Live editing

Live editing lets the editor talk to an Abiotic Factor world that is already running. It is an advanced mode, handy for a quick field adjustment. Offline editing is the safer workbench: it has more tools, lets you review changes before SAVE, and creates a .bak backup each time it writes.

Live changes happen as you make them. There is no universal SAVE, undo button, or editor backup, so make a normal in-game backup before experimenting.

	Offline editing	Live editing
Start here	Close the game or stop the server	Load a world in the running game
Changes happen	When you choose SAVE	As you edit or use an action
Safety net	A .bak backup on every write	Make your own backup first
Tools	Full save-file editor	Supported live tools only
Browser edition	Yes	No

Choose the mode first. Offline edits wait for Save; live changes apply immediately.

Set up this PC (Windows)

Live setup works in the complete Windows desktop release, and in the Linux desktop release for a game running through Steam Play (Proton) - see Set up this PC (Linux / Steam Play) below. The browser edition cannot connect to a live game.

Live editing needs UE4SS, a separate open-source mod loader (MIT licensed). The Windows and Linux releases include a copy and install it into your game folder with your permission. An existing UE4SS install is left alone.

1. Close Abiotic Factor, or stop the server.
2. In the editor, open the editing-mode button, choose Set up live editing, then This PC.
3. Pick which copy of the game to use. The editor lists every copy it finds on this PC (each Steam library and any Game Pass install), with the one you used last time already selected, and Choose another folder lets you point it at a copy it did not find. The choice is remembered as the game folder in Settings.
4. If UE4SS is not already installed, the editor shows a consent screen naming the bundled UE4SS version and the exact folder it would install into: Binaries/Win64 for a Steam copy, Binaries/WinGDK for a Game Pass copy. Review it, make sure the game is closed, then choose Install.
5. The editor installs UE4SS and its own editor helper in one step, then starts the helper.
6. Start the game, load a world, and wait for the editor to connect.

If the editor cannot find Abiotic Factor, use Choose another folder on that step (or set the installed game folder in Settings ▸ Game Data ▸ Set game folder), then try again. This is not your saves folder.

Game Pass copies

A Game Pass / Microsoft Store copy works the same way; the editor finds it under XboxGames on any drive and installs into its Binaries/WinGDK folder. The Xbox app keeps that folder locked until you turn on mods for the game: open Abiotic Factor in the Xbox app, use the ... menu and choose Enable mods. If the editor reports the folder is locked, that switch is what it needs.

Existing mods

If you already use UE4SS, keep its settings and other mods. Follow the loader publisher's upgrade guidance instead of overwriting files blindly. The editor recognises the usual nested ue4ss/ layout and older flat installs, and never overwrites an install it finds there, but custom redirected paths are not detected automatically.

If your copy of the editor has no bundled UE4SS

A dev build of the editor, or a build without live-support files, has no UE4SS to install for you. In that case the editor shows the manual steps instead:

1. Choose Get UE4SS. Download the standard UE4SS_*.zip from the official experimental release page. Do not use zDEV or a source-code archive.
2. Choose Open game folder and extract the ZIP contents into the folder the editor shows. For a usual Steam install, that is <Steam library>/steamapps/common/AbioticFactor/AbioticFactor/Binaries/Win64/; for a Game Pass install it is <drive>:/XboxGames/Abiotic Factor/Content/AbioticFactor/Binaries/WinGDK/.
3. Keep the ZIP's folder structure. The folder needs dwmapi.dll, ue4ss/UE4SS.dll, and ue4ss/Mods/shared/UEHelpers/UEHelpers.lua. Do not put them inside an extra ZIP-named folder and do not put them in your saves folder.
4. Return to the editor and choose Check again. When it detects UE4SS, choose Set up editor helper while the game is still closed.
5. Start the game, load a world, and wait for the editor to connect.

Game updates can change which UE4SS build works. Read its official installation guide if your install uses a different layout.

This PC guides local setup. A dedicated server needs details from its owner.

UE4SS is already installed separately in this example. This button installs the editor helper, not UE4SS.

