Unturned Server Commands and Cheat Codes

Unturned has two kinds of commands, and almost every problem people hit comes from mixing them up. Some belong in a config file and only take effect when the server boots. Others only work while the server is already running. This guide covers every command in both groups, the exact syntax, and the handful of commands that behave differently on a hosted server than every generic guide claims.

The two places commands live

Startup commands go in Commands.dat, one per line. The server reads the file once as it boots. Lines beginning with // are comments.

Runtime commands work while the server is up. You can enter them two ways:

• In the Console tab of your panel, typed plainly: Save
• In in-game chat, prefixed with @ or /, and only if you are an administrator: /Save

Parameters are separated by forward slashes, not spaces, and every time value is in seconds:

A few commands work in both places. Name, MaxPlayers and Welcome can sit in Commands.dat or be changed live. Most cannot — Map and Password are read at boot only, and Save only means anything on a running server.

There is no autosave in Unturned

The server writes player and world data when you run Save, or when you shut it down cleanly with Shutdown. Killing the process — including a hard Stop — loses everything since the last save. Put a Save on a timer in the panel's Schedules tab; see How to Setup Schedules.

Making yourself an admin

Three ways, and they are not interchangeable.

There is no owners.dat file

Owner is a command you put inside Commands.dat — not a separate file. Guides that tell you to create owners.dat alongside admins.dat are describing something that does not exist. The admin list file is Adminlist.dat, capital A, inside the Server/ folder.

Your SteamID64 is the 17-digit number from your profile URL, not your display name.

Server setup commands

These belong in Commands.dat. Defaults are the game's, and an omitted line means the default applies.

Do not set Port on a hosted server

Your panel allocates the port and the firewall is opened for that allocation specifically. Writing a Port line into Commands.dat points the game at a port nothing is forwarded to, and the server disappears from the browser. Leave it out entirely and let the allocation stand. Your actual port is shown in the panel's Network tab and beside the Address on the Console tab.

Moderation commands

Runtime only. Every one accepts either a SteamID64 or the player's in-game name.

Duration is seconds, so a one-day ban is 86400 and a one-week ban is 604800. Omit it and you get a year.

Cheat commands

These only work when Cheats is present in Commands.dat. Without it the server rejects them silently, which is the single most common "why doesn't this work" on Unturned servers.

Experience grants XP, not items

Several widely-copied command lists — including an older version of this page — describe Experience as taking an item ID and giving the player an item. It does not. It takes a number and grants that much experience. The command that spawns items is Give.

Spawning items

Give accepts an item ID, an item name, or the item's asset filename:

The amount is optional and defaults to one. Item IDs are per-map for modded content, so a workshop map's IDs will not match the base game's — check the map's own documentation rather than a generic ID list.

Teleporting

Teleport takes a player and then a destination, which can be another player, a named location node, a waypoint, or a bed:

Lists and logs

Read-only, and safe to run at any time. Output goes to the Console.

Help is worth knowing about. It reads the commands compiled into the build you are actually running, so it is always current in a way no web page can be.

Whitelisting

Turn on the whitelist with Whitelisted, then manage entries.

Permit needs a tag as well as the ID — it is a label for your own reference, but the command fails without it.

Utility commands

About "Unturned cheat codes"

There is no cheat-code system in Unturned in the sense people usually mean — no strings you type at a title screen to unlock things, and nothing that works in someone else's server.

What exists is the cheat command group in the table above, and it has two hard requirements: Cheats must be enabled in the server's Commands.dat, and you must be an administrator on that server. That means:

• On your own server, you have every "cheat" in the game. Enable Cheats, add yourself with Owner, and Give, Vehicle, Teleport and the rest are yours.
• On someone else's server, nothing in this article will work for you, and no tool that claims otherwise is doing anything except getting you VAC banned.
• In singleplayer, enable cheats when creating the world and the same commands work from the in-game chat.

If you came here looking for a way to spawn items on a public server, the honest answer is that renting your own server is the only route — which is also the only reason a hosting company writes a page like this.

Panel-specific behaviour

Three things work differently on a hosted server than on a self-hosted one:

• The port is fixed. Covered above, but it is the most common way to break a working server.
• Commands.dat is yours to edit. Unlike some games, the panel does not rewrite this file on boot, so changes you make in the File Manager persist. Edit it while the server is stopped — most settings are only read at startup anyway.
• Cheats are off by default. New servers do not ship with Cheats enabled. Add the line yourself.

For where each of these tabs lives, see How to use your server panel. For editing config files over SFTP instead of the browser, see How to Upload Files via SFTP.

Take a backup before bulk command changes

ResetConfig and a mistyped Loadout line are both easy to fix if you have a snapshot and awkward if you do not. See How to Create a Backup.

Commands vs server configuration

Two different files do two different jobs, and searching for "Unturned server settings" will land you on both.

If you are changing how the game plays rather than how the server runs, you want Config.txt. See How to configure your Unturned server for that side.

Config.json is the legacy format

Servers created before build 3.25.8.0 have a Config.json file. The server now converts it at startup into a per-difficulty file such as Config_NormalDifficulty.txt. If you find both, the .txt is the one being read. Older guides that only mention Config.json predate the change.

FAQ

How do I open the console on an Unturned server?

On a hosted server the console is the Console tab in your panel — it is the landing view, and you type commands straight into it. If you are running the dedicated server locally, it is the black window that opens with the server. In-game, admins run commands from normal chat by prefixing them with @ or /.

Why do my commands do nothing?

Almost always one of three things: the command is a cheat command and Cheats is not enabled; you are not actually an administrator on that server; or you are using spaces instead of forward slashes between parameters. Give Nelson 363 2 fails where Give Nelson/363/2 works.

How do I spawn items in Unturned?

Give [Player]/[Item]/[Amount], with Cheats enabled and admin rights. The item can be an ID or its name, so /Give Nelson/Maplestrike/1 and /Give Nelson/363/1 do the same thing.

Can I use these commands on a server I do not own?

No. Every command here requires administrator rights on that specific server. Nothing typed into chat gives you admin on someone else's server.

Where is Adminlist.dat?

Servers/<YourServerID>/Server/Adminlist.dat, alongside Commands.dat. One SteamID64 per line. It is read at boot, so restart after editing.

Do I need to restart after editing Commands.dat?

Yes for anything read at startup, which is most of it — Map, Password, MaxPlayers, Cheats. A handful of settings have runtime equivalents you can use instead to avoid the restart.

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