Dealing with Spiders?

[Slipfish]

I wanted to ask about Spiders. Every time it gets dark, the spiders start coming out. In areas close to their nest they are aggressive and will chase me even when it is not fully dark. Even when I am next to a campfire, they will attack. So I am thinking to attack them and wipe out their nests, to end their attack spree basically. But I have seen some people talk about spider eggs and running out of silk. Seeing that spiders are a resource, I should ideally want to keep them around.

How best should I deal with spiders and not get injured without using the log suit or some form of armor?

How to get spider eggs?

[phantomspiker]

I wait until dark, setup a campfire near their nest and then pick them off one by one.

Spider eggs drop from the bigger spider nests.

[Kasiornis]

If you setup a campfire near their nest, you will lose ALL the silk the nest could drop. Plus - all the spiders from the nest (it could be 15 spiders, for example) will attack you. Its definitely BAD idea.

You can do the following.

Step 1 - wipe the nest. Hit it once - deal with spiders, hit again etc. The nest will drop some silk and an spider egg.

Step 2 - place an egg somewhere, where spiders will be far away from you and still you can easily visit them when you need silk. The other side of an island or even another island - will be great.

Step 3 - wait. Every night a nest will spawn some spiders. If you don't kill them - in some time the nest will upgrade itself and there will be more spiders meaning more Monster Meat and silk from them.

Hope it will help.

[phantomspiker]

If you setup a campfire near their nest, you will lose ALL the silk the nest could drop. Plus - all the spiders from the nest (it could be 15 spiders, for example) will attack you. Its definitely BAD idea.

You can do the following.

Step 1 - wipe the nest. Hit it once - deal with spiders, hit again etc. The nest will drop some silk and an spider egg.

Step 2 - place an egg somewhere, where spiders will be far away from you and still you can easily visit them when you need silk. The other side of an island or even another island - will be great.

Step 3 - wait. Every night a nest will spawn some spiders. If you don't kill them - in some time the nest will upgrade itself and there will be more spiders meaning more Monster Meat and silk from them.

Hope it will help.

I like doing it at night so I have something to do, but your suggestion works too.

[Kasiornis]

I like doing it at night so I have something to do, but your suggestion works too.

Yeah, doing this at night will save you some day hours, but there is one thing worth noting.

At Day - all the spiders are in nest, you will deal with 3-4 only if you hit the nest.

At Night - all the spiders are outside, and can attack you if the saw you hitting their mates. If you tought enough and skilled player - not a problem anyway

Any option works and have some advantages.

[Slipfish]

Assuming I kill the spiders in the day, cos yes less spiders come out of the nest. And after killing the spiders, I leave the nest alone. If I remember right, spiders drop silk, not just the nest itself. So if I do not destroy the nest, will the nest repopulate itself with spiders over time? Thereby having a supply of silk?

[mobius187]

Assuming I kill the spiders in the day, cos yes less spiders come out of the nest. And after killing the spiders, I leave the nest alone. If I remember right, spiders drop silk, not just the nest itself. So if I do not destroy the nest, will the nest repopulate itself with spiders over time? Thereby having a supply of silk?

Every spider you kill will either drop monster meat or silk. When you destroy a spider nest it will drop multiple spider silk and, if the largest size, a spider egg sack.

Once the spider nest is destroyed you need to plant the spider egg sack somewhere and let the spiders repopulate. You can continue this cycle forever, so long as you make sure to only destroy the spider nest when it's at its largest size, not before.

For extra creepy fun, read the description of the spider egg sack while it's in your inventory...

[Slipfish]

How many 'bulbs' does a fully upgraded spider nest have please? Assuming a nest starts with the 1 bulb.

[mobius187]

How many 'bulbs' does a fully upgraded spider nest have please? Assuming a nest starts with the 1 bulb.

I'm told a spider nest has 3 stages.

[Bogpad]

3 "bulbs"

Another method you can use during day is the trap method, bring 4 or 5 traps, no armor needed.

place thre traps close to each other, hit the nest, lure the first wave through the traps, repeat.

for enhanced functionality, you can place only 3 or 4 traps and kill the one or two spiders that are left, if you make 5 traps and use only 3 or 4 at once, they usually last long enough to take out two big nests.

If the spiders are disturbing you in your camp, I would suggest to kill the nest and not have them as "steady" silk supply, just get the eggsacks and plant them on a spot where it is more convenient for you. I usually have a little spider city near my camp that I go to once in a while and trap/fight them, take down two nests, replant them, and next time go for the other 2 so there is always enough time for two nests to grow big again.

killing two spidernests usually ends for me with about 20-30 monster meat and 20-30 silk, after creating the top hat, the silk lasts for a while, so 4 nests usually are more than enough to have all the silk you want.

[CoolRanch]

I set up camp in a swamp once with 3 of the 3 bulb nests nearby. Freaked me out but I didn't have to fight em as they spent the night killing tentacles, wish I had frapped it.

[mobius187]

I set up camp in a swamp once with 3 of the 3 bulb nests nearby. Freaked me out but I didn't have to fight em as they spent the night killing tentacles, wish I had frapped it.

Yes, I heard that having spiders kill tentacles is one of the ways to go after them. Also your proximity to the spider nests was probably also a factor.