Don’t Starve Together: How to Get Silk

Silk is the fabric that holds a Don’t Starve Together run together. It goes into the Fishing Rod, the Bug Net, the Bird Trap, the Top Hat, the Tent, the Piggyback, and most of the warm clothing you will need before winter arrives. All of it comes out of spiders, and the fastest supply is the nest itself rather than the bugs crawling around it.

Quick answer: Break Spider Dens with a weapon. A small den drops 2 Silk, a medium one 4, and a large one 6, every time. Killing individual spiders adds 1 Silk roughly 25 percent of the time.

Destroy a Spider Den for guaranteed Silk

Smashing a den is the only Silk source that never rolls a dice. Everything else is a percentage.

Open your map and look for spider nest icons. They cluster in forests and swamps on the surface, and the same icons mark the tier of each nest, from tier 1 up to tier 3.

The auto-paused world map showing explored terrain and the player marker in the southeast — The map auto-pauses while it is open, so you can scan the explored area for nest icons at your own pace. Image: Klei Entertainment

Walk up to the webbed ground around the nest. Stepping onto the sticky turf is what wakes the spiders and pulls them out of the den, so treat it as the trigger line rather than an accident.

Kill the spiders that come out. Each hit briefly stuns a spider, so one on one you can chain attacks and take no damage at all. Bring a Log Suit and a Spear if you are clearing a tier 3 nest, because the spawns come in numbers.

The Attack Spider action highlighted on a spider that has left its nest — Selecting Attack Spider on a lone spider that has emerged from the den. Dead spiders also leave Monster Meat and Spider Glands. Image: Klei Entertainment

Attack the Spider Den itself. Target the mound directly and keep hitting it until the structure collapses. More spiders will emerge while you work, so clear them as they appear.

The Attack Spider Den option selected on the nest mound in the game world — Attack Spider Den is the action that matters. Hitting the nest, not the spiders, is what produces the bulk Silk drop. Image: Klei Entertainment

Pick up the loot on the ground. You will know the den is fully destroyed when the mound vanishes and the Silk lands as loose items you can click to collect. A tier 3 nest also drops Spider Eggs alongside the Silk.

Silk lying on the ground where the destroyed Spider Den used to be — Two pieces of Silk left behind by a destroyed small den, ready to pick up. Image: Klei Entertainment

Do not burn a den. Fire destroys it, but every drop turns into Ashes, so you lose the Silk entirely.

Silk drop rates by source

Silk stacks up to 40 per slot, which is worth remembering before you clear a whole cluster of nests. Here is what each source actually pays out.

Source	Silk	Chance
Spider, Spider Warrior, Cave Spider, Spitter, Dangling Depth Dweller	1	25%
Spider Den (small / medium / large)	2 / 4 / 6	100%
Spider Queen	4	100%
Shattered Spider Hole	1 / 2	100%
Sea Strider Nest	1	100%
Webbed Blue Mushtree	1–3	30%
Spilagmite	1	25%
Webber’s Silky Beard	1 / 3 / 6	100%
Tumbleweed	1	1%
Relic Chair	1	1%

The Spider Queen is the one entry that is not worth farming for Silk alone. She pays 4 Silk and a Spiderhat, which is a thin reward for a boss fight when three large dens give you 18 Silk for far less risk.

Farm spiders safely with Traps

If you would rather not trade hits, Traps do the work for free. A Trap costs 2 Twigs and 6 Cut Grass, and spiders make no effort to avoid them. Lay a line of Traps just outside the webbed turf, spacing them out so a single spider does not set off two at once.

Then step onto the web, let the spiders chase you, and run back across your Trap line. Caught spiders die the moment you pick the Trap up, leaving their Silk, Monster Meat, and Spider Glands on the ground. The same trick works underground on Spilagmites and on webbed Blue Mushtrees full of Dangling Depth Dwellers.

A spider being pulled off the webbed ground toward a line of traps — Luring spiders off their webbed turf and into a prepared Trap line avoids taking any damage. Image: Klei Entertainment

Traps wear out after a few uses, so carry armor as a backup for when the line stops catching.

Set up a renewable Silk supply near base

Destroying a large den gives you Spider Eggs, and those eggs can be planted wherever you want. Drop one near your base and you have a nest that keeps producing spiders, which means Silk on demand instead of a long walk every time you need a hat.

Planting near a large Pig Village turns the farm into a hands-off operation. The Pigs kill the spiders, leave the Silk lying on the ground for you, and ignore the den itself. Bunnymen and Winona’s catapults fill the same role, and Webber can handle spiders directly without them turning hostile.

Knock a den back down once it reaches large. Every large den has a chance of growing into a Spider Queen after 12.5 days, and it drops Spider Eggs at any point along the way.

Silk sources that do not involve fighting

None of these will keep up with a den, but they add up while you are doing something else.

Tumbleweeds occasionally contain a piece of Silk, at a 1 percent rate.
Befriended Catcoons sometimes bring Silk back as a gift.
Smashing Relic Chairs in the Ruins has a small chance of turning up Silk.
Webber can shave his Silky Beard for 1, 3, or 6 Silk depending on how long he has let it grow.

What to craft with Silk

Item	Silk	Other materials	Station
Boomerang	1	1 Boards, 1 Charcoal	Alchemy Engine
Fishing Rod	2	2 Twigs	Science Machine
Bug Net	2	4 Twigs, 1 Rope	Science Machine
Umbrella	2	1 Pig Skin, 6 Twigs	Science Machine
Bird Trap	4	3 Twigs	Science Machine
Winter Hat	4	4 Beefalo Wool	Alchemy Engine
Top Hat	6	—	Science Machine
Tent	6	3 Rope, 4 Twigs	Alchemy Engine
Piggyback	6	4 Pig Skin, 2 Rope	Alchemy Engine
Beekeeper Hat	8	1 Rope	Alchemy Engine
Sewing Kit	8	1 Log, 2 Hound’s Tooth	Alchemy Engine

The Top Hat restores sanity and also prototypes the Prestihatitator, so it is usually the first six-Silk purchase worth making. The Piggyback is the other big one, adding twelve inventory slots in exchange for a 10 percent speed penalty. Warm clothing eats Silk quickly too, with the Puffy Vest alone asking for eight pieces on top of a Winter Koalefant Trunk.

Character-specific recipes shift the math further. Webber turns 12 Silk, 4 Spider Glands, and 3 Papyrus into Spider Eggs, Willow needs 2 Silk for Bernie, Walter spends 1 on the Pinetree Pioneer Hat and 2 on a Silk slingshot handle, and Winona’s Trusty Tape costs 1 Silk with 3 Cut Grass. Plan on a standing den near base if you are playing any of them.