When I first started playingDon’t Starve, I was too afraid to pick Mushrooms. Not only did I not understand all of the stats Mushrooms gave and took away from players, but I was scared that if I picked a Mushroom, it would never appear again as is with many Don’t Starve resources.
Although I had a more effortless slide into The Constant by playingDon’t Starve Together with my family, I quickly realized how essential Mushrooms are when playing solo Don’t Starve (RoG, SW & HAM), especially in Adventure Mode.
Mushrooms come in 3 different variants, Red, Green, and Blue. Mushrooms are relatively versatile inDon’t StarveandDon’t Starve Together, allowing players to use Mushrooms in Crock Pot recipes, feed them to select mobs or even receive or lose stats based on whether the Mushroom is cooked or raw.
Similar to other foods, bushes and living resources, Mushrooms follow the season mechanics. Since Mushrooms follow seasonal mechanics, Mushrooms will not grow in the Winter; however, they also do not follow a timed growth cycle like many other resources.
For a Mushroom to grow, a Mushroom must be rained on for 5-10.5 minutes. For a Mushroom to regrow, players must make sure that the Mushroom is picked by hand and not with a Shovel. Although shovelling will yield two mushrooms, I would strongly recommend against it unless you are planning on making Mushroom Planters.
So, let’s dive into everything you need to know about the different types of mushrooms.
RED MUSHROOMS
Red Mushrooms will only appear during the Day in all forms ofDon’t Starve (DS, DST, RoG, SW & HAM). Red Mushrooms naturally grow in the Grasslands, Mushtree Forests, and various Surface Forests.
A Raw Red Cap willprovide players with12.5Hunger, 0 Sanity and -20 Health. (*Note: Wormwood will not be affected by the -20 Health)
A Cooked Red Cap willprovide players with 0 Hunger, -10 Sanity and 1 Health.
Ultimately, Red Caps and Red Mushrooms will not provide players with any stats that they will find useful, other than the small 12.5 Hunger for significant -20 Health trade-off or tiny 1 Health for -10 Sanity.
In my opinion, Raw Red Caps are never useful for stats; however, having a few Cooked Red Caps can be helpful if you are trying to drop your Sanity while trying to get an extra boost of Health.
I would use Red Caps as a filler or vegetable when cooking in the Crockpot, although I find Red Caps most useful when fed to Gobblers as 3 Red Caps in a stack will kill any Gobbler for the trade-off of 2 Drumsticks. Drumsticks can easily craft a Turkey Dinner that provides players with 75 Hunger, 5 Sanity and 20 Hunger.
Even if you don’t use Drumsticks for Turkey Dinner, using Red Caps to kill Gobblers is still a good choice, especially if you have Berry Bushes in your base. Kill that mofo before it easts all of your Berries.
Red Mushrooms can also be fed to Pigs to get easy access to Manure.
GREEN MUSHROOMS
Green Mushrooms will only appear during Dusk in all forms of Don’t Starve (DS, DST, RoG, SW & HAM).
Green Mushrooms naturally grow in the Marsh, Mushtree Forests and various Surface Forests.
A Raw Green Cap willprovide players with12.5Hunger, -50 Sanity and 0Health. (*Note: Wormwood will not be affected by the -20 Health)
A Cooked Green Cap willprovide players with 0 Hunger, 15 Sanity and -1 Health.
Green Mushrooms are one of my favourite Mushrooms to fool around while playing Don’t Starve. Green Mushrooms are by far one of the easiest ways players can manage their Sanity, and if you choose to make Mushroom Planters, I would make sure that you spend the majority of time planting Green Mushrooms.
Having control over your Sanity can be especially useful for Maxwell mains or even Wickerbottoms, who have just read a few rounds of Applied Horticulture.
BLUE MUSHROOMS
Blue Mushrooms will only appear during the Night in all forms of Don’t Starve (DS, DST, RoG, SW & HAM).
Blue Mushrooms naturally grow in the Marsh, Wilds Mushtree Forests and various Surface Forests.
