Don't Starve Together General Discussion. Although if you’ve played borderlands 2 there is an enemy you can kill that walks around lugging a slot machine on.
Sometimes building a shadow manipulator can be hard, especially for new or less experienced players, that haven’t made one before.In this guide I will list the many ways of getting the resources to craft a shadow manipulator, and the prestihatitato, and why you should make a shadow manipulator.
Other Don't Starve Together Guides:
- Guide to the Characters.
- When and How to Find Glommer.
- How to Play: Webber.
- The Gorge / Quickstart and Beginners Guide.
- New Achievements of The Gorge (Gorge Mastery).
What is a Shadow Manipulator?
The shadow manipulator is a structure located in the magic tab, which unlocks the second tier of the magic tab, just like science machine unlocks tier 1 science tab, and alchemy engine unlocks tier 2. To make one, you need:
- 1 purple gem.
- 3 living logs.
- 7 nightmare fuel.
It is found in the magic tab, and requires prestihatitator to prototype.For those who do not know, the magic tab is the one with picture of a red skull.
Why Should I Make a Shadow Manipulator?
The shadow manipulator unlocks a lot of useful recipes:- The darksword, the weapon that deals 68 damage, the second-highest damage dealt by a melee weapon. It drains your sanity by 20/min. And has 100 uses. recipe: 1 living log and 5 nightmare fuel.
- The night armor, a body-slot armor which drains your sanity by 10/min. Absorbs 95% of damage dealt to you, and can absorb a total of 525 health points. Whenever you get hit while wearing this, you loose sanity equal to 10% of the damage dealt. The recipe is 3 papyrus (12 cut reeds) and 5 nightmare fuel.
- Bat bat, a melee weapon that deals 42,5 damage each hit, and leeches 6.8 health (you gain 6.8 health each time you hit an enemy), and loose 3.4 sanity, unless you have full health. It has 75 uses. Recipe: 5 batilisk wings, 2 living logs and 1 purple gem.
- Belt of hunger, a body-slot item which slows your hunger drain by 40%, and gives 2 sanity a minute. it lasts 8 days before breaking, and a sewing kit repairs 5 days of use, which equals to 63%. It is very useful for wolfgang. Crafting it requires 6 slurper pelts, 2 rope (6 grass) and 2 nightmare fuel. slurpers are found in ruins, and do not respawn, so there's a limited number of them in your world.
- Nightmare amulet costs 6 gold, 4 nightmare fuel and 2 purple gems. it makes you instantly insane when wearing it, but removing it makes you get your sanity back. unlike normal insanity, more nightmare creatures spawn that usual. it lasts 3 minutes and 12 seconds before breaking.
- The telelocator staff is a staff that has 5 uses. when you use it on a mob (or yourself), a lightning strikes it, and teleports it to a random place on the map, and it should begin to rain. you also loose 50 sanity. recipe: 4 nightmare fuel, 2 living logs and 2 purple gems.
- The telelocator focus is a structure that requires 8 gold, 4 living logs and 4 nightmare fuel. after placing it, you need 3 purple gems to place in its sockets. after you've done that, you can now use a telelocator staff, and instead of a random teleport, the target is teleported to the focus. the 3 gems is consumed, making this very costly.
- The fire staff has 20 uses, and sets the target on fire. its recipe is: 1 red gem, 1 spear and 2 nightmare fuel (it dont matter how much durabbility the spear has, the staff will always get 100% when crafted). whenever it is used, you loose 1 sanity.
The Prestihatitator
First you need a prestihatitator, which requires:
- 4 rabbits.
- 4 boards.
- A top hat (durabbility dont matter).
You find it in the magic tab, and you need a science machine to craft the prestihatitator. After you have built the prestihatitator, you now have acces to tier 1 magic recipes.When you make your shadow manipulator, you can hammer down the prestihatitator to get 2 boards, 2 rabbits and a 100% top hat.
