Winona | Don’t Starve Together Guide

Winona is a truly unique character in Don’t Starve Together and similar to Wurt and Wortox, Winona is a Don’t Starve Together exclusive character.

Winona changes take what you know about Don’t Starve Together and completely flips it on its head, being one of the only characters in Don’t Starve who’s focus is constructing structures in hopes of securing the deaths of hostile mobs.

Winona is immediately accessible to DST players upon purchasing the game and does not require any further purchases or Spools to play. The following guide will take you through everything you need to know about Winona and her character refresh that took place in April 2019.

WINONA’S STATS

Hunger: 150

Sanity: 200

Health: 150

WINONA’S CHARLIE’S SISTER

Although we don’t know a whole lot about the characters in Don’t Starve and Don’t Starve Together, we do know that Winona is Charlie’s sister. While players cannot play Charlie, unless they use a mod, Charlie is still impactful in the Constant, acting as the Shadow Creature that attacks you when you’re in the pitch black.

Since Winona is Charlie’s sister, Klei has made it so Winona gets one free hit from Charlie every time she is engulfed in the darkness. Winona will not lose any Sanity from Charlie’s first attack.

WINONA CRAFTS FASTER

Winonacrafts at double the speed of other players. While Winona is speed crafting, she loses 5 Hunger, however, if she waits one minute she will not lose any Hunger.

If Winona’s Hunger is 50 or below, she will not be able to speed craft.

Winona’s crafting speed is most notable when she is on the run and needs a weapon or needs armour. It’s also helpful when you need a torch quickly, though avoiding one shot from Charlie is more helpful.

WINONA HAS HER OWN TAB

It’s always fun when characters like Wickerbottom and Wormwood get their own tabs and Winona’s is no different. Winona’s Engineering tab has plenty of structures and tools players can use to their advantage.

Once constructed any player can use Winona’s creations, unlike Wormwood’s Compost Wrap. Recipes that are made available exclusively to Winona include:

When Winona speed crafts, she will lose a small amount of hunger (5 hunger). If she crafts again within one minute of the first speed craft, she will not suffer the penalty. The timer is reset for every time she crafts. Once her hunger reaches a certain threshold (below 50 hunger), her crafting will be slowed; however, she will not have the hunger penalty.

TRUSTY TAPE

Trusty Tape is a well-named item as Winona players can use it in a variety of ways, making it one of the most useful craftable items.

Winona players will spawn into The Constant with 3 Trusty Tapes in her inventory.

Trusty Tape requires 3 Cut Grass and 1 Silk and can be used to repair clothing by 5 days or can be used to construct one of Winona’s exclusive builds. If Winona’s Trusty Tape is used on a clothing article it will immediately be consumed as unlike the Sewing Kit, Trusty Tape can only be used once.

Trusty Tape can also come in handy for those of you who are sailing and have sprung a leak! Think of Trusty Tape as The Constant’s version of Duct Tape. *shudders from flashbacks*

Trusty Tape will repair clothing items by the following amount:

Rabbit Earmuffs by 100%

Straw Hat by 100%

Thermal Stone by 100%

Bernie by 100%

Umbrella by 83%

Hibearnation Vest by 71%

Belt of Hunger by 63%

Summer Frest by 62.5%

Feather Hat by 62.5%

Top Hat by 62.5%

Eyebrella by 55.5%

Desert Goggles by 50%

Cat Cap by 50%

Rain Coat by 50%

Rain Hat by 50%

Dapper Vest by 50%

Beefalo Hat by 50%

Winter Hat by 50%

Breezy Vest by 33.3%

Puffy Vest by 33.3%

Tam o’ Shanter by 20%

The most interesting objects I would recommend fixing with Trusty Tape include Eyebrellas, Tam o’ Shanter, Hibearnation Vests, and Thermal Stones. Basically use Trusty Tape on any expensive items that you craft.

Although players will be going through more Trusty Tape than Sewing Kits, Trusty Tape requires less Silk and will not require RNG when it comes to getting a Hound’s Tooth. In my opinion, Trusty Tape beats out Sewing Kits any day.

