–Wickerbottom
Wickerbottom is the fifth available Character, unlocked at 1280 Experience. She is an old librarian and an author (and apparently a publisher too), and she is really smart, being able to identify many different types of fauna and flora by their scientific names.
Wickerbottom starts the game with 2 Papyrus in her inventory and due to her vast knowledge she is able to craft Science Items with a lower tier Crafting Station than other characters. Being a publisher, she is able to craft Books that give different effects when read. She also has 250 maximum Sanity. Wickerbottom also suffers from Insomnia and should only eat fresh Food due to her old age.
Special Power
Main article: Books
Wickerbottom's Special Power is a crafting tab called "Books". This gives her the ability to craft 5 different magical Books with Papyrus and other different ingredients that she can read for beneficial effects at the cost of a lot of Sanity.
The Books that she can craft are :
- Birds of the World - When read, this Book will summon 20-30 Birds in a circle around Wickerbottom.
- Applied Horticulture - When read, most Plants and Farms around Wickerbottom will advance to the next stage of their growth.
- Sleepytime Stories - When read, this book acts the same as a Pan Flute putting all nearby Mobs to sleep.
- On Tentacles - When read, this book will summon 3 Tentacles at random locations nearby Wickerbottom.
- The End is Nigh - When read, this book will summon 16 Lightning strikes at random locations near Wickerbottom.
The Books can be read a maximum of 5 times each and drain 33 or 50 with each reading session. This is somewhat offset by Wickerbottom's higher maximum Sanity, but eventually some Sanity restoring means will be required for continued usage of the Books. Making a Top Hat and eating Cooked Green Mushrooms is highly recommended during the early stages, as well as going after the Tam o' Shanter in Winter for later stages.
Wickerbottom can make all Science Machine recipes without having to build the Science Machine, but does not gain the 15 per prototype for those since she already knows them at the start of the game. The rest of the recipes can be prototyped with a Science Machine even though they would normally require an Alchemy Engine. Therefore, only a Science Machine is needed to unlock all Science recipes for prototyping. This does not apply to Magic research machines though. As of the Strange New Powers update, she requires a Shadow Manipulator in order to prototype the "On Tentacles" book.
Disadvantage
Wickerbottom lacks the ability to sleep in a Tent, Bed Roll, or Fur Roll (or Siesta Lean-to in the Reign of Giants (RoG) DLC) due to her being an insomniac. This means that crafting those items would be a waste of resources and the player will need other means to restore Sanity.
She also hates spoiled and/or raw food, causing her sanity to suffer greatly.
Tips
See also: Guides/Character guide - Wickerbottom's Books
- During the early days, it is advised to craft a Backpack and Shovel as soon as possible to start storing dug Grass Tufts, Saplings and Berry Bushes for the player's future base, saving them the time to go back and acquire these items.
- Cooked Green Mushrooms are a cheap way to restore Sanity early on when dapper clothing is not available. Later on, making Taffy is the best way to restore Sanity quickly. Make it using 3 Honey and 1 Twig for the most efficient recipe.
- In RoG, eating cooked Cactus Flesh is also a good way to quickly restore Sanity.
- Thanks to the Applied Horticulture Book, Wickerbottom can mass-produce Dragon Fruits to make Dragonpies as her main source of sustenance. It is also advised to plant resources around a central point as to be able to grow all the Plants with one reading session.
- If the player has planted a Meat Bulb, they can carefully place hard Turfs (see Eyeplant) around it in a way that all the summoned Eyeplants around the Bulb form a circle that can match the circle of summoned Birds from Birds of the World. This way when Wickerbottom reads the Book next to the Meat Bulb, the spawning Birds will get eaten by the Eyeplants. At this point, the player can quickly kill the Meat Bulb to get its loot.
- Alternatively, the player can use The End is Nigh or Sleepytime Stories. The Lightning from The End is Nigh will hit most of the Birds, resulting in many Cooked Morsels. If instead the player needs Feathers, reading Sleepytime Stories will put all the Birds to sleep, making them open to melee attacks. Note killing Birds in this manner can summon Krampus.
- On Tentacles can provide a replacement for Tooth Trap fields, as long as the player takes care when collecting the loot. It can also be used to provide a "kill zone" of sorts around points of interest like Spider Dens or Walrus Camps for easy loot.
- If the player can find the Reed Field Trap Set Piece and dispatch the Tentacles, it is possible to make the Blow Dart Wickerbottom's main weapon through the use of Applied Horticulture and Birds of the World (in Winter).
- Hound's Teeth can be farmed in RoG by using On Tentacles near Hound Mounds.
- The Lightning from The End is Nigh can be used to deal some bonus damage to Boss Monsters or deal with lesser monsters that are not worth engaging otherwise. It should be noted that Lightning Rods will absorb all the Lightning and using it near valuable flammable objects is not advisable.
Trivia
- Wickerbottom is sounded by an oboe.
- It is confirmed that "Wickerbottom" is her last name. Her first name remains unknown, however.
- Her first name was jokingly stated to be "Librarian" in the February 12th dev livestream.
- Wickerbottom's eyes are shut by default, but open sometimes, like when she exits a Worm Hole or is low on Sanity.
- She is the most literate of the Don't Starve Characters and always refers to animals by their scientific names. The only exceptions to this are the creatures that are completely unknown to her. This can provide information as to what animals/creatures in the Don't Starve universe exist in her homeworld.
- Wickerbottom is still able to be knocked out by cooking a Mandrake or consuming a Cooked Mandrake.
- Wickerbottom has a skull.
- Wickerbottom's previous perk, before the Strange New Powers update, was to be able to prototype one tier higher than the other characters.
- Wickerbottom's favorite food is Fishsticks, judging from her examination quotes.
- When struck by Lightning in the Reign of Giants DLC, Wickerbottom, like most other characters, is shown to have bones in her hair. In addition to this, she also has bones in her skirt and shoes.
Gallery
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Don't Starve | |
Reign of Giants | |
Shipwrecked | |
Hamlet | |
Don't Starve Together | |
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