Getting the Nightmare Fuel
To craft a shadow manipulator you need 7 nightmare fuel. to get this there's many methods:
- Go insane and kill shadow creatures. this is the most common way, and probably the easiest.
- Pick evil flowers, and refine it into nightmare fuel. 4 dark petals = 1 nightmare fuel. however, to get so many evil flowers without an evil flower farm can be very time consuming, combined with the fact that dark petals spoil, this isnt a good option. dark petals can also be found in tumbleweeds.
- Going down into ruins and killing splumonkeys during nightmare phase. probably the most dangerous way of getting the fuel.
- Going down into ruins and killing the nightmares that spawn during nightmare phase, or just waiting for it to end.
- Killing poison birchnuts. chopping birchnut trees can cause poison birchnuts to spawn, just like evergreens spawn treeguards. this is probably the hardest way to get nightmare fuel, due to the drop rate not being 100%, and the fact that poison birchnuts are dangerous, and dont spawn that often during the early days
The easiest way is to go insane and killing shadow creatures, however crafting it with dark petals is also an option of you cant survive an encounter with the insanity. note that when you pick evil flowers, you loose 5 sanity.
Getting the Living Logs
The living logs can be hard to get, and it can take long time spawning treeguards. Here's a list of how to get living logs:
- Killing treeguards yield 6 living logs, and you need 3 to make the manipulator. however killing treeguards can be hard, and drains your sanity fast. it can also take a while to spawn them. the easiest way of spawning them is to plant many trees together, and chopping them when all is grown up. pigs can help you both chop trees and fight the treeguard
- Killing poison birchnuts is pretty much the same as killing treeguards, and the spawning is the same, except with birchnut trees instead of evergreens. poison birchnuts can be hard to kill, and need to be chopped instead of being killed. they yield 1-2 living logs, and 1 more if you dig the stump. so you might need to kill 2 poison birchnuts to get enough living logs.
- Chopping totally normal trees. totally normal trees is found in evergreen forests. cutting it down gives 2 living logs, and digging its stump gives an additional, meaning its enough to build the manipulator. it can be chopped in 20 swings, 10 with lucy the axe (woodies infinite axe), and is far the safest method of getting living logs.
The easiest, most reliable and safest way is to find totally normal trees, as they always generate in your world.
Getting the Purple Gem
The purple gem can be hard to get, and in my experience, the last item to get. You can either find it, or craft it.
A list of how to get a purple gem:
- A clockwork bishops can be killed to get a purple gem. you can find them in clockwork set pieces, or repair a bishop statue and mine it during a full moon.
- Very rare to find in tumbleweed, but it is possible
- A lot of ways to find it in the ruins, however it is dangerous. i wont list these, as ruins isnt something newer players travel to, and this guide is mostly for newer players.
To craft them, you need 1 red gem, 1 blue gem and is crafted at a prestihatitator in the refine tab.
- Red and blue gems can be fond by digging up graves.
- Red and blue gems have a low drop rate from tumbleweeds.
- Red and blue gems can drop from fire hounds and ice hounds. (red from fire, blue from ice).
- Both can be found in ruins.
- Red and blue gems can drop from the 'sky' during earthquakes in caves.
The easiest way is probably to dig up all graves, but each dig drains your sanity by 10, which means you have to be prepared to fight shadow creatures if digging up many. Ghosts can also spawn when digging up graves. A maxwell can make a shadow digger, and let it dig up graves, which dont drain sanity, and cant spawn ghosts, increasing your chances of getting gems.
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Wurt is undeniably one of the cutest characters in Don’t Starve Together (DST). Yes, you heard me, Wurt is only in Don’t Starve Together!
Players can unlock Wurt for free by using 2700 Spools. Wurt is also free for players who purchase the Don’t Starve Megapack Bundle, Starter Pack or players can directly purchase Wurt in the Wurt Chest or Wurt Deluxe Chest.
So why waste your time on Wurt when she looks so much like a Webber wannabe? Well, Wurt comes with a bunch of perks that affect swamp gameplay as well as gameplay that affects Merms. But let’s get to chatting about why I prefer Wurt gameplay to Webber gameplay.
