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Don’t Starve Together has five game modes: Relaxed, Endless, Survival, Wilderness and Lights Out. They are not simple difficulty settings. The mode determines what death does to a character, whether a ghost can return, whether the shared world survives an extinction, how much personal progress is lost and how severe the environment remains. For most new groups, start in Endless to learn the systems, then move to Survival when you want meaningful stakes. Choose Wilderness for disposable lives, Relaxed for low-pressure onboarding and Lights Out only when your group specifically wants permanent darkness.
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What the five modes actually change
When you host a Don’t Starve Together world, the mode establishes the consequences of death for both an individual player and the server. The biggest distinction is not a numeric difficulty level; it is whether a mistake costs time, maximum health, a character’s accumulated knowledge or the entire shared world.
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| Mode | What happens when a character dies | Resurrection | Does the shared world persist? | Personal progress loss | Environmental pressure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relaxed | Forgiving death rules; environmental causes such as starvation, freezing, overheating and darkness do not kill you | Available through the Florid Postern without Endless’s maximum-health penalty | Designed as a low-pressure world; no all-player reset rule is specified | No special personal wipe is specified | Incoming damage is reduced and several environmental death causes are removed |
| Endless | Character becomes a ghost | Ghosts can repeatedly resurrect themselves at the Florid Postern, with a maximum-health penalty each time | Yes; the world never resets | Character remains in the persistent world, but resurrection penalties accumulate through reduced maximum health | Similar to Survival |
| Survival | Character becomes a ghost; if all players are dead, a 120-second countdown begins | Players must be revived before the all-player timer expires | Only while at least one player is alive or the group revives in time; otherwise the world resets | Normal Survival death stakes; no separate personal wipe rule is specified | Standard Don’t Starve Together pressure |
| Wilderness | Character does not become a ghost; the player returns to character selection | No resurrection of the dead character; choose a character to respawn as when rejoining | Yes; the shared world never resets | Dead character loses map progress, prototypes, blueprints and survived-day counter | Random spawn locations make recovery and regrouping harder |
| Lights Out | Follows Survival’s death rules | Follows Survival’s resurrection and all-player timer rules | Follows Survival’s world-reset rules | Follows Survival’s personal-progress rules | Permanent night makes visibility and light management constant challenges |
The table’s most important warning is that “the world persists” and “your character persists” are different promises. Endless preserves both the long-running world and the ability to bring a ghost back, while Wilderness preserves the world but deliberately makes each individual life disposable.
Relaxed: the safest way to learn
What Relaxed removes
Relaxed is built for players who want to learn crafting, creatures, seasons and base management without the usual environmental death spiral. Characters do not die from starvation, freezing, overheating or darkness. Incoming damage is also reduced, so combat mistakes are less punishing.
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How revival works
Resurrection remains available through the Florid Postern, and Relaxed does not apply the maximum-health penalty associated with repeated portal resurrection in Endless. That makes failed experiments inexpensive: a new player can test a dangerous cave, hostile creature or unfamiliar season and return without permanently shrinking their health pool.
Who should choose it
- First-time players learning controls and recipes.
- Younger or inexperienced groups that want cooperation without constant emergency recovery.
- Returning players who want to explore content rather than protect a long survival streak.
Relaxed is not merely “easy Survival.” Its defining value is removing several environmental causes of death, so it teaches the game’s systems without forcing beginners to master hunger, temperature and darkness at the same time.
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Endless: a persistent sandbox with a resurrection cost
What happens on death
Endless is similar to Survival until someone dies: the character becomes a ghost, but the server does not enter a race against a world-reset timer. The world never resets, making it suitable for a group that wants one continuing base, map and collection of resources.
Portal resurrection and maximum health
A ghost can resurrect at the Florid Postern repeatedly. Each resurrection applies a maximum-health penalty. The immediate benefit is obvious—you return to the same world—but the long-term cost makes careless deaths progressively more dangerous. Treat the penalty as a persistent character consequence rather than a one-time fee.
Why beginners often start here
Endless lets a group learn the game’s interconnected systems while keeping its settlement intact. You can make mistakes, recover a body and continue building instead of losing an entire server after a disastrous expedition. It still exposes players to normal environmental pressure, so it teaches more of the standard game than Relaxed does.
Use Endless when the priority is practice in a world you expect to keep. If your group wants every death to threaten the existence of the run, Survival is the better next step.
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Survival: the standard high-stakes cooperative mode
Death and the ghost state
Survival is the default cooperative experience. A dead player becomes a ghost, allowing the living team to work toward a revival rather than immediately replacing that character. The mode therefore creates a shared rescue problem: the group must protect its living members while arranging a way back for the dead.
The 120-second all-player rule
If every player is dead, a 120-second timer starts. The world resets if nobody is revived before the timer expires. This is the key distinction between Survival and Endless: a single death is recoverable, but a complete party wipe can erase the shared world.
- At least one character remains alive, so the world continues normally while the team attempts a revival.
- If the last living character dies, the 120-second countdown begins.
- The group must revive at least one player before the countdown ends.
- If no revival occurs in time, the world resets and the run’s shared progress is lost.
Why Survival feels different from Endless
Survival turns preparation into a group responsibility. A base, supplies and map knowledge matter because they are threatened by a total wipe. Endless preserves the same kind of world indefinitely, whereas Survival asks whether the team can prevent one bad sequence from ending its history.
Choose Survival once players understand basic food, temperature, light and combat routines. It is the clearest mode for a group that wants victories and failures to carry real weight.
Wilderness: every life is a separate attempt
No ghost, no resurrection
Wilderness changes what “death” means rather than simply increasing damage. A player who dies does not become a ghost and cannot resurrect that character. Instead, the player returns to character selection and can choose a character to respawn as, effectively rejoining the server with a new life.
