I cannot survive more than 5 days without starving due to a lack of food. Berries I find do not grow back fast enough, and I don't have rabbits near the usual spot for my base.
What is the best way to make a reliable food source for a base?
Don’t Starve – Reliable Food Source
dont-starve
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To avoid dying, you need to watch 3 major states:
- Hunger
- Health
- Sanity
Additionally, some security against other ways of dying (mob attacks such as hounds, mactusk, deerclops, ...) can lower your chances of dying too.
The good news is: everything you need to keep the 3 states up can be moved: you can plant farms, move berry bushes, grass, twigs, trees, spiders, ...
Resources you'll need to build a base but are not easily movable are manure and stone. (Update 22/07/2016: manure is movable if you build pig houses, pigs give manure if you feed them fruits. Turn the pig into a werepig and drop a stack of 40 berries to get 40 manure fast)
- The easiest ways to find manure are beefalo (which can be moved) or pigs (whose houses can be moved or (re)built).
- The easiest ways to get stone are quarries (a stone biome), but those are non-renewable. The only renewable way to get stone is by farming the caves. (Update 22/07/2016: with meteors, stone biomes are now renewable - but don't build too close or the meteors destroy your base)
So you can build your base anywhere you like. You can move all vital resources anyway, it only costs manure to fertilise the grass and farms, and stone to build your walls. It helps to have those close!
Conclusion: build your base close to
- caves, for stone, gold, flint, gems
- beefalo, for manure (although you can move beefalo in the long term, starting close gives you a headstart)
- as many different biomes as you can find (savanna, grass, rocks, forest, marsh)
Additionally:
- Having wormholes near makes the base more interesting, since travels to other biomes are shortened, and you have an escape hatch.
- Having a respawn near (touchstone, meat effigy) makes for a good base, too, since after you respawn, you can reach your base fast (before you die again)
- Having multiple bases can make the difference between life and death when you get chased out of your base during winter/nighttime or when you respawn. Build a second base at your touch stones, in the caves, in the ruins...
A good example of a base in my latest game, day 3:
It depends on the item. Most fruit and vegetables will decay quicker after cooking- for example, cooked carrots last 6 days instead of 10. On the other hand, most meat will last longer- usually 10 days instead of 6.
Cooking an item does half the level of spoilage- for example a 50% spoiled item will only be 25% spoiled after cooking. This means that, if you have the inventory space, even meat should only be cooked when you intend to eat it.
For example, a morsel will fully decay in 6 days. Leaving it 3 days will result in it decaying by 50%- if you then cook it it will be 25%. On the other hand, cooking it immediately and leaving it 3 days will result in it being 30% decayed.
Best Answer
Well, maybe the usual spot for your base is in the wrong place then. If you simply can't reach food from there, find a place where you can.
Rabbits are pretty good early on. Berries are good, as you mentioned, but aren't going to be enough on their own. Forage for them early on, but later you should dig them up and move them to your base.
If you see a bird, move towards it to scare it off -- they drop seeds at a decent rate. If you are still in a starvation situation, eat the seeds, otherwise you can combine them with manure to start farming.
Monster meat is edible, but it does damage. Early on, if you are having trouble getting enough food, keep in mind that you can eat monster meat at full health followed by a couple berries. Over the next couple days, regular eating should heal you up enough to recover to where you can do this again if need be.
Getting manure for farms will help, but since it still takes a seed and farms grow pretty slowly, this probably won't solve all your problems.
Tallbird eggs are amazing, if you can find them.
All food should be cooked before you eat it -- it will go a lot further this way.
Throughout the game, but especially early on, keep in mind you will need to rely on many types of food source. Always keep an eye on your map for berry bushes. Always approach birds for seeds. Always grab carrots. If you see a rabbit straying from his hole, hunt it. Unless you happen upon several tallbird nests within a comfortable walk of each other, you aren't going to find a single stable food source.