Playable Characters | Allies | Monsters and Hostile Mobs | Neutral and Passive Mobs | Bosses and Giants | Other Characters
This character sheet is about the various supplemental characters found in Don't Starve.
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Charlie
Charlie on the Nightmare Throne. (click here to see her appearance prior to her current transformation)
"Those shadow things are so convincing — they almost scare me, and I'm part of the act!"
— Charlie, an excerpt from her letter to Maxwell from this page
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.The Night Monster. If the player is in total darkness for more than a few seconds, she'll attack, taking 100 HP. Her real name is Charlie and was Winona's younger sister and Maxwell's assistant, before they were all taken into the Constant. She now serves as the new ruler of the Nightmare Throne and is the Big Bad of Don't Starve Together.
Warning! Unmarked major spoilers ahead!
- All There in the Manual: The datamining of the speech files of Don't Starve Together revealed that Charlie actually replies to some character quotes, mostly to Maxwell's and Winona's.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Implied. While Winona loved Charlie very much, she compared her to a mandrake in one of her quotes. Charlie wants to talk about it.
- Ax-Crazy: Her Split Personality is vicious and very sadistic, as her No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of Wilson upon freeing him from the Nightmare Throne shows very well.
- Big Bad: Of Don't Starve Together in the "A New Reign" expansion - after Maxwell is freed from the Nightmare Throne and Charlie frees its next would-be holder, Wilson, to take the throne for herself.
- Cain and Abel: Played with; Charlie will attack Winona just like any other character, but her responses to Winona heavily imply she's being forced to do it, either by her demonic side or the world itself.
- Casting a Shadow: Her powers post-transformation involve darkness; she could conjure flames of darkness, transform an entire throne room, and use black vines to tear apart the Jury-Rigged Portal and replace it with the Florid Postern.
- The Cutie: Before she became corrupted, she was a kind, cute, lovable cinnamon roll of a woman.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She used to be a stage assistant for Maxwell until his dabbling with dark magic turned her into the Night Monster. She understandably hates Maxwell for it, attacking him in the dark like she does everyone else.
- Darker and Edgier: In-universe; before her Split-Personality Merge, her demonic side wanted the Nightmare Throne room to have some very draconic elements, with the Throne itself having dragon heads on the top.
- Dark Is Evil: As the Night Monster, she attacks the player if they stay in it for too long without a light source. It definitely applies to her as well when she seizes the Nightmare Throne for herself and becomes queen.
- Darkness Equals Death: When it's pitch black, she will come out to prey.
- Don't Look At Me: She doesn't attack players with limited night vision, such as if they're wearing Moggles or if Woodie is in his Cursed form. This suggests that she's not scared of lights, but of being seen.
- Dragon Ascendant: After Maxwell was freed from the Nightmare Throne at the end of Don't Starve by Wilson, Charlie takes over as the new ruler of the world after freeing Wilson from the throne.
- Eldritch Abomination: It is heavily hinted that she is one of the shadow creatures now. After undergoing a Split-Personality Merge with the demonic side of her that was completely affected by the shadow monsters and seizing the Nightmare Throne, she becomes a Humanoid Abomination.
- Evil Costume Switch: She changes into a much more dapper dress with horned shoulders, and the flower in her hair turns into a small hat with a large red feather, after taking control of the Nightmare Throne.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: It's suggested by supplemental material that Maxwell's use of dark magic turned Charlie into a monster and allowed the shadow creatures to take control and use her as a pawn to act through.
- The Fashionista: It is implied by the fact that she rarely wears the same clothes more than twice when she appears in the promotional arts and cinematics. It is difficult to notice because they are always black and grey with red accessories and they all share a similar design.
- Flaming Hair: Charlie as the Night Monster was designed with fire-like hair, which becomes more apparent when her demonic self takes over. Then it's averted when Charlie reconciles her human and demonic sides, making more human-like with all the powers she has.
- Flower Motifs: Roses, and she always wore one in her hair when she was a human. After seizing the Nightmare Throne and becoming queen, she becomes associated with thorned roses, her trademark and a symbol of sinister things going on.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: She was just a simple assistant to Maxwell before being turned into the Night Monster after Maxwell dabbled too much into dark magics on stage, and then proceeded to take control of the Nightmare Throne after Wilson frees Maxwell, becoming the new ruler of the world.
- Gender-Blender Name: "Charlie", which is usually a man's name. It could be short for "Charlotte" or "Charlene".
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Though she never actually appears in the festivities in person, Charlie will also participate herself in the Year of the Carrat competitions with her own trained Carrats.
