Barotrauma Console Commands: Cheats, Admin Tools, Money, Skills, and Permissions

Barotrauma has console commands for server management, debugging, editors, spawning, money, skills, permissions, and plain old chaos. Some commands are harmless admin tools. Others are cheats that can break progression, disable achievements for the session, or turn a serious campaign into a clown car with ballast tanks.

How to Open the Console

Single player has the admin console enabled by default. In multiplayer, a player needs the ConsoleCommands permission before command access works. Server owners can grant that permission through ranks or direct permission commands.

Press F3 to open the console. To use cheat commands, enter enablecheats first. Enabling cheats disables Steam achievements for that play session, so use it only when testing, recovering a save, or intentionally running a modified round. Multiplayer admins may also need command-specific rights, not just the base console permission. Use clientlist before permission, kick, or ban commands when possible, because client IDs avoid confusion from duplicate names, symbols, or spacing.

Useful Cheat and Admin Commands

These are the commands most players look for first:

• enablecheats: Enables cheat commands and disables achievements for the current session.
• money [amount] [character name]: Adds money to the crew during an active campaign.
• showmoney: Displays crew wallet amounts.
• giveexperience [amount] [character name]: Adds XP to a character.
• setskill [all/identifier] [max/level] [character name]: Sets one skill, all skills, or a maximum value for a character.
• givetalent [talent name/id] [character name]: Grants a talent to the chosen character or the controlled character.
• unlocktalents [all/job name] [character]: Gives all talents from a job or all available talents.
• godmode [character name]: Toggles invulnerability for a character.
• godmode_mainsub: Toggles invulnerability for the main submarine.
• heal [character name] [all]: Restores health. The all argument also clears poisonings, addictions, and similar afflictions.
• revive [character name]: Brings a dead character back.
• kill [character name]: Immediately kills a character.
• spawnitem [item name/id] [cursor/inventory/cargo/random/character name] [amount]: Spawns items.
• spawn/spawncharacter [creature/job name] [near/inside/outside/cursor] [team 0-3]: Spawns creatures or job characters.
• teleportcharacter/teleport [character name]: Moves a character to the cursor.
• teleportsub [start/end/cursor]: Moves the submarine to the start, end, or cursor location. This can cause physics problems.
• fixitems: Repairs every item to full condition.
• fixhulls/fixwalls: Repairs walls.
• oxygen/air: Refills room oxygen.
• power: Powers the nuclear reactor.
• endgame/endround/end: Ends the current round.
• startgame/startround/start: Starts a new round.
• respawnnow: Forces an available respawn.

