Multiplayer

1. Main menu, Join: pick from the browser or favourites, or enter the IP and port (default UDP 16261).
2. Create an account: a username and password for that server only.
3. Your game must be the exact same build as the server. Workshop mods the server uses download automatically.
4. Or join a friend through Steam invites. To host for friends, start from Host on the main menu, then Escape, Invite Friends.

Most servers wipe on a schedule. Check the last wipe date in the browser before you invest a month in a base.

A safehouse is a claimed building that only you and your members can use. Whether players can claim at all is up to the server.

1. Clear the building of zombies and other players.
2. Stand on an inside floor, right-click and choose Claim Safehouse.
3. Add friends with the safehouse panel or /addtosafehouse.

With the defaults a claim protects little. Good servers turn trespass and loot off.

Factions are named groups with a tag over your head. Create one from the faction panel; ownership can be handed on. Since Build 42 factions can declare war: an accepted war switches off safehouse protection on both sides for its duration (default one hour after a ten-minute delay), and refusing too often costs points and eventually protection. War is off by default.

If the server allows PvP and runs the safety system, each player toggles their own PvP with the skull icon. Switching takes a couple of seconds, with a cooldown, so you cannot flick it on mid-fight. PvP events are logged for admins. 42.22 moves PvP damage fully onto the server.

You do not need a dedicated server to play with a few friends. The Host button on the main menu runs a server inside your own game, and the world exists only while you are in it, so pick the person with the best connection and the longest evenings as host.

1. Main menu, Host, then create a settings profile: server name, password, the sandbox settings and the player limit. Leave UPnP on unless you already forward ports by hand; the default connection port is UDP 16261.
2. Set an admin password in the same screen. The host logs in with it, which is how you get the admin panel and chat commands later.
3. Start the server. Once you are in the world, press Escape and choose Invite Friends, or let them use Join Game on your Steam profile. Nobody needs your IP address.
4. Keep the player limit modest. The Host screen warns above 32 that map streaming and desync become a risk, which is the point where a dedicated server makes sense.

Local co-op on one PC also starts from here. Plug in a second controller before launching, load the world, then press A (Xbox) or X (PlayStation) on that controller to drop a second survivor into split-screen. If nothing happens, pause, open Options, tick the joypad in the controller section and try again. A hosted game has an AllowCoop option that decides whether split-screen clients may join it. Split-screen was polished in 42.21, but joining other people's online servers in split-screen is still not something we would promise. Each local player makes their own character and shares the host's save.

Build 41 had a fixed ladder of access levels. Build 42 keeps the ladder but turns each rung into a role made of named capabilities, and lets a server add custom roles with exactly the powers it wants. The built-in levels, as listed by the game's own setaccesslevel help, are user, priority, observer, gm, moderator and admin. Every command is tied to a capability such as ChangeAccessLevel, BanUnbanUser or CreateHorde; if your role lacks it, the server simply refuses. Roles are edited from the admin panel in-game, and a fix in 42.16 closed the hole that let a moderator promote themselves to admin.

A dedicated server asks for an admin password on first launch and creates the first admin account from it; a hosted game uses the password from the Host screen. From there, /setaccesslevel "name" "level" hands out roles. Commands go in chat with a leading slash, and /help or /help command is the authority when syntax shifts between patches.

Two commands are destructive. /removezombies and /remove delete everything of a type in an area, so save first. Our view: give regular players nothing above observer, give event hosts gm, and keep admin for one or two people who understand that /changeoption edits the live server.

Death on a server is permanent for the character, not the account. Your body stays where it fell with everything you were carrying, so a friend, or your next character, can recover the bag. When you reconnect you build a new survivor on the same account; safehouse membership and faction slots belonged to the old character, so expect to be re-added.

What happens next depends on a handful of server options, which the host can read in the server's settings file or change in-game with /changeoption. Ask an admin which are on before you pick a base.

Time passes at the server's rate, so nobody fast-forwards through a night alone, and a server that never pauses means crops and generators need checking on a real-world schedule. Desync shows up as zombies that hit from a tile away and doors that reopen. Join servers on your own continent, close downloads, and avoid driving at speed through unexplored map, which streams the most data. See health for what a bite means once the fight is lost.