Hats are not armour, with three exceptions
Hats occupy the head slot and most of them have a defense value of 0. Only three raise it: Cotton Winter Hat gives 3, Felt Mushroom Hat gives 2 and Mushroom Cap gives 1. If you are dying in the Old City Ruins, no hat in the game is going to fix that; the faction badge accessories and your drone loadout matter far more.
What hats actually do is change one system each. That is why the useful list is short and worth memorising, and why swapping hats before a specific activity is the normal way to play rather than finding one best hat and never changing it.
The six hats that change a mechanic
- Welder's Mask — immunity to acid rain damage. You are wearing it from the start of the game, which is why acid rain feels harmless early and then suddenly is not once you switch hats.
- Miner Hat — the Chinese wiki measures it as 10 extra gathering damage on every hit from a pickaxe-class tool, and notes the same bonus also fires for the Mechanical Greatsword, the Harvest Assistant and the Mining Rifle. The English wiki only says it increases mining efficiency with a pickaxe.
- Skull Hat — significantly increases critical hit rate. This is the only combat-stat hat in the game.
- Steel Helmet — the Chinese wiki gives the number the English wiki omits: canned food restores 50% more.
- Witch Hat — summons lightning that strikes nearby enemies at intervals. It is a passive damage source, not a triggered ability.
- Mask 66 — makes one machine series stop attacking you on sight. The Chinese wiki adds the catch: the effect breaks the moment you attack first.
Which hats are actually hard to get
Four hats are low-probability drops rather than purchases. Mask 66 comes from killing the machine it mimics and Chameleon Bug Hat comes from killing Chameleon Bugs or Acid Chameleon Bugs; both are documented on the Chinese wiki with a 200-kill pity counter, so they are a grind with a hard ceiling rather than a lottery. Skull Hat drops from gathering rock piles and large rock piles, and Chomper Hat drops from killing Chompers — neither has a documented pity threshold, which is the more annoying category.
Two hats sit behind exploration rather than combat. The Straw Hat is in a hidden chest out on the outskirts to the left of the farm, by the west cliff. The Miner Hat is in a hidden chest in the Rivervalley mining ruins, and that area only opens after you finish the Geological Scanner terraform, so it is gated by progression rather than by luck.
Three hats are festival-limited. Fried Egg Hat costs 7 Small Coppers from Kuma during the Long Night Festival. Year Beast Hat needs you to kill the Experimental Firework Machine (NY.II) in the Eastern Outskirts during the same festival, which then opens the exchange at Orlando's treasure shop. Felt Mushroom Hat costs 8 Boletus at the Mushroom Festival stall. If a festival is not running, these are simply unavailable.
The Red Pom-Pom Hat is the odd one out: it was added on Christmas Day 2025 and you get it by dialling 35123 at any phone booth in town, after which it arrives in your mailbox with the delivery letter.
Where the two wikis disagree
Two disagreements are worth recording rather than resolving. First, the English wiki's Mask 66 page says the mask makes the Type-33 series cease active attacks, while its own item description calls the mask a mimicry mask modeled after Drone 66, and the Chinese page says the effect applies to the Type-66. Three different machine designations for one item across two sources is not something we can settle from documentation alone.
Second, the Chinese wiki's hat category contains 19 pages and has no entry at all for the Little Bird Hat, which the English wiki documents with a full infobox and description. The hat is listed below on the English wiki's authority alone, with no independent confirmation and no source for how to obtain it.
All 20 hats
Effects and defense values come from the English wiki's infoboxes. Acquisition routes and the measured numbers come from the Chinese wiki, which is the only source that documents where most of these hats come from.
