Inventory
The Inventory is a section of the User Interface where the player character's held Items are displayed and accessed during gameplay.
The player can hold up to fifteen different stacks of items in the Inventory. Equipable Items can be placed in their respective equipment slot.
- The first fifteen slots holds all types of items, minus Backpacks.
- The "left hand" slot allows the character to equip a Tool or Weapon.
- The body slot is reserved for Armor, Clothing or Backpacks.
- The head slot is reserved for head Armor or hats.
- The hidden "right hand" slot is for items held directly with the player's cursor.
Using the three equip slots, one can equip Armor, Clothing, Weapons and Tools, applying them visually to the character. Most equipped clothing gives the character resistance to Freezing or Overheating, and some restore Sanity over time. Equipped Armor absorbs a percentage of damage taken from enemy attacks and certain environmental hazards. Equipped tools are used to harvest Trees, mine Boulders, catch Fish, destroy Structures, and other functions important to survival.
Most equipable items have limited durability, indicated by numeric percentages displayed over their Inventory icons. These items lose durability as they are used and most are destroyed when the percentage drops to zero. Perishable items are indicated by a colored meter in the backdrop of the slot they're held in. The meter decreases and changes color, from green, to yellow, to red as items spoil, losing their effectiveness.
Most items in the Inventory can stack, allowing the player to carry multiples of the same item in a single slot, leaving more space for other items. Items will stack up to 40, 20 or 10, depending on the type. Most equippable items do not stack, and some items, like Tallbird Eggs, do not stack due to their unique individual uses.
Equipable Items
Some items can be placed in equipment slots for use. Each equipped item has its own slot in which it can be placed
Hand Items Items 
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Head Items Items 
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Head Items Items that can be placed only on Head Slot
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Body Items Items 
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Body Items Items that can be placed only on Body Slot
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Expansion
There are a few ways to expand how much space the player has to store items.
Wearing a Backpack allows the player 8 more slots to store items, and wearing a Piggyback gives the player access to 12 extra slots, but slows down movement speed. The Krampus Sack is a very rare drop from killing Krampus and a rare drop from the Loot Stash, and gives the player 14 more slots, without a speed penalty. These three items can only be equipped in the body slot.
The Quality of Life update imports the Bundling Wrap from 
to 
. With it, players can wrap up to 4 stacks of items into Bundled Supplies, which only takes up one Inventory slot.
Some Structures can also be used to store items. They cannot be moved once they are placed, but they can be destroyed with a Hammer. The simplest form of storage structure is a Chest, each of which has 9 storage slots. Ice Boxes also have 9 storage slots, but they can only hold perishable items (such as Food) and Thermal Stones.
Finding and picking up the Eye Bone will summon Chester, a passive mob who will follow the player around. Chester's mouth can be opened to access 9 storage slots in his belly. The player can also transform Chester into Shadow Chester, gaining access to 3 extra storage slots within.
Alternatively, one may simply drop items onto the ground. Items from the Inventory can be dragged over the ground to place them there. However, it is safer to at least place items in Backpacks left on the ground to prevent Mobs from interacting with them, with the exception of Splumonkeys.
Usage
Using the Inventory can be simple, and there are also some helpful keyboard shortcuts. Clicking on an item or stack in the Inventory will bind it to the cursor. Then, hover the mouse over the ground and click, and the character will proceed to drop the item or stack on the ground. Also, it is possible to place the item or stack back in an Inventory slot by clicking the wanted slot in the Inventory. If the selected slot already has another item in it, the held item and the item in the Inventory will swap, binding the new item to the cursor.
When the character's Inventory is full, a newly picked up item will bind to the cursor and will be 'carried' around, similar to having an extra Inventory slot. This disables the character to pick up other stuff of the ground, though, suggesting quick Inventory organizing. Multiple smaller stacks of the same items can be combined in the same slot, until their stack maximum is reached, potentially saving some Inventory space. The game will use items, e.g. for Crafting, from the first Inventory slot they are available, which may cause multiple item stacks if there is a smaller stack further right or in a Backpack. Combining stacks of food items will average their freshness, which may not be desired.
Main article: Controls
The first ten Inventory slots can be quickly selected by pressing the number keys. Selecting most items with the number keys triggers the character commenting on the item without forcing the examination with the opposite key. This does not apply for Foods and Tools, which causes the player to eat or equip the item, respectively. The 11th and 12th slots can also be selected by pressing the - and = keys respectively; and depending on the keyboard, they can be pressed on different keys.
Holding the Ctrl key and clicking on a stack of items will split the stack in half. Ctrl-clicking in an Inventory slot while holding the half stack will cause a single one of the items in the stack to be placed in the slot. This only applies if the selected slot is empty or contains the same item. Holding Alt and clicking on an item in the inventory will cause the character to make a remark on that item. To easily switch items between the Inventory and a chest, Shift key can be held while click on an item, and it will quickly move to a selected chest if that chest is not already full.
Downloadable Content
In the Reign of Giants DLC the player is able to craft Scaled Chests, which have 12 Inventory slots and are fireproof. The player can also craft the Insulated Pack, featuring 6 slots (8 in ) of portable storage that slow the spoilage of food placed within.
Items affected by Wetness, a feature introduced in this DLC and present in all other expansions, are indicated with a blue border around their Inventory slot.
In the Shipwrecked DLC, Boats gain their own equipment slots for Lights, Cannons, Trawl Nets and Sails. In addition, the Cargo Boat provides the player with an additional 6 slots to store items inside of it. The player can craft a Thatch Pack, which gives access to 4 more slots. The Sea Sack works much like the Insulated Pack in Reign of Giants, giving 6 additional slots and slowing down food spoilage. The Booty Bag gives 8 more slots and drops 1 unit of Dubloons daily. DLC Character Warly starts with his exclusive Chef Pouch, which has 8 inventory slots and slows down food spoilage. As for structures, Shipwrecked adds the Sea Chest, a 9 slot container which can only be placed on the Ocean. Chester is replaced by Packim Baggims, who will be summoned if the player acquires his Fishbone.
In the Hamlet DLC the Cork Barrel has 4 storage slots. The Root Trunk has 12 storage slots and shares its equipment with other Root Trunks in the world. The Vortex Cloak is a dual Armor and Backpack and can store up to 8 items. Within a Slanty Shanty, players may construct Shelves that display up to 6 individual items. Chester is replaced by Ro Bin.
A character exclusive to Hamlet, Wheeler, has only 12 Inventory slots, compared to the standard 15 slots of other characters.
Gallery
Inventory concept art for QoL Update in March 2022 from Rhymes With Play
Inventory concept art for QoL Update in March 2022 from Rhymes With Play
Inventory concept art for QoL Update in March 2022 from Rhymes With Play
