Donât Starve character age masterpost
The big-head-small-body art style makes it difficult to tell how old a character is beyond âwould they get a seniorsâ discount or notâ, some canonically adult characters act quite childish, and Klei stopped setting specific ages for characters after the first three, but there are some clues nevertheless rather than pure fanon.
Sorry about it being a million miles long; press J to skip on desktop, and on mobile you may want to stop now and go add âdash stretcherâ to your blacklist.
Consistently described as 30s or early 30s, from the very beginning. (Old Q&A, old Facebook post archived via screenshot - the original Tumblr post is from 2014, the Facebook post might be a bit older)
Can grow a full, long, hairy, magnificent beard, although he doesnât start with it. (This might be why the Yilson skin never got off the ground.)
Has been to grad school (and didnât enjoy it much). A Tumblr user whoâs changed their name at least three times since posting this copied his old journal entries off a previous iteration of Kleiâs website.
Word of Klei shifted a bit in the early years; she was described as âmaybe late teensâ in the earliest Q&A (in an old dev stream, partially transcribed on the old Klei forums; I found this on the wiki but I had some trouble opening the spoiler tags in the archive site they used for the citation) and then bumped up to early 20s in a later answer.
From the Ashes is a flashback, and not a recent one. Compare child-Willowâs face (right side) with her other recent cinematic appearances (left side); child Willow is never rendered with the long chin often seen on adult Willow, although sometimes adult Willow is shown with about the same distance between mouth and chin as her childhood self.
On the character selection/curio cabinet screen, sheâs described as âa candid woman whose penchant for fire often gets her into more than a little troubleâ.
The very earliest Word of Klei said he was âabout 40sâ. They changed Willowâs age a little since then so thatâs not ironclad, but Wolfgang is probably still older than Wilson and younger than Maxwell.
Described on the character selection/curio cabinet screen as âa morose young lady with a sisterly bond so powerful, it transcends death itselfâ.
Word of Klei is that sheâs younger than Wigfrid, the context of this being that as of 2015 they only differentiate between children and adults in terms of age.
Referred to as âlittle buddyâ by Woodie, âMademoiselle %sâ by Warly (the only other one he calls mademoiselle is, oddly enough, Lucy the axe), and âscary Wendy girlâ (or, when sheâs attacked somebody, âcreepy girlâ) by Wolfgang, who calls Willow, Wigfrid, and Wickerbottom âtorchladyâ, âstrongladyâ and âbrainladyâ in addition to their names.
The flavor text for her Hallowed Nights 2018 costume is âa dress for a supernatural childâ, and her Snowfallen set is called the Snowchild.
On the one hand, sheâs the same height as Willow, Wilson, or Wickerbottom in the Forge trailer, whereas Wigfrid looks slightly shorter and Wolfgang is much taller. On the other hand, a) Wolfgang calls her âvery tiny %sâ instead of just âtiny %sâ, and b) I was 5âČ5âł by the time I was 13, myself.
While this is circumstantial evidence and wouldnât be very compelling on its own, it rounds off everything else that her large eyes, round head and small nose make her character design one of the youngest-looking. The only other character who has all three is pre-Constant Charlie, although Wormwood has similarly large eyes and no nose, Willow has the same big eyes but has a longer face shape and nose, and Wigfrid has a similar nose and face shape but her eyes take up a much smaller portion of her face.
How should I know? Robots donât age the way humans do. They were probably an adult in terms of cognitive development the day they were brought online, but I couldnât begin to guess whether they were operating for 20 years, 2 years, or 2 days before coming to the Constant.
Obviously sheâs got wrinkles and a bony face; sheâd get the seniorsâ discount.
Warly calls her âMme. Wickerbottom/Mme. %sâ, the abbreviation for Madame. Woodie calls her âmaâamâ.
