Regarding the Public Sale of Don't Starve Together All-Skin Mods on Chinese Second-Hand Platform

[Yangyuqi]

  The public sale of Don't Starve Together all-skin mods on Chinese second-hand trading platforms, coupled with a growing number of users adopting them, has become a serious issue. This server-side mod, when deployed as instructed, allows all players in the server to unlock every item and character skin—including all collaborative series with YouTube, Firework, and even skins from the Klei Store (covering the three latest merchandise collections).Although it functions as a server mod, it blatantly infringes upon Klei's interests and undermines players who have legitimately purchased skins through official channels. I initially attempted to report this via email but received no response. As a last resort, I registered an account here to raise awareness, even if it risks alerting those involved.

  It is evident that this mod exploits certain vulnerabilities in the game, making it an illegitimate tool. I sincerely hope this issue gains the official attention it urgently requires.

[lovegrooove]

What you posting this here will mainly do, is attract more players to download that mod, and use it themselves. 

[Edible Coal]

18 minutes ago, lovegrooove said:

What you posting this here will mainly do, is attract more players to download that mod, and use it themselves. 

 

1 hour ago, Yangyuqi said:

 As a last resort, I registered an account here to raise awareness, even if it risks alerting those involved.

 

[Yangyuqi]

1 hour ago, lovegrooove said:

What you posting this here will mainly do, is attract more players to download that mod, and use it themselves. 

Because I used AI translation, some misunderstandings may have occurred. What I meant was that this might alert those who created this mod, potentially causing them to conceal relevant evidence or activities. However, when you say things like that, I can only assume your words were meant to amuse everyone—I can’t believe you would doubt my intentions so much.

[ShadowDuelist]

You can also contact Klei directly through support, they have a good customer support.

[AliceShiki]

The problem is that the fight against piracy is an unending one, and one that the devs will always lose.

They're most likely aware of the issue, they just dunno how to handle it... Or know how to, but the legal costs involved would make it not worth the trouble when compared to turning a blind eye to it.

You already sent an e-mail to Klei about it, so you already did your part. There is nothing you can do if Klei decides that it's simply not worth the trouble to take action.

Fundamentally speaking, as long as this hack isn't affecting Klei's revenue in a meaningful way, it is not really something worth worrying about for Klei.

[Edible Coal]

12 minutes ago, AliceShiki said:

The problem is that the fight against piracy is an unending one, and one that the devs will always lose.

They're most likely aware of the issue, they just dunno how to handle it... Or know how to, but the legal costs involved would make it not worth the trouble when compared to turning a blind eye to it.

You already sent an e-mail to Klei about it, so you already did your part. There is nothing you can do if Klei decides that it's simply not worth the trouble to take action.

Fundamentally speaking, as long as this hack isn't affecting Klei's revenue in a meaningful way, it is not really something worth worrying about for Klei.

i imagine this would be pretty hard and would only be solve by banning these mods on steam since player hosted servers are pretty easy to be manipulated...

[Uedo]

Personally, if i'm not on the payroll at Klei, I wouldn't bother doing their work for them. 
I've not used something like this, nor would it interest me, but why do YOU care what others are doing?

This is why purchaseable limited time cosmetics are stupid, all it does it hurt the people who buy it - of course you're gonna be butt-hurt when someone can use what you have for free, especially when you put money into it. But at the end of the day, you're upset because you have like the artificial scarcity, you like that you got something that others don't have..... Oh well, maybe next time don't think that you've got some special thing that was hard to obtain, you purchased code.... you literally purchased non-utilitarian code, only made to increase revenue and offer no function at a mark-up that isn't representative of the value, just to feel special.

TL;DR, Don't worry about it, you'll go mad if you worry what other people are doing - especially people you literally don't know. Just get on with your day

[Yangyuqi]

59 minutes ago, Uedo said:

Personally, if i'm not on the payroll at Klei, I wouldn't bother doing their work for them. 
I've not used something like this, nor would it interest me, but why do YOU care what others are doing?

This is why purchaseable limited time cosmetics are stupid, all it does it hurt the people who buy it - of course you're gonna be butt-hurt when someone can use what you have for free, especially when you put money into it. But at the end of the day, you're upset because you have like the artificial scarcity, you like that you got something that others don't have..... Oh well, maybe next time don't think that you've got some special thing that was hard to obtain, you purchased code.... you literally purchased non-utilitarian code, only made to increase revenue and offer no function at a mark-up that isn't representative of the value, just to feel special.