What the dead character loses
The shared world remains, but the dead character’s personal record is wiped. That includes:
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- Map progress.
- Prototypes.
- Blueprints.
- Survived-day counter.
This split is important. Your friends’ base and the world’s explored resources remain available, but the replacement character does not automatically inherit the dead character’s discoveries or day count.
Random spawning and regrouping
New characters spawn at random locations. A respawn is therefore not a guaranteed return beside the base, and the team must plan how a new life will find its way back. Map knowledge can be transferred with Map Scrolls left in the world, giving an organized group a way to pass route information despite the personal map wipe.
When Wilderness is the right choice
Pick Wilderness when you want individual lives to feel expendable but do not want a single death to erase the server. It creates a distinctive rhythm: the settlement can mature over many lives, while each character must rebuild personal knowledge and survive a fresh journey from a random starting point.
Lights Out: Survival under permanent night
The defining rule
Lights Out is a dark variant of Survival in which night is permanent. Darkness is no longer a recurring phase to prepare for; it is the world’s constant condition. Light sources, visibility and movement become ongoing logistical concerns rather than occasional checks.
What it inherits from Survival
Lights Out follows Survival’s mode description apart from the permanent-night rule. Characters become ghosts on death, the all-player 120-second countdown applies after a complete party death, and the world resets if nobody is revived before that timer expires.
Who should attempt it
This mode is for groups that already understand normal light management and actively want a challenge built around visibility. It is a poor first choice for learning the game: beginners must solve navigation, combat and resource gathering while dealing with darkness at all times, before they have learned the ordinary day-night cycle.
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Which mode is best for beginners?
Use the following progression if your group has little or no experience:
- Relaxed for low-pressure onboarding. Learn controls, crafting and basic survival without dying to starvation, temperature or darkness.
- Endless for serious practice. Keep a persistent world, experience normal environmental pressure and accept maximum-health penalties when ghosts use the Florid Postern.
- Survival for meaningful stakes. Once the group can keep at least one player alive and organize revivals, the 120-second all-player rule creates the intended cooperative tension.
- Wilderness for disposable lives. Move here when random respawns and personal-progress wipes sound like the challenge you want.
- Lights Out for a specialist challenge. Choose it only when permanent night is the point of the session.
Klei’s own rule of thumb is to learn in Endless, settle into Survival for real stakes and try Wilderness when you want every life to feel disposable. Relaxed fits groups that need a gentler introduction; Lights Out fits experienced players deliberately seeking constant darkness.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to choose between Survival, Endless and Wilderness
| If your group values… | Choose… | Because… |
|---|---|---|
| Keeping one world forever | Endless | The world never resets and ghosts can return repeatedly, although maximum health is reduced. |
| A run that can truly end | Survival | A complete party death starts a 120-second window before the world resets. |
| Individual lives with no ghost state | Wilderness | Death sends the player to character selection and removes that character’s personal progress. |
| Gentle experimentation | Relaxed | Several environmental death causes are disabled, damage is reduced and portal revival has no Endless-style maximum-health penalty. |
| Permanent darkness | Lights Out | It applies Survival’s stakes while making night continuous. |
Do not select a mode solely because its name sounds easier or harder. Decide first whether your group wants to protect a shared world, protect individual character progress, or treat each death as a clean restart. Then account for environmental pressure: Relaxed removes major causes, Endless and Survival retain the normal demands, Wilderness adds random regrouping, and Lights Out makes darkness permanent.
Common misunderstandings
“Endless means death has no consequences.”
It means the world does not reset. Repeated resurrection still reduces a character’s maximum health, so a player can make future survival harder even while the settlement remains intact.
“Wilderness is permadeath for the whole server.”
Wilderness is permanent for the dead character, not for the shared world. The character cannot be resurrected and loses personal progress, but the world never resets and other players continue their lives.
“Survival resets as soon as one person dies.”
One dead player becomes a ghost. The reset countdown begins only when every player is dead, and the group has 120 seconds to revive someone.
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“Lights Out is just a darker visual setting.”
Permanent night changes the entire resource and travel routine. Light is always part of navigation and safety, while the underlying death rules remain those of Survival.
“Relaxed removes every possible danger.”
Relaxed removes death from starvation, freezing, overheating and darkness and reduces incoming damage, but it is still a playable survival world with creatures and other hazards.
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- Do you want the world to survive a complete party wipe? If yes, choose Endless or Wilderness.
- Are players still learning the basic systems? Choose Relaxed or Endless rather than imposing Survival’s reset risk immediately.
- Is preserving each character’s map and blueprints important? Avoid Wilderness, which wipes those items on death.
- Are you comfortable paying maximum health for repeated revival? If not, avoid relying on Endless’s portal resurrection.
- Does the group specifically want permanent darkness? If not, Lights Out adds pressure without solving a beginner’s learning needs.
These choices define the social contract of the server. Explain the death rule to everyone before the first expedition, especially whether a wipe can reset the world or whether a replacement character will lose its map and blueprints.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Survival and Endless in Don’t Starve Together?
Survival can reset the world after every player dies and no one is revived within 120 seconds. Endless never resets the world; ghosts can repeatedly resurrect at the Florid Postern, but each resurrection reduces maximum health.
What happens when everyone dies in Survival?
A 120-second timer starts when the last living player dies. If nobody is revived before it expires, the shared world resets.
Is Wilderness permadeath?
It is permanent for the character who dies: that character cannot become a ghost or be resurrected, and its map progress, prototypes, blueprints and survived-day counter are wiped. The shared world itself never resets.
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What does Lights Out do?
Lights Out makes night permanent and otherwise follows Survival’s death, revival, 120-second all-player timer and world-reset rules.
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