How To Make The Dark Sword In Don’t Starve Together

The world of Don’t Starve Together can be a scary place, filled with dangers around every corner. Thankfully, you can put up a fair fight by crafting a variety of armor and weapons to keep you safe. One such melee weapon that you can get your hands on is the Dark Sword.

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In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can make the Dark Sword in Don’t Starve Together. The process of getting it isn’t too difficult, but you should also be ready to accept the Sanity drain from the sword if you are playing as anyone else but Maxwell.

What Is The Dark Sword?

Maxwell at the Shadow Manipulator with the Dark Sword in Don't Starve Together.

The Dark Sword is a shadow melee weapon that looks a bit like a scimitar. As a shadow weapon, this sword will drain Sanity from any character that holds it except for Maxwell. If you happen to be playing as him, there is no Sanity drain.

If you happen to be playing as Wanda, you’ll get reduced Sanity drain. Once Wanda becomes old, the Sanity drain will be zero.

The normal drain for this weapon is 20 per minute, which is quite a lot. To combat this, the Dark Sword is one of the most powerful melee weapons in the game, especially if you craft it early on. While the Sanity drain can be taxing, the Dark Sword excels in the hands of Maxwell.

Don’t let this Sanity drain deter you; this is easily the best weapon out there. If you aren’t playing as Maxwell, it’s important to only hold the Dark Sword when necessary. You shouldn’t just keep it in your hand as you run around. When a tough foe approaches though, whip out the Dark Sword and take them down!

How To Make The Dark Sword

Maxwell looking at the Dark Sword prototype in Don't Starve Together.

A prototype of the Dark Sword is made with the following ingredients at the Shadow Manipulator.

1x Living Log
5x Nightmare Fuel

The Shadow Manipulator is made with three Living Logs, seven Nightmare Fuel, and one Purple Gem. This Gem can be crafted with one Red and one Blue Gem. We found both of these Gems by digging up graves. Once you have both, you can combine them into the Purple version.

Living Logs

Maxwell and a servant chopping down trees in Don't Starve Together.

Living Logs are a type of wood that comes from Treeguards and Totally Normal Trees. Both of these are found in the forest biome with other evergreen trees. If you chop down a lot of evergreen trees, a nearby one may turn into a Treeguard enemy.

To spawn a Treeguard, just do some wood chopping in an evergreen forest. This is a great way to farm some wood while also getting Living Logs. Don’t let this enemy intimidate you though; Treeguards aren’t too difficult to deal with. You can simply kite them around and attack a few times before they die.

While not as common, you can also get Living Logs from Totally Normal Trees. These are trees that look… not totally normal. They don’t have any leaves, and a scary face will be on the front. This isn’t an actual enemy though; you can just walk up and chop the tree down. Be sure to dig up the stump for that extra Living Log.

Playing as Wormwood? If so, you can make one Living Log at the cost of 20 HP.

Nightmare Fuel

A Beardling standing in Don't Starve Together.

At first, Nightmare Fuel may seem difficult to obtain, but you can actually get your hands on it relatively easily. As your Sanity lowers, the world around you will start to look distorted. When your Sanity drops below 40 percent, the rabbits will turn into a shadow version of themselves, called Beardlings.

Beardlings function just like normal rabbits, and drop Nightmare Fuel when you kill them. With this in mind, you can get your Sanity below 40 percent and then trap a Beardling, murder them, and then get some Nightmare Fuel.

You can also make your own Nightmare Fuel, which requires four Dark Petals at the Prestihatitator. These petals come from Evil Flowers that you can find around Totally Normal Trees (which drop Living Logs). If you do happen to find some Evil Flowers, be careful! Picking the petals will cause Sanity to drain.

If you play as Maxwell, you can also use Shadow Sneak to turn rabbits into Beardlings.