- Green Thumb: Mixed with darkness. This comic shows black vines tearing apart the Jury-Rigged Portal and replacing it with Charlie's own creation, the Florid Postern.
- Humanoid Abomination: By the time we see her in person, the only real thing that can be arguably called human is her appearance. When she undergoes a Split-Personality Merge, this is more apparent.
- Irony: Her sister, Winona, says that she used to be afraid of the dark. Look at her now.
- Kill the Lights: Her presence has this effect in the A New Reign cinematic. Some Maxwell's Lights douse themselves when she gets close.
- Lighter and Softer: In-universe; before her Split-Personality Merge, her good human side wanted to have the Nightmare Throne room to have rococo-style architecture, with a very ornate chair flanked by two statues of cute cherubs.
- More Deadly Than the Male: Charlie after becoming queen and the new holder of the Nightmare Throne in Don't Starve Together is a far deadlier and capable villain than Maxwell had ever been.
- Mysterious Woman: Minus the sensual parts, but she does meet the "heavily involved in plot", "knows more than she's letting on", and "wears black" parts.
- Nice Guy: Charlie had not a single mean bone in her body until she was turned into the Night Monster when Maxwell used the Codex Umbra too much for his stage acts. Her kindness resulted in a Split Personality conflict as her human self clashed with the shadow creature's influence, before they reconciled to create her threateningly elegant current persona.
- Not So Above It All: She is heavily implied to be the reason why alternative skins and the annual events exist in Don't Starve Together. She might have made the Constant more dangerous than ever, but she also allowed the survivors to express their fashion sense and to have fun by celebrating. This is particularly noticeable during the Winter's Feast event, when she leaves presents for the survivors who sleep under a Winter's Feast tree with blinking lights, and the Year of the Carrat event, when her Shadow Carrats join a race as competitors in case there is only one player available in the world. She is also the reason why enemies drop sweets when they get killed during certain events.
- Pet the Dog: She created the events in Don't Starve Together so that the survivors could celebrate and have fun. Also, during certain events she makes appear special trinkets and sweets, including Maxwell's favorite.
- Her secret quotes in game (now removed) reveal that she actually feels sorry for attacking Winona when she is in the dark, but she has to do it because she is forced to follow the rule.
- Reality Warper: She almost effortlessly transforms the Nightmare Throne and its chamber repeatedly to fit her own aesthetic tastes, before even sitting down. She also turned the Jury-Rigged Portal into the Florid Postern - all things that Maxwell couldn't do when he had the Nightmare Throne.
- Revenge: Implied to be why she attacks Maxwell in the dark like she does everyone else after he becomes a player character, which is very understandable since Maxwell dabbled too much in dark magic, leading to both of them getting trapped in this world. It becomes more convincing after Charlie seizes the Nightmare Throne, and becomes a bigger threat than Maxwell was.
- She Who Must Not Be Seen: Characters can never see Charlie. Even when the player finds a light while getting hurt, Charlie will never be visible (since she's a game mechanic and not meant to have sprites). Woodie as a Werebeaver has night vision and is immune to the Night Monster's attacks, suggesting that she only approaches characters who can't see her, rather than fearing light.
- In Don't Starve Together, one player can watch another be attacked by the Night Monster if the first player is a Werebeaver or sometimes if the second player is attacked while running toward a light source. Her attack appears as a disembodied clawed black hand poofing out of nowhere to strike the player.
- She is finally seen post-Final Act in the New Reign cinematic. She then proceeds to free Wilson (and beat the crap out of him) and take control of the Nightmare Throne.
- Slasher Smile: Her demonic self from being completely transformed by the shadow creatures that took her into this world is very vicious and Ax-Crazy. She has an insane grin to go with this.
- Smug Smiler: Much like Maxwell before her, she starts wearing a superior and self-assured smile after reconciling her old human self with her demonic self, seizing the Nightmare Throne for herself.
- Something about a Rose: Her motif is roses and she redecorates the portal with rose motifs. Once she kills the Ancient Fuelweaver, she leaves behind a single rose for the players as a Calling Card.
- Spikes of Villainy: Her dress after undergoing a Split-Personality Merge has horned shoulders, and she became the Big Bad of the game, replacing Maxwell.
- Split Personality: Little ol' Charlie has a rose in her hair and a friendly smile. When the Night Monster takes over, she loses the rose and gains dark flaming hair, black eyes, and a less friendly smile. Upon claiming the Nightmare Throne, the two halves reconcile into a threateningly-elegant whole.
- Start of Darkness: Pun aside, she used to be Maxwell's stage assistant until one meddling with dark magic too many transformed her into the Night Monster and threw her into a bleak world she didn't belong in, understandably leaving her none too happy with Maxwell. After she takes the Nightmare Throne and becomes the Shadow Queen, she becomes the game's new Big Bad and a threat that the player characters have to deal with.