General Command Reference

• adjustprice [item name/id] [price] [add/mult]: Prints expected price adjustments for an item and related items.
• alpha [value]: Changes selected subeditor item or structure alpha from 0 to 255.
• ambientlight [restore/color] [add]: Changes level ambient light color.
• analyzeitem [item name/id]: Checks an item for exploits.
• autohull: Creates hulls in the Submarine Editor.
• autoitemplacerdebug/outfitdebug: Toggles automatic item placer debug details.
• autorestart [true/false]: Enables or disables server round auto-restart.
• autorestartinterval [seconds]: Sets the delay between rounds before automatic restart. Zero disables it.
• autorestarttimer [seconds]: Sets the current auto-restart timer.
• ballastflora [infect/growthwarp] [prefab/amount]: Infects ballast or changes ballast flora growth.
• bindkey [key] [command]: Binds a console command to a key.
• botcount [amount]: Sets multiplayer bot crew count.
• botspawnmode [fill/normal]: Changes multiplayer bot spawn behavior.
• calculatehashes [content package]: Shows MD5 hashes for files in a content package.
• campaigndestination/setcampaigndestination [destination index]: Sets the active campaign destination.
• campaigninfo/campaignstatus: Shows active campaign status.
• checkcrafting: Checks deconstruction and crafting recipes.
• checkcraftingexploits [max allowed cost]: Finds crafting or deconstruction price exploits.
• checkduplicateloca, checkmissingloca, cleanbuild, cleansub: Development or cleanup commands with no listed in-game description.
• clientlist: Lists connected clients and their IDs.
• color/colour [red] [green] [blue] [alpha]: Changes selected subeditor item or structure color.
• comparelocafiles [file 1] [file 2]: Compares localization files.
• control [character name]: Controls a specified character on the client.
• converttowreck: Replaces items and walls with wrecked versions in the Submarine Editor.
• copyitemnames: Copies item names. No listed in-game description.
• debugai: Toggles AI debug mode in single player.
• debugdraw [true/false]: Toggles client debug drawing.
• debugdrawlocalization [true/false]: Colors missing or hard-coded localization text magenta.
• debugdrawlos [true/false]: Toggles line-of-sight debug drawing.
• debugwiring [true/false]: Toggles wiring debug display.
• deconstructvalue [item name/id]: Shows deconstructed component prices.
• despawnnow [character name]: Despawns a dead character or all dead characters.
• devmode: Toggles client developer mode.
• difficulty/leveldifficulty [0-100]: Changes lobby level difficulty.
• disablecrewai / enablecrewai: Disables or enables crew NPC AI.
• disableenemyai / enableenemyai: Disables or enables enemy AI.
• dumpentitytexts [destination path]: Writes entity names and descriptions to a translation-friendly file.
• dumpeventtexts [destination path]: Writes event text to a translation-friendly file.
• dumpids [amount] [file name]: No listed in-game description.
• dumptexts [destination path]: Extracts text XML into a text file.
• dumptofile [file name]: Saves the debug console output to a file.
• editcharacters/charactereditor: Opens the Character Editor.
• editevents/eventeditor: Opens the Event Editor.
• editlevels/leveleditor: Opens the Level Editor.
• editparticles/particleeditor: Opens the Particle Editor.
• editsprites/spriteeditor: Opens the Sprite Editor.
• editsubs/subeditor [sub file path]: Opens the Submarine Editor.
• entitydata [entity id]: Requires an entity ID.
• eventmanager: Toggles random event creation.
• eventstats [0-7] [true/false]: Shows event statistics or full logs.
• explosion [range] [force] [damage] [structure damage] [item damage] [emp strength] [ballast flora damage]: Creates an explosion at the cursor.
• findentityids [entity name]: Finds entity IDs.
• fire/editfire: Allows placing fires by left click.
• flipx: Mirrors the main submarine horizontally.
• followsub: Toggles camera following the nearest submarine.
• fpscounter: Toggles the FPS counter.
• freecamera/freecam: Detaches the camera from the controlled character.
• freeze: No listed in-game description.
• game: Switches to the in-game view.
• gamemode [name/index]: Sets the next round game mode.
• giveaffliction [affliction name] [strength] [character name] [limb type] [use relative strength true/false]: Adds an affliction to a character.
• givecommandperm [client id/steam id/ip/player name] [all/command]: Grants command permission.
• giveperm [client id/steam id/ip/player name] [all/permission]: Grants administrative permission.
• giverank [client id/steam id/ip/player name] [rank]: Gives a rank.
• growthdelay [delay]: Sets plant growth delay.
• head [head id] [hair index] [beard index] [moustache index] [face attachment index]: Loads a head sprite and wearables.
• help [command]: Shows help when available.
• hidemonsters / showmonsters: Hides or unlocks monsters in the Character Editor.
• hudlayoutdebugdraw/debugdrawhudlayout: Toggles HUD layout debug areas.
• interactdebugdraw/debugdrawinteract: Toggles item interaction range debug drawing.
• itemassemblies: Lists spawnable item assemblies.
• itemcomponentdocumentation [destination path]: Generates item component documentation.
• items/itemlist: Lists item prefabs.
• jointscale [scale]: Changes controlled character joint scale for testing.
• kick [player name], kickid [client id]: Kicks a player by name or ID.
• ban [player name], banid [client id], banendpoint/banip [steam id/ip] [seconds] [reason]: Bans players or endpoints.
• unban [player name], unbanip [ip address]: Removes bans.
• killdisconnectedtimer [seconds]: Sets when disconnected characters are killed.
• killmonsters: Kills AI enemies in the level.
• lighting/lights [true/false]: Toggles lighting.