WURT’S STATS
Hunger: 200 to 250
Sanity: 150 or 200
Health: 150 or 250
Speed Modifier: 1x or 1.3x
WURT IS A VEGETARIAN
Having a character with a limited diet can suck, especially if that diet messes with your favourite way of healing. While Wurt isn’t as difficult to feed as Wormwood or Wigfrid who, in reality, aren’t that difficult to maintain, Wurt is a grade-A vegetarian.
Wurt will gain 33% extra Hunger from any Fruits, Vegetables or Butterfly Wings (since I guess they’re “Flowers”) Wurt can also eat Durians and all forms of Kelp Fronds with no Health or Sanity loss. Durians will also receive a 60% Hunger boost, feeding Wurt by 40.
Foods that I like eating as Wurt are Pumpkins, Fist Full of Jam, Dragon Pies Ratatouille and obviously Durians, since no other players should eat them, will other than Wormwood.
Butter Muffins and Trail Mix are one of the best forms of healing for Wurt as they are considered vegetarian and provide players with 20 and 30 Health.
If you have a surplus of Meat, I recommend building yourself a Bird Cage to convert the Meat into Eggs.
WURT SHOULDN’T STRUGGLE FROM SANITY
Certain characters like Maxwell shouldn’t suffer from Sanity loss, and Wurt is right there with him! Wurt can keep a Fish, Eel or Ocean Fish in her inventory to gain 3.3 Sanity per minute. It’s important to note that Wurt does not receive extra Sanity for having multiple live fish in her inventory.
On the flip side, Wurt will lose 4.4 Sanity if she is holding Fish Meat, Fish Morsels or Spoiled Fish.
Wurt can also read Wickerbottom’s books to manage her Sanity. Though reading books will not activate the spell associated the book will consume a use. The following is the Sanity gain or loss books will cause Wurt:
| Book Title | Sanity Change |
| Birds of the World | +50 Sanity |
| On Tentacles | +50 Sanity |
| Sleepytime Stories | +33 Sanity |
| The End is Nigh! | -33 Sanity |
| Applied Horticulture | -33 Sanity |
WURT HAS ACCESS TO THE KING OF THE MERMS
Any Don’t Starve Together player is going to tell you that you should take advantage of the Pig King in any way that you can, but can the same thing be said about the King of the Merms?
Wurt players, similar to Wigfrid, Winona, Willow, and Webber players, have access to new crafting recipes, though Wurt does not receive a new crafting tab. Instead, Wurt players can craft the DIY Royalty Kit and Royal Tapestry in the Structures Tab. Unlike many other character exclusive crafting recipes, Wurt must have a Science Machine to initially prototype these builds.
WURT CAN CRAFT MARSH TURF
As many of Wurt’s structures will require placement on Marsh Turf, Wurt has access to the crafting recipe for this terrain.
Players will require an Alchemy Engine, 2 Rot and 1 Cut Reed to craft the Marsh Tuft.
HOW TO SPAWN THE KING OF THE MERMS
First, Wurt players must surrender 5 Boards (total of 20 Logs) and 5 Ropes (15 Cut Grass) to craft the DIY Royalty Kit. Players will only be able to place the DIY Royalty Kit on MarshTurf, which can also be made by Wurt using 2 Rot and 1 Cut Reed.
The DIY Royalty Kity is utterly useless to Wurt players if it is not upgraded to the Royal Tapestry. The Royal Tapestry requires 20 Kelp Fronds, which are harvested from Bull Kelp Plants in the Ocean or the Rocky Beach Biome. Unfortunately, Kelp Fronds alone cause the Royal Tapestry to become more of a mid-to-late-game item. Players will also need 15 Beefalo Wool and 10Pig Skin to complete the Royal Tapestry. Players can throw said items on the DIY Royalty Kit to activate the Royal Tapestry
Upon crafting the Royal Tapestry, players must locate or craft a Merm who will sit on the Royal Tapestry. Once a player feeds the Merm a food or foods that are equal to 40 Hunger, the Merm will transform into the King of the Merms.