- Stepford Smiler: Charlie was terrified that Maxwell's new "magic tricks" involved dark magic, but she kept a brave face and a friendly smile because voicing her concerns would hinder the show. A poster advertising one of Maxwell's shows has her look on with terrified eyes despite her smile as Maxwell summons a shadow monster. It leads to tragedy for the both of them.
- Take a Third Option: Attempts to do this with the cycle of the player characters and Maxwell uprooting each other by just breaking Wilson free from the Nightmare Throne. However, she then consciously decides to become a third option for the shadow monsters to act through.
- Unreliable Narrator: The A Little Drama update stars a stageplay survivors can perform in, clearly written by Charlie, and detailing the events that led up to her transformation. Anyone with knowledge of the lore can tell that Charlie's biases against Maxwell, along with the machinations of Them, have colored her memories of the past. The play portrays Winona as an overprotective mother hen of a sibling, Maxwell as a manipulative and pathetic king, and Wilson as a literal fool. Not to mention painting Them as allies and victims like she is. Maxwell and Winona both comment on these discrepancies should they watch the stageplay.
- Was Once a Man: Before the whole mess with the Codex Umbra, she was Maxwell's assistant on the big stage. Now she's something a lot more sinister.
- We Used to Be Friends: With Maxwell. Now she attacks him when it's dark, just like anyone else.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She may be an unstoppable force of nature and mistress of darkness, but she went through hell before she got to that point.
Battlemaster Pugna
The ruler of the Forge.
"Gatekeepers? You dare return to the Forge?"
The person in charge of the Forge, Pugna rules the realm with absolute authority. When the survivors end up in his realm after activating the portal, Pugna sends his warriors to meet them in combat.
- Adipose Rex: Though not exactly a king, Pugna is still in charge of the Forge and is quite large as well, being almost as large as the Pig King in size.
- Ambiguously Human: Most pigs are ruled over by Pig Kings. Pugna, on the other hand, looks almost entirely human, except for the horns on his head.
- Anti-Villain: Despite his hostile attitude and desire to kill the survivors, Pugna ultimately desires to invade the Throne and destroy it once and for all.
- Poor Communication Kills: He clearly thinks that the survivors are enemy Gatekeepers launching an attack, while they are just some lost people trying to find their way home who would gladly leave on peaceful terms if they could.
- Villainous Breakdown: As you continue to fight through waves of Pugna's warriors, Pugna becomes increasingly worried before becoming outright terrified at the prospect of losing to the survivors and being reunited with the Throne.
Mumsy the Goat
"BAAA! Who are you? No, there's no time for pleasantries! You've got to get cooking, or you'll anger the beast! I'll help how I can."
A local of the Elder Bog, Mumsy has been feeding the Gnaw to appease it for a long time. She is the first person they meet, and helps them get set up.
- Good Parents: She tries hard to balance feeding the Gnaw and looking after her son Billy. This picture depicts her teaching him how to cut up carrots.
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Squick: The fact that the Goat Milk you buy from her, the only source of dairy in the game, is probably milked from Mumsy. Multiple characters will comment on it, with some outright trying to look the other way on purpose while handling it. - With This Herring: Played with. On one hand, she gives the players a good amount of coins to start off with in each new game. However, she still makes the players give her coins in exchange for cookware and does nothing to try to have the other shopkeepers give the players a discount.
Billiam "Billy" the Kid
"Mumsy tells me not to look at the sky."
Mumsy's child, a young goat who can be found in the city ruins area of the Elder Bog.
- Ambiguous Gender: Billy was originally referred to as "she" in some character quotes, then updated to "he", and has a sprite with no particularly gendered features.
- Big Eater: Implied by Willow, who claims that, "He'll eat just about anything."
- Children Are Innocent: Billy acts like a young child, only wanting to play with his friends, and is too naive to understand the implications of having the Gnaw hanging right above the Elder Bog.
- Disappeared Dad: Has no father to speak of. Then again, considering what the Gnaw did to the people of the Elder Bog...
- Verbal Tic: "Baa", since he's a goat.
Swamp Pig Elder
"HRF? SLEEP... GIVE ELDER NIGHTMARES"
The leader of the Swamp Pigs, who can be found in the swamp and forest area of the Elder Bog.
- Fantastic Racism: According to the Elder and other Swamp Pigs, the goats don't seem to care about the Swamp Pigs much. They remark on the players who they mistake for goats, as being unusual.
