Don't Starve Together Console Commands: Why Most Players Are Using Them Wrong

Look, let’s be real. We’ve all been there. You’re on Day 42, a Deerclops just smashed your perfectly organized crock pot array, and your sanity is tanking so fast you can basically hear the shadow creatures whispering about your poor life choices. You want a way out. You want the power of a god, or at least the power to spawn a single piece of Flint so you don’t die of darkness. That’s where Don't Starve Together console commands come in. But honestly? Most people treat the dev console like a simple cheat sheet, and that’s how you end up crashing your server or corrupting a save file you’ve spent forty hours building.

It’s not just about "cheating." It’s about administrative control. If you’re hosting a dedicated server, these commands are basically your surgical tools. You need them.

How to Actually Open the Console (And Why It Fails)

First things first. You hit the tilde key (~). It’s right there under Escape. If nothing happens, don't panic. You probably just need to enable it in your settings or check your keyboard layout. Once that little translucent box pops up, you're looking at the Lua interface.

Wait.

Before you type a single character, you have to understand the difference between Remote and Local mode. This is the part where everyone messes up. If you see "Remote" in the bottom left of the console, your commands are hitting the server. If it says "Local," you’re only affecting your own machine. You toggle this with the Ctrl key. If you try to spawn an item in Local mode while playing on a public server, absolutely nothing will happen, and you'll just look silly standing there in the middle of a birch nut forest.

The Survivalist’s "Panic Button" Commands

Sometimes, the game just glitches. Maybe a Krampus sack clipped into a wall, or a boss didn't despawn correctly.

You need the c_spawn("item", amount) command. It’s the bread and butter of the DST experience. Want a specific example? Type c_spawn("goldnugget", 10). Boom. Gold. But don't just use it to bypass the game's loop. Use it to fix the math.

Then there’s c_godmode().

It makes you invincible. Your hunger, sanity, and health stop draining. It’s great for testing out base builds without worrying about a random Hounds attack ruining your concentration. But keep in mind, if you’re playing with friends, they’ll see that "God Mode Enabled" text in the logs if they’re looking. There is no secrecy in the world of Klei’s backend.

Managing a Messy Server

If you’re the host, you’re basically the janitor. People leave items everywhere. The ground gets cluttered. The lag starts to kick in because the game is trying to track 400 rotting carrots in the middle of the swamp.

Use c_save(). Use it often.

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If someone is being a jerk, you don't always want to ban them immediately. Sometimes you just need to move them. The command c_move(AllPlayers[number]) is your best friend here. You can literally teleport a problematic player to your location to see what they're up to. Or, if someone gets stuck in the geometry—which happens more than Klei would like to admit—you can use c_goto(AllPlayers[number]) to jump to them and help them out.

The "World Reset" and Time Manipulation

Time is everything in DST. Winter is coming, always. If you realized you spent too long picking flowers and didn't prep for the freezing cold, you can technically skip ahead or go back.

TheWorld:PushEvent("ms_advanceseason")

This is a powerful one. It forces the world into the next season. It’s jarring. The screen might flicker, the weather will shift instantly, and suddenly the snow is melting. Use it sparingly. If you want to change the actual day, GetClock():SetCycles(number) is the way to go. Set it to 50 if you want to skip the early game grind, but honestly, the grind is kind of the point, right?

Why Your Commands Might Be Breaking the Game

Here’s the thing about Don't Starve Together console commands: they are literally Lua scripts. When you type them, you are executing code directly into the game engine. If you misspell a prefab name, usually nothing happens. But if you mess up the syntax of a complex script, you can hang the server.

I’ve seen people try to use the "Kill All" command—c_killall()—and accidentally wipe out their entire domesticated Beefalo herd along with the mobs they were actually trying to get rid of. It’s a bloodbath. And it’s permanent unless you have a backup.

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• Prefab Names: You can't just type "Log." It has to be "log". Case sensitivity matters.
• Quotes: Always use quotes around item names. c_give(flint) will error out. c_give("flint") works.
• The "AllPlayers" Index: In a server, every player is assigned a number. You are usually 1. Everyone else is 2, 3, and so on. If you apply a command to AllPlayers[2], make sure you know who that actually is.

A Quick Word on the "Creative" Side

If you just want to build the ultimate mega-base, use GetPlayer().components.builder:GiveAllRecipes().

This is the "Creative Mode" command. It unlocks everything. You don't need a Science Machine. You don't need an Alchemy Engine. You just craft. For the builders out there who treat DST like a gothic version of The Sims, this is the only command that really matters. It allows for a level of architectural freedom that the base game restricts through its brutal resource economy.

Technical Nuance: The Dedicated Server vs. Hosted Play

If you are running a dedicated server on a separate PC or through a hosting service like Nitrado, you won't be using the ~ key in-game to run these. You’ll be typing them into the server console window itself.

In that environment, you drop the c_ prefix for many commands or use the screen -S command interface if you're on Linux. It’s a bit more technical, but the logic remains the same. You're still calling the same functions. The game doesn't care if the command comes from a keyboard in the game or a command prompt in a data center.

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Real Expert Advice: Don't Overdo It

I’ve seen hundreds of hours of gameplay ruined by a single afternoon of console abuse. Once you realize you can just spawn a Walking Cane or a Tam o' Shanter, the "threat" of the world vanishes. The tension that makes Don't Starve Together actually fun—the feeling that death is one mistake away—evaporates.

Use commands to fix bugs. Use them to manage your community. Use them to test out a weird mechanic you don't understand. But if you start using them just to stay alive, you're not really playing the game anymore; you're just watching a screen.

Actionable Next Steps for DST Admins

1. Backup your save: Before running any "world-altering" commands like season changes or mass deletions, manually copy your Documents/Klei/DoNotStarveTogether folder.
2. Learn the Prefabs: Keep a tab open with the official Klei Wiki prefab list. You need the exact internal names for c_spawn to work.
3. Practice in Local: Start a solo "Forest" world with no password, set it to Local mode, and practice your syntax there before trying to manage a live server with five other people watching you.
4. Use Script Snippets: For complex tasks, like revealing the whole map, use: minimap = TheSim:FindFirstEntityWithTag("minimap") followed by minimap.MiniMap:ShowArea(0,0,0, 10000). It’s more reliable than the older "reveal" shortcuts.