Your Project Zomboid server runs Build 42 and is ready a couple of minutes after checkout. This is the five-minute path from "just bought it" to your group surviving together.
1. Find your server
Open your dashboard and select the new Project Zomboid service. The Overview tab shows the server's status, console, and — once it's online — the connection card with your server address.
First boot takes longer than later ones: the server is generating its world and writing its config files. Watch the console for SERVER STARTED — that's live.
2. Get your connection details
The connection card shows your address as host:port. Players join from the game's main menu:
- Join → Internet tab, if your server is set to public — search the server name.
- Or Favorites → Add to favorites, paste the host and port from your connection card. This works whether or not the server is public, and it's the reliable route.
Each player picks an account username and password the first time they join — that's their identity on your server, not their Steam login.
3. Make it yours
Head to the Settings tab to change the things most groups want on day one:
- Server name and description — what players see in the browser.
- Password — set one to keep the server to your group.
- Max players — within what your plan's RAM comfortably supports.
- PVP — off for co-op survival, on for that kind of server.
Settings changes need the server stopped (Zomboid rewrites its config on shutdown, so edits to a running server would be lost). The dashboard will tell you when a restart is needed — see Changing Your Server Settings.
4. Your admin account
The in-game admin account was created automatically with a secure password — it's shown in your service's settings. Log into the game with it to use admin commands (teleport, items, kick) via the in-game admin panel.
5. Before you invite everyone
- Everyone must be on Build 42 — a friend still on the B41 legacy branch can't join.
- Adding mods? Read Installing Workshop Mods first — B42 needs B42-tagged mods.
- The Backups tab is already protecting your world; take a manual backup before your first mod experiment anyway.
If something's not right
- Server won't reach
SERVER STARTED→ check the console for the actual error; a bad mod list is the usual cause (Workshop mods guide). - Friends can't connect → work through Players Can't Join.
- Anything else → open a ticket from your dashboard and include what the console showed.