Guide:The Constant

The Constant is a secret world seed introduced in the 1.4.3 update. It borrows features from Don't Starve Together, including alternate shading, hunger and darkness mechanics, and slightly different world creation and drops.

Survival is difficult in the Constant, but this guide will help.

Hunger
This is the most challenging feature in this seed. Hunger begins as soon as you spawn, with the Peckish status lasting for five minutes while you search for food, followed by Hungry for another five minutes (which decreases defense, damage and melee speed), followed by Starving, which will kill you in less than a minute.

That means that you have about 11 minutes to find food after you spawn, or you will die.

Pre-Merchant
Your immediate needs may be satisfied by shaking trees (done by hitting them once with an axe). This will uncommonly drop a fruit item which will satisfy your hunger for 5 minutes. Any two fruit items can be combined with a Bottle at a Cooking Pot to produce Fruit Juice, which will last longer. Eating mushroom will reset your hunger back to 'peckish', with a 5 minute duration, in addition to healing you the standard 10 health points.

Another alternative, especially in easier worlds, is to kill several Eater of Souls or Crimson monsters, all of which drop Vertebra which can be crafted into Monster Lasagna at a cooking pot.

Unfortunately, you may die before reaching the point that you can craft a cooking pot. That's why finding the Merchant is essential.

The Merchant
The Merchant is the key to most food options. He arrives when you have at least in your possession (which can be obtained through killing slimes or breaking pots in surface caves). He significantly expands your food capabilities in three ways:
 * First, you can place him in the snow biome to sell Marshmallows for each, which can be cooked to form Cooked Marshmallows fairly cheaply.
 * Second, in any biome, you can purchase the Bug Net, which allows you to catch and cook critters at a cooking pot.
 * Third, the Bug Net allows you to catch bait for fishing.

Fishing
This is perhaps the simplest way to assuage your hunger, especially since most players will be fishing anyway for the Angler quests.

Most of the common fish you catch (especially Bass) can be crafted into Cooked Fish at a Cooking Pot. Higher-quality fish like Trout can be crafted at a workbench into Sashimi, while potion-quality fish like Specular Fish can be crafted into Seafood Dinner, a short-lasting but very powerful food that should be reserved for boss fights.

Bait can be easily found in the Jungle or by breaking rocks on the surface, releasing worms. Even before you find the Merchant, you can often find a Can of Worms in a Living Tree.

Travelling Merchant
The Traveling Merchant often sells high-quality food items, making it worth visiting him when he pops into town.

Halloween and Christmas
During Halloween, Pumpkins grow all over the ground, which can be crafted using just a Furnace to make Pumpkin Pie. This makes Halloween an excellent time to play the Constant seed.

Similarly, in Christmas enemies drop Presents which can contain a variety of food-based options.

Darkness
When in complete darkness, the player will be attacked for 50 damage at a time, resulting in a swift death. This can be alleviated on holding a torch as you walk or by placing numerous light-giving items. However, there are multiple problems with this, such as letting go to fight enemies. Darkness at night is much worse in this seed, too. There are a variety of options to deal with this.

Placed Torches
This will be your easiest option in the early game. However, Rain will put out Torches, Campfires and Tiki Torches eventually on the surface, which means you'll need to re-place them frequently. Crafted items made from rarer materials (like Lamps) will not be put out.

Shine Potions
Shine Potions are frequently found in surface chests, and are a great option for early cave exploration. They can be crafted by placing a Bottle on a Table and using the commonly-available Daybloom and Glowing Mushroom ingredients.

Armor and accessories
Several armor pieces and accessories will remove your need for light entirely:
 * The Mining Helmet can be purchased from the Merchant for or dropped from Undead Miners with a  chance.
 * The Jellyfish Necklace and its tinkers can provide light when in water, and drops from Jellyfish with a chance.
 * The Shadow Orb or Crimson Heart can provide dim light. However, they can occasionally fall behind, making them a risky choice.
 * Magiluminescence, crafted from 12 Demonite Bars or Crimtane Bars and 4 Topaz, is an excllent, permanent light source that is easily available after defeating the Eye of Cthulhu (and sometimes before). It also increases your movement speed and is one of the few accessories to stack with the Hermes Boots, making this a great accessory for exploration and boss fights.
 * The Creeper Egg or Fairy Bell, both available after defeating one of the Mechanical bosses (specifically The Twins for the Fairy Bell), are permanent, bright Light Pets that will solve your light problems for the rest of the game. Further light pets are available later on.

Spider Nests
These spawn on the surface in the Constant. Due to the high strength of the spiders, blocking them up is advised. They prove to be a strength in early Hardmode, as they make it easy to farm for spider-related summoning gear like the Spider Staff.

Enemy drops
Many special drops are more common in this seed. Farming enemies in the Crimson or the Corruption can get you a Tentacle Spike, a great early melee weapon that does lingering damage to enemies. Similarly, the Bat Bat drops more often from bats.

In Hardmode, you can fight Pigrons to get the Ham Bat with a very high drop chance. This is an excellent weapon for exploration (not so much for bosses).

Statues
Many statues will spawn on the surface in this seed, which is useful for those looking for item farms or specialized statues.