I have to say, there are an extraordinary amount of differences between the single-player Don’t Starve franchise and Don’t Starve Together that make playing DST much more enjoyable and overall more survivable.
Although DST’s biggest differences from the other versions of Don’t Starve mostly include the addition of Reign of Giants content, we see an addition of extra Mobs, Bosses, resources and an increased focus on making sure that resources are renewable instead of as finite as they are in single-player.
One of my favourite additions to the Don’t Starve Together world is the Bee Queen, who is a non-seasonal Boss exclusive to DST.
HOW DO YOU FIND THE BEE QUEEN?
The Bee Queen, unlike the Dragonfly or seasonal Bosses like the Moose/Goose and the Deerclops, must be spawned into The Constant. Players must first locate a Gigantic Beehive, which appears in the Grasslands along with a number of Beehives and/or Killer Bee Hives.
The number of Beehives, Killer Bee Hives and the size of the Grasslands will vary based on the spawn, but I always recommend farming all of the Beehives and Killer Bee Hives to make Bee Boxes before attempting the Bee Queen.
HOW DO I TELL WHICH ONE IS THE GIGANTIC BEEHIVE?
At first, the Gigantic Beehive may be hard to tell apart from other Beehives, especially if you ran past it and are trying to look for it on the map.
Players will be able to identify the Gigantic Beehive from the Honey dripping down its side. While the Gigantic Beehive is about three times the size of a regular Beehive while looking at them in-game, Beehives and Gigantic Beehives will appear to be the same size while looking at them from the map.
Again, players will be able to tell a Beehive apart from the Gigantic Beehive on the map by identifying whether the Beehive in question has Honey dripping out of its hole. Sexy… Moving on!
HOW DO I GET THE BEE QUEEN OUT OF THAT THING?
Just as you would a regular Beehive, players can Hammer the Gigantic Beehive in order to spawn the Bee Queen.
Players must repeatedly bash the Gigantic Beehive in order to spawn the Bee Queen. While bashing the Gigantic Beehive players may notice a few drops come out of said Beehive. Well, while there is a trail of Honey dripping from the Gigantic Beehive, players will have a 49% chance of getting Honey and a 1% chance of getting a Honeycomb.
Players can bash the Gigantic Beehive until the Honey disappears without spawning the Bee Queen and players can wait 120 seconds before they can take another swing at the Gigantic Beehive.
HOW TOUGH IS THE BEE QUEEN?
The Bee Queen is a hefty Boss that deals 60 Damage to players and 120 Damage to Mobs. So, for you Webber, Woodie and Wurt players, chances are you’re not going to want to use your followers to help kill this monstrosity. Not only that, but Pigs get scared of the Bee Queen’s screech attack.
The Bee Queen has 22500 Health, meaning that her Health is just over 5.5x the health of Deerclops.
The Bee Queen also has a cycle of attacks, making her a decently mechanic heavy boss. As mentioned, I would wait until you’ve got a few friends with Log Suits or Night Armor before trying to attack the Bee Queen, though players can also solo the Bee Queen by building enough Winona G.E.Merators and Catapults. I will go more in-depth on how to easily defeat the bee Queen as Winona later in the article.
Players can expect to be battling the Bee Queen for over a day at a time, so they should be ready to pull out a few Lanterns (3 Twigs, 2 Rope and 2 Light Bulbs) or light a few Fire Pits or Endothermic Fire Pits.
BEE QUEEN MECHANICS & HOW TO BEAT HER
Upon initiating the battle between you and the Bee Queen the Bee Queen will spawn in 4-5 Grumble Bees. Players are encouraged to gather said Grumble Bees and kill them while simultaneously trying to kite the Bee Queen.
Grumble Bees travel at a much faster pace than the Bee Queen, making it fairly easy to grab aggro of them and kill them as a team before attacking the Bee Queen. Grumble Bees do hit significantly though as they can deal 15 Damage every 2 seconds and while 15 Damage isn’t a whole lot, the fact that there are multiple Grumble Bees on you at once may really begin to stack.
In general, it’s a good idea to craft you and your teammates some Beekeeper Hats, which require 8 Silk and 1 Rope, which will reduce all Bee damage by 80%, cutting the Grumble Bee’s damage to 3 Damage and the Bee Queen’s damage to 12 Damage.
100-75% HEALTH (22500-16875 HP)
During the first phase of the Bee Queen, the Bee Queen will respawn between 3 to 6 Grumble Bees at a time. Players can expect a fairly calm experience during this phase.
