How to Fix a Don't Starve Together Server That Keeps Crashing
DST server crashes are usually one of a handful of known causes — a missing cluster token, a bad cluster.ini, a shard port collision, a broken mod, or a corrupted save. Here's how to diagnose and fix each one.
Missing or expired cluster_token.txt
An online cluster won't run without a valid token — if cluster_token.txt is missing, expired, or has a stray newline or quote in it, the server fails right at startup. Fix: confirm the file exists in your cluster folder, contains a single clean token string starting with pds-, and regenerate it from your account if it's expired.
Invalid cluster.ini syntax
A mistyped section header or malformed line in cluster.ini crashes the server at boot before it even gets to loading the world. Fix: double-check section headers and key names against a known-good cluster.ini before restarting.
Master/Caves shard port collision
When running with caves enabled, the master and caves shards each need their own non-conflicting port range — if they overlap, the second shard fails to bind and the cluster comes up without caves, which players experience as being unable to join that shard. Fix: check both shards' server.ini for distinct, non-overlapping ports.
Mod incompatibility after a game update
DST updates can break mods that haven't been updated to match, and a broken mod can crash the server on world load rather than just failing silently. Fix: disable mods one at a time to isolate the broken one, and check the mod's workshop page for a compatibility update.
Too little RAM for Master + Caves running together with mods
Running both shards simultaneously, especially with several mods loaded, needs meaningfully more RAM than a single-shard surface-only server. Fix: budget extra headroom specifically for the caves shard and your mod list, not just the base server.
Corrupted save from a bad shutdown
Power loss or a killed process during a save snapshot can corrupt the world file, crashing on the next load. Fix: use c_rollback(1) from the in-game console to roll back to the last good snapshot, or restore from a backup.
FAQ
Why won't my DST cluster start at all?+
Why can players join Master but not Caves?+
A mod worked yesterday and now crashes the server — why?+
Run DST without the shard-port guesswork
CoalHost sets up Master and Caves shards with non-conflicting ports out of the box.
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