Alternate source of steel wool?

[Uncrushed]

In my current game, I'm just spending day after day looking for the Ewecus.  You have to do this twice to get enough for a war saddle?  She often kills me when I fight her.  When I restart from the beginning, I can prioritize suspicious dirt piles, so maybe it's not as huge a deal as it feels like right now, but a second source of the stuff would be very welcome.

Ideas:

• Feeding a dust moth uncooked Amberosia makes them drop a steel wool?
• Maybe something to do with the clockwork pieces or gears?
• Tumbleweeds?
• Feeding a rock mole a gold and a nitrite might cause it to leave a steel wool in it's burrow the next day, but only in the caves?

[ShadowbirdRH]

They have a chance to drop from a Loot Stash after you kill Klaus.

High-end items like the War Saddle, you kinda have to expect to overcome significant hurdles to get your hands on.

[goatt]

ewecus spawns very rarely from day1. Their chance will increase in first 100 days and max at day 100.

If you prioritize suspicious dirt, you might have a burnout.

[Uncrushed]

Quote

High-end items like the War Saddle, you kinda have to expect to overcome significant hurdles to get your hands on.

 

You're right.  On an Ornery beefalo, it's basically a dark sword that increases your speed and gives you 1,000 hp without affecting your sanity.  It also regains its durability (hp) through food and rest.  For the brush, it's really expensive, but for the War Saddle, it's probably in the realm of appropriately hard to get.  Still, a 1/500 chance to find a single steel wool in a tumbleweed doesn't seem unreasonable.  It could create a tough decision about whether you'd want to change your play style as a result.  It's not like finding a whole war saddle, or even a whole brush.

Leaving steel wool alone and making the brush recipe simpler would make a lot of sense too.  Most player's speed for the first year is already riding on that walrus tooth.  To have at least as rare an element be the other part of the brush recipe seems overkill.

Another option might be to allow shaving the spider queen while she sleeps for a single steel wool.  She would not regrow it, so you'd have to find another queen to do this to.  It encourages some incredibly risky behavior while increasing the availability of steel wool just a smidge.  The act of killing her might ruin the wool, so it wouldn't be a drop you could get from her any other way.  Oh, but there's Webber.  I haven't played him yet, so don't know how he gets along with the queen.  Maybe she wouldn't let him shave her?  IDK.

[ShadowbirdRH]

Hahah, that IS an interesting idea, and creative. I like it. Not easy to farm, nobody ends up saddled with extra unwanted loot, and not exceedingly nonsensical. I wouldn't be against such an inclusion.

That all said, using darts or having a couple pigmen assist you (they can break the mucus trap) can help stack the odds in your favor when dealing with an Ewecus.