In DST, Maxwell's Sanity increases by 6.75 
/min. He starts the game with 6 Nightmare Fuel and a Codex Umbra. He can also craft Magician's Top Hat and Magician's Chest, both of which, alongside Shadow Chester, share the same storage of 12 items (4 by 3) so that if you put a rabbit into Shadow Chester, you can pull it out of the hat or chest (or vice-versa). Note that there are two separate shadow storage areas: one for the Surface and one for the Caves.
Maxwell does not suffer sanity drain from shadow items - Dark Sword, Night Armor, Dreadstone Armor, Dreadstone Helm, Magician's Top Hat.
Magic[]
With the Codex Umbra, Maxwell is able to summon Shadow Servants and Duelists, Shadow Sneak, and Shadow Prison. Each cast that summons a shadow servant or duelist costs him 15% of his maximum sanity and 5% durability of Codex Umbra. Codex Umbra can be refueled with Nightmare Fuel for 25% power per fuel used.
Shadow Servants can harvest trees, rocks, dig graves, and give items to the player from their one slot inventory from items on the ground or harvested from plants, and if the player can't hold the item the shadow servant tries to give, then it drops it on the ground near the player.
Shadow Duelists will fight enemies, dealing 20-60 damage depending on the equipment the player is wearing. They also teleport like Shadow Creatures when taking damage. When first approaching an enemy, they will dash for an extra 20-30 damage (based on the damage increase from certain equipment), before teleporting away. After the dash, they will then run up to the target and hit them once before blocking for about 3 seconds. During which, the shadow takes less damage up to 15 from a Treeguard, (unknown damage % reduction, as of yet) total damage taken, based on how long the shadow has blocked (the less time they've blocked, the less damage they take). After the block finishes, then the shadow strikes again and the process repeats.
Shadow Sneak can transform Rabbits, Bunnymen, and Splumonkeys into their Nightmare variants regardless of Sanity, and cause about 15 seconds of fear, like from fire or Wigfrid's songs, during which you can freely hit the enemy without fear of getting hit. This has no effect on bosses and mini bosses, such as Deerclops and Treeguards.
Shadow Prison can be used to trap enemies in place in the area shown, trapping all creatures in the area in shadowy prisons, including bosses. The duration of Shadow Prison is reduced for larger creatures and will trigger aggro to Maxwell.
Shadow Tiers[]
Maxwell's Shadow Duelists will get boosted damage based on the equipment worn/held which is split into 4 tiers of damage buffs.
| Tier | Items | Damage Boost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |                 
|
+4 |
|
| 2 |           
|
+8 |
|
| 3 |      
|
+12 | |
| 4 | 
|
+16 |
|
Tips[]
- Summoning multiple Puppets to reduce the maximum Sanity is a good way to get Maxwell to stay almost insane for long periods of time, which is not easily obtained normally due to his Sanity regain buff.
- Going insane during Daylight and killing Shadow Creatures for Nightmare Fuel is a good way to keep his Puppets up 24/7 during the early days of the game. Killing Beardlings is also an option but Nightmare Fuel from them is not always guaranteed, unless Maxwell has used Shadow Sneak on them.
- Since Maxwell has a natural regeneration of Sanity, players are recommended to do sanity-consuming things that other players would suffer from. For example: picking Evil Flowers, using Magic and Ancient Items, or eating sanity draining Food.
- Sanity regenerating items such as the Tam o' Shanter, Tent, Taffy etc. are unnecessary for Maxwell. This allows him to wear armor such as the Football Helmet while still rapidly regaining Sanity. This also makes exploring during the Night or in Caves and Ruins ideal as the Sanity drain from darkness is negated.
- While Shadow Puppets are great against weaker foes, fighting stronger Mobs will result in their death unless they're helped by Maxwell. Great support weapons are the Ice Staff and Fire Staff. The Ice Staff can be used to stun enemies before they land a hit on the Puppets, preventing them from taking damage. The Fire Staff can stun mobs for longer while also damaging them but comes at the cost of possibly burning the dropped loot upon the enemy's death.
- By using Shadow Prison, and quickly afterwards Shadow Sneak on a group of Splumonkeys or Shadow Splumonkeys and then killing them, Maxwell can obtain heaps of Nightmare Fuel, since Shadow Sneak will guarantee one to drop from each.
- Late game, players can collect Nightmare Fuel in mass amounts by staying in the Ruins during the Nightmare Cycle. Shadow Creatures can drop stacks worth of fuel for the player to collect once the cycle reaches its calm state.
- Otherwise dropping some captured bees near some Evil Flowers will spawn more of the latter which then can be used to craft Nightmare Fuel.
- Due to the low maximum Health and the cost of the Codex Umbra it is advised to only rely on Life Giving Amulets to revive from death instead of Meat Effigies as the latter will leave him at only 45 maximum Health. This means that Beard Hair is largely useless to Maxwell.
- In DLCs, thanks to his Sanity regeneration, Maxwell will not lose Sanity even with 100 Wetness while holding wet Items.
| Characters | |
| Don't Starve |           |
| Reign of Giants |   |
| Shipwrecked |     |
| Hamlet |    |
| Don't Starve Together |       |
| Removed |  |
| Unimplemented |        |
| Other |        Minor Characters |