Don't Starve Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Don't Starve Wiki

Hmmm. I wonder if these will burn.

Willow

Willow is the Second playable Character in Don't Starve that can be unlocked via Experience, when the player reaches 160 XP. She is also one of the playable Characters in Don't Starve Together (DST). She is a young woman who is obsessed with fire.

As part of the Don't Starve Together content updates, Willow received a character refresh on May 7, 2019.[1]

Minimap Maxwell's Door Origin

Willow always regarded being brought to The Constant as a new beginning. It allowed her to leave everything behind, after all.

–Official description of Willow's vignette from The Forge

Don't_Starve_Together_From_the_Ashes_Willow_Animated_Short

Don't Starve Together From the Ashes Willow Animated Short

Willow's backstory was revealed in an animated short titled From the Ashes. An official summary of the short was provided in DST's Compendium:

Willow always regarded being brought to The Constant as a new beginning. It allowed her to leave everything behind, after all. From a young age, Willow seemed to possess a knack for attracting bad luck. Orphaned at a young age and forced to live in a children's home with cruel caregivers, she soon found her nights plagued by shadowy visions of terrible creatures... creatures that could only be held at bay by her faithful teddy bear Bernie. But when Bernie was taken away as punishment for what her caregivers saw as unfit behavior, Willow was left to fend for herself when the shadows came for her. That's when she learned that nothing holds back the darkness like a roaring flame. Nothing is more comforting than watching your troubles light up and crumble to ash... It wouldn't be the last time Willow burned it all down to start anew.

Placeholder Trivia

In-Game

  • Willow was added to the original Don't Starve Chrome build on August 7, 2012.[2]
  • Willow's voice is played by a flute.
  • Willow has a skull in the game files.
  • Willow's previous perk, before the Strange New Powers update, was to light fires at her feet when in darkness, like she does when low on Sanity now.
  • When struck by Lightning in DLCs, Willow, like most other Characters, is shown to have bones in her hair. In addition to this, she has bones in her skirt.
  • Willow was the second Don't Starve Together character to have a character update, the first being Winona.
  • In Don't Starve Together, she has a unique idle animation in which she gives Bernie a hug. This only occurs when she has Bernie equipped in the hand slot.
  • She is seen holding Bernie in her icons.
  • Due to the short "Inevitable," Willow is one of the few characters to have received actual voice acting, along with Maxwell, Charlie, and Wilson.

Lore

  • Willow was originally stated to be around her late teens.[3] However, Klei later said that Willow is in her early 20's.[4]
  • According to her examinations of the Tent and the Siesta Lean-To, Willow was a Girl Scout, and she earned all of the patches.
    • According to her examination quote for the Pinetree Pioneer Hat, she wasn't actually in the organization, instead having "crashed" Girl Scouts.
  • According to her examination of Bacon and Eggs, she might be colourblind, either this or she was talking about real life eggs which have a yellow yolk rather than the eggs displayed on Bacon and Eggs, which appear blue.
  • Sometimes a message like this may appear during the loading screen in DST: "Nothing brings Willow more comfort than snuggling her faithful teddy bear Bernie, and committing a playful bit of arson."

Cultural References

  • Willow's nickname may be a reference to Firestarter, a novel by Stephen King. In addition to this, both Willow and Bernie could be a reference to an event in the story where main character Charlie, a young girl, first manifests her pyrokinesis by setting her teddy bear on fire after tripping over it.
  • Willow's Victorian skin set may be a reference to "The Little Match Girl", a short story by Hans Christian Andersen.
  • Willow's "The Woeful" skin set from Hallowed Nights 2018 seems to reference the legend of Lizzie Borden as well as Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family

References

  1. Forums Update: Willow Refresh Info and Roadmap Schedule Update Posted on April 26, 2019.
  2. All About Earliest Don't Starve Versions | First Game Builds | Release Notes. Posted on May 24, 2020.
  3. Archive of forum thread "What the Devs said during the live stream": "Wilson is around 30s, Willow is maybe late teens, Wolfgang is about 40s." March 11, 2013.
  4. Archived screenshot Klei Entertainment confirming Wilson and Willow's age on Facebook: "Wilson is in his early 30's. We never really established where Wilson is living or from but the "Gentleman Scientist" theme does kind of come from a "Proper English Gent" kind of personality. The story is 1920-ish. Willow is roughly in her early 20's." June 17, 2014.
Advertisement