TL;DR, Don't worry about it, you'll go mad if you worry what other people are doing - especially people you literally don't know. Just get on with your day

First of all, thank you for your friendly advice. This perspective is indeed very rational, objective, and broad-minded. Sometimes, we just need to focus on ourselves—that makes a lot of sense. However, as a veteran player who has been playing Don't Starve Together since its release ten years ago, I don’t place excessive importance on the rarity or exclusivity of skins. For instance, the reintroduction of some Klei merchandise skins, in my opinion, effectively curbs the inflated prices set by resellers and allows more ordinary players to enjoy these previously exclusive skins at reasonable prices. I find this completely justified, even though these skins are, in essence, just lines of code on a computer.

Over the past decade, I’ve come to see Klei as a genuinely kind and friendly company. Don't Starve Together is a one-time purchase game, yet it has continued to receive updates—from A New Reign to Return of Them, the An Eye for an Eye series, and the Skill Tree updates. They often gift free skins and Klei Points during important holidays and release entertaining animated shorts with every update and even design fun puzzle websites.This is why I’ve maintained my passion for the game and my support for Klei. It’s also why players can support Klei by purchasing skins, thereby indirectly contributing to the development of Don't Starve Together.

It is from this perspective that I specifically created an account to raise this issue with Klei. This mod is rapidly gaining popularity among Chinese players, and I am providing this feedback out of love for the game and the company. Perhaps I could follow your advice, stay broad-minded, and focus on myself—but I still chose to speak up. Both choices are valid. I am not troubled by how this mod affects the uniqueness of skins. Please excuse any awkward phrasing, as I am using AI translation.

1 hour ago, ShadowDuelist said:

你也可以直接通过客服联系Klei，他们的客服很好。

Do you know the detailed steps for submitting an inquiry? This is my first time using the Klei community forum, so I'm not very familiar with the process.Thanks！

1 hour ago, AliceShiki said:

问题在于，打击盗版的斗争是永无止境的，而开发者们永远会输掉这场斗争。

他们很可能知道这个问题，只是不知道怎么处理......或者说不知道怎么处理，但涉及的法律费用让这麻烦远不如视而不见。

你已经给Klei发过邮件，所以你已经尽了你的责任。如果Klei决定采取行动根本不值得，你也无能为力。

从根本上讲，只要这次黑客攻击没有对Klei的收入产生实质性影响，这对Klei来说其实并不值得担心。

There is a Chinese proverb: "The wind rises from the calm grass, and waves form from gentle ripples." It means that small issues or oversights can evolve into significant events. For example, in Don't Starve Together, there was an incident where skins were maliciously exploited and dismantled like a virus, which later prompted Klei to urgently shut down and fix certain interfaces. Previously, some mod developers had even used these official interfaces to link mod backends to skin servers, enabling paid services for mods. Now that these interfaces have been closed due to the virus incident, they have embedded the massive skin data directly into the mods, achieving paid mod services in another way.

Of course, this is somewhat off-topic, but as the proverb says, the spread of small all-in-one skin mods could potentially grow into a larger issue affecting Klei's interests in the future. Nevertheless, I truly appreciate your comments—they are indeed very reasonable.

[ShadowDuelist]

1 hour ago, Yangyuqi said:

Do you know the detailed steps for submitting an inquiry? This is my first time using the Klei community forum, so I'm not very familiar with the process.Thanks！

Sure, sorry I didn’t add it to my original reply.

Go to this form
https://support.klei.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Complete your information, and report there what you think they should know.

[AliceShiki]

1 hour ago, Yangyuqi said:

There is a Chinese proverb: "The wind rises from the calm grass, and waves form from gentle ripples." It means that small issues or oversights can evolve into significant events. For example, in Don't Starve Together, there was an incident where skins were maliciously exploited and dismantled like a virus, which later prompted Klei to urgently shut down and fix certain interfaces. Previously, some mod developers had even used these official interfaces to link mod backends to skin servers, enabling paid services for mods. Now that these interfaces have been closed due to the virus incident, they have embedded the massive skin data directly into the mods, achieving paid mod services in another way.

Of course, this is somewhat off-topic, but as the proverb says, the spread of small all-in-one skin mods could potentially grow into a larger issue affecting Klei's interests in the future. Nevertheless, I truly appreciate your comments—they are indeed very reasonable.

This doesn't apply here, since it's just a standard piracy issue. It's nothing new, and the games' industry has been dealing with piracy since forever, and it has always been a losing battle with the devs having 0% chance of winning.

The other issue you brought up was a security vulnerability. That's different from piracy and can cause actual issues. That's why devs work as fast as possible to fix the problem when dealing with security vulnerabilties, because it's actually a big deal.

Piracy though? Well, it's just the usual stuff. People who want to pirate will pirate, people who want to support the official work will support it. Time has shown that the paying fans are more than big enough to make piracy not a big deal.

People have been able to pirate games on release date these days, and the games can still sell like hotcakes... Having a skin piracy mod is really not a big deal for Klei's earnings. It never is.