- Viral Transformation: He's suffering from partial mermification, and possibly dying from it; the Gnaw's plague has a high fatality rate. He worries about what the smaller Swamp Pigs will do when he's gone.
The Gnaw
The monster's hunger shall never cease.
—Wendy
A mysterious creature that hovers over the sky of the Elder Bog, demanding to be fed from the Altar of Gnaw constantly. The closest thing we have to its species type is multiple characters calling it a "sky wyrm".
- Big Eater: One thing's for sure - it's one very gluttonous beast. The people of the Elder Bog have to keep it constantly fed or be turned into Merms.
- Eldritch Abomination: Possibly. It's described as being a "sky wyrm", but all we see is a giant mouth lined by rows of teeth. Characters would give warnings not to look at the sky where it is.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: The part we see of it is basically a big hole in the sky with lots of teeth attached.
- Named by Democracy: One of the skin descriptions reveals that since nobody knew much about the Gnaw when it showed up, they just gave it that name after its insatiable appetite.
- Viral Transformation: It will transform those that displease it into Merms, though the speed of the process varies from person to person.
Wolly
"Nice sailing... chump."
A parrot who lives on a wrecked boat. In Don't Starve and Reign of Giants, he trades stuff for meat and trinkets and sometimes recites part of a puzzle. In Shipwrecked, he compliments your boat-operating prowess at the beginning of every game.
- Alternate Reality Game: The quotes he repeats were part of a web puzzle that led up to the announcement of the Shipwrecked expansion.
- Bonus Feature Failure: He does give out some items that are okay-to-good in the early-game, like gems and dark petals, but the fact that he flies off for up to five days after making a single trade hampers his usefulness.
- Deadpan Snarker: If his quote is to go by. A lot of his quotes are sarcastic insults.
- Polly Wants a Microphone: Zig-zagged. If given meat, he thanks the player eloquently, but when given one of the flotsam trinkets, he seems to just be repeating things he overheard.
- You ALL Look Familiar: There are a lot of parrots in Shipwrecked that look exactly like Wolly, right down to the hat, but they all have unique names.
The Curio Collector
A mysterious man who runs the machine at the Trade Inn, which lets you exchange common skins for rarer ones. He also appears in-game as the judge of Beefalo Pageants during the Year of the Beefalo. Referred to as "Skin Collector" in the game files.
- Funetik Aksent: He speaks with one.
- No Name Given: His actual name is never revealed in the game.
- Rambling Old Man Monologue: Defied. If you idle inside the Trade Inn interface for long enough, he'll say this line:Curio Collector: Once, when I was but a young shaver... oh, but ya don' wanna listen to an old trader's stories.
William Carter
A young aspiring magician who appeared only in William Carter Puzzles ARG. To see the tropes related to his character in the game itself, see Maxwell
- Canon Character All Along: Halfway through the puzzle it becomes clear that William Carter is none other than Maxwell before he obtained the power of the Codex Umbra.
- Coming of Age Story: The whole point of his story was to witness to the slow transformation of the meek William Carter into the haughty Maxwell.
- Doomed by Canon: You know how his story ends at the moment when he drops the glasses and he adopts the Amazing Maxwell as his stage name.
- The Glasses Come Off: He removed his glasses when he created his Maxwell persona.
- Mirror Character: For Wilson Higgsbury. William used to be a young man with the ambition to succeed in his area of expertise, but he struggled with it until he was offered the chance to change his life forever. And just like Wilson he would eventually pay the price for it.
- Nerd Glasses: He wore glasses and he used to exhibit a nerdy personality before the train accident.
- Nice Guy: Until he slowly descended into madness.
- Nonstandard Character Design: The story is told through letters, posters and photographs that decipt human characters with realistic proportions compared to how we normally see them in game and during the cinematics.
- Old Shame: In-Universe. William was so ashamed by his old performances and his own lack of assertiveness that he started to erase all the traces of his life before the train accident.
- Pride Before a Fall: Heavily implied considering who William turned out to be.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: The whole puzzle is actually Maxwell's origin story.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: When he was traveling from New York to San Francisco he was presumed dead in a train accident. He wrote a postcard to his brother Jack to reveal that in spite of what the news was saying he survived.
- Sanity Slippage: Thanks to the mysterious book that granted him its powers. Only his assistant noticed that something was wrong and tried to convince him to stop using it, but it was too late.
- Starving Artist: His first performances as a magician were far from successful, and he was hounded by creditors as a result.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Possibly downplayed. It started to happen after the fateful train accident where he was presumed dead. During the accident, William found a mysterious book that revealed him how to perform amazing magic using the power of the shadows and this allowed him to achieve the fame he always wanted. The nerdish William assumes a more gentlemanlike identity, he hires an assistant, and he secretly starts to go insane because of the book. It is played straight when we meet him at the beginning of Don't Starve, when he fully embraced his Maxwell persona and his role as the King of the Shadows.