| Hat | Defense | Effect | How to get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welder's Mask | 0 | Immunity to acid rain damage | Equipped by default when the game starts |
| Straw Hat | 0 | Extra fiber drops when gathering in the wild | Hidden chest on the outskirts left of the farm, by the west cliff |
| Miner Hat | 0 | Increases mining efficiency with a pickaxe (Chinese wiki: +10 gathering damage per hit) | Hidden chest in the Rivervalley mining ruins, after the Geological Scanner terraform opens the area |
| Skull Hat | 0 | Significantly increases critical hit rate | Very low chance from gathering rock piles and large rock piles |
| Steel Helmet | 0 | Boosts restoration from canned food (Chinese wiki: +50%) | Bought at Hult's general store |
| Witch Hat | 0 | Summons lightning that strikes nearby enemies at intervals | Bought at the witch's shop |
| Mask 66 | 0 | Disguise: the machine series stops attacking on sight, and breaks if you attack first | Very low chance from killing that machine, with a 200-kill pity counter |
| Cotton Winter Hat | 3 | None | Random weekly stock at Licca's stall |
| Felt Mushroom Hat | 2 | None | Mushroom Festival stall, for 8 Boletus |
| Mushroom Cap | 1 | None | Treaty Port request Poisonous Mushrooms - Dangerous and Mysterious, for 10 Tumor Fungus |
| Cardboard Box Hat | 0 | Blocks attacks, but gradually wears down | Recipe from Lank's exchange shop at the Recycling Depot |
| Chameleon Bug Hat | 0 | Chameleon Bugs will love you | Very low chance from killing Chameleon Bugs or Acid Chameleon Bugs, with a 200-kill pity counter |
| Chomper Hat | 0 | Chompers will no longer run away | Very low chance from killing Chompers |
| Hawney Hat | 0 | Makes the horned alpaca happier when petted | Bought at the Skychild trading store, which the English wiki does not document |
| Fishbowl Hat | 0 | Chance of an unexpected reward after falling into water | Fished up in the Wetlands hidden room, the same room as the Shiitake seed mother chest |
| Fried Egg Hat | 0 | Ordinary cooking has a chance to yield delicious food | Long Night Festival only, from Kuma for 7 Small Coppers |
| Year Beast Hat | 0 | Drops explosives when attacked | Long Night Festival: kill the Experimental Firework Machine (NY.II) in the Eastern Outskirts, then exchange at Orlando's treasure shop |
| Red Pom-Pom Hat | 0 | None | Dial 35123 at any phone booth, then collect the delivery letter from your mailbox |
| Kitty Headband | 0 | None | Bought at Hult's general store |
| Little Bird Hat | 0 | Little birds will really like you | Not documented — the English wiki lists the hat, the Chinese wiki has no page for it |
SOURCES, NOT DECORATION
Sources checked
These links back up the mechanic, route, or noted uncertainty. Page wording, structure, and diagrams are original work.
- 01Structured referenceDolocTown Wiki: Category:Hats
Checked 24 Aug 2026. The complete 20-hat roster this guide is built from. Every page in the category was last edited 22 Aug 2026, after the 1.0 release.
- 02Structured referenceDolocTown Wiki: Mask 66
Last edited 22 Aug 2026. The page that names the Type-33 series in its effect field while its own description calls the mask a copy of Drone 66 — the disagreement recorded above.
- 03Structured referenceDolocTown Wiki: Little Bird Hat
Last edited 22 Aug 2026. The only source for this hat. The Chinese wiki has no equivalent page, so nothing here is independently confirmed.
- 04Structured referenceDolocTown Wiki: Witch Hat
Last edited 22 Aug 2026. The lightning effect, which the Chinese page does not describe.
- 05Structured referenceDolocTown Wiki: Skull Hat
Last edited 22 Aug 2026. The critical hit rate effect, which the Chinese page does not describe.
- 06Structured referenceDolocTown Wiki: Treaty Port
Last edited 21 Aug 2026. The request table listing Poisonous Mushrooms - Dangerous and Mysterious with 10 Tumor Fungus for the Mushroom Cap.
- 07Structured referenceHuiji Wiki: Hats category
Checked 24 Aug 2026. Contains 19 hat pages and no entry for the Little Bird Hat, which is the roster gap recorded above.
- 08Structured referenceHuiji Wiki: Miner Hat
Last edited 13 Aug 2026. The +10 gathering damage figure, the extra tools it also fires for, and the Geological Scanner terraform gate on the mining ruins chest.
- 09Structured referenceHuiji Wiki: Mask 66
Last edited 23 Dec 2025. The 200-kill pity counter and the rule that attacking first cancels the disguise.
- 10Structured referenceHuiji Wiki: Steel Helmet
Last edited 23 Dec 2025. The +50% canned-food figure and the purchase at Hult's general store.
- 11Structured referenceHuiji Wiki: Cotton Winter Hat
Last edited 23 Dec 2025. Defense +3 and the weekly random stock at Licca's stall.
- 12Structured referenceHuiji Wiki: Year Beast Hat
Last edited 16 Aug 2026. The Long Night Festival route: kill the Experimental Firework Machine (NY.II) in the Eastern Outskirts, then exchange at Orlando's treasure shop.
- 13Structured referenceHuiji Wiki: Red Pom-Pom Hat
Last edited 26 Dec 2025. The 35123 phone-booth code and the mailbox delivery, sourced to the developer's 2025 Scavenger Almanac post on Steam.
- 14Structured referenceHuiji Wiki: Fishbowl Hat
Last edited 2 Aug 2026. The Wetlands hidden room fishing spot and the Shiitake seed mother chest in the same room.
