Help
How can we help?
Getting started, joining friends, hosting your own server, and what to do when something won’t connect.
Getting started
Acre by Acre is coming to Windows PC, and it plays on Steam Deck. When the download opens, unzip it into a folder of its own and run AcreByAcre.exe; the download page has the details.
- Single player starts a private world just for you, with its own save.
- Multiplayer lets you join a server or host one of your own.
- Name your farmer (or roll the dice for a name), pick one of three tractors, and you’re in. Your tractor is your character, and you keep it for life.
- The business guide offers three ways to start: a logging site, a quarry, or trading and hauling. You can end it whenever you like.
Joining a server
Choose Multiplayer in the game. The official server is at the top of the online list, marked as official. Servers hosted by other players come after it, and you can see them on the servers page too.
- A friend’s server: ask for its join code (it’s on the server’s page here, with a copy button) and enter it in the game, or find the server by name in the list.
- On the same home network: games hosted on your local network show up by themselves.
- By address: enter the host’s address and port. The usual port is 7000.
Before your game sends anything, it checks that the server runs a compatible version and that it really is the server it says it is. If the versions don’t match, it tells you whether you or the host needs to update.
Your account
There’s no sign-up and no password. The first time Acre by Acre runs, it makes a private account key on your device. That key never leaves your device: each server you join only ever sees a separate key made for that one world, so a server can’t use it anywhere else.
- Your farmer, money and property live on the server whose world you play in.
- Several people in one home can play on the same server at the same time.
- A backup code, for moving your farmer to another PC or a Steam Deck, is planned for the launch build.
About the beta. The official server opens as a beta. At launch the beta world is archived and a fresh world begins, so beta farmers start over with everyone else. Your game will tell you the world was reset, rather than calling it the wrong world.
Hosting a server
Anyone can host. Players connect straight to your computer, so your router has to let them in on UDP port 7000. A public server lists itself here and in the game, with no approval step.
Troubleshooting
“Update required” or “This server runs an older version”
Your game and the server speak different versions. If yours is older, update the game; it fetches updates by itself once the download is live. If the server is older, its host needs to update it. Version numbers are on each server’s page.
A server is listed, but I can’t connect to it
A listing only means the server has checked in with us; it doesn’t prove your game can reach it. Usually the host hasn’t forwarded UDP port 7000 to their computer, a firewall is blocking it, or their internet provider shares one address between many homes (CGNAT). Let the host know; the hosting guide covers all three.
The server is full
Every server has a player limit; the official server holds 32. Try again in a little while: the list shows free places as they open.
“The official world was reset for launch”
That’s expected once, at launch: the beta world is archived and a fresh public world starts on the same server. Make a new farmer and you’re away.
My server doesn’t show up in the list
Check that public listing is on and that the server is running. Names can’t contain links or words like “official” or “admin”, and each internet address can list three servers at once and register five a day. Servers reach the directory over IPv4; if your connection is IPv6-only, the server can’t list itself. See the listing rules.
The game runs slowly on my Steam Deck or laptop
In Settings, choose the Handheld or Low graphics preset and a frame-rate cap. On a Steam Deck the game picks Handheld by itself the first time it starts.
Windows says it “protected your PC”
Windows SmartScreen warns about new apps it hasn’t seen much of yet. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Only download Acre by Acre from this site, and check its SHA-256 if you want to be sure; the download page shows how.
Contact us
Email support@acrebyacregame.com. It helps to include your game version, what you were doing when it happened and, for a server problem, the server’s join code.