Change Invasion Settings on Terraria TShock

Goblin armies, pirates and the other invasions are tuned by two TShock settings: how big an invasion is, and whether it ever ends by itself. Both sit in the Server Settings tab. Starting and stopping an invasion is a console command.

These settings need TShock, which is the default software. A tModLoader server has no invasion settings in its Server Settings tab. Checked against TShock 6.2.1 (Terraria 1.4.5.8), October 2026.

Change the size of invasions

1. Open the Server Settings tab and find the Gameplay section.
2. Change Invasion size. It is a whole number from 1 to 100, and the default is 1.
3. Turn Endless invasions on if you want an invasion to keep going until someone stops it. It is off by default.
4. Press Save changes in that section. The tab reminds you to restart the server to apply them.

Invasion size is a multiplier. TShock works the size of an invasion out as 100 plus the multiplier times the number of players on the server when the invasion starts. With the multiplier on 3 and four players on, that is 100 + (3 x 4) = 112. With Endless invasions on, TShock skips this formula and sets the size to 20000000.

Endless invasions doesn't start anything. TShock's documentation says you still need to start the event yourself. Once it runs, it carries on until you stop it with the command below.

Related spawn settings

The same Gameplay section has two more settings that change how busy the world feels, with or without an invasion:

• Enemy spawn rate (default 600): lower spawns enemies more often.
• Enemies at once (default 5): how many enemies can be around a player at once.

Start and stop an invasion

Open the Console tab and type the command without a slash:

worldevent invasion goblins

The invasion types are goblins, snowmen, pirates, pumpkinmoon, frostmoon and martians. For the two moon events you can add a wave number, such as worldevent invasion pumpkinmoon 5.

To end an invasion that is running, type worldevent invasion with no type. TShock announces that the current invasion has ended. If the Old One's Army is the event running, the same command stops that one instead.

Players can run the same command in game with a slash, as /worldevent invasion goblins. Their group needs the tshock.world.events permission plus either tshock.world.events.invasion or tshock.npc.invade. The trustedadmin and owner groups have these already. TShock's own note on the second one is "Warning: high network use. Easy to abuse." so keep it for staff. Terraria TShock admin commands and groups shows how to give a group a permission.

If nothing seems to change

• Save changes only writes the file. The server reads it when it starts, so restart from the Console tab.
• The server must have started once, because TShock writes its settings file on the first start. Until then the tab asks you to start the server first.
• A bigger Invasion size only shows on the next invasion you start, not one already under way.
• Switching to TShock from tModLoader is covered in Get started with your Terraria server.