A Raw Blue Cap willprovide players with12.5Hunger, -15 Sanity and 20 Health.
A Cooked Blue Cap willprovide players with 0 Hunger, -10 Sanity and 1 Health.
Due to the stats that Raw Blue Caps give players, Raw Blue Caps are considered the best types of Mushrooms to have in all forms of Don’t Starve. Similarly to all other Mushrooms, Blue Mushrooms can be used as Crock Pot fillers, though I would recommend against it because of how useful the stats they give are.
Because Blue Mushrooms only appear during Night, they tend to be challenging to collect, especially during the Autumn. I would recommend avoiding collecting Blue Mushrooms in the early game and saving them for Winter collection, or late Autumn collection. There’s no point in collecting Blue Mushrooms early as players will be spending most of their time gathering resources and not getting into battles.
The only time I can see Blue Mushrooms being useful in the early-game is when players, like Wigfrid, need to get into lots of fighting just to get food. The only issue is, Wigfrid can’t eat Mushrooms! So, I may be crazy, but the Blue Mushroom “META” may just be to collect them when the nights become longer.
WHAT ARE MUSHTREES?
Mushtrees are another form of Mushroom that most commonly appear in Caves. Unlike Mushrooms, Mushtrees also act as a Light Source and must be Chopped down to grab the associated Mushroom.
When chopped down, Mushtrees will give 2 Logs and 1 Cap based on the type of Mushtree that was chopped down.
There are four different types of Mushtrees, including Blue, Red, Green and Webbed. A Webbed Mushtree will always be a Blue Mushtree and is commonly attached to the Dangling Depth Dweller dens, which are extremely useful for Webber players.
Webbed Blue Mushtrees can also be made when Spider Dens are nearby them. Dens can convert up to 6 Blue Mushtrees into Webbed Blue Mushtrees, which will ultimately spawn spiders from the nearby dens when chopped with an axe.
When any Mushtrees are burned down or set on fire, they will drop 1 Ash and 1 Charcoal, ultimately revealing that Mushtrees are non-renewable sources that cannot be replanted.
Mushrooms can also transform into Mushtrees during the Full Moon, becoming the Mushtree that associates with the colour of the Mushroom. Mushtrees that are chopped down during the Full Moon will turn into a harvested Mushroom spawn come the morning.
Because of the neverending supply of Blue Mushtrees and Webbed Blue Mushtrees, players may dive into the Caves to collect this valuable resource.
MUSHROOMS ARE MORE FUN IN DON’T STARVE TOGETHER (DST)
At first, I didn’t realize how far the Mushroom Universe expanded to, but I quickly realized how useful Mushrooms are and become in late-gameDon’t Starve Together (DST).
Although Mushrooms are useful when playing single-playerDon’t Starve (DS,RoG, SW, & HAM), there was actually an update inDon’t Starve Togetherthat gave the game a new Boss and new crafting recipes for items.
HOW TO FARM MUSHROOMS
You’re going to quickly notice that if you want to get any of the fun stuff done with Mushrooms inDon’t Starve Together, you are going to need a lot of Mushrooms. While waiting and praying for rain is one option in getting Mushrooms, the choice I’d recommend taking is building Mushroom Planters.
Mushroom Plantersallow players to plant one Mushroom with the hopes of it turning into another each day. Planting a Mushroom can yield a maximum of 4 Mushrooms per harvest, while Mushroom Spores can produce a maximum of 6 Mushrooms. Using Spores is the ideal way of getting Mushrooms, though players will have to adventure in the Caves to collect Spores.
It can take up to3.75 days for a Mushroom Planter to be ready to yield its maximum harvest. If a Spore was used to cultivate the Mushroom Planters, there is a 50% chance that it will also release a spore if left to grow adequately.
Mushroom Planters can be crafted in theFood Tab using a Science Machine using 8 Rot, 5 Manure, and 2 Living Logs. Mushroom Planters will also need to be refuelled after they are harvested four times, so make sure you’re only collecting them once you see 4 or 6 Mushrooms, respectively.