Set up this PC (Linux / Steam Play)

The Linux desktop app can set up live editing for a Steam copy of the game running through Steam Play (Proton), including on the Steam Deck. Abiotic Factor has no native Linux build, so nothing here is different in principle from Windows: the same bundled UE4SS package and the same editor helper are installed into the same Binaries/Win64 folder inside the game's Steam library. Two things are specific to Proton:

• The game must have been launched through Steam at least once already. Steam only creates the per-game Proton profile (called a "prefix") the first time you actually run the game, and the editor's helper needs that profile to find the same %LOCALAPPDATA% the in-game mod uses. If setup reports it cannot find your Steam Play profile, start Abiotic Factor once from Steam, let it reach the main menu, quit, then retry This PC.
• UE4SS may need a Steam launch option under Proton. If UE4SS does not seem to load (no ue4ss/UE4SS.log appears next to the game after you play), right-click Abiotic Factor in your Steam library, choose Properties ▸ General ▸ Launch Options, and enter:

  WINEDLLOVERRIDES="dwmapi=n,b" %command%

  This tells Proton to use the UE4SS loader in the game folder instead of its own built-in file with the same name.
• Wine runs the editor's small helper program. UE4SS and the in-game part run inside the game, as on Windows. The separate helper the editor starts is a Windows program, so it runs through Wine, in the same Proton folder as the game. Most systems that run games through Steam Play have Wine, or can install it from their package manager (for example sudo apt install wine on Debian or Ubuntu, sudo pacman -S wine on Arch). To use a particular Wine build, set the ABIOTIC_LIVE_WINE environment variable to its path before starting the editor.

Everything else follows the same steps as Set up this PC (Windows) above: close the game, choose This PC, pick the detected copy, and let the editor install UE4SS and its own helper.

Linux notes

The desktop editor's own window needs a recent Linux (glibc 2.38 or newer, roughly Ubuntu 24.04 and up, or an equivalent on other distributions). Live editing on Steam Play also needs Wine installed, so the editor can run its small helper inside the game's Proton folder.

If This PC setup gets stuck, or the game never connects after UE4SS and the helper both report ready, please file an issue with the editor's diagnostics log attached.

Live editing is not available on macOS. Offline save editing works there as usual.

Updating or reconnecting

Choose This PC again. The editor checks its bundled agent files and offers an update when needed. Close the game, run Set up editor helper, then restart the game and load your world.

UE4SS updates ship together with editor releases, and the editor never replaces an install it finds already there. To move to a newer bundled UE4SS build, close the game, delete the ue4ss folder and dwmapi.dll from Binaries/Win64 (Binaries/WinGDK on Game Pass), then choose This PC again to install the newer bundled build. If you manage UE4SS yourself instead, keep updating it separately through its publisher.

If the live-agent folder is missing from a Windows release, extract the complete release again. Source-build help is in the agent source instructions.

Connecting to a server you run

Set up the helper on the server machine, while its game is stopped. On a Windows machine with desktop access, install UE4SS there and use This PC. Start the server afterward and keep the helper running under the same Windows account as the game.

Then choose the remote-server option in the desktop editor and enter the helper's host, port, and token. The usual port is 42117; use the helper's actual port if it differs. Local details are in %LOCALAPPDATA%\AbioticEditorLiveAgent as token.txt and port.txt. If you run the editor with a portable data folder (ABIOTIC_APPDATA_DIR), they are in its live-agent subfolder instead.

Only the server owner can make the helper reachable through their network and firewall. Treat its token like a password. Do not include it in screenshots or reports. Joining somebody else's multiplayer server does not give the editor control over it.

Enter the server helper details. Never share a screenshot containing your token.

What you can change

Live controls depend on the selected player, your host authority, and what the game currently has loaded. Hosts can work with other connected players and world objects. A client can change supported parts of their own character. Objects outside loaded sectors cannot appear at all; move close to them and refresh, or edit their region save offline instead.

