How to Bypass Permadeath: The Don't Touch the Snail Reset Save File Guide

You slipped up. The immortal gastropod tapped your cursor, and now you are locked out forever. The only way to bypass Both Good's permanent death mechanic is to execute a Don't Touch the Snail reset save file wipe by purging your local AppData and disabling Steam Cloud sync. This guide breaks down the exact file paths, registry edits, and cloud-sync toggles required to resurrect your run and reclaim your desktop.

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The Permadeath Gimmick: Why a Don't Touch the Snail Reset Save File is Necessary

Released on May 29, 2026, Don't Touch the Snail takes the viral "immortal snail" internet thought experiment—originally popularized by Gavin Free on the Rooster Teeth podcast—and turns it into a stressful desktop reality. Developer Both Good built an idle overlay where a relentless snail inches toward your mouse pointer while you browse, work, or play other games.

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The catch is absolute: if the snail touches your cursor, you die. Your final score is permanently locked into the global Steam leaderboards, and the application hard-locks you out. You cannot hit "New Game." You cannot restart. The software simply refuses to let you play again. The developer explicitly markets the game with the warning: "No retries. No second chances."

For purists, this one-and-done mechanic is a brilliant piece of performance art. It forces players to reckon with the anxiety of a single, unrepeatable mistake. The snail creeps at a slow 15% speed across your spreadsheets and browser windows, generating psychological friction not through mechanical difficulty, but through inevitability.

However, for completionists trying to unlock all 50+ snail skins using the randomly spawning desktop coins, this design is an infuriating roadblock. When a single momentary lapse in concentration ruins your chance to earn the coveted golden shell, you are left with only one option: digging into your Windows directory to force a Don't Touch the Snail reset save file maneuver. Video games are ultimately pieces of software, and software can always be manipulated.

Pre-Flight Check: Disable Steam Cloud Before Your Don't Touch the Snail Reset Save File Wipe

Before you touch a single folder on your hard drive, you must sever the game's connection to Steam's servers. Don't Touch the Snail utilizes Steam Cloud to silently back up your save state. If you delete your local files while the cloud sync is active, Steam will helpfully download your "dead" status the moment you launch the application, rendering your efforts useless.

To ensure your Don't Touch the Snail reset save file process actually works, follow these exact steps to cut the umbilical cord:

1. Open your Steam Library.
2. Right-click on Don't Touch the Snail and select Properties.
3. Navigate to the General tab on the left sidebar.
4. Toggle the switch next to Keep games saves in the Steam Cloud for Don't Touch the Snail to the OFF position.

By disabling this feature, you force the game to look exclusively at your local hard drive for its save state. When it finds nothing there, it will generate a fresh, untainted save file upon its next boot.

The Execution: How to Perform a Don't Touch the Snail Reset Save File Wipe

With the cloud disabled, you can now perform the actual Don't Touch the Snail reset save file operation. The game runs on the Unity engine, which means Both Good stores its persistent player data in the standard Windows LocalLow directory rather than the Steam installation folder. Uninstalling the game via Steam does nothing to this hidden directory.

Here is the surgical strike required to clear your death flag:

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1. Press the Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog box.
2. Type %appdata% and hit Enter. This drops you into the Windows Roaming folder.
3. Navigate up one directory level to the main AppData folder.
4. Open the LocalLow folder. This is where Unity engine games store their persistent data.
5. Locate the folder named Both Good. Inside, you will find the Dont Touch The Snail directory.
6. Delete the entire Dont Touch The Snail folder.

This directory contains the Player.log and the serialized save data that tells the game your cursor made fatal contact. Wiping it completely removes the local memory of your failure.

Will a Don't Touch the Snail Reset Save File Restore Your Leaderboard Rank?

The short answer is no. While deleting your local AppData allows you to play the game again and resume collecting those 50+ skins, it does not erase your history from the Both Good servers.

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The game's live leaderboards are tied directly to your unique Steam ID. When your mouse cursor touches the snail, your final survival time is instantly transmitted to the global database. A local Don't Touch the Snail reset save file wipe cannot hack a server-side SQL database.

If your goal is simply to experience the game again, farm coins, and enjoy the ambient stress of a desktop overlay assassin, the local wipe is perfect. However, if you are trying to scrub a humiliating two-minute survival time from the global leaderboards, you are out of luck. The community will forever know that you panicked and dragged your mouse directly into the gastropod. To post a new high score, you would need to purchase the $0.99 game on a completely separate Steam account.

The Registry Editor Nuclear Option

In rare cases, players report that merely deleting the AppData folder isn't enough. If you boot up the game and the snail is still sitting on your cursor, Both Good may have written a redundant death flag into your Windows Registry using Unity's PlayerPrefs class.

If the standard Don't Touch the Snail reset save file method fails, you must clear the registry keys.

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1. Open the Windows Start menu, type regedit, and press Enter to launch the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate through the tree to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Both Good\Don't Touch the Snail.
3. Right-click the Don't Touch the Snail folder in the left pane and select Delete.

The Registry Editor is the nervous system of your operating system. Do not delete anything outside of the Both Good folder, or you risk breaking other applications. Once this key is removed alongside the AppData folder, the game will suffer absolute amnesia regarding your previous run, granting you a second life.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does uninstalling the game reset the save file? No. Uninstalling Don't Touch the Snail via Steam only removes the core executable files located in your SteamApps folder. It leaves the LocalLow AppData folder completely intact. You must manually perform the Don't Touch the Snail reset save file method to clear the death state.

Can I keep my unlocked skins when I reset? Unfortunately, no. Because the game is designed as a strict permadeath experience, your unlocked cosmetics and coin balance are stored in the exact same local file as your death flag. Deleting the file to bypass the permanent lock means sacrificing your entire collection of 50+ skins. You are starting entirely from scratch.

Is bypassing the permadeath a bannable offense? No. Both Good has not implemented any anti-cheat software (like Easy Anti-Cheat or BattleEye) for this meme game. Altering your local save files will not trigger a VAC ban on your Steam account, nor will it flag your Steam profile. The developers are aware players will attempt to bypass the lock.

Can I backup my save before I die? Yes. If you locate the Dont Touch The Snail folder in your LocalLow directory before the snail touches your cursor, you can copy it to your desktop. If you die, simply delete the dead folder and replace it with your backed-up copy. This allows you to save-scum your progress without losing your unlocked skins, effectively defeating the entire premise of the game.

The Final Word

Don't Touch the Snail is a fascinating experiment in digital permanence. By understanding the architecture of Unity's save systems, you can reject the developer's philosophical gimmick and reclaim your desktop. Execute the wipe, disable the cloud, and start farming those coins again. Just remember to keep your cursor moving.

Sources

• Both Good Official Steam Updates and Release Notes
• r/theregulationpod community discussions
• PC Gamer: "True permadeath: You can never play this game again if you let its immortal snail assassin touch your mouse pointer"