this though is that gunpowder itself is harmless; it is the act of igniting it which makes it deadly. But doing this manually with a torch or a lighter whilst something is actively trying to kill you can often prove a little more difficult than it might sound - trust me.
4. Old Bell (Mid Game)
“How exactly is a rusty old bell going to save me from my foes!?”
- Weapon Stats: 1000 damage, three uses.
- How To Get Your Hands On One: 1x Glommer Wings, 1x Glommer’s Flower, with a Shadow Manipulator.
The old bell might not look like much, but it definitely shouldn’t be forgotten about. By ringing said bell, your character will summon an entity known only as Biiigfoot, a partially unseen reptilian who will crush your foes with its big, well, foot. Biiigfoot’s stomp does an absolutely phenomenal one-thousand damage (yes, you did read that correctly) which makes their alliance incredibly beneficial when it comes to defeating higher level mobs.
It’s important to factor into account the slight delay from summoning Biiigfoot to them actually appearing, however, which can make timing your attacks a little more nuanced than it might sound. And try not to waste these attacks too, as each old bell can only be rung a total of thrice. On top of this, Biiigfoot’s strike will not make any distinction between the enemy and the player, so make sure you keep well out of its way.
3. Morning Star (Mid-to-Late Game)
Can’t decide between your weapon or your light source? With the morning star, you don't have to.
- Weapon Stats: 72.25 Damage on wet enemies, 43.35 Damage on dry enemies, fully degrades after 6 minutes of usage.
- How To Get Your Hands On One: 2x Electrical Doodads, 2x Nitre, 1x Volt Goat Horn, with an Alchemy Engine.
The morning star is difficult to come by, but there’s no denying its usefulness once you do. By dealing significantly more damage to enemies that are wet, this makes it the perfect weapon for springtime and its constant drizzle. Certain enemies, such as merms and tentacles, are both considered by the game to be permanently wet, making this weapon an excellent choice against them too.
Another added benefit is the morning stars' luminescence, providing you with enough light to keep at bay the monster which lurks within the darkness. This also makes it a handy weapon to use while exploring the maze-like underground network of caves. It isn't all perfect though, as unlike most weapons, the morning star will lose durability simply while being held (not per swing) which doesn’t leave you with a lot of time to get fully acquainted.
2. Dark Sword (Late Game)
Packing the punch of your average sword - but darker.
- Weapon Stats: 68 Damage, 100 uses, but drains sanity by 20 per minute of use.
- How To Get Your Hands On One: 5x Nightmare Fuel, 1x Living Log, with a Shadow Manipulator.
Not many melee weapons can offer you nearly seventy damage points per swing, but the dark sword certainly can. It is this sheer strength that makes possessing one almost a mandatory requirement come the late game. Helpfully, nightmare fuel becomes easier to come by once you have one of these bad boys equipped, meaning you can craft more simply by using them.
This is down to the fact that dark sword users will experience a rapid decline to their sanity metres. While this can be a little difficult to account for, low sanity guarantees the appearance of hostile shadow creatures, who are easily dispatched with your twilight blade. This means you’ll be farming these entities without really putting much thought into it, and end up with more nightmare fuel than you know what to do with.
1. Thulecite Club (Late Game)
While it might resemble that of a hairbrush, this ancient weapon is the best of the best.
- Weapon Stats: 59.5 Damage, 150 uses.
- How To Get Your Hands On One: 4x Nightmare Fuel, 4x Thulecite, 3x Living Logs, with an Ancient Pseudoscience Station.
While its base damage might not be the game’s strongest, the thulecite club takes the title of best weapon due to its brilliant unique perks. And this is just as well, due to the serious finesse that is required to get a hold of it. While all three of its ingredients are relatively easy to obtain come the late game, you only have the option of crafting one when in the vicinity of the notorious ancient pseudoscience machine.
This machine itself is uncraftable; you can only find them lurking in the depths of the ruins, which can be difficult for players to safely access. However, after going to the trouble of finding it, the thulecite club gives wielders a ten percent speed boost. Not only does this make exploration more streamlined, but it also gives you an advantage when kiting enemies.
Using this club also has a twenty percent chance of spawning a tentacle, which will inflict large amounts of damage to your terrified foes. While it is considerably more effective against larger, slower moving mobs, these tentacles can make even the trickiest of fights swing in your favour.