75-50% HEALTH (16875-11250 HP)
During the second phase of the Bee Queen, players can expect between 6 to 9 bees at a time. During this period the Grumble Bees may become more difficult to deal with, so players are encouraged to stay in close proximity to their friends in hopes of teaming up against the same Grumble Bee.
While Grumble Bees are not the most difficult to deal with at this stage, they do get annoying, especially if you didn’t bring a Beekeeper Hat.
50-25% HEALTH (11250-5625 HP)
During the third phase, the Bee Queen will become more aggressive, screeching to empower her Grumble Bee. Empowered Grumble Bees attack players much faster and become more difficult for players to kite in group battles.
Players are encouraged to stay close to one another during phase of the battle as the faster players deal with the Grumble Bees the less collective damage players will receive.
BELOW 25% HEALTH (5625-0 HP)
During the final phase, the Bee Queen will become relentless and quite frankly, one of the most annoying bosses to deal with in Don’t Starve Together, though don’t I say that about all of the bosses ;)?
The Bee Queen will almost never stop screeching when she is below 25% Health, constantly empowering her little Grumble Bees and will try to attack more frequently with her stinger. Welcome to hell bitches.
Oh, did I forget to tell you that the Bee Queen also leaves a trail of honey behind her during the whole battle? Oh yeah! She does that! Guess what the honey does? Slows you the fuck down so you can’t avoid taking damage from the Bee Queen and her Grumble Bees. Can you tell how much I love the Bee Queen? She’s awesome. I’d call her one of my best friends.
Upon killing the Bee Queen the Gigantic Beehive will become a Honey Patch. It will take 20 days for the Honey Patch to become a Gigantic Beehive though players will see two other growth stages called Somewhat Gigantic Beehives.
WINONA’S CATAPULT’S / EASIEST METHOD FOR KILLING THE BEE QUEEN
While players constantly cite Wickerbottom as the most overpowered character in Don’t Starve Together, I have to kindly say that they are wrong and aren’t looking further into the complexity of the game. I have to admit, I still haven’t found great reasons to play Wilson yet, but I have found the overt overpowered nature of playing characters like Wurt (who has powerful minions), Wortox (who unlimitedly AoE heals), Wormwood (who provides unlimited food and Living Logs) and shockingly Willow (who’s Bernie is immaculate). I do feel like Klei has done a wonderful job selecting some of the best attributes that can differentiate the characters to make them impactful in The Constant.
Now, Winona is spectacular at many things but the one I really want to commend her on is on her efficient methods of killing the Bee Queen.
I personally set up 4 G.E.M.erators with 8 Catapults connected to each G.E.M.erator. In total there are 32 Catapults, which can feel like complete overkill, but killing the Bee Queen requires no effort and players can leave this area compact for Ice Flingomatics and Lightning Rods.
With this method, I average killing the Bee Queen in 2:47 human minutes, though again, that is while not optimizing or attacking the Bee QUeen or Grumble Bees. Winona? You’re the real hero here.
I would recommend having 8 to 10 Gems available when trying this out, especially if you’re not planning on attacking. Sometimes Catapults lose aggro of the Bee Queen, but if you’re careful you can probably get her killed just by using 4 Gems. If you have friends, you’re not going to need all of the Catapults, but it wouldn’t hurt to have them all there in case friends want to regularly farm the Bee Queen.
I would recommend farming MacTusk during Winter to help prepare you for your battle against the Bee Queen. Having the Walking Cane’s movement speed really helps with kiting the Grumble Bees, especially if you get stuck having to repair or craft gear.
WHAT DO YOU GET FOR KILLING THE BEE QUEEN?
Killing the Bee Queen comes with lots of goodies such and three Bee Queen Exclusive items. The rewards you can look forward to are 6-7 Royal Jelly, 3-4 Honey, 1-2 Honeycomb, 1 Stinger, Bee Queen Crown and the Bundling Wrap Blueprint.
WHAT IS ROYAL JELLY?
Royal Jelly is a food that provides players with 12.5 Hunger, 15 Sanity and 40 Health. Instead of eating Royal Jelly raw, players should combine one Royal Jelly with Honey, Ice or fruits/veggies in a crockpot to make Jellybeans. Jellybeans provide players with 122 Health over 2 minutes while providing players with 5 Sanity.
Jellybeans are the ultimate Heal over time and since Jellybeans do not spoil, players can farm Jellybeans for tougher battles or help make battling seasonal bosses easier to cope with.
