How to Add New Items to a Default Inventory DataStore

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So I’ve got a DataStore set up to save player inventories, and when a new player joins, they start with some default items like a Basic Sword and a Healing Potion. That part works just fine.

The issue is when I add new items to the default inventory later on. Let’s say I add a Magic Scroll. New players get it automatically, but players who’ve already joined before don’t, since their inventory is already saved without it.

I can’t just give them the item if they don’t have it, because players can drop or sell stuff and I don’t want to give it back if they purposely got rid of it.

What I do want is a way to give the item to players who’ve never had it at all, kind of like syncing their data with the updated default list, but only adding things they’ve never owned.

Has anyone run into this before? Would love to hear how you handled it.

Thanks!

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You could set up some version control that checks if the starter inventory that the player got was of an earlier version than the current one, and if so, add items based on the version gap. In that case you’d also obviously need to keep track of the latest version each player had and you’d probably need to add a version reference to each item which shows in what version the item was added.

So if the current inventory version is less than the version where an item was added, then add that item and update the inventory version.

Or you could also keep a boolean value for each item in the starter inventory saved, which shows if the player has ever been given it, tho imo that is a worse approach.

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Normally data store modules (ProfileStore) have a function called Reconcile() this takes the default template and adds any missing tables / values to the players data! I would suggest looking into this, and implementing it into your datastore code.

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try checking if the player’s inventory contains the new item when they load it, and only adding it if they don’t already have it.

  1. When a player joins and their inventory loads from the DataStore, compare their inventory with the default inventory (which includes the new items).
  2. If the player’s inventory doesn’t contain the new item (like the Magic Scroll), add it to their inventory, but only if they haven’t already owned it.
  3. You can create a list of “new items” that should be added, and iterate over that list to check if each item is missing from the player’s inventory.

try something like this & let me know

local DataStoreService = game:GetService("DataStoreService")
local inventoryDataStore = DataStoreService:GetDataStore("PlayerInventory")

-- Default inventory (including new items like Magic Scroll)
local defaultInventory = {"Basic Sword", "Healing Potion", "Magic Scroll"}

local function addNewItemsToInventory(player)
    local playerData = inventoryDataStore:GetAsync(player.UserId)
    
    -- If player has no inventory data, assign the default one
    if not playerData then
        playerData = {"Basic Sword", "Healing Potion"}
    end
    
    -- Iterate through the default inventory and check for missing items
    for _, item in pairs(defaultInventory) do
        if not table.find(playerData, item) then
            table.insert(playerData, item) -- Add the missing item
        end
    end
    
    -- Save the updated inventory back to the DataStore
    inventoryDataStore:SetAsync(player.UserId, playerData)
end

-- Call this function when the player joins
game.Players.PlayerAdded:Connect(function(player)
    addNewItemsToInventory(player)
end)

With this method, you’re checking if the player already has the item in their inventory. If they don’t, it gets added, and then the data is saved back to the DataStore. This ensures that only players who’ve never had the item will receive it, and players who’ve sold or dropped it won’t be given it again.

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