Install RocketMod and OpenMod on Unturned

Unturned's plugin ecosystem runs on two frameworks. RocketMod — often written Rocket Mod — is the original and still has the largest plugin catalogue; OpenMod is the modern successor built by one of RocketMod's original maintainers. Most guides present these as a fork in the road. They are not — OpenMod is explicitly designed to run alongside RocketMod, and understanding that saves a lot of wasted migration effort.

RocketMod and OpenMod are not mutually exclusive

Smartly Dressed Games' own documentation is direct about it: "OpenMod can be installed side-by-side with RocketMod, so you can use both RocketMod and OpenMod without any issue. OpenMod does not aim to replace RocketMod but to work with it together instead."

OpenMod integrates with RocketMod rather than displacing it, and can load existing Rocket plugins. In practice that means:

• Running RocketMod alone is fine, and gets you the biggest plugin library.
• Running OpenMod alone is fine, and gets you better dependency handling.
• Running both is supported, and is how you use a modern OpenMod plugin next to a Rocket-only one that nobody has ported.

What changed with RocketMod

The original RocketMod team stopped maintenance in December 2019 and released the source under the MIT license. SDG forked it and maintains it as Legally Distinct Missile (LDM), kept in sync with the game. When current documentation says "Rocket", it means LDM. The fork fixed long-standing issues including multithreading exceptions and teleportation exploits, so there is no reason to hunt down the abandoned original.

Choosing a framework for your Unturned server

If you are starting fresh and the plugins you want exist for OpenMod, start there. If you need a specific legacy plugin, RocketMod is the shortest path.

Installing RocketMod on Unturned

On your hosted Unturned server, RocketMod is selected from the modding framework field in your panel's Startup tab. Set it, save, and restart — the installation happens on boot.

Confirm it loaded by watching the Console tab as the server starts. You are looking for a line like:

Loading Rocket.Unturned: vX.X.X

You can also run the Modules command at any time to list what actually loaded, which is more reliable than assuming.

Modules is the fastest way to diagnose a framework problem

If a plugin is not responding, check whether the framework loaded at all before troubleshooting the plugin. See Unturned Server Commands and Cheat Codes for the full command reference.

If you are running a dedicated server yourself rather than on a panel, the server already includes the current version: copy the Rocket.Unturned module from the game's Extras directory into its Modules directory. No download required.

Installing RocketMod locally on a Linux dedicated server

Smartly Dressed Games' instruction is one line — "Copy the Rocket.Unturned module from the game's Extras directory. Paste it into the game's Modules directory" — and the whole job is knowing where those directories are.

1. Install the dedicated server. It is a separate Steam app, ID 1110390, and it needs no Steam account:

login anonymous
app_update 1110390
quit

That gives you .../steamapps/common/U3DS/. Everything below is relative to that.

2. Copy the module folder.

U3DS/Extras/Rocket.Unturned/   ->   U3DS/Modules/Rocket.Unturned/

Copy the folder itself, not just its contents. Modules is where the game looks by default; -ModulesPath overrides that if you keep modules somewhere else.

3. Start the server once.

./ServerHelper.sh +InternetServer/MyServer

The first boot creates U3DS/Servers/MyServer/, and Rocket creates its Rocket/ folder inside it — Plugins/, Permissions.config.xml and the rest. Do not pre-create those by hand. Let the first run generate them, then edit.

4. Confirm it loaded. Run Modules in the console. Rocket.Unturned appearing in that list is the only proof worth having; no error in the log is not the same thing.

There is no separate Mono or .NET to install

SDG's server documentation lists no runtime prerequisite for the Linux dedicated server. The only packages you need are SteamCMD's own, and the guidance is to follow Valve's SteamCMD documentation for your distribution. SDG also state there is no support for hosting on macOS — Windows and Linux only.

Everything in the rest of this guide applies to a self-hosted install unchanged, including the case-sensitivity rule below. Linux is Linux whether or not there is a panel in front of it, and the same silently-failing folder-name mismatch will bite you in Servers/MyServer/Rocket/Plugins/.

Installing RocketMod plugins for Unturned

Rocket plugins live one folder deep, per plugin:

Servers/<YourServer>/Rocket/Plugins/<PluginName>/

Each folder contains the plugin's .dll, a Configuration.xml, and usually a Translations.en.xml. To install one:

1. Upload the plugin folder via the File Manager or SFTP — see How to Upload Files via SFTP.
2. Restart the server so Rocket loads the assembly.
3. Edit that plugin's Configuration.xml and restart again to apply settings.

The Configuration.xml is generated on first load, so if you upload a bare .dll and want to configure it, start the server once to let the file appear rather than writing it by hand.

Folder names are case-sensitive on Linux

GSK's Unturned servers run on Linux, where Plugins/Uconomy/ and Plugins/uconomy/ are different paths. A plugin that "does nothing" with no error in the console is very often a folder whose name does not match the .dll inside it. Windows hosts silently tolerate this; Linux does not.

Permissions

Rocket's permissions live in Rocket/Permissions.config.xml. Groups map Steam IDs to sets of allowed commands. A player with no group gets the default group's permissions, and being a server admin via Adminlist.dat is separate from having Rocket permissions — the two systems do not know about each other.

