Getting started

Create your server

From the Create a server page, pick Windrose, then choose a plan. By the game developers' numbers, 8GB of RAM carries 2 players, 12GB carries 4, and 16GB carries 10. The details are in the performance guide.

After payment, your server starts setting up. Follow its progress on the order page. There's nothing to set up yourself: as soon as it's ready, your server downloads Windrose from Steam, creates its first world, generates an invite code, and starts.

The first start takes a while as the game files download and the world is created. Watch all of it from the Console tab.

The setup steps

The panel opens the Setup page to walk you through a few short steps: your server's name, the world, how your friends join, and finally the invite code. Every step is optional, so press Skip this step on anything you don't need. You'll find each setting later in its own tab in the panel.

Join the game

Players join Windrose with the invite code, so they need no address and no port. You'll find the code on the invite code card on the Overview page and in the Connect tab. The code is hidden, so copy it with the copy button beside it.

Then inside Windrose:

Press Play
Choose Connect to Server
Paste the invite code and press Connect

Send the code to your friends, and they join the same way.

Capital and small letters in the code are different, so paste it exactly as it is. If you set a password, Windrose asks every player for it when they join.

Every player has to pick the same connection region in the game as your server uses, or they won't find it. The details are in the connect guide.

What a Windrose server can't do

None of this is missing from your server. It's missing from Windrose itself:

No kick, ban or whitelist. To keep a player out, generate a new invite code, change the password, then restart your server. The steps are in the players guide.
No console commands. Windrose reads nothing from the console, so the ones we answer there (status, players, worlds, invite, backups, help) are handled by the panel rather than passed to the game.
No announcements. There is no way for the server to put a message in front of players.
No mods. Windrose has no official mod support, and the panel has nothing for mods.
No manual save. Windrose writes a copy of the world within a minute of any change during play, and writes none when it stops, so a stop or a restart can lose the last minute of play. A backup archives the last copy Windrose wrote.

Before you set sail

Each player's character and progress live on their own PC, and the world lives on your server
The Windrose developers recommend groups of up to 4 players, and boss fights aren't balanced for more
Windrose is on PC only (Steam, Epic and Stove), with no console version
Your world is safe: we take automatic backups, and you can take one yourself whenever you like

A player can join only when their game is on the same version as the server. We update your server on our own after each game update once nobody is playing, so remind your friends to update their game too. The details are in the updates guide.

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Invite code and direct connection