What Campaign Mode Is
Campaign is Barotrauma's core long-form mode. Your crew travels between locations across a procedurally generated Europa, completes missions, earns money, buys upgrades, and eventually confronts the story's end. Progress persists between sessions — your submarine, crew, and upgrades all carry over.
It's the mode most crews play. Missions and sandbox are good for quick sessions, but campaign is where the real Barotrauma experience lives.
Starting a New Campaign
From the in-game host menu:
- Select Multiplayer Campaign
- Click New Campaign
- Choose a starting submarine
- Set the campaign difficulty and seed
- Start — the server loads the first outpost
All connected players join the campaign as crew members. Whoever has ManageCampaign permission (or All) can make decisions at outposts.
Campaign-Specific Server Settings
Add or adjust these in serversettings.xml:
<serversettings
MaxMissionCount="2"
MoneyPerPlayer="2500"
EnableSubmarineVoting="true"
...
/>
| Setting | What it controls |
|---|---|
MaxMissionCount |
How many missions are visible per location (default 2) |
MoneyPerPlayer |
Starting funds per connected player |
EnableSubmarineVoting |
Let the crew vote when switching submarines |
Campaign State: Who Controls What
The campaign runs server-side. The server holds the authoritative state — locations visited, money, crew health, repairs. Clients are participants, not hosts. This means:
- If the server goes down mid-campaign, the last autosave is the recovery point
- Clients don't need to be present for every session; they rejoin and pick up where the campaign left off
- Only players with
ManageCampaignpermission can buy things, hire crew, or manage the submarine at outposts
Changing Submarines Mid-Campaign
At any outpost, open the Store and navigate to the submarine purchase screen. Buying a new submarine costs in-game money. The old submarine is gone — make sure the crew agrees before pulling the trigger.
If EnableSubmarineVoting is on, switching submarines triggers a crew vote.
How Saving Works
Barotrauma autosaves at two points:
- End of each round (when the crew returns to the submarine after a mission)
- When docking at an outpost
To force a manual save at any time, use the server console:
save
Save files live in Servers/<ServerName>/Saves/. Back them up regularly — see How to Back Up Your Barotrauma Server.