Persistent

A persistent variable is a special type of variable which, rather than being tied to a particular playthrough of a game, is tied to the game as a whole, independent of any save files. By default, persistent variables are used for things like volume settings, skip preferences, and text speed – things that the player can adjust, and which aren’t reset after closing the game or starting a new save file.

User-declared persistent variables can be used to do things like unlock extras screens or track which routes a player has finished so you can show them a “True” ending. You can set one up in your script with a line like default persistent.seen_good_end = False.

Ren’Py also tracks information on playthroughs behind-the-scenes which can sometimes be tapped into – things like checking which images the player has seen, which lines of dialogue have been read, or which choices they’ve made in previous playthroughs – this information is also stored using persistent variables.

For more on this topic, take a look at my collaboration Basics of Ren’Py #9: Persistent Data over on Lezalith’s website.

Equality Comparisons in Ren'Py
This tutorial covers equality comparisons in Ren'Py, as well as the concepts of Truthy and Falsey. You'll learn how to compare things like strings and integers to display different dialogue.
Simple Variable Types in Ren'Py
This tutorial covers four variable types: booleans, integers, floats, and strings. You'll learn when and how to use them in your game to track information.
The Definitive Default Define Ren'Py Article
In this tutorial for beginners, learn how to declare variables in Ren'Py to track data which will be saved and loaded.

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