Mushrooms will not grow in the Winter and will instead turn to Rot when on the surface. Although Mushrooms will rot on the surface, Mushrooms can grow all year round in the Caves, making cave-dwelling more appealing.
If you’re someone who loves using Mushrooms, you may want to hang out by a Mushtree Forest to get either green or blue Mushroom Spores to fuel some Mushroom Planters. The only thing is, you’re going to want to make sure you always have Living Logs. Shoutout to all them Woodie and Wormwood players!
USING MUSHROOMS AS A FUNCAP
By far my favourite use of Mushrooms is the Funcaps. While I understand that the Funcaps were named after the word “Fungus” I like to think of them as “Fun-Caps.” How sad is it that this is what amuses me?
Funcaps are craftable in theDress Tab, but require Blueprints to gain access to. Players can receive the necessary Blueprints to craft Funcaps from the Toadstool or by chance when killing Klaus and opening up his Loot Stash.
All Funcaps last 6 days (even if left unworn) and give players the following stats:
60 Points of Protection from Overheating
25% Hunger Reduction
20% Wetness Reduction
It doesn’t matter what colour Funcap you build, though I would recommend a Red Funcap, since Red Mushrooms aren’t the most useful.
Funcaps will also periodically spawn Mushroom Spores, which can be caught like all other Spores. Make sure you have a Bug Net on hand whenever you are wearing a Funcap because the Mushroom Spores it spawns will essentially fuel future Funcaps.
I’m truly happy about that mechanic since there are already enough mechanics that are static in The Constant.
USING MUSHROOMS AS LURES
Don’t Starve Together has a large number of items that are exclusive to the game, one being Lures.
Lures can be made in the Fishing Tab and require aTackle Receptacle.
Lures can only be used when fishing with a Sea Fishing Rodand will improve the catch chance or “attractiveness” to Ocean Fishes. The majority of Lures are made from Mushrooms, as other Lures include Rot, Seeds, Berries, and the Bent Spork (Trinket).
Each type of Mushroom can be used to craft two different types of Lures, being Spoons and Spinnerbaits. The crafted Spoons and Spinnerbaits will be 100% effective during the time of day related to the Mushroom. The three Lures are classified as Sunrise (Spoon/Spinnerbait), Dusky (Spoon/Spinnerbait) and Nightflyer (Spoon/Spinnerbait).
Spoons require 1 Flint and 1 Mushroom to craft while Spinnerbaitsrequire 2 Flint, 1 Mushroom and 1 Beefalo Wool.
SPECIAL RECIPES DURING HALLOWED NIGHTS EVENT
Red Caps can be used in exclusive crafting recipes that are only available during the Hallowed Nights event, which takes place yearly around Halloween. During the Hallowed Nights event, players will have access to the Mad Science Tab, which requires a Mad Scientist Lab.
Players can use 1 Mosquito, 1 Red Cat and 10 Sanity to craft either aFlask of Sanguine Mixture oraCanteen of Sanguine Mixture. Players will not be able to choose between the two items as the only way to craft either is by crafting aSanguine Experiment.
Players have a 66% chance to receive a Flask of Sanguine Mixture, although they also have a 33% chance to get a Canteen of Sanguine Mixture.
Although both the Flask of Sanguine Mixture and Canteen of Sanguine Mixture give players back Health upon consumption and overtime, the canteen will give players 20 Health immediately upon use. The flask will only give players 8 Health upon use. Both forms of the Sanguine Mixture will provide players with 1 Health every two seconds for a full minute, resulting in 30 Health over-time.
Since the only difference between the flask and canteen is the initial health, players shouldn’t get frustrated if they receive mostly flasks. Any form of the Sanguine Experiment will be useful when battling against seasonal bosses or just for general healing, so make use of them when you can.
Note: Wormwood will not receive the initial healing from either potion, but will still receive the healing over time, resulting in 30 Health from either experiment.
