Cut Grass is the resource that decides whether your first night in Don’t Starve Together ends with a campfire or with something eating you in the dark. It comes from Grass Tufts, the shaggy yellow plants scattered across the surface world, and you can start collecting it within seconds of spawning in.
Quick answer: Walk up to a Grass Tuft and select “Pick Grass” (or press the spacebar) to receive 1 Cut Grass. Tufts are most common in Savanna and Grassland biomes and regrow three days after being picked.
Where Grass Tufts spawn
Grass Tufts are most abundant in Savanna and Grassland biomes, and you always spawn on a piece of Grassland, so there is usually a tuft within a short walk of your starting point. They also turn up scattered through forest and desert areas, and underground in a handful of cave biomes, most notably the Sunken Forest.
The map is the fastest way to find more once you have wandered a bit. Every tuft you walk past is recorded with its own small grass icon, so opening the map shows you clusters you have already discovered and which direction the next patch lies in. A dense field of those icons almost always means a Savanna worth stripping.
How to pick grass
Note: picking a tuft in Don’t Starve Together occasionally turns it into a live Grass Gekko instead of giving you grass. The Gekko runs off, and killing it drops Cut Grass, so nothing is really lost.
Regrowth timing and seasonal limits
A picked tuft needs three days to come back, and rain speeds that up. The seasons change the rules enough that it is worth knowing before you plan a base around a grass field.
| Condition | What happens to grass |
|---|---|
| Normal weather | Regrows three days after being picked |
| Rain | Regrowth time is shortened |
| Winter | Grass does not grow at all until the season ends |
| Summer | Tufts wither and cannot be picked for grass |
| Withered tuft, dug up | Yields 1 Cut Grass and no replantable tuft |
Withering is preventable. Applying fertilizer or building an Ice Flingomatic near your grass keeps the tufts alive through summer heat, which matters most if you have moved a whole field next to your camp.
Moving Grass Tufts to your base
Running to a Savanna every three days gets old fast. A Shovel or Regal Shovel digs up a tuft and gives you a Grass Tuft item, which stacks up to 10 and can be planted anywhere you like.
Transplanted tufts come back short and withered-looking, and they will not produce anything until you fertilize them. Manure collected from a Beefalo herd is the usual fix. After 20 harvests the tuft needs fertilizing again, so keep a stack of manure in a chest near your grass patch.
There are surfaces that reject grass entirely. You cannot plant tufts on Checkerboard, Wooden, Cobblestone or Carpeted flooring, or on Rocky, Sandy and Cave Rock turfs, unless the grass was already planted there before the turf went down. Lay your flooring after you have planted, not before.
One more base-planning detail: grass is flammable, and tightly packed clusters burn together. During heavy rain, lightning can set the whole patch alight, and a burned tuft leaves 1 Ash and nothing you can replant. A Lightning Rod near the field prevents that.
Other sources of Cut Grass
Tufts are the main supply, but they are not the only one. These alternatives are useful when a world has been picked clean or when you are far from a Savanna.
| Source | Notes |
|---|---|
| Tumbleweeds | Drop 3 Cut Grass at a 40 percent chance |
| Grass Gekkos | Spawn from picked tufts and drop Cut Grass when killed |
| Grass Gators | Drop Cut Grass on death |
| Great Tree Trunks | Yield Cut Grass among their resources |
| Ocean Debris | Can be salvaged for Cut Grass |
Grass is renewable in Don’t Starve Together. Endless and Wilderness modes handle it through Resource Renewal automatically, and in other modes you can switch on Basic Resources Regrowth in World Customization when creating the server. With regrowth off, every tuft you burn is gone permanently, which is why using tufts as fuel is a bad trade even though they burn for a long time.
How much Cut Grass you need on day one
Two items decide your first night, and both need grass. A Torch takes 2 Cut Grass and 2 Twigs. A Campfire takes 3 Cut Grass and 2 Logs. Skip the grass on day one and you have no way to make light unless you stumble onto fireflies.
| Recipe | Cut Grass | Also needs |
|---|---|---|
| Torch | 2 | 2 Twigs |
| Campfire | 3 | 2 Logs |
| Rope | 3 | Science Machine |
| Backpack | 4 | 4 Twigs, Science Machine |
| Trap | 6 | 2 Twigs |
| Straw Roll | 6 | 1 Rope, Science Machine |
| Grass Suit | 10 | 2 Twigs |
| Straw Hat | 12 | Science Machine |
Refining grass into Rope is what unlocks the more advanced recipes later, so grass never stops being useful. Cut Grass can also be fed to Beefalo, restoring a small amount of their health and hunger, which is handy if you plan on taming one.
The practical routine is simple: pick everything you pass on day one, dig up a dozen tufts once you craft a Shovel, and plant them next to your fire pit with a supply of manure nearby. After that, grass stops being something you go looking for.
