Have you been wondering how to get charcoal in Don’t Starve or Don’t Starve Together? You’ve come to the right place!
When we were playing Don’t Starve Together, figuring out how to obtain charcoal was a conundrum! Thinking about it now, it was pretty obvious (oops)! But with most crafting games it seems common for charcoal to be a biproduct of forges or campfire, but not with Don’t Starve.
Don’t Starve: What is Charcoal used for?
Charcoal can be used to construct various items in Don’t Starve. These include:
- The drying rack (used for making jerky)
- Crock pot (cook different foods and recipes)
- Fire darts
- Boomerangs
- Gunpowder
Don’t Starve: Gathering Charcoal
Using a torch or other fire source, set a tree on fire. When the tree finishes burning, chop it down to obtain charcoal. You won’t be able to harvest charcoal from a sapling tree. Charcoal can be gathered as ‘1 Charcoal’ in Don’t Starve and Don’t Starve Together. If you burn a tree stump, you’ll only be able to gather ashes.

If you’re clever, you can light one tree on fire and the flames will jump from tree to tree. You can plant trees strategically in order to achieve this. Remember to remove other flammable objects from the area beforehand. Yes, I set my whole base on fire (*rolls eyes*). You can also get charcoal from killing Krampus. Take a look at our full animals, creatures and monsters guide.
The Full List of what Charcoal is used for:
Take a look at the full list of what Charcoal can be used to craft below:
- Drying Rack
- Crock Pot
- Fire Dart
- Boomerang
- Gunpowder
- Feather Pencil
- Portable Crock Pot
- Scaled Furnace
- Sulfuric Experiment
With updates still coming out, we will make sure to update this post, should the methods to obtain Charcoal in Don’t Starve Together or the items it can craft should change.