This article explains the technicalities of the game files themselves. To see where the game files are located, visit the Game Directory page.
Game files can be edited and viewed using any text editor (Ex: Notepad). Simply right-click on the file you wish to edit and select "Open with" and select Notepad. Make sure you save (Ctrl+S) before you exit.
Item files provide detailed information for how the game should handle each item and how it effects gameplay. These can be very complex files with dynamic structures, but the ability to edit them can be very useful if you want to change something about how the game behaves.
English.dat File
The English.dat file is very simple because it only stores two points of information. It stores the name of the item (shown in the inventory and when the crosshairs point at the item on the ground) under the Name tag. It stores the item's description (when you right-click it in the inventory) under the Description tag. Editing this file is mainly useful for pranks or jokes, as it doesn't affect the gameplay at all. Below is how the file should be formatted.
Name (item name)
Description (item description)
And an example using the file for Lettuce:
Name Lettuce
Description Green vegetable.
(item name).dat file
The information contained in this file can have a major effect on how the item behaves in the game. This file contains information on how much space the item should take up in the inventory, how it should help/hinder your statuses, how to craft it, and more.
NOTE: Throughout this guide, the bandage.dat file will be used as an example because it contains all of the features of a file.
Header
The header contains information that the game uses to identify which item it should be referencing and which image to show to represent that item.
You should not change anything in the header. Although it may seem tempting, the Rarity field does not change how frequently the item spawns in the game (that is decided within the spawn tables), it, in conjunction with the Type field create the text at the top of the inspect view text box where it says "Rare Medical item".
Size Table
The size table tells the game how much space each item should take up in the inventory.
The Size_X and Size_Y are the dimensions within the inventory (in inventory slots).
Effects List
The effects list tells the game how this item should effect the status of the player. Below is a list of each effect. (I might not have them all, please add any I missed).
| Effect name | Context | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Health + | Health (%) | Increases player's health bar by (%) |
| Food + | Food (%) | Increases the player's food bar by (%) |
| Water + | Water (%) | Increases the player's water bar by (%) |
| Immunity + | Disinfectant (%) | Increases the player's immunity bar by (%) |
| Stamina + | Energy (%) | Increases the player's stamina bar by (%) |
| Immunity - | Virus (%) | Decreases the player's immunity bar by (%) |
| Bleeding | Bleeding | Stops the Bleeding effect |
| Broken bone | Broken | Stops the Broken Leg effect |
Blueprints
The Blueprints section is more tricky than the rest. This section tells the game how the player can craft the item. There is no line-by-line framework for these, as there are so many variants.
The first line clarifies how many ways there are to craft the item. It uses the context of Blueprints (#) where (#) is the number of blueprints. While this may seem redundant, this tells the program how many blueprints it should be looking for.
The next line specifies what tab the first blueprint should be under in the Crafting menu. It uses the context of Blueprint_(#)_Type (type) where (#) is the blueprint number (0 is the first, 1 is the second, etc.) and (type) is the tab name. The possibilities for the tabs are, in order:
Tool,
The next line specifies how many supplies there are in the current blueprint. It uses the context of Blueprint_(#)_Supplies (@) where (#) is the blueprint number and (@) is the number of supplies.