Player

Area	Works live	Host-only	Not possible live, or read-only, and why
Vitals and limb health	Hunger, thirst, sanity, fatigue, continence, money, and every limb's health	No, for your own character (a host can also reach other players)
Skills	XP and XP multiplier for each skill	No, for your own character (a host can also reach other players)
Inventory, transmog and weapon coatings	Item, stack, durability and magazine ammo in your backpack, equipped, hotbar and transmog slots; moving an item into or out of a nearby container keeps every extra detail it carries (pet progress, weapon coatings, custom variants); the six "hide this armor piece" transmog toggles; weapon coatings themselves	No, this is your own inventory (a host can also reach other players')
Companions (carried pets)	A carried pet's name, health, XP, mutation progress, and its mutation target, from the Companions tab	No, this is player-owned data	Clearing the active Companion slot only makes a Pest- or Skink-family pet's matching world creature disappear too. A carried Peccary or Lamogi carries none of the id information the game needs to find and remove its matching world creature, so it is left behind, still wandering around, after you clear the slot
Recipes	Unlocking any recipe (Unlock All sends one request, not one per recipe)	Unlocking: no. Relocking a recipe: yes	Relocking needs a game/agent build that can read the recipe list back; an older one explains why instead of just hiding the control
Codex / GatePal (emails, journal, fish, compendium)	Marking any entry known, including kill-tracked compendium sections now (Mark All sends one request); on a supporting agent, marking an entry unknown again	No, this is player-owned data	Marking an entry unknown again needs an updated agent; an older one keeps this read-only
Quests (GatePal, game 1.5 and newer)	Seeing the quest lines and which objectives are active, and choosing which line your character tracks	No, this is player-owned data (your own character only)	Needs an updated agent. Completed and upcoming objectives come from the world's story flags
Quests (GatePal, game 1.5 and newer)	Seeing the quest lines and which objectives are active, and choosing which line your character tracks	Yes (your own character only)	Needs an updated agent; completed and upcoming objectives come from the world's story flags
Traits	Adding or removing a trait, and its matching buff	Yes, even for your own traits
Appearance	Every customization slot: head, hair style, hair color, shirt color, upper and lower body, shoes, belt, beard, wristwatch, tie, ID card, and head accessory	Yes	Only the local computer's own character can permanently save the new look to its profile; another connected player's look can be changed live but not saved from here
Spawn point and respawn terminal	Teleporting a character to exact coordinates; claiming a different respawn terminal	Teleporting another connected player: yes. Your own position: no	Claiming a respawn terminal only ever applies to your own character, never another player's - the game gives no way to reach anyone else's for this
Discoveries (items seen, maps, background)	Marking an item seen, a map discovered, and changing your background; on a supporting agent, marking an item crafted	No, this is player-owned data	Crafted-item discovery needs an updated agent
Account (which save file a character belongs to)	Nothing		This only exists as a file rename made before the save is ever loaded, so there is nothing running in the game to change - the editor shows your connected id as a read-only line here instead

World

Every world edit below needs host authority, the same requirement every world area has always had, except where the table says otherwise.