• limbscale [scale]: Changes controlled character limb scale for testing.
• listcloudfiles: Lists Steam Cloud files.
• listcoroutines: Lists active coroutines.
• listtasks: Lists asynchronous task pool tasks.
• loadtexts [source path] [destination path]: Inserts text lines into XML.
• loadwearable [variant]: Forces a selected wearable variant.
• lock, lockx, locky: Locks all, horizontal, or vertical submarine movement.
• los [true/false]: Toggles line of sight.
• mainmenu/menu: Returns to the main menu.
• maxupgrades [category] [prefab]: Maxes upgrades or a specific upgrade category.
• messagebox/guimessagebox [header] [msg] [default/ingame]: Creates a message box.
• mission [name]: Sets next mission type.
• msg [msg]: Sends a chat message without a sender.
• multiplylights [value]: Multiplies static light colors by a Vector4 value.
• mute [player name] / unmute [player name]: Blocks or restores voice chat for a player.
• netstats: Shows or hides network statistics.
• pause: Toggles offline pause.
• quickstart [sub name] [difficulty] [level gen parameters identifier]: Starts a single-player sandbox.
• ragdoll [character name]: Forces ragdoll state.
• ragdollscale [scale]: Rescales the controlled character ragdoll.
• randomizeseed: Toggles level seed randomization.
• readycheck: Starts a multiplayer ready check.
• recreateragdoll [character name] / resetragdoll [character name]: Recreates or resets a ragdoll.
• reloadcorepackage: Reloads the core package.
• reloadsprite/reloadsprites [id/name] [item id/sprite name]: Reloads selected item, structure, or character sprites.
• reloadwearables [character name]: Reloads limb and wearable sprites.
• removefromcloud [file name/index]: Deletes a Steam Cloud file.
• resetall, resetselected: Resets all or selected subeditor items and structures to prefabs.
• resetentitiesbyidentifier [entity tag/id]: Resets matching subeditor entities to prefabs.
• resetkarma [player name], setkarma [player name] [0-100], showkarma: Manages or displays karma.
• restart/reset: Restarts the server.
• revokecommandperm [client id/steam id/ip/player name] [all/command]: Removes command permission.
• revokeperm [client id/steam id/ip/player name] [all/permission]: Removes administrative permission.
• savebinds: Saves keybinds to the config.
• say [msg]: Sends global server chat as HOST from the command line.
• seed/levelseed [seed], showseed/showlevelseed: Sets or shows the level seed.
• sendchatmessage [sender] [msg] [type] [red] [green] [blue] [alpha]: Sends a colored chat message.
• servermsg [msg]: Changes the lobby server message.
• servername [name]: Changes the hosted server name.
• setcampaignmetadata [identifier] [value]: Sets campaign metadata.
• setclientcharacter [player name] [character name]: Gives a client control of a character.
• setdifficulty/forcedifficulty [0-100]: Forces difficulty, or disables forcing when empty.
• setentityproperties [property] [value]: Sets a property on selected subeditor entities.
• setfreecamspeed [speed]: Changes free camera speed.
• setlocationreputation [value], setreputation [faction] [value], showreputation: Changes or lists reputation.
• setmaxplayers/maxplayers [player count <=16]: Sets hosted server player limit.
• setpassword/setserverpassword/password [password]: Changes hosted server password.
• shake: No listed in-game description.
• showperf: Toggles performance stats.
• showperm [client id/steam id/ip/name]: Shows a client's administrative permissions.
• shuttle [name]: Sets the respawn shuttle for next round.
• simulatedduplicateschance [dupe ratio], simulatedlatency [min latency] [random latency], simulatedloss [loss ratio]: Simulates network duplication, latency, or packet loss for testing.
• skipeventcooldown: Skips the current event cooldown and triggers pending monster spawns.
• spawnsub [sub name] [true/false]: Spawns a submarine at the cursor.
• spreadsheetexport: Exports item data for spreadsheet import.
• startitems/startitemset [identifier]: Selects a starting item set.
• startlidgrenclient [ip address], startsteamp2pclient: Starts client networking modes.
• starttraitormissionimmediately: Starts the traitor mission without the initial delay.
• startwhenclientsready [true/false]: Starts rounds automatically when clients are ready.
• steamnetdebug: Toggles Steam networking debug logging.
• sub/submarine [name]: Selects the submarine for next round.
• tags/taglist: Lists tags used by the game.
• toggleaitargets: No listed in-game description.
• togglecampaignteleport: Enables map double-click campaign teleporting.
• togglecharacternames: Shows or hides names above characters.
• togglegrid: Toggles the subeditor snap grid.
• togglehud/hud: Shows or hides the character HUD.
• toggleitemhighlights: Toggles item highlight effects.
• togglekarma: Enables or disables karma.
• togglekarmatestmode/karmatestmode: Shows karma changes and prevents low-karma bans during testing.
• toggleupperhud: Toggles the upper HUD.
• togglevoicechatfilters [true/false]: Toggles radio and muffled voice filters.
• traitorlist: Lists traitors and targets.
• triggerevent [event id]: Creates an event.
• unbindkey [key]: Removes a keybind.
• unlockmission [identifier/tag]: Unlocks a mission in a random adjacent level.
• updatetextfile [source path] [destination path]: Updates translation XML with missing entries.
• upgradeitem [upgrade] [level] [item tag]: Adds an upgrade to the targeted item.
• verboselogging: Toggles extra debug console logging.
• water/editwater: Allows adding or removing water with mouse buttons.
• wikiimage_character: Saves an image of the controlled character with a transparent background.
• wikiimage_sub: Saves an image of the main submarine with a transparent background.

