Project Zomboid Multiplayer: How to Play Together

Project Zomboid gets a lot less lonely with friends along for the fight. Playing on a dedicated Project Zomboid server turns solo survival into a coordinated defense. You get real communication and more hands to cover a base against Knox Country’s undead.

In this Nitrado guide, we’ll show you how to find your Project Zomboid server’s IP address and port, add the server in Steam and in the game itself, and fix the connection errors players run into most often.

Finding Your Project Zomboid IP Address and Port

1. Log into your Nitrado Web Interface and open the Dashboard.
2. The sidebar on the left carries your server’s IP address and Game port, along with the current player count and map.

1. Scroll down to the Ports section if you also need the Query Port or the Rcon Port.

On the server used for this guide, the Game port, Query Port and Rcon Port all share the value 10420. The IP address and the Game port are the two values you and your friends need to connect.

Joining Your Server in Project Zomboid

Every player has to add the server as a favorite in Project Zomboid and create an account on it before they can play. The short version runs like this.

1. Open Project Zomboid and click Multiplayer on the main menu.
2. On the Favorites tab, click Add Server, then fill in Server name, IP/Domain and Port, plus Server password if your server has one. The Port field starts on Project Zomboid’s own default of 16261, so replace it with your Game port. Click SAVE.
3. Click Add New Account underneath your server, set a Username and Password, then click CONNECT on the account row that appears.

That username and password belong to this server alone. They are not your Steam login, so never type your Steam password into the account form.

The Internet tab of the same screen lists public servers, which is where to look if you want to play somewhere other than your own.

Adding Your Project Zomboid Server to Steam

Steam keeps its own server list, separate from the one inside the game. A Steam-enabled server always shows up there, even when it is hidden from the in-game public browser.

1. Open Steam, click View in the menu bar, then click Game Servers.

1. Select the Favorites tab, click the + button at the bottom, then enter your server’s IP address and Game port.

1. Your server appears in the list with its player count and current map.

This list is a quick way to check that your server is online and reachable from outside your own network. The joining itself still happens in Project Zomboid, where your server account lives.

Fixing Project Zomboid Connection Errors

A few connection errors come up often enough in Project Zomboid multiplayer to cover on their own. Here’s how to fix the two most common ones.

P2P Connection Errors When Joining a Server

A P2P (peer-to-peer) connection error usually comes down to one of three things:

• The IP address or port you entered doesn’t match your server.
• Your Steam client can’t reach Steam’s network services.
• Your game version doesn’t match the version your server is running.

1. Confirm the IP address and port you’re using match the values on your Web Interface Dashboard.
2. Restart Steam, then confirm it’s fully updated and online.
3. Check for a pending Project Zomboid update. Steam updates the game automatically, so a version mismatch usually means your client or your server missed one.

If none of that clears the error, restoring a backup from before it started can get your server running again.

Important. Restoring a backup rolls your server back to that save. Any progress made since then, including builds, inventory, and world changes, is lost. Download a copy of your current world through Tools > File Browser first if there’s any chance you’ll want it back.

1. In your Web Interface, go to Tools > Restore Backup to open Backup Management.
2. Find a backup from before the error began, then click Restore on that entry.
3. Wait for the server to restart, then try connecting again.

Can’t Connect to a Modded Server

A mismatched mod file usually throws one of two errors: “File doesn’t exist on the client”, followed by a file path, or “Workshop item version is different than the server”. Either one can be a mod that’s out of date on your end, but the fault is often server-side instead, because the server holds its copy of a Workshop item until it restarts.

Restart your server first. A restart is how a server picks up newer versions of its Workshop mods, and it clears the error on its own more often than not. If the error survives that, refresh the mods on your own machine.

1. Open Steam, go to your game library, select Project Zomboid, then open its Workshop tab.

1. Next to your profile picture, select Your Files, then Subscribed items.

1. For each mod your server uses, click Unsubscribe, then Subscribe again to redownload it.

1. Once Steam finishes downloading, try joining your server again.

Survive Knox Country as a Group

You now know how to find your server’s IP address and port, add the server in Steam and in the game, and clear a P2P or modded-connection error. That covers what your group needs to get into the same Project Zomboid server. Grab your friends, split up the base-building and the scavenging runs, and put more hands on Knox Country’s horde than you ever could alone.

Rent Your Own Project Zomboid Server