If Windrose can't connect to a server, it's almost always one of five things: the server is on an older build than your game, the players and the server are on different connection regions, the invite code was typed wrong, the server hasn't finished starting, or something on your own network is blocking the game's connection service. The annoying part is that Windrose doesn't always tell you which. Sometimes you get an error, sometimes you sit on a loading screen, and sometimes the game just drops you back at the main menu as if nothing happened.
So work through it in order. The first three checks are the quickest, and they take a minute each.
How to fix Windrose when you can't connect to a server
- Compare version numbers. The game shows its version on the main menu. If the server is behind your client, update the server before you try anything else.
- Let the server finish starting. A dedicated server only prints its invite code once it's up and registered, so if there's no code yet, there's nothing to join.
- Copy and paste the invite code. Codes are case sensitive, so
Ab12Cdandab12cdare two different servers. - Put everyone on the same connection region. The server and every player need a shared connectivity server (EU and NA, SEA or CIS).
- Check the join password, if the server has one, and that the person joining actually has it.
- Turn on Force Relay Connection in the game's settings if you can find the server but the connection fails or keeps dropping. It's for invite-code connections only.
- Rule out your own network: turn off any VPN, switch to Cloudflare or Google DNS and run
ipconfig /flushdns, allow Windrose and Steam through the firewall, and make Windows prefer IPv4. - Fall back to Direct IP when the connection service won't work for you at all. Invite codes stop working once the server is on Direct IP, so tell your players first.
Tip: On LOW.MS, the invite code is on your server's Overview tab, in the Invite code row of the Join your server card (it's titled Connection details when it also has an SFTP tab), with a copy button. It shows as soon as the server logs a code after starting; until then the row says it appears once the server has started. If Connection Method is set to Direct IP, players use the Server address from the same card instead. The Update button in the Game updates card on that tab checks for the latest game files and installs them (the server stops and restarts). Everything else lives on the Manage tab: Connection Method, Invite Code and Connection Region in the Connection pane, and Join Password in General. Changes apply the next time the server starts (Save & Restart does both at once), and the Console tab lets you watch the server come up, although you can't type commands into it.
Why does Windrose say the server is outdated?
Because it is. Windrose is in Early Access and patches land often, and your game updates itself through Steam long before anyone thinks about the server. Since the studio's 17 April update the client checks the server's version before it connects and shows an error if the server is out of date. That's step 1, and it's the first thing I'd check after any Windrose patch day.
The fix runs one way. Update the server so it matches the client, then restart it. If one of your players is the one behind, their Steam client needs to pull the update. The studio's server guide is blunt about it: if the versions differ, players may "be unable to join the server at all", and it tells hosts to update "especially after game patches or hotfixes", so don't assume a tiny version difference is close enough.
Why won't my Windrose invite code work?
A dedicated server makes its own invite code, or you can set your own. Both are case sensitive. The game client accepts codes of 1 to 32 characters since the 17 April patch, but a dedicated server's own code must be at least 6 letters and digits (the studio's server guide says so), so on our servers a custom code has to be 6 to 32 letters and digits; if you set one outside that, the server ignores it and keeps the code it already had. That catches people out, because the code they're sharing isn't the one the server is using.
Three other things break codes:
- The server hasn't finished starting. No code has been registered yet, so there's nothing for the game to find (step 2).
- The server is set to Direct IP. In the studio's words, "When using Direct IP, players can only join via your IP address, and invite codes will not work."
- The code was read off a screenshot or a Discord message and someone mixed up an
land anI. Honestly, copy and paste it.
If you want to change the code itself, set Invite Code on the Manage tab (the Tip above has the details). Your players type the code in the game under Play, then Connect to Server.
Why does the code work for me but not my friend?
This is usually the connection region. Windrose's connection service runs in regions (Europe and North America share one, then Southeast Asia and CIS), and the studio's patch notes say every player needs access to at least one shared connectivity server. Its support site goes further: everyone must have the same region selected, and a mismatch is "the most common reason a friend's code doesn't work". That's step 4. Left on automatic, each machine picks whichever region has the best latency for it, so a crew spread across continents can end up on different ones without anyone touching a setting.