Edited November 22, 2025 by AliceShiki

[Uedo]

5 hours ago, Yangyuqi said:

First of all, thank you for your friendly advice. This perspective is indeed very rational, objective, and broad-minded. Sometimes, we just need to focus on ourselves—that makes a lot of sense. However, as a veteran player who has been playing Don't Starve Together since its release ten years ago, I don’t place excessive importance on the rarity or exclusivity of skins. For instance, the reintroduction of some Klei merchandise skins, in my opinion, effectively curbs the inflated prices set by resellers and allows more ordinary players to enjoy these previously exclusive skins at reasonable prices. I find this completely justified, even though these skins are, in essence, just lines of code on a computer.

Over the past decade, I’ve come to see Klei as a genuinely kind and friendly company. Don't Starve Together is a one-time purchase game, yet it has continued to receive updates—from A New Reign to Return of Them, the An Eye for an Eye series, and the Skill Tree updates. They often gift free skins and Klei Points during important holidays and release entertaining animated shorts with every update and even design fun puzzle websites.This is why I’ve maintained my passion for the game and my support for Klei. It’s also why players can support Klei by purchasing skins, thereby indirectly contributing to the development of Don't Starve Together.

It is from this perspective that I specifically created an account to raise this issue with Klei. This mod is rapidly gaining popularity among Chinese players, and I am providing this feedback out of love for the game and the company. Perhaps I could follow your advice, stay broad-minded, and focus on myself—but I still chose to speak up. Both choices are valid. I am not troubled by how this mod affects the uniqueness of skins. Please excuse any awkward phrasing, as I am using AI translation.

Do you know the detailed steps for submitting an inquiry? This is my first time using the Klei community forum, so I'm not very familiar with the process.Thanks！

There is a Chinese proverb: "The wind rises from the calm grass, and waves form from gentle ripples." It means that small issues or oversights can evolve into significant events. For example, in Don't Starve Together, there was an incident where skins were maliciously exploited and dismantled like a virus, which later prompted Klei to urgently shut down and fix certain interfaces. Previously, some mod developers had even used these official interfaces to link mod backends to skin servers, enabling paid services for mods. Now that these interfaces have been closed due to the virus incident, they have embedded the massive skin data directly into the mods, achieving paid mod services in another way.

Of course, this is somewhat off-topic, but as the proverb says, the spread of small all-in-one skin mods could potentially grow into a larger issue affecting Klei's interests in the future. Nevertheless, I truly appreciate your comments—they are indeed very reasonable.

I appreciate the reply and your perspective, I don't really see why you'd truly care about the security and business interests of a canadian company though - I think that's just a rational justification of why someone might care, I wouldn't be confident that you actual would. 

It's best to just focus on things that are in your control - As others have said, Piracy is piracy and something that will always occur. Especially in western spaces. It's something to attempt to tackle for sure, but on the list of 'What's acheivable' and 'what's priority' they both fall quite low down.

[lovegrooove]

21 hours ago, Yangyuqi said:

Because I used AI translation, some misunderstandings may have occurred. What I meant was that this might alert those who created this mod, potentially causing them to conceal relevant evidence or activities. However, when you say things like that, I can only assume your words were meant to amuse everyone—I can’t believe you would doubt my intentions so much.

I also think there might have been a misunderstanding here. 

I'm not doubting your intentions, and I'm not trying to amuse everybody. 

What I mean is, you're shining more light on this, and I think the only thing that this will result in, is more people downloading the mod you're talking about. 

Good intentions are awesome, but you're still spreading the word, and are more likely to get more people to use this mod, or make more mods like this, once the old one gets deleted. 

[Yangyuqi]

On 11/24/2025 at 12:14 AM, Stardust42 said:

真糟糕。请问这个荒谬模组的名字是什么？当然，这只是为了研究目的。笑死。你背叛自己人是为了什么？他们不会给你这钱，兄弟。

😂

On 11/23/2025 at 3:10 PM, lovegrooove said:

我也觉得这里可能有误会。

我不怀疑你的意图，也不是想逗大家开心。

我的意思是，你让这件事更加清晰，我觉得这只会导致更多人下载你说的模组。

好意固然美好，但你仍然在传播信息，更有可能让更多人使用这个模组，或者在旧模组被删除后制作更多类似模组。

You are right,hhh,maybe I have did something wrong😂

[lovegrooove]

2 hours ago, Yangyuqi said:

You are right,hhh,maybe I have did something wrong😂

It's fine, I can understand the frustration. 

[shaurun]

@Yangyuqi what kind of vulnerability are you talking about? 

If it doesn't actually gives users skins I don't even think it's piracy, cause they can't forcely install such mode to official public servers. Also if someone gets attached to some skins, they will probably buy it anyways if they have money. 

