Roblox studio starter gui reset on spawn is one of those settings that feels like a tiny detail until it completely breaks your game's flow. You've probably been there: you've spent three hours designing the perfect inventory system or a sleek shop menu, you jump into a playtest, die once, and suddenly your UI is doing something totally unexpected. Either it's disappeared, it's reset to its default state when it should have stayed open, or it's popped back up on the screen after you specifically closed it. It's one of the most common "gotcha" moments for new and even intermediate developers.
The thing is, Roblox handles UI in a way that's actually pretty smart once you get the hang of it, but the default settings aren't always what you want for a modern, polished game. When we talk about "ResetOnSpawn," we're looking at a property that dictates exactly how the game treats your GUI every single time a player's character gets refreshed. Understanding this isn't just about clicking a checkbox; it's about understanding how the game moves data from the server to the client.
What is ResetOnSpawn Anyway?
If you look at any ScreenGui object inside your StarterGui folder, you'll see a property in the Properties window called ResetOnSpawn. By default, this little box is checked. What this tells Roblox is: "Every time this player dies and a new character model is created, I want you to delete their current UI and replace it with a fresh copy from the StarterGui folder."
This is fine if you have a simple health bar or a crosshair. You want those to reset because they are tied to the life of the character. But let's say you have a complex quest log or a shop. If a player is halfway through scrolling a list and they get hit by a stray fireball, having that entire menu vanish or reset back to the top of the page is incredibly annoying for the user. It breaks the immersion and makes the game feel a bit unpolished.
When you uncheck that box, the UI becomes "persistent." It stays in the player's PlayerGui folder regardless of what happens to their character. This is usually what you want for HUD elements that track global stats, like your money or your level, which don't care if your physical character just tripped into a lava pit.
The Cycle of the PlayerGui
To really get why the roblox studio starter gui reset on spawn setting matters, you have to look at what's happening behind the scenes. When a player joins your game, Roblox takes everything in the StarterGui folder and clones it into that specific player's PlayerGui.
Now, if ResetOnSpawn is set to true, that cloning process happens every single time the player respawns. Roblox literally wipes the old UI and pastes in the new one. If it's set to false, that cloning process only happens once—the very first time the player enters the game.
This is where people get tripped up with scripting. If you have a LocalScript inside a ScreenGui that has ResetOnSpawn enabled, that script is going to run from the very beginning every time you die. If you've got variables stored in that script—like "Is the shop open?"—they're going to be reset to their default values. If you want a script to keep track of things throughout the entire play session, you either need to turn off ResetOnSpawn or move those variables somewhere else, like a script inside StarterPlayerScripts.
When Should You Keep It On?
It sounds like I'm hating on the reset feature, but it definitely has its place. Think about a "Death Screen." You want that UI to trigger specifically when the player dies. If the UI doesn't reset, you might find yourself stuck with a "You Died" message that never goes away because the script that controls it is still stuck in its finished state from the last time you died.
Another example is a round-based game. Sometimes, you want a clean slate for every life. If you have UI elements that are strictly tied to a single "life" (like a stamina bar or a temporary power-up timer), keeping ResetOnSpawn enabled ensures that you don't have old, buggy data hanging around from your previous attempt. It cleans up the "trash" so you don't have to write extra code to manually reset every single bar and button.
The Common Pitfalls of Persistent UI
So, you've unchecked the box and now your UI stays through deaths. Great! But now you've introduced a new problem. If your UI doesn't reset, how do you handle things that should change when a player respawns?
For instance, if you have a custom health bar that isn't resetting, it might stay at zero for a split second when the player spawns back in before the script realizes the player is alive again. You'll need to make sure your LocalScripts are listening for the CharacterAdded event.
Instead of relying on the GUI resetting to trigger your code, you'd write something like this: lua local player = game.Players.LocalPlayer player.CharacterAdded:Connect(function(character) -- This code runs every time the player spawns, -- even if the GUI itself didn't reset! print("New character found, updating the HUD") end) This gives you the best of both worlds. You keep your menus open and your data intact, but you still have the power to refresh specific parts of the screen when the player gets a fresh start.
Designing for User Experience
Think about the games you love to play. When you die in an RPG, do you want your inventory to close? Usually, the answer is no—unless the game is trying to be "hardcore." In most cases, if a player is managing their items, they want that menu to stay right where it is.
However, if you have a full-screen "Level Up" animation, you probably don't want that to stay stuck on the screen if the player happens to die while it's playing. That's a situation where a reset—or at least a very careful script—is necessary.
A lot of devs find a middle ground by organizing their StarterGui into different ScreenGuis. You don't have to have one giant GUI for everything. You can have a "StaticUI" ScreenGui with ResetOnSpawn turned off for things like your money display and your minimap. Then, you can have a "DynamicUI" ScreenGui with it turned on for things like interact prompts, damage indicators, and death effects.
Troubleshooting the "Ghost UI"
One of the weirdest bugs you'll run into with the roblox studio starter gui reset on spawn logic is what I call the "Ghost UI." This happens when you have a script that creates new UI elements on the fly. If that script lives inside a GUI that doesn't reset, but it's creating elements inside a GUI that does reset, you're going to have a bad time.
Essentially, the script thinks the button it created still exists, but Roblox deleted it during the respawn. Always try to keep your scripts and the elements they control in the same "lifecycle" group. If the script is persistent, the UI it manages should probably be persistent too. If you're ever confused why a button isn't clicking or a frame won't hide, check that ResetOnSpawn property first. It's the "is it plugged in?" of Roblox UI development.
A Final Thought on Optimization
From a performance standpoint, turning off ResetOnSpawn is actually slightly better for the client's CPU. Every time Roblox has to delete and re-clone a bunch of objects, it takes a tiny bit of processing power. In a game with a massive, complex UI, you might actually notice a tiny hitch or lag spike upon respawning if the game is trying to rebuild a hundred different frames and labels. By keeping the UI persistent, you're doing the player's computer a small favor.
At the end of the day, there's no "right" way to set it—there's only the way that fits your game's logic. Just remember that the checkbox exists. Don't let yourself get frustrated by a UI that won't stay put. Take control of the roblox studio starter gui reset on spawn setting, and you'll find that your game feels much more like a professional product and much less like a collection of floating boxes. Happy building, and may your UI always stay exactly where you put it!