Getting Started with Don't Starve Together Modding

Don't Starve Together is one of the few games where the official Steam Workshop is genuinely the entire mod ecosystem. There's no BepInEx, no MelonLoader, no script extender — Klei built modding into the engine and the Workshop into the launcher. The first-time modder workflow is approximately: subscribe, click Enable, play.

This guide walks the standard install path on the current DST release.

Step 1 — Subscribe to mods on Workshop

Open the Steam Workshop page for Don't Starve Together. Click Subscribe on any mod. Steam downloads it in the background.

Mods appear at the bottom of DST's launcher and in the in-game Mods menu once Steam finishes the download.

Step 2 — Enable mods in-game

Launch DST. From the main menu, click Mods. Two tabs:

• Client Mods — affect only your client. UI replacers, sound mods, cosmetic skins. Can be enabled per-character.
• Server Mods — affect game logic. Must be enabled on the server and downloaded by every client.

Enable the mods you want. Solo or single-player game mode: enable both client and server mods freely. Public multiplayer: server mods are controlled by the server.

Step 3 — Configure mod settings

In the Mods menu, click any installed mod to see its configuration panel. Klei's mod API exposes settings declaratively — most mods give you 5–20 toggles per mod without editing config files.

Changes apply on next world load (server mods) or immediately (client mods).

Step 4 — Recommended first mods

Three solid picks:

• Geometric Placement — places buildings on a grid for tidy bases. Most-installed DST mod historically.
• Combined Status — shows hunger, sanity, and health as numerical values alongside the icons.
• Show Me — adds detailed item info to hover tooltips.

All three are client mods (no server install needed for solo play).

Step 5 — Multiplayer with mods

If you're hosting a server (in-game or dedicated):

1. Enable the server mods you want for that world.
2. When players join, they auto-download the mods from Workshop.
3. Players' client mods are independent — each player has their own.

If you're joining someone else's server, you can't add or remove server mods — the host controls those. But your client mods (Geometric Placement, etc.) work freely.

Step 6 — Save world handling

DST's world saves embed enabled-mod metadata. Removing a server mod from an existing world produces warnings; for some mods (especially character-additive ones) it can leave dangling references.

Practical rule: pick your server mod list before starting a world. Adding mods mid-world is usually safe; removing them is not.

Common gotchas

• "Mod requires X" warning. Some mods declare dependencies on other mods. Workshop usually auto-resolves this, but occasionally a dependency Wasn't picked up. Subscribe to the missing mod manually.
• Mod settings reset after update. Klei doesn't preserve mod config across major mod version changes. Re-set your preferences after a mod updates.
• Dedicated server doesn't download mod. Dedicated server mod installation is separate from your client — you need to install mods to the server's Mods folder explicitly. Steam Workshop doesn't sync to dedicated server installs automatically.
• Mod broken after Klei patch. Wait a day or two. Most popular mods are updated quickly. The mod's Workshop page usually has a comments section where the author posts status.
• Workshop mods don't appear in launcher. Re-verify game files via Steam, restart Steam, check that the mods are actually subscribed (not just favourited).

If you want to author your own mods, install the Don't Starve Mod Tools DLC from Steam (free) and study the example mods Klei ships in the tools folder. The Lua-based architecture is genuinely accessible.