WHAT IS THE BEE QUEEN CROWN?
The Bee Queen Crown is an underrated piece of armour that negates the effect of Insanity Auras and instead provides players with Sanity. Bee Queen Crowns absorb 70% of the physical damage dealt to players and the Bee Queen Crown has 945 HP.
The Bee Queen Crown is most notable when fighting Treeguards, while standing next to Evil Flowers, while fighting Tentacles or essentially any big baddie who has a dope Nightmare Aura.
WHAT IS BUNDLING WRAP?
What isn’t Bundling Wrap? Bundling Wrap is the absolute most essential item in the whole Don’t Starve franchise. Bundling Wrap is the absolute only way that players can keep their food indefinitely fresh, meaning that you’ve completed your whole Don’t Starve journey, you can now Alt+F4 and uninstall the game. Congratulations, how do you feel?
But really, Bundling Wrap proves to be extremely useful for players who struggle with getting the munchies on long voyages and don’t have a place to stop. Bundling Wrap requires 1 Wax Paper (made from Honeycomb) and 1 Rope to craft. Each Bundling Wrap can contain up to 4 Stacks and each stack can be a different item, including tools, foods, weapons, etc.
I highly recommend getting yourself Bundling Wrap early on, especially if you’re playing on a server that stays on 24/7. There’s nothing better than being able to access fresh food at all times because you’ve logged out with your own supply of Bundled Supplies. Good Lord, is Bundling Wrap a lifesaver!
THE BEE QUEEN MAKES HONEYCOMBS RENEWABLE
Earlier this year I wrote about how much I loved playing Wendy, who since got a rework, because of how easily she collected resources like Honey, making tasks like setting up Bee Boxes effortless. Now at first, I didn’t find having enough Honeycombs for Bee Boxes a problem, but upon spawning our most recent Basically Average DST server, we realized, we’re going to need more Bee Boxes and Honeycombs to support the number of players we have. Not only that, but the unfortunate truth is also that every so often our Bee Boxes burn down due to fire hounds or other hazards that newer players are not always aware of. So, the addition of the Bee Queen is undoubtedly appreciated.
Players who want to play it safe can simply knock on the Gigantic Beehive a few times to see if a Honeycomb pops out, or they can regularly farm the Bee Queen until their farm is as big as they need it to be. Go big or go home!
Oh, also, make sure you’re generous about how much Bundling Wrap you make. Go nuts. Make all your chests hold Bundling Wrap. Bundle up stacks of Logs. No joke. Just get to bundling. Farm out all the Honeycombs you can and live life. You’re now a baller. If my sister was still playing DST with me at this very moment she would say: John, you made it. You’re now living Easy Mode.
QUIRKY SECRET ABOUT THE BEE QUEEN & HER GRUMBLE BEES
I think one of the quirkiest things about the Bee Queen and her Grumble Bees is the fact that they follow Wormwood’s path of flowers when he’s in bloom in Spring. Players can use Wormwood’s passive to help guide the Bee Queen and her Grumble Bees wherever the team needs, which can be especially powerful with Winona’s Catapults. It comes, full circle baby!
But what do you think? What’s your favourite way to handle the Bee Queen? Do you find her difficult to deal with? Let me know in the comments below!
I think bunnymen and Wickerbottom’s tentacles could kill bee queen when you don’t have Winona’s catapults. Seriously, killing bee queen with no damage at all with Wickerbottom? I say YES! Even if the don’t starve together characters are many and they are all very powerful (except for Wes), I still prefer Wickerbottom. Mass farming food, rocks (by using the stone fruit bushes), gold (by trading bird morsels to pig king), feathers, twigs,…krampus sacks, boss loot and even electric milk makes her my favourite character. But I admit that the other characters sometimes are even better than her, because she hasn’t got enough direct fighting perks.
Very valid, I’d definitely need to try out battling with Bunnymen or Tentacles, cause I can’t say I’ve had the opportunity to try either. I do love using Wickerbottom’s Tentacles for defeating big baddies.
Agreed with the uses of Wickerbottom as well, though I have to say, personally I find her “too easy” or not so challenging… I say on a guide where I literally cover how you can nuke a boss without doing anything 😂
I’m curious, who’s your second pick!
On tentacles alone can kill bee queen deerclops and more and they are much cheaper then winonas catapults, around 3-6 books can kill most bosses in the game and thats just a tentacle spot with papyrus, winonas most efficient catapult setup takes constant gems and 16 catapults or so.