Build, Prototype, Survive
Crafting
Don't Starve Together's crafting menu is a clean system of searchable filters. Most recipes you prototype at the right station — but some can never be prototyped at all. Use the tabs below to browse every filter, every station, and the progression that ties them together.
The Crafting Menu
Overview
Crafting was rebuilt around a clean, searchable filter system. Twenty-plus filters cover everyday survival gear; another dozen-plus exist only inside specific events, ruins or stations. This page maps every one of them, what station unlocks it, and the trick that makes the menu actually fast.
How the menu works
The crafting tab on the left of your screen is now a list of filters: Survivor Items, Tools, Weapons and so on. Pinning a recipe to the favourites strip keeps it one click away even when you switch filters. Every filter you can see right now is one of two kinds:
- Regular filters. Stand near the right station, prototype a recipe once, and it is yours forever. From night one's Torch to a Thulecite Crown, the loop is the same.
- Prototyping Impossible. Some recipes carry the label flat-out: no Science Machine will ever teach them. They unlock through events, ruins stations, the moon, or specific shrines — usually because the content is meant to be earned, not researched.
Reading a recipe
Each card in the menu shows three things: the ingredient cost, the station requirement (e.g. "Alchemy Engine" or "Ancient Pseudoscience"), and whether the recipe is already prototyped. A greyed-out border means you have not learned it yet — build the matching station and stand next to it to flip it from grey to gold.
Progression at a glance
- Night one: craft a Torch and a Campfire from the Survivor Items filter — no station needed.
- Day two: build a Science Machine to unlock Tools, Weapons and the first wave of Armour.
- Days three to five: build an Alchemy Engine (needs a Science Machine nearby) for Refined Materials, better Armour and the Crock Pot.
- Magic tier: craft a Prestihatitator, then a Shadow Manipulator, for Shadow Magic and the late-game weapons.
- Late game: the ruins' Ancient Pseudoscience Station, the moon's Celestial Sanctum and the Brightsmithy unlock the filters that the regular menu can never teach you.
Filter, don't scroll. Type in the crafting search bar — it matches across every filter at once. "compost", "salt", "rod" all find their item without you guessing which category it lives in.
The Everyday Kit
Regular Filters
Twenty-one filters that cover the bread-and-butter of survival. Prototype once at the matching station and the recipe is permanently yours — buildable anywhere you carry the ingredients.
Survival & tools
Survivor Items, Tools, Light Sources and Prototypers & Stations — the first things you build to make it through night one and night two.
Materials & building
Refined Materials, Structures, Storage Solutions and Decorations — everything that turns a campfire into a base.
Combat
Weapons, Armour, Healing and Shadow Magic — the kit you bring to a fight and the bandages you bring home.
Clothing & seasons
Clothing plus Winter Items, Summer Items and Rain Gear — dressing for a world that swings from freezing to blistering.
Food & the sea
Cooking, Food & Gardening, Fishing, Seafaring and Beefalo Riding — feeding yourself, sailing the ocean and learning to steer a one-tonne grumpy lawn-mower.
Every regular filter, at a glance
| Filter | Station to prototype | What you build here |
|---|---|---|
| Survivor Items | None (Survival) | Hand-crafted basics like Torches, Campfires, Backpacks and the Telltale Heart that revives a friend. The first things you ever make. |
| Tools | Science Machine | Axes, Pickaxes, Shovels, Hammers, Razors and the Pitchfork. Your starting set is all here; the Pickaxe-Axe is gated behind ruins gear. |
| Light Sources | Science Machine / Alchemy Engine | Torch, Campfire, Fire Pit, Lantern, Miner Hat and the Moggles. Everything that keeps Charlie out of arm's reach. |
| Prototypers & Stations | Tier-up requirement (e.g. Alchemy Engine needs a Science Machine nearby) | Science Machine, Alchemy Engine, Prestihatitator, Shadow Manipulator, Think Tank and Celestial Orb — the stations that unlock every other filter. |