George T. Witherstone
A man who sells William Carter props for his magic show and gets angry when he fails to pay.
- All There in the Manual: Only referenced in unlockable bonus images prior to his actual appearance in Wes's short as Maxwell's intended victim.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Well, evil might be stretching it, but he does have a pretty good relationship with a little girl who's presumably his daughter.
- Loan Shark: Possibly. An associate of his sends a letter threatening to find Carter if he doesn't pay the money owed to him.
- Unseen No More: After years of his only presence in the story being a mention in one of William Carter's letters, we get to see him (and his almost-kidnapping to the Constant) in Wes's short.
Jack Carter
William Carter's brother and Wendy and Abigail's father.
- All There in the Manual: Until his first official appearance in Wendy's cinematic he was only referenced in unlockable bonus images.
- The Ghost: Never appears in any "Don't Starve" materials himself. He is only mentioned in letters he sent to William Carter. He finally appeared in person at the end of Wendy's origin cinematic.
- Nonstandard Character Design: He is drawn with realistic proportions compared to the rest of the cast, just like his brother William also known as Maxwell.
- Outliving One's Offspring: He outlived Abigail and he had to witness the toll that her death took on Wendy's psyche while himself was still mourning.
- Parental Neglect: He has apparently lost contact with his mother, who hasn't even met his twin children.
- Trauma Conga Line: He outlived one of his children and he witnessed the surviving one becoming depressed and obsessed with the supernatural before being banished into the Constant. This without mentioning what happened to his own brother. Poor Jack can't catch a break.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: He is taller than most of the other characters and he looks a lot like his brother, with the only noticeable difference being that Jack has a mustache while William does not.
- Wham Shot: When he appears in Wendy's cinematic. A lot of players unaware of Jack's existence were wondering what Maxwell was doing there when they saw him for the first time.
Genevieve
A young woman with the nickname of "Genny" who was one of Winona's coworkers at the Voxola factory. She only appears in the Next of Kin short.
- All There in the Manual: Her name was given verbally on a Rhymes with Play stream.
- Pose of Supplication: Can be seen doing this outside after the factory collapses.
Maman Angeline
Warly's elderly mother. She only appears in the Taste of Home short.
- Doting Parent: The house she shares with her son is full of photos of them together, and it's implied that she is the reason why Warly loves food that much.
- Scatterbrained Senior: She is affected by dementia and only Warly's food can make her snap out of it, even if only temporarily. It's so serious she could not even realize what was happening when They took Warly away right in front of her eyes.
- Supreme Chef: It's indicated she was one before her dementia got the better of her, as Warly uses her old recipes to jog her memories and she's implied to have inspired him to become a chef.
- Through Her Stomach: Warly cooked for her the same food she used to make for him when he was a child to jog her fading memory.
The Ancients
The civilization that used to rule the Constant, before the events of Don't Starve.
- Precursors: The Ancients were once a powerful race, ruling the entirety of the Constant, before their eventual downfall.
- Viral Transformation: The murals from the Metheus puzzles depict the downfall of the Ancient Civilization and transformation into the Shadow Creatures.
"Them"
The Alter, one of Them
The true villains of Don't Starve.
- Dark Is Evil: They appear as shadows.
- Eldritch Abomination: By the way that both Maxwell, the Ancient Fuelweaver, and Battlemaster Pugna speak of "Them", these beings are completely unfathomable.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Though Maxwell and Charlie may be the ones that directly affect the survivors, "They" are the ones who are the reason how and why everything is happening. Maxwell summoned "Them" after delving too much into dark magic for his performances, which led to him and Charlie being stranded in this world, while Charlie was turned into a monster and later a host for "Them" to act through after she took the Nightmare Throne for herself.
- Horrifying the Horror: Both Maxwell and the Ancient Fuelweaver talk about "Them" in a fearful and respectful manner.
- Light Is Not Good: The Alter’s magic appears as bright cyan energy, and the full moons it can cause illuminate the night. Given They were previously thought to be a case of Dark Is Evil, this calls into question Their true nature.
- Mind Manipulation: Their principal weapon. Wortox describes the attack of the Shadow Creatures as psychic aggression They perform on the minds of those who are most mentally vulnerable. Also, it is heavily implied in Maxwell's biography that it was Their influence that compelled him to summon as many people as he could in the Constant (which included his own young niece) when he was bounded to the Nightmare Throne.
