A strange question about Caves

[Milordo]

Since Forest and Caves are two shards, it is possible, once you already created a new world, to re-generate only the Caves? 

The problem I'm facing is this. I have two new friends noobies. They're doing the usual don't starve experience. Dying, dying again, dying again horribly ahahah. They're doing now very good and already surpassed the four seasons. However they still didn't touch the Caves. Since the (possible) best update ever is coming, with (hoping with my bleeding red crossed heart) a new Ruins generation or atleast a general new Caves generation, I want for them the best experience ever in the Caves, with the new generation, without weird bad retroffing mechanic, and I don't want to eliminate their world, with their base and stuff.
So it is possible in a world to only cancel and regenerate Caves?

[oregu]

Doing c_regenerateshard() while you're in the caves is supposed to work for that. (like Maxil said it's a good idea to back-up your world before doing this though. You can do that by going to Documents\Klei\DoNotStarveTogether\131023661 and find your world. One of the Cluster_# folders is your world.)

Note that the command despawns any characters in the shard, so... don't go into the caves with any items if you have to do the command in caves with a player.

Edited September 10, 2025 by oregu

[Maxil20]

I myself like to create a new world, take that world’s cave folder, and swap out your old world’s caves with the new ones. I’ve actually been doing that to get the new boulderbough trees on my world, since the biome isn’t retrofitted yet, and also gives the advantage of being able to swap back the original caves if you so choose.

I can try providing a guide once I get back home, with a few precautions and the like.

[Frosty_Mentos]

TheGlobalInstance:DoTaskInTime(60, function() c_regenerateshard(true) end)

This will give you 60 seconds to get out of the cave and let the server to regenerate that shard, I believe. I used to do it before when cave gens sucked.

[Milordo]

Yeeeyyyyy, thanks so much of you guys!!!  ❤️❤️❤️❤️

1 hour ago, Maxil20 said:

I myself like to create a new world, take that world’s cave folder, and swap out your old world’s caves with the new ones. I’ve actually been doing that to get the new boulderbough trees on my world, since the biome isn’t retrofitted yet, and also gives the advantage of being able to swap back the original caves if you so choose.

I can try providing a guide once I get back home, with a few precautions and the like.

Can't wait! 

[Cruvimaster]

5 hours ago, Milordo said:

Since Forest and Caves are two shards, it is possible, once you already created a new world, to re-generate only the Caves? 

The problem I'm facing is this. I have two new friends noobies. They're doing the usual don't starve experience. Dying, dying again, dying again horribly ahahah. They're doing now very good and already surpassed the four seasons. However they still didn't touch the Caves. Since the (possible) best update ever is coming, with (hoping with my bleeding red crossed heart) a new Ruins generation or atleast a general new Caves generation, I want for them the best experience ever in the Caves, with the new generation, without weird bad retroffing mechanic, and I don't want to eliminate their world, with their base and stuff.
So it is possible in a world to only cancel and regenerate Caves?

On PC, you can swap out "caves" folder. Create a new world, copy the new "caves" folder, and replace it in your main world (make a backup copy of your old "caves" first).

Edited September 11, 2025 by Cruvimaster

[Milordo]

@Maxil20 Still out of home?

[Maxil20]

1 minute ago, Milordo said:

@Maxil20 Still out of home?

Shoot, forgot to do this when I was at home. I should be able to do it this evening, if I don’t forget again…

[Maxil20]

Okay I remembered this time so here we go

Maxil's (Late) Guide to Swapping Cave Shards (Probably not the best way to do it, but it works for me!)

Precautions/Notes
-I would strongly advise making a backup of your world before attempting any of these steps, so you can recover your progress if you make a mistake.
-Make sure everyone including yourself is out of the cave shard when you prepare to swap it. If you attempt to swap it while their last position was in the old caves and you decide to replace them, and then they/you proceed to join, all of their/your player data will be deleted.
-Be sure to do this when the server is properly shut down. You can still do this from the main/world menu, however.
-You do not need to enable any mods/change world settings on the "burner" world, unless you are running mods that change the caves. The reason for this will be made clear in the guide.

Lets say you have a Very Epic and cool world, and you like the surface a lot, but your caves have one of those iconic "million mile bridges that lead to nowhere tm", and you want another map to not have said very ugly formation:


1. On the world you wish to swap shards, click on "Manage World", and then click "Open World Folder"
 

Spoiler

This will take you to your worlds file folder, complete with the caves/master shards and the cluster token needed for the world to work (Since I am on the beta branch, this is shown by the alternative game folder, but the process is identical on the main branch). If you haven't backed up the files, simply copying the entire cluster folder and pasting it somewhere else (Ideally a folder of backups if you have them) is a good idea. Otherwise, keep this file open for later.

The cluster number will very likely be different from 2. Just take note of it for later as the world we want to swap the caves from so you don't get mixed up.

2. Create an entirely new world to "sacrifice" the cave shard to swap with
-Enable the caves to do this (if they are not enabled by default)
-Once you create the world and are on the character select, you are free to disconnect the moment it is shown as all the files needed will be present from loading into the world. 

3. On the burner world, open up that world's files the same way shown in step 1
 

Spoiler

Notice how this one has "Cluster 3"

4. On both file explorers, click the "Caves" folder 
 

Spoiler

5. Delete the Main worlds "Backup" and "Save" folders, and replace them with your burners "Backup" and "Save" folders. Do not delete/modify any other file in the folder.
 

Spoiler

This is also why you don't have to worry about enabling the mods/world tweaks if you had made any, as those files are not deleted from this!
 

7. Delete the "Burner" world, and launch the "Main" world

If you did everything right, you should be able to go over to your cave entrace and enter them, and have a whole new map! 

And there you go! It's pretty straightforward and easy enough to do. As long as you follow the precautions (and preferably make a backup!) you should be set!

Edited September 12, 2025 by Maxil20