I decided to make this thread about character playstyles as I am interested to learn the different ways people play the characters in this game. Just post a list of the character/characters you play and how you play them. I'll start the discussion with my list:
Wilson - Focus mainly on resource gathering and food plus building. Will defer my stuff to others who are going into combat if they are better suited for it. While Wilson can fight I usually try to avoid going up against tough or large groups of enemies alone. I will shave his beard as soon as it gets big when not winter, otherwise I keep it during winter for insulation.
Willow - Focus on resources and building structures requiring charcoal plus exploration. Can also be good for farming beardlings due to Bernie. I have found he is a great decoy when alone as you have nobody to help fight off shadows. He can also be useful to just leave dropped at camp to help anyone else with low sanity. Her lighter is good for early night exploration for blue mushrooms. It also helps for longer expeditions due to the fact you can cook food with it and also obtain charcoal for fire fuel more easily.
Wolfgang - Focus on food gathering and combat. For managing Wolfgang's hunger I typically stay at normal form/halfish hunger at all times except for when mighty form is needed. I keep some amount of food on me usually in case I need the mighty form boost for a fight or hunt. Crockpot foods are the most useful for this usually. For sanity problems I tend to make taffy when possible along with cooked green mushrooms. During winter after a tam o shanter is acquired Wolfgang's sanity becomes hardly a problem at all. I usually keep armor and weapons on me for when fighting is needed. As Wolfgang I usually tank enemies with armor in mighty form which usually works out okay.
Wendy - Focus on resource gathering and combat with weaker enemies. Abigail is a great help for taking out enemies such as spiders and bees in groups, which is helpful for resource farming and obtaining bee boxes. Wendy is also useful for underground/night exploration due to her reduced sanity loss. With Wendy I find it best to avoid tougher combat unless in a group.
WX-78 - Focus on gathering, exploration and combat. I haven't played WX much, but when I do I find him useful for longer/underground exploration and combat due to his easier to manage hunger. It also makes for easier fight preparation as you worry less about food you need to bring. His downsides are more prominent in spring when the rain comes. If in a group with a WX and everyone is in agreement, by spring WX will get the eyebrella due to his damage from rain. Otherwise I have a combo of an umbrella and football helm to neutralize the rain. As for upgrading with gears I generally don't bother unless we have an abundance of gears or all the structures requiring gears have been built. This is because I put more importance in obtaining important structures over upgrading as ice boxes are very useful and flingomatics usually essential for summer. Also because gears are a limited resource.
Wickerbottom - Focus on gathering and resources. Due to her books Wickerbottom is great for farming both enemy drops and plant drops. This makes her very useful for building up a camp and quickly obtaining food. Her ability to craft science machine items from the get-go is also great for gathering resources early on and helping other players (shovel ftw). Her sanity and health can be problematic due to her inability to sleep in tents/lean-tos meaning she cannot take advantage of them. Instead sanity restoring clothes and foods are how I keep her sanity up. Healing foods and items are good for health as well.
Woodie - Focus on gathering logs resources and building. Due to Lucy it is easy for Woodie to gather many stacks of logs very fast. This is great for quick building and fire fuel, as well as allowing other players to focus on other things. It is easy enough for a single Woodie to manage the wood supply for a group as long as it is not too big. Of course you also have to be careful not to chop trees to fast in order to avoid werebeaver form. Werebeaver form is alright for smashing things, but otherwise is usually a disadvantage due to rapid sanity loss. On full moons I find it best to stick near a safe place or other players to help mitigate sanity problems.
Wes - Focus on gathering resources and camp building. Due to Wes being super op relatively weak when playing him I tend to stick close to camp or safe spots and focus mostly on gathering things and building up a camp. He can be used to farm nightmare fuel as blowing balloons makes for easy sanity loss, but I'd advise having armor and/or other players ready for help as well as something to quickly restore your sanity when needed. The balloons can also be of some use in choke points or camp entrances to distract enemies. I myself am not too great at playing Wes but I am aware others who use him a lot can be more versatile in how they use him.
Maxwell - Focus on exploration and resources. With his shadow copies Maxwell is a good pick for quick farming from trees and boulders for both himself and others. Though when entering combat I am careful to have a shadow guard or two and/or armor on hand as with his low health Maxwell can be more easily overwhelmed. I find his sanity buff useful for underground exploration if staying down there for long periods. There was an instance where I was next to a blue mushtree biome and managed to survive near exclusively off of cooked and raw blue mushrooms for health/sanity balance. However I am also careful not to venture into areas with many enemies, including the ruins.
Wigfrid - Focus on food gathering and combat. Playing Wigfrid was a fun experience for me as I was unused to playing a better suited combat character at the time. Her diet initially scared me off, but after discovering the usefulness of crockpots (I basically ignored them until I saw others use them a lot in DST... sue me.) it is easy to manage as long as you have a steady supply of meat and filler. Wigfrid is great in a group for taking down groups of enemies and fighting bosses. With a supply of gold she is also helpful in providing weapons and armor for other players to help take down bosses. She is also good in combination with a Webber as she can easily farm spider drops from a single tier 1/2 den. Tier 3 is more difficult but with others helping or careful fighting it is possible.
Webber - Focus on food gathering and weaker enemy combat. Webber is always good to have in a group due to his ability to plant a spider den from the start. I also use him for "spider wars" with allied spiders to quickly farm their drops. Allied spiders are also helpful for fighting/as decoys as long as you have monster meat handy. Speaking of monster meat, I do quite enjoy the lack of negative effects Webber gets from monster foods as I find it helpful for saving better foods for others. His beard is somewhat useful for winter and silk when silk is scarce. It can be a problem playing Webber however if your camp is situatied in a pig village or near pigs due to them aggroing on him. It is good to be near large groups of spiders as Webber for protection, though this doesn't really benefit other characters.
Winona - Focus on resource gathering, exploration and building. I enjoy playing Winona even if she is rather basic. Her speed can help gather resources faster and build up a camp. It is also helpful for nomadic playstyles when you keep on the move. Her tape isn't particularly special but can help quickly fix clothes if you haven't got sewing kits on expeditions. She is an all-rounder like Wilson and can do combat alright alone.
So, discuss! How do you guys play the DS/DST characters? You can talk about 1 character or multiple, including shipwrecked characters if you use the shipwrecked mod.