Saving is an option available to the player and an integral mechanic of Don't Starve. The player can save and quit during any part of the game, and it will also automatically save at random intervals, usually once a game day. If the player dies and has a resurrection item, the game will also automatically save before the player is revived.
When the player dies with no resurrection items, unless they're playing in Adventure Mode, the save file will be deleted. Otherwise, the progress made in Adventure Mode will be lost and the player will respawn with no penalty in front of Maxwell's Door. The player can also delete save files from the slot selection menu. Deleting a save file will not earn any of the Experience the player would've earned, which means that it's better to commit suicide if all characters are not unlocked.
There are four save files available in Don't Starve (Five with the Reign of Giants DLC). When players pick an empty slot, they can first choose a character and customize the world before delving in. For world customization details, please go here. Each occupied slot shows an image of the character being played, the world number, and the world type (Survival Mode, Adventure Mode, Caves or Ruins), then the number of days survived in that world connected by a dash unless the player is underground.
Each death will also be registered in the Morgue, whether or not it's permanent.
The save file can be found under:
Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\{unique ID}\{219740}\remote\
Mac OS X: ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/userdata/{unique ID}/219740/remote/
Linux: ~/.steam/steam/userdata/{unique ID}/219740/
SteamOS: /home/steam/.local/share/Steam/userdata/{unique ID}/219740/
If Steam Cloud is disabled (or release without Steam), players can find their save files under
Windows: My Documents\Klei\DoNotStarve\save\ Mac OS X: ~/Documents/Klei/DoNotStarve/save/ Linux: ~/.klei/DoNotStarve/
Here is a list of files in the game save file:
- profile: files that record a player's experience and characters unlocked.
- survival_(number): a player's save in Sandbox Mode.
- adventure_(number): a player's save in Adventure Mode.
- cave_(number): a player's save in a Cave or Ruin.
- saveindex: description for all save slots in "Choose A Slot" menu.
- morgue: a record of all the player's deaths.
Don't Starve Together
Don't Starve TogetherIn Don't Starve Together, saving works similarly to Don't Starve, except that saves are only saved on the host's computer, not the client's.
Rollback is a new feature that allows the host or an administrator of a world to instantly revert the current world to a previous save. This allows players to undo unwanted changes to a world and is a useful tool to fight griefing. The game will keep the last five saves of the world, meaning that the world can be rolled back a maximum of five days.
![Pvzfanmade](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="26" height="26"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg> "Pvzfanmade")
37 comments
Since the below comment is too old, you need to copy the saveindex too in order to load into the backup world. The save index validates the save files, and it gets updated each time you load into a save.
Something for anyone using Linux for the game.
The save file is in /home/.steam/steam/userdata/[unique ID]/219740/remote/
Also everytime I saved a copy of the save file and then tried to put it back the save does not show in the game. I had to copy the whole remote folder before I could get it to work.
Hope this helps
The Penguin Gamer
PLEASE HELP I’m on an Xbox one console and when IQuit and Save on Don’t Get Shipwrecked, and come back to open the save file it DOESN’T LOAD but crashes and kicks me out to the Xbox live home screen. It has been doing this for a couple weeks. I have tried uninstalling it, rebooting, reinstalling it several times. One time I played on default and it started saving and loading my games for a short while, then it started crashing again when I tried to open a saved file. PLEASE HELP ME! I don’t usually play on survival mode bc I like the adventure/crafting/exploring parts of the game, so I usually have the monsters mostly turned off (except ones I need for crafting). I have made it to 106 days but then I had to save and quit, and it’s won’t load a ton all, so all my progress I see gone. Plus it won’t unlock new characters bc I have to start over every time I log back in to play. =(
I'm experiencing the exact same problem. I've lost around ten good worlds to this bug from having to un/reinstall and deleting data thinking it had been corrupted some how. It seems like I can get it working again after purging my accounts, clearing the console cache and reinstalling the game, but it always starts happening again shortly thereafter. I've tried everything I can think of and I'm really starting to get bummed cuz this is literally the only game i feel like playing most of the time. I've reached out to Klei with my issue but they havent responded as of yet. I'll relay any usefull information I come across.
Hi Guys,
Does anyone get a saving problem like me?
When I exit, the game does not save at the point where I exited but instead save the point where the last time the Autosave ran. In my save folder, I have 2 files:
- shipwreck_1: This file is the official save game, but I don't know why it is not updated when I left the game.
- shipwreck_1.stmp: This file seems to be the autosave file, it's modified at the same time I left the game. But I don't know WHY it did not successfully convert from this save file to the official save file "shipwreck_1"
The possible reason I think may come from the mods I'm using:
- Geometry Placement
- Combined Status
- MiniMap
- Ti Map (add more icon to the map)
- Smarter Crockpot
- Health Info Plus
Do you which mod could cause this issue?
Thank you.
It is not any of your mods, I use all of these mods too and my saving is fine. So it must be something else.