Since players will need high amounts of Kelp Fronds, I recommend heading to the Lunar Island to grab some Bull Kelp Stalks so you can plant them in your base. Use these as a regular supply of Kelp Fronds, especially as you’re just getting set up.
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THE KING OF THE MERMS & LOYAL MERM GUARD STATS
The King of the Merms has a total of 1000 Health and regenerates 2 Health per second when attacked. Although the King of the Merms doesn’t attack enemies, he will spawn a maximum of 4 Loyal Merm Guards when he is attacked. Loyal Merm Guards will disappear once the hostile mob is out of range or has been killed. If a Loyal Merm Guard is killed, it will take one day to respawn.
Loyal Merm Guards have 660 Health and cause 50 damage when the King of the Merms is alive; however, if the King of the Merms is killed while Loyal Merm Guards are still active their Health will be reduced to 200 and damage will be reduced to 20. Moral of the story? Try to keep the King of the Merms alive!
When the King of the Merms is alive, all regular Merms will also receive a stat boost. Merms will go from having 500 Health to 560 and from 30 damage to 40. There is no range limit on this buff; however, if the King of the Merms is killed all Merms will return back to normal.
HOW TO STAY SAFE AROUND MERMS
All Merms and Loyal Merm Guards will be neutral to all characters in Don’t Starve Together if the King of the Merms is alive. Non-Wurt players can also use a Clever Disguise to stay safe from Merms. Clever Disguises require 2 Twigs, 1 Freshwater Fish and 1 Cut Reed. Wurt is the only character who can craft a Clever Disguise and it can be found in the Dress Tab. Clever Disguises will also keep players safe from Bunnymen.
WURT GAINS STATS FROM THE KING OF THE MERMS
As you might have guessed, Mobs aren’t the only things buffed while the King of the Merms is alive as Wurt also gains 50 Hunger, 50 Sanity and 100 Health.
While having extra Sanity and Hunger isn’t the most crucial buff players can receive, getting a bonus 100 Health comes in very helpful in Don’t Starve Together. Although Wurt technically doesn’t have the highest Health in DST, 250 Health is above the average character’s health.
While Wurt is empowered she will change her appearance as below:
KEEP THE KING OF THE MERM FED OR HE DIES
The King of the Merms has a total of 200 Hunger and starves after 4 Days. At that point, the King of the Merms’ Health will deplete after 2 days. Players can see how hungry the King of the Merms is from the following text dialogues:
| Hunger | Dialogue |
| 190+ | Have done well. Now go. |
| 100-190 | King feeling a bit peckish… |
| 50-99 | King desires food! |
| 12-49 | What take so long? Make offerings to your King! |
| 1-19 | Treachery… villainy! To let King waste away like this… |
| 0 | Hungry… HUNGRY! HUNGRYYYY!!! |
YOU CAN TRADE WITH THE KING OF THE MERMS
It can be annoying not being able to trade with the Pig King as a Monster like Webber and Wortox, but it seems like Wurt gets the best of both worlds. While Wurt cannot trade with the Pig King, she can trade with the King of Merms who can provide Wurt with Trinkets to trade to the Pig King. If you want to take advantage of this make sure that someone on your server is not a Monster or else you’re just going to have extra garbage lying around!
Wurt or players wearing a Clever Disguise can give the King of the Merms different types of fish (Freshwater Fish, Live Eels or Ocean Fishes) for the following resources:
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| Items | Drop Chance | Number of Drops | Filler Drop Chance |
| Kelp Fronds | 29% | 2-4 | No |
| Seeds | 14% | 4-6 | No |
| Rot | 14% | 2-4 | No |
| Tentacle Spots | 14% | 1 | Yes |
| Trinkets (Air Unfreshener, Bent Spork, Desiccated Tentacle, Gord’s Knot, or Gnome) | 14% | 1 | Yes |
| Durian Seeds, Eggplant Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Garlic Seeds or Onion Seeds | 14% | 1-2 | Yes |
In regards to the “Filler Drop Chance” column, some gifts can also include between 2-4 extra items. Items include Seeds (67%), Kelp Fronds (16%) and Rot (16%).
