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Don’t Starve Together has five game modes: Relaxed, Endless, Survival, Wilderness and Lights Out. They use the same core survival systems, but change what death does to a character, whether ghosts can return, whether the shared world can reset, and how severe environmental hazards are. Endless is the safest place to learn, Survival is the standard high-stakes cooperative mode, Wilderness makes each character’s life disposable, Relaxed removes several major threats, and Lights Out turns the entire world into a permanent-night challenge.
What the game modes actually change
When you host a Don’t Starve Together world, the selected mode is more than a difficulty label. It determines the consequences of a death for both the individual player and the shared server. The important questions are:
- Does a dead player become a ghost?
- Can that ghost resurrect, and what does resurrection cost?
- Can the world reset after the whole group dies?
- Is the dead character’s personal progress retained?
- Are starvation, temperature, darkness or incoming damage changed?
Klei describes the choice this way: “When you host a Don’t Starve Together world you choose a game mode, and that choice decides what death means — for you and for the whole server.” That is why two worlds with identical characters and settings can feel completely different.
Don’t Starve Together modes at a glance
| Mode | What happens when a character dies | Resurrection | Shared-world persistence | Personal-progress loss | Environmental pressure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relaxed | The player can return without the normal survival penalties. | Available through the Florid Postern without Endless’s maximum-health penalty. | Designed for a forgiving session; normal world-persistence rules otherwise apply. | No special wipe is described for a death. | No death from starvation, freezing, overheating or darkness; incoming damage is reduced. |
| Endless | The character becomes a ghost. | Ghosts can use the Florid Postern repeatedly, but each resurrection reduces maximum health. | The world never resets, even if everyone dies. | Character progress remains, apart from the maximum-health cost of resurrection. | Normal survival hazards remain. |
| Survival | The character becomes a ghost. | Ghosts require the normal resurrection systems. If the entire group is dead, a 120-second countdown begins. | If nobody is revived before the all-player timer expires, the world resets. | Normal Survival consequences apply; no separate personal wipe is specified. | Normal survival hazards and standard damage. |
| Wilderness | The character disappears instead of becoming a ghost. | No resurrection for that character; the player returns to character selection and can rejoin with another character. | The shared world never resets. | The dead character loses map progress, prototypes, blueprints and survived-day count. Map knowledge can be passed with Map Scrolls. | Normal survival hazards remain, with random spawning. |
| Lights Out | Follows Survival’s death rules. | Follows Survival’s resurrection rules. | Follows Survival’s world-reset rules. | Follows Survival’s personal consequences. | Night is permanent, making visibility and light management constant concerns. |
Relaxed mode
What Relaxed removes
Relaxed is intended for a low-pressure playstyle. Characters do not die from starvation, freezing, overheating or darkness. Those four systems still matter for planning and comfort, but they are no longer direct causes of death. Incoming damage is also reduced, so mistakes in combat or while exploring are less punishing.
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How resurrection works
Resurrection is always available through the Florid Postern. Unlike Endless, using it does not apply the maximum-health penalty described for repeated portal resurrection. That makes recovery straightforward for a group that wants to continue experimenting rather than manage a shrinking health ceiling.
Who should choose it
Use Relaxed for onboarding younger or inexperienced players, testing character abilities, learning crafting recipes, or keeping a cooperative world moving when failure would otherwise end the session. It is not a close simulation of standard Survival because several of the game’s most important death pressures are disabled.
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Endless mode
The persistent sandbox
Endless is the mode for a long-running world in which a total party wipe does not erase the map. It resembles Survival in its ordinary hazards and ghost state, but removes the server-reset consequence. Your base, explored areas and ongoing construction remain available after deaths.
Ghost resurrection and its cost
After dying, a player becomes a ghost and can resurrect at the Florid Postern. This can be done repeatedly, including after the whole group has died. Each use applies a maximum-health penalty, so repeated recovery trades immediate continuation for a weaker character. The penalty is the central balancing rule: Endless is forgiving about world loss, not free of consequences.
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Why it is useful for learning
New players can practice seasonal preparation, boss encounters, cave expeditions and base design without gambling an established world. The group can stop, discuss what went wrong and return to the same resources. The trade-off is that careless deaths can leave a character with an increasingly restrictive maximum health, so experienced groups may eventually prefer Survival’s sharper stakes.
Survival mode
The standard cooperative experience
Survival is the default choice when players want Don’t Starve Together’s intended risk-and-recovery loop. Ordinary environmental threats remain active, death turns a character into a ghost, and the group must organize revivals instead of treating death as a temporary inconvenience.
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- The dead player enters ghost form and can no longer perform normal character actions.
- Living teammates must keep the world stable while arranging a revival.
- If every player is dead at the same time, a 120-second timer starts.
- If nobody is revived before that timer expires, the world resets.
