Necesse Can't Connect to Friend? Fixes for Invites, Ports and Versions

Necesse can't connect you to a friend's world for one of four reasons: you are using the wrong way to join, a UDP port is closed, your game versions or mods differ, or the host is simply offline. The message on screen usually names the cause. This guide fixes each one, starting with the most common.

For the full setup of a server that is always online, see our Necesse dedicated server guide. If you host with us, every setting below lives in the panel of your Necesse server.

All the messages above are quoted from the game's own text in the current 1.3.3 server files on necessegame.com.

Invites vs IP

Necesse has two ways to play together, and mixing them up is the number one reason a friend cannot get in.

In-game hosting. One player picks Host world from the multiplayer menu. The official wiki explains that such a world is hosted on Steam, in the host's download region, and that it only exists while the owner is online and inside it. Friends then find it under Join a friend. If your friend is missing from that list, the game itself tells you why: "Make sure that your friend hosts their game through in-game menu". A friend who is just playing singleplayer, or running a dedicated server, never shows up there.

The host menu has four settings that decide who gets in:

• Server visibility. If friends see "Game is for friends only" or "Game is invite only", this is the setting blocking them. The host can still let anyone in: the game notes that "Friends can always be invited from the pause menu".
• Allow friends joining from the friend list. Leave it ticked if friends join from their friend list.
• Allow connection by IP. Tick it if anyone joins with your address instead of an invite.
• Host port. 14159 unless you change it, between 0 and 65535.

Joining by address. Dedicated servers, and hosted worlds that allow connection by IP, are joined with an address and a port. The wiki's steps: Multiplayer → Add server, type a name, the IP address and the port number, click Add, then double-click the server. If you only have an address and Join a friend shows nothing, this is the path you want.

Ports

Joining by address needs one port open: UDP 14159, the default the wiki gives for both the protocol and the port. TCP is not enough. If you host at home:

1. Forward UDP 14159 on your router to the PC that hosts.
2. On Windows, add an inbound firewall rule: Windows Firewall → Advanced settings → Inbound Rules → New Rule → Port → UDP → 14159 → Allow the connection.
3. Give friends your public IPv4 address. The wiki warns that addresses from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255 are private, so nobody outside your network can use them.
4. If a port checker says the port is closed, try a real join anyway. The wiki notes that checkers sometimes give false negatives for UDP.

If you changed the host port, forward that port instead and tell friends to type it in the Port number field. A "Server did not respond" message, or a long wait that ends in nothing, almost always means one of these four steps is missing.

On 1up there is nothing to forward. Each server gets its own public port, shown next to the address in the panel. It is not always 14159, so copy both.

Versions

Necesse refuses a player whose build differs from the server's. In the server list you see Wrong game version next to the server's version (Server v. 1.3.3, for example), and a join attempt ends with Wrong client version. The wiki's Linux guide states the rule plainly: the server must match the client's game version.

What breaks it most often:

• A fresh patch. Fair Games ships regular updates; 1.3.3 went out on 25 August 2026. Update the game in Steam on every PC, and update a self-hosted dedicated server with SteamCMD, app_update 1169370 validate.
• A beta branch. The wiki's experimental version page shows how to opt in: Steam library → Necesse → Properties → Betas. Anyone who did must switch back to the same branch as the host.
• Mods. "Mods did not match" means the lists differ. Everyone needs the same mods, in the same versions, as the host.
• Characters. "Outside characters are not allowed on this world" is not a version problem: the world has Allow outside characters turned off, so only characters created on that world can join.

A dedicated server as the fix

If your group keeps hitting these problems, the cause is often the setup itself: a hosted world needs the owner online, their router and their version. A dedicated server removes all three. The wiki sums up its one advantage: the world is always online and accessible.

On 1up, a free Necesse server takes about a minute:

1. Create an account on the Free plan; it asks for no card.
2. Choose Necesse, pick London or Paris, and create the server.
3. Copy the address and the port from the panel and share them.
4. Friends join through Multiplayer → Add server, as above.

Our image checks Steam at every start and installs the newest public build, so after a patch a restart brings the server up to date. The Free plan gives you 1 server, up to 4 players and 2 GB of RAM; Casual (€3/month) allows 8 players and Starter (€7/month) 10, per our pricing page. A password needs at least 4 characters and cannot be part of the server name. Pause when empty is on by default, so the world waits while nobody is connected.

Tested on Necesse 1.3.3 (build 24926481) with the Vanilla template (1up image sha256:3d717b31) on the 1up-servers platform, 2026-10-04.

Change log

• 2026-10-04: first version.