–Wurt
A Tumbleweed is a form of flora found in the Reign of Giants DLC. They spawn from an invisible spawner in the Desert biome and can be found tumbling around, often in groups; they may also tumble from a Desert into nearby biomes. Catcoons can also spit up Tumbleweeds. When the player is near a Tumbleweed, it will make a musical sound.
The player can harvest a Tumbleweed to get 3 random items generated on the ground. If the generated item is a non-passive Mob, it will attack the player character. Each item is generated independently, therefore it is possible to get more than one of an item from a single Tumbleweed. Possible items include Gems and other previously non-renewable items, making them renewable. Food items gathered from Tumbleweed have full freshness.
Chess piece trinkets and sketches can drop only if each piece was unlocked in the world. Rook, Knight and Bishop trinkets are unlocked by reanimating each of the repaired Marble Sculptures. The Pawn and Queenly sketches are unlocked by mining their respective Marble Statues, while the Kingly sketch is unlocked by mining the Maxwell Statue.
The following table lists the items that can be generated when a Tumbleweed has been harvested:
| Drop Chance | Items |
|---|---|
| 40% |  
|
| 2% | 
|
| 1% |               
|
| 0.5% |  
|
| 0.33% |    
|
| 0.1% |       
|
| 0.1% (requires unlocking) |        ( , , )
|
| 0.04% | 
|
| 0.02% |    
|
| 0.01% |  
|
Tips
- It is recommended for players to have a weapon prepared when harvesting large amounts of Tumbleweeds as hostile Mobs can spawn on occasion.
- Tumbleweeds can catch on fire if they touch unprotected fires, or spontaneously during Summer like other flammable objects. Burning Tumbleweeds will continue to roll with the same speed, and can ignite anything they come in contact with. Players should make sure their bases or structures are protected by not creating unprotected fires (like Campfires) where Tumbleweeds can spawn. Protected fires, such as a Firepit will not ignite nearby flammable objects.
- As Tumbleweeds make Gears and Rare Gems renewable, living close to a desert may provide these items, although they still are extremely rare.
- However, rare Gems are also available by killing the Dragonfly in Don't Starve Together, as she drops at least 1 Gem of every type.
- If a player can manage to find the spawn point of the tumbleweeds, a player can build a "tumbleweed farm" by placing walls around the tumbleweed spawn point, thereby trapping the tumbleweeds so that the player can collect them.
- In the single player game, this can be done by using a placeable object as the spawner doesn't allow objects to be placed on top of it. In Don't Starve Together, this can only be done by creating enclosures randomly in the Desert. Rarely, Tumbleweeds will spawn onscreen, making it easy to locate their spawn point.
Trivia
- Tumbleweeds used to be a possible source of Fireflies. #103865 revision patch removed this functionality.
- The speed at which Tumbleweeds hop around is relative to the player's current movement speed. This can easily be seen if the player uses console commands to increase their speed.
- Although Tumbleweeds appear to be blown by wind, two nearby Tumbleweeds will not always be blown in the same direction.
- Musical sound made by the Tumbleweeds is reminiscent of piano tunes in Western movies.
- Tumbleweeds in real life are created when a part of a plant breaks off from its stem and rolls.
Bugs
- When running against a tumbleweed next to an edge of water the tumbleweed can be pushed off and start moving normally as if it was still on land.
- Webber's quote is the exact same as Wilson's.