Area	Works live	Host-only	Not possible live, or read-only, and why
Flags and story	Setting or clearing any world flag; moving the main story chapter forward or back (the editor works out the right flags to set and clear on its own)	Yes
Clock and weather	The day, time of day, current or next weather event, and the world's total play time	Yes	Pausing or resuming the clock can be read but not set live
Doors	Open (inwards or outwards) or closed, the one-way-unlocked flag, and disabling a door	Yes	Only doors currently loaded near a player respond; move closer and refresh for one that doesn't
Containers	Full slot editing (item, stack, durability, and every extra detail an item carries), sorting a container, moving items in or out	Yes
Dropped items	Listing, removing, and spawning a new dropped item, optionally at an exact position	Yes
Bases and bench upgrades	Renaming a placed object, installing or removing a bench upgrade on a bench that has one, repainting a placed object from the Painted objects list	Yes	A bench or crate's own stored contents open through the Containers tab, not here; a bench whose upgrade tags can't currently be read explains why instead of silently doing nothing
Vehicles	Driveable state, wrecked state, position, and a vehicle's on-board cargo storage (the same slot editor as any other container)	Yes
Pets (tamed)	Pest- and Skink-family pets: name, health, XP, and changing which creature species the pet actually is. Every other tamed creature (Peccary, Lamogi, and others with no stable id): health only	Yes	Species change is refused for a pet with no stable id, since the game has no way to confirm afterward that the result is still "the same pet"
NPCs, story characters	Whether they're a corpse, their story stage, and the shared Dead toggle, for named story characters and traders, with real in-game names shown	Yes	Only characters currently loaded nearby respond
NPCs, creatures	Disabled, invincible, faction, and the shared Dead toggle, for any nearby wildlife, monster, robot or humanoid NPC, with real creature names shown	Yes	Only creatures currently loaded nearby appear at all. This side has no offline file equivalent - the save file never remembers what was loaded in the world
Containment (Leyak Containment Units)	Assigning, releasing, or swapping which creature a unit holds	Yes
Traders	Unlocking a trader (sets the story flags that gate them)	Unlocking: yes. Browsing stock: no
Portals (World Teleporters)	Whether a pad is active and unlocked	Yes	Which pad links to which destination is baked into the level and can't be changed
Elevators	Sending a platform up or down by pressing the game's own buttons (real travel time, so a request can report success while the platform is still moving)	Yes	An elevator type the editor doesn't recognize lists as "not controllable" instead of a toggle
Buttons	Enabled, activated, the "no vignette reset" flag, and whether it's been pressed once, in both directions	Yes	Setting "pressed once" back off only lasts until the button is genuinely used again in-game (by a player or anything else that presses it), because using a button always marks it pressed once
Resource nodes	Marking a node harvested, or respawning it, through the game's own respawn/deplete functions so it reappears or vanishes with the right effects	Yes	Removing a node entry, the way the offline editor can, isn't offered live, since nothing live resets a node that completely. A node with a "keeps respawning on its own" flag always ends up depleted rather than respawned when asked to respawn, and there's no way to see that flag ahead of time
Breakables (destructible objects)	Breaking an object, with the same effects a real break has	Yes	Repairing a broken object is not possible live - the game has no way to rebuild a broken object's look and collision once it's been broken, until you reload the world
Corpses	Removing a corpse outright, with no undo	Yes	Whether a corpse is gibbed or already looted can't be changed live, since there's no in-game reason to flip either by hand
NPC spawners	Setting the exact cooldown time remaining, resetting the cooldown immediately, forcing a spawn attempt	Yes	The offline "minutes into the day the cooldown started" field has no live match, since the game only tracks cooldowns by whole day. A forced spawn may not always produce a visible creature
Triggers	Setting the exact trigger count, or a full reset that also re-arms the trigger itself	Yes	A trigger's own configured limit is informational only and can't be changed
Power sockets	Nothing is settable	n/a	Everything here (its id, what's plugged into it, whether it's powered, its timer) is read-only, because the game clears a socket's timer state back off every single time anything saves that socket, so nothing written here could ever stick
Trams	Recalling a tram to a station that has a recall point wired to it	Yes	A tram can only be sent to a station with a real recall point placed in the level, a narrower set than the offline editor's "any station the save has ever mentioned". A recall is a real, sometimes multi-stop journey, not a teleport
Garden plots, Power Chairs and chemistry benches	A plot's water level, and its fertilizer and growth stage/progress per planted spot; a Power Chair's charge	Yes	A plot's planted crop and a chemistry bench's flask contents are read-only here, but a chemistry bench's flasks are the same slots as any other container, so open it from the Containers tab to actually change them. Planting an empty garden spot, or clearing a planted one, still isn't supported at all, the same as offline
World-wide seen lists (items picked up, emails read, journal entries, and the three compendium categories, tracked for the whole world rather than one player)	Adding or removing any entry, browsable and searchable from the Story tab	Yes

The live-editing protocol has the technical details of each action. A game update can change what works live, so update the editor and its helper after one.

Field fixes

Problem	What to do
Game not found	Use Choose another folder on the copy-of-the-game step, or set it in Settings ▸ Game Data, then retry
Game must be closed	Exit the game or stop the server, then retry This PC
UE4SS still missing	Check the displayed folder (Win64, or WinGDK on Game Pass) for the runtime and shared UEHelpers file, with no extra folder level
Permission error	Use a Windows account allowed to write to the game folder
Game Pass folder locked	In the Xbox app, open the game's ... menu and choose Enable mods, then retry
Agent update needed	Close the game, run helper setup, then restart and load the world
No world or object listed	Load into a world, move near the object, then refresh
Connection failed	Check that UE4SS loaded the mod and the helper is running, then restart after an update

An item exists but is invisible

Old agent versions could leave behind the wrong item details. Update the agent by closing the game and running This PC setup again. Restart the game, refresh the inventory or container, and apply the intended item again. For a ground item, remove it and add it again.

If validation fails, check Settings ▸ Game Data points at the same game install and reload its data. A failed batch does not partly edit your inventory or container.

Turning the helper off

Disconnecting stops editing but does not undo changes or uninstall the agent. To disable it, close the game and change AbioticEditorLiveAgentLua : 0 in mods.txt. Keep shared UE4SS files if another mod needs them. Running helper setup again can enable the agent.