Game Modes and PvP on a Don't Starve Together Server
Survival, wilderness or endless, plus a PvP switch. Both are fields in Startup settings in the panel, and both change how your group plays.
2 min read · Updated Sep 24, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team
Survival, wilderness or endless, plus a PvP switch. Both are fields in Startup settings on your server's Settings tab, and both change how your group plays.
Setting them
- Sign in at customer.guavahost.com, open My servers and click Manage on your Don't Starve Together server.
- Go to the Settings tab and find Startup settings.
- Set Game mode to
survival,wildernessorendless, and PvP totrueorfalse, clicking Save next to each one. - Press Restart at the top of the server page.
Every time the server starts, the panel writes both into cluster.ini as game_mode and pvp. Change them in Startup settings rather than in the file, because an edit made only in the file is replaced on the next start.
The three modes
Survival is the default and what most groups want. When you die you become a ghost, and your friends have to bring you back, for example with a Telltale Heart, a Touch Stone or a Meat Effigy. Resurrection costs something, so death matters without ending the run straight away. If everybody is dead at the same time, the world resets.
Endless is the forgiving one. Any ghost can revive at the portal whenever they like, and the world never resets. Good for a group that wants to build and explore without the pressure, and good for a first server.
Wilderness is the harsh one. You spawn at a random point on the map, there is no resurrection, and dying puts you back as a new character somewhere else. Built for drop in play rather than for a group project.
Changing mode on an existing world works but is not always clean, since the mode affects how spawning and resurrection are set up. Take a backup from the Backups page before you switch.
PvP
Off by default. Set PvP to true and players can damage each other directly.
Worth knowing: a lot of what makes Don't Starve Together chaotic between friends, setting fires, stealing from chests, leading hounds to somebody's base, works whether or not PvP is on. PvP only governs direct damage. Most private servers leave it off and are not short of ways to ruin each other's day.
Pausing when empty
pause_when_empty in the [GAMEPLAY] section of cluster.ini, on by default, stops the world running when nobody is connected. Leave it on unless you specifically want time passing while you are away, because with it off your crops grow, your food spoils and your seasons turn on an empty server.
This one is not in Startup settings. To change it, open Server properties under Game tools in the server menu (it shows cluster.ini as Server settings), change pause_when_empty, click Save changes and restart. Editing DoNotStarveTogether/config/server/cluster.ini on the Files tab works too. Don't Starve Together server settings: cluster.ini covers the rest of the file.
Player cap
Max players in Startup settings, anywhere from 1 to 31 on our servers. Remember that memory use goes up with players and with mods, so if you raise the cap, read How much RAM a Don't Starve Together server needs.
Still stuck? Jump into our Discord at discord.gg/GuavaHost and the team will help you out.
- dont-starve-together
- game mode
- pvp
- settings
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