Do Tumbleweeds spawn from an invisible spawner in the Dragonfly Desert?

[Uncrushed]

That's what the Wiki says and I imagined a small spawning area of a few tiles.  I walled in maybe 10% of the Dragonfly desert where I thought tumbleweeds might be spawning.  At first I thought it was working and I only saw tumbleweeds spawn inside the wall.  But it became clear that tumbleweeds were randomly everywhere.  I seriously doubt that they have fixed spawn points.  I think they behave more like meteor fields, where stuff just happens at random intervals over a wide area, which shifts slightly from time to time.  The wide area in this case would be maybe 1/3 of the dragonfly desert.  And there might be 2 such areas in a desert.

The whole idea that you could wall in something like tumbleweed spawns probably wouldn't work when you moved out of sight of your wall anyway.

[Spino43]

Yeah, they do have a spawn point.

[DajeKotlyar]

Earlier you could find it, cause it blocks any structures to place. It was removed tho, but thimbleweeds still have spawner wich you can probably inclose in some sort of pan to collect fast

[finn from human]

6 hours ago, Uncrushed said:

The whole idea that you could wall in something like tumbleweed spawns probably wouldn't work when you moved out of sight of your wall anyway.

It absolutely works even when out of your sight! When things are "unloaded" (i.e far away from the player) they don't actually move at all, which is why sometimes approaching the dfly desert you'll see a huge burst of tumbleweeds all at once, they all spawned there over time but they weren't allowed to start bouncing until you (the player) got near!

And yes, they do have spawners. They're totally invisible but you can make a grid of sorts out of walls in order to figure out where the spawners are.

[BezKa]

6 hours ago, sylvia wander o said:

make a grid of sorts out of walls in order to figure out where the spawners are.

I remember watching a tutorial on it and the grid was pointless because just using the zoom out mod let the author see the tumbleweeds spawn xD The method still works, but it was funny to see.

[Uncrushed]

Beard says they only spawn more when their existing supply is depleted, so when they go bouncing all over creation, that's less for me.  I might just wall off the edges of the desert.  There might be a wall shape that makes a tumbleweed trap too.  IDK.

 

3 hours ago, BezKa said:

I remember watching a tutorial on it and the grid was pointless because just using the zoom out mod let the author see the tumbleweeds spawn xD The method still works, but it was funny to see.

 

[bloopah]

4 hours ago, Uncrushed said:

Beard says they only spawn more when their existing supply is depleted, so when they go bouncing all over creation, that's less for me.  I might just wall off the edges of the desert.  There might be a wall shape that makes a tumbleweed trap too.  IDK.

 

No, I will not watch The Beard 777. He immediately rushes out content as soon as anything related to DST comes out, which will be prone to errors even in the same day, and can't forget the thing he did (and probably keeps doing) with his artists. (Haven't you already been told this?)

14 hours ago, DajeKotlyar said:

Earlier you could find it, cause it blocks any structures to place. It was removed tho, but thimbleweeds still have spawner wich you can probably inclose in some sort of pan to collect fast

I wouldn't bother, considering you would have to harvest all of the Tumbleweeds scattered across the desert rather than conveniently piled on top of each other near shore.

Spoiler

Also did you have an aneurysm halfway through

 

[Shosuko]

9 hours ago, Uncrushed said:

Beard says they only spawn more when their existing supply is depleted, so when they go bouncing all over creation, that's less for me.  I might just wall off the edges of the desert.  There might be a wall shape that makes a tumbleweed trap too.  IDK.

There is a cap to how many tumble weeds a spawner will generate at a time, similar to bee hives and bees.  If you wall off a spawner but don't clear the existing tumble weeds you won't catch any new ones because it won't spawn them.

I think its time intensive, and not super worth it compared to other methods of farming twigs / grass BUT it can still be fun to set up a tumble weed farm, and the tumbleweeds can generate other things like ruins gems and blueprints.

The easiest way to set up the wall to capture the tumble weeds is to use the zoom out mod and watch for when a tumble weed spawns.  You just mark that spot and build a wall around it.  Simple.  The tumbleweeds cannot pass through a 1 wall gap, so just do a staggered wall and you can easily walk in to harvest them when you want.

If you cannot use the zoom out mod the next best way is to go through the desert and clear out any tumble weeds, then stay away from it for 10+ game days to let it spawn some new tumbleweeds.  Then equip multiple speed boosts and run into the desert.  When you see a group of tumbleweeds (they're all still until you approach) then start walling off that area.  Aim for a 5x5 grid, err on the side of going larger, to start trapping them.  After you find your traps are successful you can divide them to reduce their size if you want.

[Uncrushed]

8 hours ago, Shosuko said:

Then stay away from it for 10+ game days to let it spawn some new tumbleweeds.

I think they spawn faster than that, but the rate is still s l o w.  I've been reliable getting my 19 grass only from tumbleweeds as Willow by day 4.

Sorry to be negative.  Thanks for that post - there's a lot of great stuff in there!

[Shosuko]

18 hours ago, Uncrushed said:

I think they spawn faster than that, but the rate is still s l o w.  I've been reliable getting my 19 grass only from tumbleweeds as Willow by day 4.

Sorry to be negative.  Thanks for that post - there's a lot of great stuff in there!

The point is to let multiple bundle up so when you run through you can catch where you see 4-6 of them all roll away together, indicating a spawner.  You don't want to come through and see only 1-2 tumble weeds.  idk their actual spawn rate off the top of my head, the point is to give it plenty of time.  More is better then less.

[willell]

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