Her quote for failing to cook is âPerhaps later. Not all old ladies enjoy cooking, you know.â Similarly, one of her encumbered quotes is âIâm more spry than I look!â and her quote for the moon hot springs is âMy old feet could use a good soak.â
Talks to and about everyone like theyâre very young (for instance, calling Maxwell a âsweet boy when you peel away the egoâ), so her quotes donât really indicate whether anyone else is younger than the rest of the group, but they do point to her seeing herself as considerably older than the other DST survivors, and as mentioned she refers to herself straight-up as old/an old lady.
Has a big beavery beard and prominent cheekbones, is a fully fledged lumberjack, acts like a dad to Webber and Wendy (calling them âkiddoâ and âlittle buddyâ, promising Wendy a piggyback ride on the werebeaver)
Wolfgang calls Wes âtiny oddmanâ, âclownmanâ and, after he revives someone, ânice, weird little manâ. Woodie calls him âbuddyâ. Heâs the only human man who doesnât have facial hair in any skin, but he does appear to be a grown man. His facial structure supports this, since he has a longish nose and a fairly large chin.
Wrinkly, balding, has a big nose and chin, even more exaggeratedly so in his NPC form and official art from before the Allâs Well That Maxwell update. Gets defensive about his age when presented with dentures. Complains about his teeth getting too old to eat jerky. His quote for Volt Goat Chaud-Froid is âJust because Iâm old doesnât mean I like gelatin.â He looks middle-aged rather than elderly, but heâs certainly not a young man, except in the Untriumphant skin.
He looked about the same as he does now when he was a popular stage magician, at least agewise (canât speak for things like his Survivor skin having a mouthful of fangs).
Older than Wendy by Word of Klei.
Spent many years training herself to be strong, courageous, and confident, possibly for the role of Wigfrid the Valkyrie specifically.
The Steam page for singleplayer Reign of Giants characterises him as âa young boy who lives inside the spider who tried to eat him long agoâ.
Heâs described on the character selection page as âa polite young monsterâ.
In his Victorian skin, heâs described as âthis lively young ladâ, and the individual pieces are âSchoolboy Xâ.
Woodie calls him âkiddoâ and âthe kidâ, as does Winona; Wolfgang calls him âmonsterchildâ (tiny or otherwise), âsmall bug boyâ, âtiny childâ, and ânice kidâ (in the same sentence as âcreepy monsterâ, admittedly), WX-78 addresses him as âSPIDER CHILDâ when taunting him with gummi spiders, Wigfrid also addresses him as âspiderchild %sâ by default, Warly calls him âpetit monsieurâ, and Maxwell calls him âthis childâ to his face when heâs revived someone and âthe monster childâ when heâs talking about Webber getting tangled in a ball of twine.
He mentions his family a lot, particularly his mom, his dad and his grandpa.
His character design alone doesnât give anything away since he looks like a spider atop a bipedal body and he grows a silk beard, but pretty much every description of him by other characters or narration points to him being a kid.
Seems to have been gainfully employed in the past, in some sort of naval capacity, based on her quotes for Gunpowder Barrels (âHmm, was I in charge of keeping these stowed?â) and the Captain Hat (âIf only the boss could see me now.â). Puzzlingly enough she also says Deerclops eyeballs remind her of her boss. Thatâs about all Iâve got to go on.
Has a beard. Has very sharp cheekbones, especially on his DST sprite. Has childhood photos on the walls of his house/his motherâs house in his cinematic. Has very light-coloured hair that many fans have interpreted as grey or greying, though in Taste of Home itâs just brown. Old enough to be a knowledgeable and successful chef, which doesnât usually happen overnight.
He appears to be a full-grown ape, but different monkeys and apes have different ages of maturity, so how many actual years old he is would be a wildly varying estimate depending on what species he is/most closely resembles, what with his chimp-like face and New-World-monkey-style tail. Chimpanzees reach adulthood at 13-14 years, whereas capuchins are adults at 4-8 years and spider monkeys at 4-5 years.
