Don’t Starve Together: How to Get Spider Gland from Spider Dens

Spider Glands come from one place in Don’t Starve Together, and that is a dead spider. There is no crafting recipe, no chest guarantee, and no shop for them. You find a Spider Den, make the spiders come out, and kill them until the drop rolls in your favor.

Quick answer: Walk close to a Spider Den so the spiders wake and emerge, kill them, and pick up the Spider Gland that appears on the ground next to the corpse.

Where to find a Spider Den

Spider Dens look like large white eggs sitting on the ground, wrapped in webbing, with sticky web patches spreading around the base. They are common and show up across most biomes, so you rarely need a dedicated expedition to find one. Forests and grasslands tend to have them early, and the surrounding webbed ground is usually visible before the den itself is.

Dens also appear on your map once you have explored the area, which makes them easy to return to. The map icon changes with the den’s tier, so a Tier 1 den and a Tier 3 den are distinguishable at a glance before you commit to the fight. Higher tiers hold more spiders and will send out a bigger group when disturbed.

World map view with the character standing near grass tufts and a rock while the game is auto-paused — Checking the world map for Spider Den icons before heading out. Image: Klei Entertainment

Note: Opening the map auto-pauses the game and shows “The game is auto-paused.” on screen, so you can scan for den icons safely even with spiders nearby.

The auto-paused message displayed over the world map screen — The auto-pause notice while the map is open. Image: Klei Entertainment

Detail	What to expect
Appearance	White egg-shaped mound covered in webbing
Biomes	Common across most biomes
Tiers	Multiple tiers, each with its own map icon
Trigger	Walking near the den spawns spiders
Gland source	Random drop from a killed spider

Pull the spiders out and kill them

Travel to the den and stop just outside the webbed ground. Proximity alone is enough to wake the nest, so you do not need to attack the den itself to start the fight.

Step onto the web patch so the spiders emerge. Hovering the den shows the “Attack Spider Den” and “Examine” prompts, which confirms you are close enough for the nest to react.

Spider Den highlighted in the world with the Attack Spider Den prompt shown — The Spider Den targeted, with the attack prompt available. Image: Klei Entertainment

Back away from the den as the spiders follow you. Fighting them a short distance from the nest stops fresh spiders from joining mid-fight and keeps the group small enough to handle.

Kill the spiders one at a time using the “Attack Spider” action. Spiders lunge in and back off, so hit them as they close in and step away between swings rather than standing still.

Player character swinging at spiders in the open after luring them away from the nest — Fighting the spiders away from the den keeps the group manageable. Image: Klei Entertainment

Collect the loot once the fight ends. Each dead spider leaves items on the ground, and any Spider Gland that rolled will be sitting there alongside the meat.

Gameplay screen with the character fighting beside a Pig House, HUD and inventory visible — Picking up the drops after the spiders are down. Image: Klei Entertainment

How to confirm you got the Spider Gland

Hover the dropped item and the ground prompt reads “Spider Gland”. Once it is in your inventory, the slot shows a “Heal” action when you interact with it, which is the item’s purpose. If you only see “Pick up Meat” prompts around the corpse, that spider dropped monster meat and no gland.

The gland is a random drop rather than a guaranteed one, so a single spider can die without leaving anything useful. That is normal. Clear several spiders in a row, or hit a higher-tier den that sends out more of them, and the glands accumulate quickly.

Getting glands as Webber without fighting spiders yourself

Webber is friendly with spiders, but the gland still only comes from a dead one. The direct route works fine, since Webber takes no sanity penalty for killing spiders. You can also pick up a sleeping spider and kill it from your inventory, which is the fastest way to harvest one without starting a nest-wide brawl.

The indirect route is to let something else do the killing. Send your spiders at mobs they cannot beat, such as tentacles, hounds, pigs, bunnymen, or treeguards, and gather the drops afterwards. Spider-on-spider fights work too, by keeping allied spiders around and provoking a hostile one so the groups turn on each other.

Tip: Planting a spider nest near your base and putting a few rabbit hutches beside it creates a self-running farm. The bunnymen and spiders fight on their own, and you walk over to collect silk, monster meat, and Spider Glands without swinging at anything.

Spider Glands are worth grabbing whenever you happen to pass a den, since they heal and cost you nothing beyond a short fight. Keep the nearest Tier 1 den marked on your map for casual top-ups, and save the larger nests for when you have a weapon and armor worth the risk.