PixARK server not working?
Start here.
PixARK keeps the blocks you dig and place in a second store its own save command never touches, so a stop that isn't ours can cost you five minutes of building. The rest is a first start that builds terrain before anyone can join, and a player cap the game ignores in its own file.
# what fixes most PixARK problems 1 Not in the list yet → First start builds terrain: wait ~90 s 2 Blocks gone after a restart → Stop from the panel, not Force stop 3 Player cap in the ini ignored → Use the Player slots field
My PixARK server isn't in the list, or my friends can't get on
Give the first start its time
A new world builds its terrain before it takes players: about a minute and a half on the main world, closer to three minutes on Terracrypt. After that a start is under a minute. The server is busy, not stuck.
Search the start of the name
Look for the Server name from Settings. PixARK adds its own version to the end of the name in the list, like - (v1.242).
Terracrypt needs the DLC
If Map is Terracrypt, every player needs the Terracrypt DLC to get in.
Check the join password
Join password blank means open. Set, everyone needs it.
Why: A PixARK server has to register with Steam as the game, not as the dedicated-server tool it installs from, or it runs fine and never appears in the list. Ours registers as the game; there is nothing for you to set.
We restarted and the blocks we placed are gone, and the holes filled back in
Stop and restart from the panel
Restart and Power save the world, then end the server with the game's own DoExit, which closes and saves every chunk of terrain before it quits. Tested with a player on the server: everything placed and dug after the game's last terrain save was still there.
Keep Force stop for a hung server
Force stop cuts the power. The terrain comes back as of the game's last five-minute save, and blocks placed since then are gone from the world and not back in anyone's inventory.
Save world now does not save terrain
Console → Save world now writes creatures, structures and characters. Terrain is written on the game's own five-minute cycle and when the server stops.
Back up with the server stopped
A backup of a running server holds terrain only up to the last five-minute save. For every last block: Power → stop, then Worlds & backups → Back up now.
Why: PixARK keeps two saves. The world file holds creatures, structures and players; dug and placed blocks live in terrain.db, written only when chunks close or on the game's five-minute cycle. A Ctrl-C stop lost every block since that cycle — twice, with a player in the game — before we moved our stop to DoExit.
Players can't hurt each other. How do I turn PvP on?
Know the default
A new PixARK server is Pioneering: PvE, nobody can hurt anybody. That is the game's own default; we checked a fresh server reports it.
Chaos: PvP around the clock
Settings → Game Mode & PvP → turn PvE only (Pioneering) off and PvP at all times (Chaos) on.
Fury: PvP in a weekly war window
Turn PvE only off and PvP in the war window (Fury) on, then set War window opens Saturday at to the hour you want. The window runs every weekend, from that hour on Saturday to 23:59 on Sunday, UTC. PixARK fixes the days and the Sunday close itself: we set others on our own server and the game ignored them.
Apply & restart
The mode switches are read when the server starts.
Why: PixARK has no single game-mode setting; it is three switches, and which one is on decides the mode.
I set the player cap in GameUserSettings.ini and nothing changed
Use Player slots
Settings → Core Server → Player slots, then Apply & restart. PixARK ignores the cap in its own config file: we wrote 10, the game rewrote it to 70 and told the server list 70. The field goes on the command line, the one place the game takes it from.
Change panel settings on the Settings tab
The panel rewrites the keys it owns in GameUserSettings.ini and Game.ini on every start. A key the panel does not show stays in the file.
Hand-edit with the server stopped
PixARK writes to its own config file too, so make hand edits with the server stopped, then start it.
Someone is griefing. Can I kick or ban them?
Kick from the Players tab
Players tab → Kick on their row. It goes by Steam ID, and they can rejoin straight away.
Keep them out with a password
Bans are not in the panel yet: we only wire what we have proved with a player on our own server. Until then, Settings → Join password → Apply & restart, and give it to your group.
Tell everyone
Console → Announce to everyone puts a banner on every screen; Say in chat posts a chat line as SERVER.
We switched to Terracrypt or Skyward and our world is gone
Switch the Map back
Settings → Map → your old map → Apply & restart. Each map keeps its own world in its own folder, so the old one is still there.
Expect a slow first start on a new map
A map's first start builds its terrain: Terracrypt took nearly three minutes on our node, Skyward under a minute and a half.
Why: Worlds live at CubeServers/<Map>/world/, one folder per map, and the map is picked on the command line at every start.
None of these, or still stuck?
Check the problems every game shares
Connections, settings that will not take, where your world is, lag: the answers that hold on every game are on the support page.
Write to us
The form arrives with PixARK already set; tell us what you tried and it saves a round trip. Pressing Need help? in your panel does the same and attaches your server, so there is nothing to look up.