Has completely white hair and a huge white beard. Iâm not sure exactly how much of his wizened look comes from the passage of time and how much comes from living in harsh conditions as a pirate (wind, sun, and sea spray in his face all the time, bad food, poor sanitation, fighting a lot and not always winning, etc; the same conditions that led to him losing both legs and several teeth), but heâs one of the oldest-looking characters of all.
Charlie is suggested to be her younger sister (Winona says being followed by a meeping mandrake is âexactly what having a little sisterâs likeâ), but they donât look like theyâre in totally different age groups in the photo shown in Next of Kin, so Winonaâs probably 2-5 years older. Or was, originally; Charlie may or may not have aged as the Night Monster after 1906 but Winona wasnât taken to the Constant until 1919.
That extra 13 years suggests that Winona is in her late thirties or her forties as of her arrival in the Constant, depending on how far apart in age they are exactly and how old Charlie was (somewhere in her twenties, probably) when she disappeared. She doesnât look like sheâs all the way into middle age, though, so sheâs probably more like Wolfgangâs age than Maxwellâs.
Still under Queen Malfalfaâs charge (Wilbaâs introduced after being grounded for irresponsibly losing the crown), so probably a child or adolescent pig-person. As with the other nonhumans her numerical age is hard to guess. Were she human Iâd say preteen to early teens, since once sheâs ungrounded her parents let her do what she wants and go wherever she wants.
Their cinematic shows the moment they first came to exist, but they begin blooming by the end of their first day of life, and in real life only fully grown plants sprout flowers (what with flowers being plantsâ means of reproduction), so like WX they were presumably physically/neurodevelopmentally adult from the moment they hit the ground. They do however act very enthusiastic, innocent, and naĂŻve. Itâs frankly impossible to tell how long ago the cinematic was; they look and act exactly the same in-game, but could have lived through an indefinite number of years in the Constant before becoming playable.
Wolfgang calls him âleafy green manâ and Woodie calls him âbudding budâ, so I guess he must not look that much like a child in DST at least. Warly calls a reviver Wormwood âa kind little vegâ. (He also refers to Wormwood as his âsalady friendâ on another occasion, which is irrelevant but adorable.)
Has extensive experience travelling the world by air (in balloons mostly), apparently by herself. She never mentions her parents at all, though she does mention her grandma a few times.
Her dusk quote is âGetting dark. But I can stay up past my bedtime.â However this is probably her being playful, rather than literal.
Her quote for hungry teenbirds is âTeenagers. Always hungry.â That suggests that she isnât one herself, but has known and/or been some.
Has grey hair, wrinkles, stomach problems, and terrible eyesight (though you donât have to be old for that last part). Founded a radio company. Nostalgically recounts how he made a lot of money selling snake oil in his youth, as if it were quite some time ago.
His Uncorrupted skin items are referred to as âForest Fawn Xâ, so between that and his status as apprentice to Krampus, he must be fairly young in his cinematic.
However, thatâs also the first time he ever took somebodyâs soul, whereas in-game heâs used to it (ambivalent over whether to be okay with it, but accustomed to the process), so Iâm guessing it was years ago for him. His character selection screen description says heâs taken many souls in his time.
Oddly enough the survivors seem exactly the same as they are now when young Wortox bothers Wilson and Wes, but Wortox is native to another plane of existence, so time might run differently between there and the Constant.
Wolfgang calls him âscary horn manâ, and heâs âbuddyâ to Woodie like most characters.
Seems to be an adult at the time of the William Carter Puzzles. My guess is that sheâs meant to be in her twenties, although I couldnât say whether thatâs early, late, or mid twenties. (Hypothetically she could be 18-19 in her earliest appearance - bearing in mind that the William Carter Puzzles span multiple years - or she could be in her early to mid thirties and happen to be big-eyed and babyfaced, at the other extreme.) As the Nightmare Queen she vaguely looks older in most shots, but itâs mostly because she has a more jaded and regal expression compared to her old wide-eyed look, and she looks about the same when she opens her eyes all the way to grin evilly in the Forge cinematic.