| Refined Materials | Science Machine / Alchemy Engine | Boards, Cut Stone, Rope, Papyrus, Electrical Doodads — the intermediates almost every late-game recipe needs. |
| Weapons | Science Machine / Alchemy Engine / Shadow Manipulator | Spear, Tentacle Spike, Ham Bat, Boomerang, Blow Dart, Dark Sword, Glass Cutter and beyond. Stations gate the tier. |
| Armour | Science Machine / Alchemy Engine / Shadow Manipulator | Grass Suit through Marble, Football Helmet, Night Armour and shells — the difference between a long fight and a quick respawn. |
| Clothing | Alchemy Engine (mostly) | Backpacks, Top Hat, Garland, Beefalo Hat — insulation, sanity and the occasional cosmetic perk. |
| Healing | Science Machine / Alchemy Engine | Bandages, Healing Salve, Honey Poultice, Compass Splints and the Booster Shot. Heal-over-time items spend sanity less than instant heals. |
| Shadow Magic | Shadow Manipulator (most), Prestihatitator (entry tier) | Top Hat, Night Armour, Dark Sword, Bat Bat, Pan Flute — powerful gear that costs sanity to use, fuel to fight, or both. |
| Decorations | Science Machine / Alchemy Engine | Endothermic Fires, Wooden Flooring, Carpeted Flooring, Potted Ferns, Wall Lights — turning a tent into a home. |
| Structures | Science Machine / Alchemy Engine | Walls, Fences, Gates, Signs, Bird Cages, Bee Boxes, Drying Racks, Salt Boxes and the Lightning Rod everyone forgets to build. |
| Storage Solutions | Science Machine / Alchemy Engine | Chest, Scaled Chest, Salt Box and Ice Box — what keeps your hoard from rotting or burning. |
| Cooking | Science Machine / Alchemy Engine | Crock Pot, Portable Crock Pot, Mushroom Planter, Bee Box, Salt Box — the structures that turn raw ingredients into Meatballs, Pierogi and Honey Ham. |
| Food & Gardening | Science Machine / Alchemy Engine | Garden Hoe, Garden Rake, Watering Can, Compost Wrap and seeds — the rework-era farming toolkit for Giant Crops. |
| Fishing | Alchemy Engine | Freshwater Fishing Rod, Sea Fishing Rod, lures, ocean trawls and a tackle receptacle to hold them all. |
| Seafaring | Alchemy Engine | Boat Kit, Anchor Kit, Mast Kit, Steering Wheel, Boat Patches and Cannons — you only respect this filter the first time you sink. |
| Beefalo Riding | Alchemy Engine | Saddles (Wooden, War, Glossamer), Brushes, Beefalo Bell and Saddlehorn — the kit for taming and steering a beefalo mount. |
| Winter Items | Alchemy Engine | Winter Hat, Puffy Vest, Thermal Stone, Endothermic Fire Pit — the kit that keeps your hunger meter from freezing solid. |
| Summer Items | Alchemy Engine | Eyebrella, Floral Shirt, Whirly Fan, Chilled Amulet and Endothermic gear — the difference between ‘workable’ and ‘wildfire’ summer. |
| Rain Gear | Alchemy Engine | Straw Hat, Eyebrella, Football Helmet, Pretty Parasol and Rain Coat — spring without rain protection is a sanity speedrun in the wrong direction. |
Prototyping shortcut: standing next to any tier above the recipe also lets you prototype it. An Alchemy Engine teaches every Science Machine recipe; a Shadow Manipulator covers everything a Prestihatitator does. Build one of each tier and you only ever need to stand in one spot to learn a new item.
Recipes You Can't Teach Yourself
Prototyping Impossible
Thirteen filters that the regular menu can never unlock. They live behind a specific event, a deep-ruins station, the moon, the Hermit Crab, or a shrine on the right Year. Find the trigger and they appear in your menu — lose the trigger and they vanish again.
Event recipes
Special Event, Cawnival Creation and Winter's Feast cooking filters only appear while their seasonal event is running. Craft them now or wait a year.
Ancient & ruins
Ancient Pseudoscience recipes unlock at the Ancient Pseudoscience Station, deep in the ruins. It gates the most powerful Thulecite gear behind exploration that costs sanity, light and usually a friend.
Celestial & lunar
The Celestial and Brightsmithy filters come from the moon and the Lunar Island — late-game tech tied to the Return of Them story and the Rifts that followed.
Specialist crafts
Cartography, Critters, Mad Science, Offerings, Sculptures, Seasonings and Trinket Trove cover companions, decoration, cooking flavour and the oddities that don't fit anywhere else.