I'd set the server to a fixed region and ask the player who can't join to pick the same one in their game. A mixed EU and US crew is fine, since they share a region. One catch from the 19 April notes: on an unstable connection (high ping or packet loss), a connectivity server "may appear as 'available' even if it cannot actually be used", so a region that looks fine isn't proof.
If you're trying to join a friend's game on their own PC rather than a dedicated server, check how they started it: a Solo/Offline world can't be joined by anyone else, so the host needs to start it with Host a game instead. A dedicated server doesn't have this problem.
Force Relay Connection or Direct IP: which should you use?
Force Relay Connection is a client setting, added on 30 April. By default the game tries a direct peer-to-peer link, and that link can fail when "P2P traffic is blocked along the route", which the studio puts down to router settings, ISP restrictions or firewalls. Force Relay sends your traffic through the studio's relay servers instead, which "can improve stability at the cost of higher latency (ping)". It doesn't work with Direct IP. Each player who's struggling turns it on for themselves; it isn't a server setting.
Direct IP skips the connection service entirely. Players join with the server's address and port, and invite codes stop working. The studio added it on 19 April, and in the same post said that if no connectivity server works for you ("we've seen cases where ISPs block everything related to Windrose"), Direct IP is the workaround. Port forwarding is only needed on a server someone hosts at home; a hosted server already has its port open. One honest downside: with Direct IP, a wrong password or a version mismatch sends you back to the main menu without an error (the studio listed it as a known issue), so check steps 1 and 5 before you decide Direct IP is broken.
My order would be relay first, because it keeps invite codes working for everyone else, and Direct IP only when the connection service is unreachable from your network.
Windrose stuck on the loading screen when joining a server
The studio's support site points "stuck on the loading screen when trying to join" at IPv6. Its explanation is that Windrose multiplayer runs over IPv4, and on a network with both, Windows sometimes tries IPv6 first and the connection fails. Its suggested fix keeps IPv6 switched on and tells Windows to prefer IPv4: set the DisabledComponents value under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters to the DWORD 32, then restart the PC. Setting it back to 0 undoes it.
Troubleshooting by symptom
"...all my connectivity services are shown as Not Available". The studio's support site files this under DNS: your ISP's resolver can't find the relay hosts. Switch to Cloudflare (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1) or Google (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4), then run ipconfig /flushdns from an admin Command Prompt and restart the game. If nslookup r5coopapigateway-eu-release.windrose.support returns 127.0.0.1, something on your network is spoofing DNS, such as an ad-blocker, a Pi-hole, a VPN or parental controls.
Dropped back to the main menu with no error. On Direct IP, that's a wrong password or a version mismatch. On an invite code, check the version first, then the password.
Everyone can join except one player. Region, then their network. The studio's support site names Spectrum's Security Shield and Ziggo's Safe Online as blocking game traffic, and so are hotel, university and office Wi-Fi. If the game works for that player through a VPN but not without one, their ISP is almost certainly the cause.
You clicked Deny on the Windows network prompt. According to the studio's support site, Windows Firewall will then block the game without telling you. Allow both Steam and the Windrose executable on Private and Public networks under Allow an app through firewall in Windows Security.
It worked yesterday and you added mods today. The studio's support site says to reproduce the problem in vanilla first, and I'd do the same: take the mods out, confirm everyone can join, then add them back one at a time. Our mods guide shows where they live.
You connect, then get kicked a few minutes in. That's a different problem from failing to connect, and it usually comes down to the server's resources or the player's connection rather than anything on this page.
If you've been through all of that and it still won't connect, open a ticket and tell us the version number on your main menu, your ISP and country, whether it's everyone or one player, and the exact error if there is one. It's much the same list the studio's support site asks for. And if you haven't got a server yet, our Windrose server hosting page gets you one in a few minutes.