WINONA’S GENERATOR

If Winona players want to use any of her other structures, they will need to use a generator for power. Winona’s Generator is the cheaper of the two generators Winona can craft. Winona’s Generator can be used for a maximum of 1 day before being depleted.

Each connected structure on Winona’s Generator will deplete its energy by 1 per second. Generators can only be powered by Nitre, increasing the Generator’s energy by 50%.

While Winona’s Generators aren’t the most powerful, they are useful especially in the early games.

WINONA’S G.E.M.ERATOR

Although Winona’s G.E.M.erator costs more than Winona’s Generators, they hold a charge for 6 days instead of for a day.

Winona’s G.E.M.erator costs 2 Electrical Doodads, 2 Planks and 1 Trusty Tape. G.E.M.erators will have to be fueled by Gems and each Gem will fuel 1/3 of Winona’s G.E.M.erator.

WINONA’S CATAPULT

Winona’s Catapult is by far the most interesting of Winona’s structures as they can be used to protect bases or can be used to automatically farm Mobs.

Winona’s Catapult’s cost players 15 Rocks, 3 Twigs and 1 Duct Tape to prototype and must be powered by a Generator or a G.E.M.erator. Catapults deal 42.5 damage every 2.5 seconds and have a 1.25 radius of AoE damage.

Winona’s Catapult has 400 HP, making it a quite sturdy structure. Catapults will also repair themselves by 8.3 HP every 10 seconds, so kiting enemies around Catapults can help players keep them alive for longer.

Winona’s Catapults will aggro any Mobs that have targetted any characters. The only Mobs Winona’s Catapult cannot target are Shadow Creatures.

Winona’s Catapults shouldn’t be looked at lightly as they are extremely powerful against some of the big baddies. Most notably, Winona’s Catapults can easily take down the Bee Queen for an effortless way to grind Honeycombs for Bee Boxes.

WINONA’S SPOTLIGHT

I’m honestly not the biggest fan of Winona’s Spotlight, simply because I prefer Mushlights for base lights. Winona’s Spotlights cost 2 Gold Nuggets, 1 Duct Tape and 1 Firefly and follow players when they are nearby.

Quite frankly, I’d prefer to save my resources on Winona’s Catapult, though having one spotlight can come in handy. Players will never need multiple spotlights per generator as their light will most commonly stack on players. If players want to have access to lights all around their base they can spread out the Spotlights on multiple generators.

I will say, depending on how many players are on a server I may build a single spotlight per each generator used, just to ensure that allies are kept safe in the dark. Having a spare spotlight or two has saved some of our newer players from dying to Charlie, though I would still recommend familiarizing yourself with all the light sources. 

CHARACTERS TO PAIR WITH WINONA

When thinking about pairing characters with Winona, I don’t believe any characters are off-limits, especially because Winona’s structures can be used by all characters.

Some players have recommended pairing Winona up with Webber, simply due to the fact that Webber can provide her with the Silk required to make Winona’s Trusty Tape. In my opinion, Silk isn’t the most difficult resource to farm, especially if you use your Catapults to kill hoards of Spiders.

WINONA’S FAVOURITE FOOD (DON’T STARVE TOGETHER)

If players are looking for more stats from food when it comes to Winona, they should really feed her Spicy Vegetable Stingers.

Spicy Vegetable Stinger require:

1 Asparagus, Raddish or Toma Root

1.5 Vegetables

1 Ice

Instead of providing 25 Hunger, they will provide Winona with 40 Hunger.

MY LAST THOUGHTS ON WINONA

Winona, in my opinion, is one of the most useful characters in Don’t Starve Together simply because she can construct a plethora of Catapults to help protect a base and farm out resources.

Winona feels like the big sister that watches over all of her younger siblings, making sure that they are all accounted for even when she’s not around.

Although players may not have all of the resources required to craft Winona’s structure builds, especially in the early game, constructing a Celestial Portal to switch into Winona during the late-game might be an option you want to take.

Luckily for you, Winona’s structures will remain on the map after players have changed to another character and if players are careful they should never be destroyed.

All-in-all, Winona only benefits in Don’t Starve Together and doesn’t really have a disadvantage.