Setting Up a Terraria Server with TShock

TShock is the most popular Terraria server mod, adding player management, permissions, and many admin tools.

Step 1 — Install .NET Runtime

wget https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh
bash dotnet-install.sh --channel 6.0
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.dotnet:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Step 2 — Download TShock

mkdir ~/terraria && cd ~/terraria
wget https://github.com/Pryaxis/TShock/releases/download/v5.2.0/TShock-5.2-for-Terraria-1.4.4.9-linux-x64-Release.zip
unzip TShock-*.zip
chmod +x TShock.Server

Step 3 — Create a Startup Script

nano ~/start-terraria.sh

#!/bin/bash
cd ~/terraria
./TShock.Server -world ~/terraria/worlds/MyWorld.wld -autocreate 2 -worldname MyWorld -port 7777 -maxplayers 16

chmod +x ~/start-terraria.sh

Step 4 — Open Firewall Port

ufw allow 7777/tcp

Step 5 — Start the Server

screen -S terraria ~/start-terraria.sh

On first start, TShock will generate the world and display a setup token — use it to set up the admin account.

Key TShock Admin Commands (in-game console)

/login adminpassword        # Login as admin
/ban add PlayerName         # Ban a player
/kick PlayerName Reason     # Kick a player
/give PlayerName 75 999     # Give items
/tp PlayerName              # Teleport to player