WURT CAN CRAFT A TEAM OF MERMS
Being a bit of a Merm queen herself, Wurt has access to the Craftsmerm House which can be accessed in the Structures Tab. Craftsmerm Houses can only house one merm, unlike Mermhouses/Leaky Shacks which house up to four Merms.
A Craftsmerm House can only be placed on Marsh Turf, just like the Royal Tapestry and DIY Royalty Kit. To craft Craftsmerm Houses players will need 4 Planks (16 Logs), 3 Cut Reed and 2 Freshwater Fish.
The biggest downfall to Craftsmerm Houses is that they do not spawn Merms in Winter.
WURT CAN ALSO CRAFT A TEAM OF LOYAL MERM GUARDS
While the King of the Merms can spawn up to four Loyal Merm Guards, Wurt can make that team bigger by crafting herself a Merm Flort-ifications Merm Flort-ifications can be prototyped in the Structures Tab by using 5 Boards (20 Logs), 2 Spears, and 1 Tentacle Spots.
Wurt will need an Alchemy Machine to craft the Merm Flort-ifications and will spawn one Loyal Merm Guard. If a Loyal Merm Guard is killed it will respawn after 4 real-life minutes, but in the Winter they will respawn every 6 days.
WURT CAN BEFRIEND MERMS
As you probably guessed, Wurt can befriend Merms by feeding them. Merms can help players chop trees, mine boulders and fight. Players wearing the Clever Disguise are also able to befriend Merms.
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WURT MOVES REALLY FAST IN THE SWAMP
While players can enjoy improved movement speed while holding a Walking Cane, Wurt players can enjoy a 1.3x speed modifier while walking on Marsh Turf.
Walking Canes will stack with this speed modifier; however, players will not receive an additional speed buff while walking on Marsh Turf and on roads.
WURT CAN SEE TENTACLES
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One of the most beneficial perks of playing Wurt is knowing where Tentacles are hiding. Tentacle locations are signified by a ring on the floor and Wurt players will also be able to see the Tentacles that are spawned by Wickerbottom’s on Tentacles.
DROWNING SUCKS LESS
For those of you who are at the point of building boats and sailing to the ocean, you’re going to be happy to know that Wurt only receives 50% Wetness when back on land. Wurt will also keep all of her inventory, however, she will not keep the item in her hand slot.
WURT DOES NOT DROP TOOLS IN THE RAIN
It can be annoying when your items and tools collect too much Wetness. While you can dry out your various items by a Fire Pit or Campfire, Wurt players can continue mining throughout Spring with no fear of dropping their tools.
It’s not the biggest buff that Wurt receives, but it sure is nice!
WHO TO PAIR WITH WURT IN DON’T STARVE TOGETHER (DST)
In all honesty, the only character I can see being useful with Wurt is Wormwood. Simply put, Wormwood is a great supply of fruits and veggies, making Wurt’s diet easy to handle. Wormwood can also supply Wurt players with an endless supply of Living Logs for Mushrooms.
WURT’S FAVOURITE FOOD (DON’T STARVE TOGETHER)
If players are looking for more stats from food when it comes to Wurt, they should really feed her Durian or Extra Smelly Durian.
Instead of providing 25 Hunger, they will provide Wurt with 40 Hunger.
OVERALL THOUGHTS ON WURT
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Wurt is a great addition to the Don’t Starve Together team and quite frankly I prefer her quite a bit more than Webber. Webber feels outdated, in my opinion, though I might just be biased…
Wurt isn’t an overpowered character, but her followers are more useful than overworld Spiders and it’s nice to be able to boost your stats!
So, I’m curious, what are your thoughts on the adorable Wurt? Do you like her as much as I do, or is the feeling not mutual? Let me know in the comments below!