I think piracy doesn't cause that much issues as people might think. If you value the product and have money to support it - great. But if don't, you can at least taste it in some way, evaluate if it worse it, and pay for it once you have money. 

[Edible Coal]

1 hour ago, shaurun said:

@Yangyuqi what kind of vulnerability are you talking about? 

If it doesn't actually gives users skins I don't even think it's piracy, cause they can't forcely install such mode to official public servers. Also if someone gets attached to some skins, they will probably buy it anyways if they have money. 

I think piracy doesn't cause that much issues as people might think. If you value the product and have money to support it - great. But if don't, you can at least taste it in some way, evaluate if it worse it, and pay for it once you have money. 

it still feels weird that you can use purchased skin for free on a private server, tbh i doubt klei would allow that 

Edited November 25, 2025 by Edible Coal

[shaurun]

6 minutes ago, Edible Coal said:

it still feels weird that you can use purchased skin for free on a private server, tbh i doubt klei would allow that 

Surely they won't do it officially because it's offensive towards honest skins buyers. But all in all, if some private server has skins, who cares? They can't make themselves feel special, like true skill owners, can't show their skins on publics, right? And if they will create base building videos with available skins - they will simply display new design ideas to community and thus base building community would want to buy some skins they overlooked initially.

[Gashzer]

Anyone have a link to this mod so i can definitely avoid using it? 

[Jakepeng99]

On 11/22/2025 at 7:32 AM, lovegrooove said:

What you posting this here will mainly do, is attract more players to download that mod, and use it themselves. 

Gatekeeping wont qork

[luvu2bits]

Although in principle it's... sort of piracy, if it's just server-side then that means these players can't just go around showing off that they own some rare elusive skin or whatever in public servers or anything like that. It'd be a lot more of a problem if you could use this client-side. And they do not actually own the skins, so they can't display them on Steam or trade/sell them for profits. I guess they are circumventing paying Klei/Partnered Vendor/Community Member in order to make use of the skins, which is... the whole point, but...
If it's really something that they'd like to do, ultimately it is harmless... This is just something which comes with the openness of the PC platform.

[Maxil20]

On 11/22/2025 at 1:39 AM, Yangyuqi said:

The public sale of Don't Starve Together all-skin mods on Chinese second-hand trading platforms,

 Are... Are people just glossing over how this isnt just pirating the skins, but someone distributing said mod under a paywall and profiting off of it, which in of itself is unbelievably scummy and probably worthwhile to contact the devs about???

[GimplyGoose]

4 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

 Are... Are people just glossing over how this isnt just pirating the skins, but someone distributing said mod under a paywall and profiting off of it, which in of itself is unbelievably scummy and probably worthwhile to contact the devs about???

It is for sure super scummy. I'm not sure there is anything DST developers could do about it, though. It would probably need to be addressed by Klei/Tencent's legal team.

I doubt the mod is distributed through any official channel (steam workshop).

The only thing a player can do is let Klei know about it and then let them handle it.

[AliceShiki]

6 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

 Are... Are people just glossing over how this isnt just pirating the skins, but someone distributing said mod under a paywall and profiting off of it, which in of itself is unbelievably scummy and probably worthwhile to contact the devs about???

Not really glossing over it, but that's kind of the whole point of distributing pirated stuff. To profit of other people's work.

You steal others' work and resell it for dirty cheap, or do it for free and earn money through ads... So well, it's still just standard piracy, hence why I didn't really comment on that.

But yeah, OP is not wrong to contact the devs about it, it's just that they already did their part, so there isn't much more to be done here.

[lovegrooove]

18 hours ago, Jakepeng99 said:

Gatekeeping wont qork

I'm not trying to gatekeep this mod. 😂I'm trying to tell the original poster, that by posting this in a forum, they will only help spread the mod around, instead of working against it. So they are doing the opposite of what they wanted to achieve in the first place, even though their heart was in the right place. 

15 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

 Are... Are people just glossing over how this isnt just pirating the skins, but someone distributing said mod under a paywall and profiting off of it, which in of itself is unbelievably scummy and probably worthwhile to contact the devs about???

The original poster already said, that they wrote several emails to the devs, so Klei is probably aware by now. And I doubt the devs are reading the forums more than their emails. 

Also the original poster said that this is a server mod, so you can only use these skins on private servers.

This mod is clearly against Klei's monetization rules, so they could just delete it, it's up to them. There is nothing much any of us can do about it, no matter how mad it makes you. Sure you can declare war on that mod, and spread more awareness, but are you really helping the cause that way? Nobody outside of Klei that learns about this, has any power to change it, but every new person can potentially download the mod, or make another similar mod.