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Characters collects what the studio has actually shown about the survivors of Don't Starve Elsewhere. Four familiar survivors appear across the official reveal materials, but Klei Entertainment has not published a playable roster, so an appearance in the trailer or a reveal still is not the same thing as a confirmed playable character. This page keeps those two ideas apart. For the wider picture see the Overview and the Getting Started guide.
Survivors Shown in Official Materials
The world premiere trailer and the studio's own reveal stills feature four survivors from earlier entries in the series. Klei labels each of its own press screenshots with the survivors it contains, which is the firmest confirmation available that these particular survivors appear in this game rather than only in franchise marketing. Those labels match the table below exactly: Wilson in five stills, WX-78 in two, Willow in two, Wendy in one, and nobody else in any of them.
Survivor | Where Shown | What Can Be Said |
|---|---|---|
Wilson | Announcement trailer and five reveal stills | The most frequently shown survivor. Appears alone in a wide landscape shot, fighting a large floating creature, being knocked off a cliff edge, crossing the stone ruins, and digging clams on a shoreline. |
WX-78 | Announcement trailer and two reveal stills | Shown running with Wilson past the carved figures in the ruins, and gathering clams with Wilson and Willow on the shore. |
Willow | Announcement trailer and two reveal stills | Shown in a burning conifer forest with Wendy, and on the shoreline with Wilson and WX-78. |
Wendy | Announcement trailer and one reveal still | Shown with Willow in the burning forest still. The least-shown of the four. |
No other survivor has been shown in any official material. The studio has released exactly one trailer and a small set of reveal stills, and every survivor visible across them is one of the four above. Expansion-era and later-added survivors from earlier entries are absent from all of it.
Appearing Is Not the Same as Playable
Klei has not published a character roster, a character count, or a statement that any of these four is playable. A survivor can appear in marketing for a number of reasons that fall short of a roster confirmation, and the studio has been explicit that it is not ready to say more about the game. Treat the four names above as confirmed to appear, and the playable lineup as unannounced.
The same caution applies in the other direction. The absence of a survivor from the reveal materials is not a statement that they have been cut, because the reveal covers a very small slice of the game.
Two Survivors in the Cliff Still
The snowy cliff still is the one place where the studio's label and the picture describe different survivors, so it is worth setting out plainly. Klei's label for the shot is about Wilson being knocked off the cliff, and Wilson is indeed there, face down in the snow at the bottom of the drop with one of his lines on screen above him.
A second survivor is also in the frame, at the top of the same drop, coming down off the ledge under an open parasol. She is fair-haired, with a red ribbon and a red bow at the collar, and the same survivor appears again in the burning forest still, which Klei labels as Wendy and Willow. She is therefore one of the four above rather than a fifth face, but the studio has not said which, and this wiki will not guess. The fall itself is covered on 3D Movement.
Character Design and Art Direction
The survivors are redesigned for this game rather than carried across unchanged. The studio has said that it deliberately chose, early in development, not to let compatibility with the earlier co-op game's cosmetics constrain how these characters were designed, describing this as a new game whose character design should not be limited by that. The visual result is visible in the reveal stills, and it is more restrained than a redesign usually implies: the survivors are still drawn as flat, hand-drawn figures in the studio's established style, and each one is immediately recognisable. What has changed is around them rather than in them. They are shown climbing, falling, swimming and standing on terrain that has real height to it, which is a different thing to ask of a character than walking across a flat plane. That change is covered on the 3D Movement page.
Cosmetics Carried Over From the Earlier Co-Op Game
Whether cosmetics bought in the earlier co-op entry can be used here is unresolved rather than ruled out. In an April 16, 2026 studio post, Klei said it does not have a direct answer yet, that it would like players to be able to use the cosmetics they already own, and that it has kept the problem in mind even though it chose not to let compatibility drive character design. Nothing has been committed to since. For the wider relationship between the two games see Multiplayer and the studio profile at Klei Entertainment.
Characters and the Survival Loop
Nothing has been published about per-character perks, downsides, starting items, crafting exclusives, or progression trees, so there is currently no basis for comparing the four survivors mechanically. What is known is that the shared survival rules apply to everyone: hunger and sanity press on each survivor individually, and the three ways a run ends are falling from height, lingering in the Fog System, and starvation. Those are covered in Survival Basics. In co-op, each survivor carries their own meters while food, tools and structures can be shared across the group.
Characters From Earlier Entries
The studio describes this as a strange and unforgiving new world with its own biomes, creatures, items and story, and has not said that the wider cast of earlier entries carries over. Lists of returning characters circulating ahead of launch are not sourced to the studio, and this wiki does not carry them. Where earlier-entry characters are discussed here, it is as context for what this game has actually shown, never as a confirmed lineup. The same rule governs the Creatures and Wildlife page.
What Has Not Been Confirmed
Treat everything below as open until the studio publishes details.
Whether any of the four survivors shown is playable, and the size of the playable roster.
Whether any new original character has been created for this game.
Per-character perks, downsides, starting loadouts, and exclusive recipes.
Skill trees, unlock conditions, or any character progression system.
Character selection rules in co-op, including whether two players can pick the same survivor.
Voice work, character audio, and whether any survivor speaks.
Whether cosmetics from the earlier co-op entry will be usable, and in what form.
Any story role, relationship, or arc for the survivors in this game's setting.
Which of the four survivors is the fair-haired one shown with the parasol on the cliff and in the burning forest.
This page will grow as the studio publishes character details. Until then, anything not listed in the table above should be treated as unconfirmed. Platform and timing questions are tracked on Platforms and Release.