Installing OpenMod

The recommended route goes through RocketMod, which is another reason not to think of them as alternatives:

1. Download the current OpenMod Installer Plugin for RocketMod from the OpenMod.Installer.RocketMod releases page on GitHub.
2. Place it in Rocket/Plugins/ and restart.
3. Run /openmod install and follow the prompts.

To install manually instead, download OpenMod.Unturned.Module-vX.X.X.zip from the OpenMod releases page and copy the OpenMod.Unturned folder into the server's Modules directory. The first start after that takes noticeably longer while OpenMod fetches its core components — this is normal, not a hang.

Installing OpenMod plugins

OpenMod resolves plugins and their dependencies through NuGet, from the console:

openmod install OpenMod.Economy
openmod search permission

Configuration is YAML, one folder per plugin, under:

Servers/<YourServer>/openmod/

Because OpenMod pulls dependencies itself, the "upload three DLLs and hope" problem that Rocket plugins have largely disappears.

Plugins worth knowing about

The Rocket catalogue is long and much of it is unmaintained. These are the ones that still come up constantly:

• uEssentials — the all-in-one quality-of-life set: /home, /tpa, /kit, /warp and a great deal more. If you are installing one plugin, it is usually this.
• Uconomy — the standard currency backend that most shop and reward plugins expect. Needs a MySQL database; see How to Create a Database via Your Panel.
• Kits — dedicated kit management if you do not want all of uEssentials.
• ZaupShop — a shop front that pairs with Uconomy.

Check the last update date before installing anything

A large share of the Rocket plugin catalogue was abandoned around the 2019 handover and has not been rebuilt since. A plugin that has not been touched in six years may still work, but it is also the most likely thing to break your server after a game update. Prefer plugins with recent activity, and take a backup before adding any of them.

RCON

Unturned has no built-in RCON protocol. There is no rcon.port/rcon.password pair as in Rust, and no vanilla remote console to connect RustAdmin-style tools to.

What exists instead:

• The panel Console. On a hosted server this is your remote console — it is the same command input the dedicated server window would give you, reachable from anywhere you can log in. For almost every server this is the whole answer.
• Command IO, for module developers. Smartly Dressed Games exposes an ICommandInputOutput interface that a module can implement to redirect console input and output to an external process. It is an extension point for writing your own integration, not a feature you enable.
• Legacy RocketMod RCON. Older guides describe enabling RCON through RocketMod. That tooling dates from before the original RocketMod team stopped maintenance in December 2019 and should not be relied on for a live server.

Looking for remote admin without RCON?

Use the panel Console for commands, sub-user accounts to delegate access without sharing your login, and a Discord plugin if you want in-Discord control. See How to Add Sub-Users to Your Panel.

Troubleshooting

The framework does not appear in the console. It never loaded. Check the Startup tab selection saved, and confirm with Modules.

A plugin loads but its commands do nothing. Almost always permissions. Check Rocket/Permissions.config.xml for Rocket plugins, or the OpenMod permission set, and remember that server admin status is a separate system.

A plugin throws errors on every start. Missing dependency. Rocket does not resolve these for you — read the plugin's documentation for what else it needs and place those DLLs too.

Everything broke after an update. Unturned updates can invalidate compiled plugins. Restore your most recent backup, then reintroduce plugins one at a time to find the culprit.

What to read next

• How to configure your Unturned server — the admin and config setup most plugins build on
• Unturned Workshop Mods and How to Change Maps — workshop content is separate from plugins and installs differently
• Managing your Unturned server — backups before plugin changes

FAQ

Should I use RocketMod or OpenMod?

Either, or both. They are designed to coexist. Choose OpenMod for new servers and actively maintained plugins, RocketMod when you need a legacy plugin with no modern equivalent, and both when you need one of each.

Is RocketMod safe?

The framework itself is as safe as the game: Smartly Dressed Games ships it with the dedicated server. The original RocketMod team stopped maintenance in December 2019 and released the source under the MIT license; SDG forked it as Legally Distinct Missile (LDM), keep it in sync with the game, and ship it in the server's Extras directory. Installing it means copying a folder Unturned already gave you, not downloading a binary from a stranger. The fork also closed known problems in the original, including multithreading exceptions and teleportation exploits.

The risk is in the plugins, not the framework, and that is worth separating. A plugin is third-party code running with full server access, so it is only as trustworthy as wherever you got it — prefer the plugin author's own releases page over a mirror or an aggregator site. Much of the Rocket catalogue has been unmaintained since 2019, and a stale plugin is the most likely thing to break your server after a game update. Check the last update date and take a backup before adding one.

Where do RocketMod plugins go?

Servers/<YourServer>/Rocket/Plugins/<PluginName>/, one folder per plugin, containing the .dll and its config. Restart after uploading.

Why is my plugin not loading on Linux?

Most often the folder name does not exactly match the .dll name, including capitalisation. Linux paths are case-sensitive and the mismatch fails silently.

Are workshop mods the same as plugins?

No. Workshop content is game content — maps, items, vehicles — installed through WorkshopDownloadConfig.json. Plugins are server-side code that adds commands and behaviour. They are configured in completely different places.

Do plugins work on a vanilla server?

No. Plugins need RocketMod or OpenMod loaded. A server with neither will ignore them entirely.

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