Klei Entertainment's 2013 game Don't Starve has seen many DLCs over the years, but none so punishingly brutal as Hamlet. From the shift in mechanics to even the seasons, this particular DLC is so tough that it gives you a warning before starting a game using it. Yes, you can buy a house, but that's really the only concession it gives.
However, what truly makes Hamlet devastating is a hidden season that is guaranteed to end your run even if you are prepared: the Aporkalypse. While it lasts for twenty days after it first occurs, the first instance lasts forever unless the player does something about it. However, the game gives no indication on what to do or even hints that ending the Aporkalypse is on the player.
The first Aporkalypse occurs on Day 61, with the pigs giving you warning of its approach starting about a week in advance. Once it hits, it is perpetually a red-tinted night, with waves of Vampire Bats every day, shadow monsters spawning everywhere and literally everything trying to kill you. Since ending it the first time requires the player to end it, it's not something you can wait out. To end it, you have to find the Aporkalypse Calendar, which requires you finding a specific ruin in the Gas Rainforest, progress through it to a new location, then find a similar ruin in that new location. This information is not presented in-game--you have to go to the wiki to learn this.
With this in mind, there are several things you can do to prepare. Since you need to delve into a poisonous biome to find the ruins, you need a Gas Mask, which you'll need anyway because the Aporkalypse starts in the middle of Lush season with Hay Fever running high. You'll also need a Cowl to see deep within the ruins--which you should have from the Humid season. But in addition, you'll need the means to work through these ruins, which means being able to disarm the traps inside. For that, you'll need Disarming Tools, which can be crafted using Iron Ore and Reeds. You'll also want plenty of rocks to disarm the pressure plates you may encounter.
You'll also need protection since everything is hostile during this time. Any sort of helmet is questionable, as that slot is better used with Cowls and Gas Masks, but a Football Helmet or Mant Mask would be good to swap back and forth in case of dire need. Wearing any sort of body armor will necessitate leaving the Backpack in the Slanty Shanty, so be prepared for anything you need to fit in your usual inventory. Your best bet is a Weevole Mantle, as it offers the most protection and you'll have likely found the supplies needed for it by this time since Weevoles and Mants are hostile to other mobs. Weaponry is important too; Spears are easy to craft, but if you've gotten far enough along to have a Smelter handy, a Halberd does more damage. You'll also be wanting your usual tools as well, or at least the means to craft them. Antidotes--which you can buy in Swinesbury--and torches are a good idea as well.
Getting a stack of food ready is a good idea as well, as you'll be doing some exploring and relying on finding food on the way is spotty since you'll be spending most of your time running. Sanity management can best be described as being bottomed out most of the time--the Aporkalypse is counted as nighttime, which means sanity drain and hostile mobs that spawn and chase after you also drain your sanity. Once your sanity gets low enough, shadow creatures will spawn and chase you and lower your sanity even further--basically, expect it to be sitting at zero, even if you do pick a ton of flowers.
Will this get you through the Aporkalypse? It'll give you a fighting chance, at least. The Aporkalypse is fiendishly difficult, and the means to end it so convoluted that whoever found it first either did so by accident or data-mining. Most likely, you'll die several times to this mechanic, but if you survive, you'll find yourself in an upper echelon that most Don't Starve players only dream of.
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