The timer creates the clearest shared-world stakes of any standard mode. A single death is recoverable; an unattended group wipe can end the current world.
How to prepare for Survival
- Keep revival resources and a safe route to the Florid Postern in mind before dangerous expeditions.
- Set a retreat point so a living player can avoid dying while attempting a rescue.
- Agree in advance who will recover a ghost and who will protect the base.
- Treat seasonal transitions, caves and major fights as group operations rather than solo errands.
Survival is usually the best destination for players who have learned the basic systems and want every expedition to carry a meaningful risk.
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Wilderness mode
Death ends that character’s life
Wilderness changes the meaning of a life more radically than the other modes. Characters spawn at random locations. When one dies, the player does not become a ghost, and that character cannot be resurrected. Instead, the player returns to character selection and can choose another character to respawn as if joining the server again.
What is wiped
The shared world survives, but the dead character’s individual record is cleared. That includes the character’s map progress, prototypes, blueprints and survived-day counter. In practical terms, a replacement character enters a world that may already be developed while lacking the dead character’s accumulated discoveries.
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Map knowledge can be transferred through Map Scrolls left in the world. This gives an established group a way to share geographic information with a replacement character, but it does not restore the dead character’s prototypes, blueprints or day count.
When Wilderness fits
Choose Wilderness when you want the world to remain a persistent community project but want each character to feel expendable. It supports a rotating roster and makes scouting, navigation and personal preparation important. It is a poor fit for players who want to keep one character’s history intact after a mistake.
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Lights Out mode
Permanent night is the defining rule
Lights Out is a dark variant of Survival. Its defining change is that night never ends. The mode otherwise follows Survival’s description, so treat character death, ghost behavior, resurrection and the all-player world-reset timer as Survival rules rather than as Endless or Wilderness rules.
How constant darkness changes play
- Visibility is an ongoing requirement instead of a periodic preparation task.
- Exploration routes must account for light supplies and safe stopping points at all times.
- Base layout, navigation and emergency retreats become more important because darkness is never a temporary phase.
- A group that is already struggling with ordinary Survival may find the permanent-night pressure overwhelming.
Lights Out is best reserved for a group that specifically wants a challenge built around darkness management. It is not simply a cosmetic night setting; it changes every journey and makes light a permanent part of the survival budget.
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The answer depends entirely on the selected mode:
- Relaxed: Resurrection remains available through the Florid Postern without Endless’s maximum-health penalty, so the mode is built to recover from a wipe without the usual pressure.
- Endless: The world remains intact. Ghost players can continue resurrecting through the Florid Postern, accepting maximum-health penalties.
- Survival: A 120-second countdown starts when all players are dead. Failure to revive someone before it expires resets the world.
- Wilderness: There is no all-player ghost state to recover. Dead characters are replaced through character selection, while the shared world persists.
- Lights Out: Use the Survival outcome, with permanent night still active.
Which mode is best for beginners?
Choose Endless to learn the full game
Endless is the strongest general recommendation for beginners who want to experience normal hunger, temperature, combat and exploration while protecting a long-running world. It allows repeated attempts and preserves the map, but still teaches the consequences of dying through maximum-health loss.
Choose Relaxed for low-pressure onboarding
Relaxed is better when the group includes very young players, people completely new to survival games, or anyone who wants to learn crafting and movement without dying to starvation, temperature or darkness. Move to Endless or Survival once those systems feel familiar.
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Move to Survival for real stakes
Survival is the natural next step after the group understands preparation and revival. The possibility of a world reset after an unrecovered wipe makes decisions matter without removing the normal cooperative recovery process.
Pick Wilderness for disposable lives
Wilderness is for groups that value a persistent world but want a character’s death to be final. Expect random re-entry points and the loss of personal discoveries, and use Map Scrolls when the team needs to pass on geographic knowledge.
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Save Lights Out for a deliberate challenge
Lights Out should be an intentional choice by players who already understand Survival and specifically want permanent darkness. It is not the recommended first mode.
“Learn in Endless, settle into Survival for real stakes, and try Wilderness when you want every life to feel disposable.” — Klei’s official features guidance
A simple mode-selection checklist
- Want to protect one persistent world while learning? Choose Endless.
- Want hazards and recovery to be forgiving? Choose Relaxed.
- Want the standard co-op experience with a possible world reset? Choose Survival.
- Want each character’s life to end permanently while the world continues? Choose Wilderness.
- Want Survival rules plus unending darkness? Choose Lights Out.
There is no universal difficulty ranking because the modes make different things difficult. Endless tests whether you can manage the health cost of repeated resurrection; Survival tests group coordination under a reset threat; Wilderness tests your ability to rebuild personal progress; and Lights Out tests constant light management. Select the rule set that matches the kind of failure your group is willing to live with.
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