Terraria server: tModLoader, tShock and joining by IP

Your Terraria server is online - here's how to join it, claim it as yours, bring your own world across, and pick between TShock and tModLoader.

Find your server address

1. Log in to the dashboard and open your server.
2. The server address sits in the panel's left rail, right under your server's name - an IP or a name, then a colon, then a port (it looks like 27.124.105.40:25590).
3. Press the copy button beside it. You'll use the two halves separately in a moment: the part before the colon is the IP, the number after it is the port.

Join from Terraria

1. Open Terraria on PC and click Multiplayer.
2. Pick Join via IP and select your character.
3. Type the IP (the part before the colon) and press Accept.
4. Terraria then asks for the port: type the number after the colon and press Accept.
5. If you set a Server Password, Terraria asks for it next. The panel's left rail shows it as Join password, under the server address, with its own copy button.

The server is ready once the Console tab shows Your server is online - players can join now. A brand-new server first builds its world, which takes a minute or two.

Claim your server (TShock)

TShock keeps its admin commands locked until someone owns the server. While nobody does, the Players tab shows a Claim your server card:

1. Start the server.
2. On the card, type your in-game character name and a password for your account, and press Make me the owner.
3. In game, open chat and log in: /login YourPassword.

From then on /login gets you every TShock command - /help lists them. The password is never stored in your console history or activity log.

Players, bans and the allow list

The Players tab shows who is on right now. On TShock you can message, kick, ban or make someone an admin from their row; tModLoader takes kick and ban only.

• Bans lists everyone banned, with the reason. Unban lets them back in, and you can ban someone who isn't online by their character name.
• Accounts lists every TShock account. Turn on Only players I add and only those accounts can play: add each player with a password, and they type it at the connect screen. Claim the server first, so you're not locked out with everyone else.

Bring a world you already have

Terraria worlds are .wld files (tModLoader adds a matching .twld file for mod data). On PC they live in Documents\My Games\Terraria\Worlds (vanilla) or Documents\My Games\Terraria\tModLoader\Worlds (tModLoader).

1. Stop the server.
2. Open the World Import tab and drop the .wld file on it (on tModLoader, its .twld file too).
3. Press import. The world your server had is kept aside under a new name, never overwritten, and the imported one is set to load.
4. Start the server.

A world name takes up to 20 letters, numbers, dashes and underscores. If your file's name has any other character, rename it on your PC first (on tModLoader, give the .twld file the same name, or the world loses its mod data).

Worlds: new, switch, download

The Worlds tab lists every world on the server:

• Use it on the next start switches to another world.
• Download a world to keep a copy, or to play it on your PC.
• New world makes one with the name, World size, Difficulty (Classic, Expert, Master or Journey) and seed you pick. Leave the seed empty for a random one, or type a secret seed such as not the bees. Restart the server to build it.
• Delete a world you no longer need while the server is stopped. The world that loads on start can't be deleted.

Switch between TShock and tModLoader

1. Open the Startup tab and find the Server software card.
2. Pick TShock or tModLoader, and a version (Latest unless you need to match an older game), then press Back up and reinstall.
3. A full backup is taken first. The server then stops, your worlds are moved to the folder the other software reads them from, and the new software installs.

If a world of the same name is already on the other side, it's kept aside, renamed, never overwritten.

Mods (tModLoader)

1. Switch the server to tModLoader (above).
2. Open the Mods tab and drop each mod's .tmod file on it. A mod you subscribed to on the Steam Workshop is in Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\1281930, one numbered folder per mod.
3. Each mod has its own switch: on loads it on the next start, off keeps it installed without loading it. Restart to apply.

Joining players are prompted to download any mods they're missing automatically. If a mod fails to load, tModLoader turns it off and starts without it: the Console tab says which one.

Server settings

The Server Settings tab shows TShock's settings (or tModLoader's serverconfig.txt) as labelled controls, from spawn rates and PvP to the message of the day. Save, then restart the server to apply them.

Common first-boot problems

1. "You are not using the same version as this server" - Terraria clients and servers must match versions exactly. Update your game, or pick an older version on the Server software card and reinstall.
2. Asked for a password - that's the Server Password setting in the Startup tab. Empty means anyone with the address can join.
3. Your imported world didn't load - check the Worlds tab: the world marked Loads on start is the one the server opens.
4. Only you are lagging - compare your ping with Australian game server latency: what ping to expect from each city. If yours is well above the figure for your city, note your city and your ping when you ask for help.

If your problem isn't listed here, copy the exact error from the Console tab and paste it in full when you ask for help.