Every prototyping-impossible filter, at a glance
| Filter | How to unlock | What it contains |
|---|---|---|
| Special Event | Active seasonal event | A holding bucket for whichever event is live — Hallowed Nights candy, Year of the Hare gear, anniversary loot. |
| Cawnival Creation | Year of the Catcoon | Cawnival props, costumes and the Catcoon ball. Disappears the moment the Year ends. |
| Winter's Feast Cooking | Winter's Feast event | Festive Tree, Gingerbread Cookies, Sweet Potato Soufflé — recipes only the Feast Oven can produce. |
| Ancient Pseudoscience | Ancient Pseudoscience Station (deep in the ruins) | Thulecite armour, Thulecite Crowns, Magiluminescence, Construction Amulets — the strongest late-game gear, behind real exploration. |
| Celestial | Celestial Orb / Sanctum / Tribute | Moon Glass tools, Moon Caller Staff and the gear that channels the Celestial Champion fight. |
| Brightsmithy | Brightsmithy station (Lunar Island) | Brightshade armour, Spear and helm — counters the Rifts era's shadow incursions. |
| Cartography | Cartography Desk | Map scrolls, copies and exchangeable maps so a base can share exploration without re-walking the world. |
| Critters | Glommer / Moleworm Burrow / Beefalo Bell / specific drops | Companions like Critter Lureplant, Glomglom, Mossling, Vargling and the Junior Beefalo — raised, not crafted at a bench. |
| Mad Science | Mad Scientist Lab (event station) | Halloween potions, lab-coat outfits and unstable elixirs from the Hallowed Nights cauldron. |
| Offerings | Specific shrines (e.g. Year of the Pig King) | Trinkets given to a shrine that returns rewards tuned to the current Year-of-the event. |
| Sculptures | Potter's Wheel | Marble, Moon Rock and Sketched sculptures — the only crafting filter whose ‘recipe’ is a Sketch you must find in the world. |
| Seasonings | Spicer station (Warly content) | Garlic, Chili and Salt seasonings that buff existing Crock Pot dishes — only Warly's Spicer can apply them. |
| Trinket Trove | Antlion / Hermit Crab trades | Trinkets exchanged with the Antlion to stop sinkholes, or with the Hermit Crab for the long Pearl questline rewards. |
Plan ahead. Event filters disappear the day the event ends — if you want a Cawnival prop or the Year-of-the-Pig-King offering, you have to be there. Ruins, moon and shrine filters never expire, but they require you to reach the place that opens them.
What Unlocks What
Stations & Tiers
Every recipe in Don't Starve Together is gated by a station — a structure you stand next to to prototype the recipe. A higher-tier station in the same family always covers everything below it, so you only ever need the top one of each tree.
The two main trees
Almost every regular filter sits on either the science tree (Science Machine → Alchemy Engine) or the magic tree (Prestihatitator → Shadow Manipulator). Build the top of each and your daily crafting is fully covered.
The specialist branches
Some filters need their own dedicated structure: Cartography needs a Cartography Desk, Sculptures need a Potter's Wheel, Seasonings need Warly's Spicer, and the Celestial / Ancient / Brightsmithy filters each need their own end-game station found or built in a specific biome.
Every station, what it costs, what it covers
| Station | Cost / requirement | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Science Machine | Survivor / Wood / Refined materials (1 board, 4 rocks, 1 gold) | Unlocks tier-1 Tools, Weapons, Armour and a wide chunk of survival gear. Your single most important night-two structure. |
| Alchemy Engine | Boards, Cut Stone, Electrical Doodads — needs a nearby Science Machine to prototype | Tier-2 of nearly every regular filter. Once you have an Alchemy Engine you can ignore the Science Machine forever. |
| Prestihatitator | Top Hat, Boards, Rabbits — magic tier-1 | Entry-level Shadow Magic. Crafts the Top Hat, Bat Bat entry pieces and the Pan Flute. |
| Shadow Manipulator | Nightmare Fuel, Living Logs, Purple Gem — magic tier-2 | All higher-tier Shadow Magic: Night Armour, Dark Sword, Magiluminescence base recipes. |
| Celestial Orb / Altar / Sanctum | Moon Rock, Moon Glass, Pure Brilliance — tiered on the Lunar Island | All Celestial filter recipes — Moon Caller Staff, Glass Cutter, Star Caller's Staff at the higher tiers. |
| Ancient Pseudoscience Station | Found in the ruins (not crafted) | Every Ancient filter recipe. You can repair a broken one with Thulecite, but you cannot build a new one. |
| Think Tank | Boards, Cut Stone — built on land or on a boat | Seafaring filter recipes — boat parts, sails, masts. |
| Cartography Desk | Boards, Rope, Papyrus — Cartography filter | Copies, swaps and trades map data between survivors. |
| Potter's Wheel | Moon Rock, Boards — Sculptures filter | Sculpts marble, moon-rock and sketched statues from world Sketches. |
| Spicer | Warly-only structure — Seasonings filter | Applies Garlic / Chili / Salt seasonings to existing Crock Pot dishes. |
One station, many seats. Multiple survivors can prototype at the same Alchemy Engine simultaneously — it does not need to be next to you, just next to anyone learning the recipe. Drop one at every major base.
Now you know what to build
Crafting keeps you alive — but the bosses decide how far you get.
Face the mobs