I am using PS3 with RoG and it likes to freeze up during the autosave....it seems to happen when I just coincidentally happen to do something like open a chest, set something on fire, pick something up, any action, I haven't noticed it locking up when I am just standing completely still. When it locks I have to turn my PS3 off and back on again. I was right in the middle of very successfully shaving a herd of beefalo and setting them on fire when it locked up this last time. Ugh.
how do I delete the save files though?
nevermind
how can i find the save file in pocket edition, android, i dont want to restart every single time. :)
If you have problems finding the save files, why dont just search for 219740 in the start menu? :-)
is there any way to make the game save more often? my game crashes often and its really annoying when i have to restart a day.
I have a mod that makes it save more often (Its configurable!) Look it up on the workshop, it doesn`t conflict with anything.
(As far as I know)
I would use the rollback thing for giants that are like
In Sarcastic Voice: 'Srepriese'
whats is your save file extension? mine is a gousaave file, whats that?
You probably have some program that has linked the files to the GouSSave program, do you use that to back your saves up?
i think its possible to share worlds by just copying the save file inside the DoNotStarve folder
Wow, since the last update my game is no longer saving when I save and quit. Is that happening to anybody else ?
Yeah, but it started working again a couple of days ago.
Today, I started playing in a server that had caves. I never really entered any of them as I know that entering a cave will definitely make the game crash since I have tried that before, not that I know why it happens. I played and survived 26 days until I got killed by a Splumonkey and a Bishop at once, and since the game mode was Survival, I decided to use the Rollback. However, I came to notice that the Rollback had weird information, like: "Day ???" in each of the 5 slots. I clicked on one of them and agreed to restore that day, then clicked "Resume." After that, I got a message saying, "Dedicated server failed to start." I tried the other "Day ???"'s too and none of them worked. This only started happening when I entered Winter. It was working just fine when it was Autumn. I have been playing in this server for more than 6-7 hours and I'm really upset and sad for being unable to get my game back. Please help?
Things I tried:
- I unsubscribed the mods that I was using. All of them. Tried to enter the server world again, but no avail.
- I restarted the game.
Hi!
I want to reinstall the windows ( 7 ) on my computer, but I am worried that I would not be able to restore the save files. I know that I can copy the 219740 folder, but as far as I can tell, when you enter a cave/ruin, it generates a new world. So in my opinion to be able to play you have to copy these files, too.
Thank you! :)
Copy the whole folder and you'll keep everything.
Is there ANY way to see which mods were used in a save file? Pls.
My game isn't released with Steam or Torrent download (I know you hate me), so I cannot find \{219740}\remote\ . Does anyone else knows where can I find the Save File Location?
I also tried going to Documents\ DoNotStarve\Save and I tried to look there, but I can't find my Save Game Location
So, um, how would I turn off my game without saving? I messed up.
If you have an earlier backup of the save files, then replace the new save dir with those you backed up. If not, then I think you're out of luck...
You can always alt+F4 if you screw up and don't wanna start a new.
I wrote a little shell script to automatically backup a copy of the save files at a regular interval so you don't have to make the backup manually yourself. Code is below. It will run on Linux, Mac (via Terminal using Bash), or in Windows if you install cygwin. Cheers.
1. Go to the save dir as described in this wiki
2. cd ..
3. copy paste the code into a file, name it whatever, like autosave.sh
4. run the file. easiest way is to just type `sh autosave.sh` Third line, duration=X you can change X to whatever interval you want it to autosave, in seconds. 300=5min 60=1min ... backups are saved under the backup dir, labeled by date stamp. If it prints just one line with the date and "Yawn" and etc then it is working. If you get an error it may not be working so paste the output here and I can help. 5. To restore, rename the existing `save` dir to anything else. copy the backup save_YYYY-MM-DD__HH:MM:SS folder to where the existing `save` dir was, and rename it to `save`.
Hope you enjoy! Reply here if you have any questions.
THANK YOU! :) Although in my version, the directory is named "remote", and not "save". I just tested the general process, though, and it seems to work!
That's great, I'm happy you found it useful.
I've done the same thing but in NodeJS (requires the fs-extra node module) :
var fs = require("fs-extra");
var saveLocation = "/Program Files (x86)/Steam/userdata/142866860/219740/remote/"; //the location of the save file (excluding the file name)
var saveName = "survival_3"; //the name of the save file
fs.copySync(saveLocation + saveName, "/Users/Bogdan/dont_starve_saves/auto/" + saveName);
You can change the saveName variable to match the name of your save you're backing up. Also make sure to change the saveLocation to match the location of your saves.
i dont really understand how to do that stuff, so like, am i supposed to paste that code to the notepad and then open it? What does step 2 mean? cd?
Hallelujah!! Let's hope that messing with save files will not destabilize the game. I'm gonna make a backup of the saves folder as often as I can. There should be a proper saving and loading functionality in this game [like there should be one for Minecraft as well... there isn't so I managed to end up with messed up saves after a while, which lead to game over after many months of epic world building]. It wouldn't break the game or make it boring, it would make it fun / accessible to people who don't want to sufer extreme pain and anger at losing all their hard work. Maybe the creators of this game thought a sandbox survival game is all about survival, I think it's all about building and creativity. I mean there's not much to build in Don't Starve but still, basic survival is mindless and boring. I'm gonna try building some stuff anyway, within the limitations of the game, just because the game is handdrawn and cute. But I have to be able to save my stuff. Not only losing the things I build is unacceptable, but I want to share them with others, like copy paste my saves so I can open them on another computer.