Command Safety Notes

Several commands affect only the client view, while others change the active round, campaign, submarine, or connected players. Treat server commands such as ban, kick, restart, setpassword, setmaxplayers, giveperm, and revokeperm as administrative tools, not toys. A mistyped permission command can give a player more access than intended, and a mistyped round command can end a mission before the crew has finished looting, repairing, or arguing about who flooded engineering.

Cheat commands such as spawnitem, spawncharacter, money, setskill, givetalent, unlocktalents, heal, revive, and godmode are best used for testing, recovery, or custom sessions. They can remove the intended campaign difficulty, especially when used to skip money pressure, injury risk, or talent progression. If achievements matter, avoid enablecheats for that session.

Debug and editor commands are mostly for builders, modders, or server operators. Commands such as debugdraw, debugwiring, eventstats, dumptexts, itemcomponentdocumentation, reloadsprites, editsubs, editlevels, and spreadsheetexport help inspect game systems or content packages. They are useful when building submarines, checking localization, diagnosing wiring, or testing events, but most normal campaign crews will not need them.

Practical Admin Examples

To manage a multiplayer round, combine permission and player-list commands carefully. clientlist gives the client IDs needed by commands such as kickid, banid, giveperm, and givecommandperm. Using IDs is usually safer than typing player names, especially when names include spaces, symbols, or suspiciously similar spelling.

For campaign corrections, money, setlocationreputation, setreputation, setcampaignmetadata, and setcampaigndestination can repair progression problems or recreate a state for testing. For character recovery, heal, revive, setskill, giveexperience, and givetalent can restore a character after a bug or failed test. For submarine recovery, fixitems, fixhulls, oxygen, power, and godmode_mainsub can stabilize a broken round long enough to continue.

When testing combat or missions, spawn, spawnitem, triggerevent, skipeventcooldown, killmonsters, disableenemyai, and enableenemyai provide quick control over threats. Use them in a private or test environment first. Spawning enemies inside an active campaign submarine without warning is technically a command use, but socially it is a declaration of war.

Permission Planning

The safest multiplayer setup is to give players only the permissions needed for their role. A moderator may need Kick, Ban, Unban, and ServerLog. A campaign manager may need ManageCampaign, ManageMap, ManageHires, and ManageMoney. Builders or trusted admins may need ConsoleCommands, but that permission should be limited because it can grant access to highly disruptive commands when paired with command-specific rights.

The All permission is convenient but broad. Reserve it for owners or administrators who are expected to manage every part of the server. For everyone else, smaller permission sets reduce mistakes and keep the round closer to the intended Barotrauma experience.

Multiplayer Etiquette

On public or long-running servers, announce disruptive commands before using them. A round reset, forced respawn, monster spawn, or sudden submarine teleport can waste player progress if the crew is not expecting it. For scheduled tests, create a separate save or use a private test server. That keeps normal campaigns clean while still allowing admins to verify permissions, submarine edits, event behavior, and balance changes before the real crew boards the vessel.

Permissions

• ManageRound: Allows starting and ending rounds.
• Kick: Allows kicking players.
• Ban: Allows banning players.
• Unban: Allows unbanning players.
• SelectSub: Allows submarine selection when selection mode is manual.
• SelectMode: Allows game mode selection.
• ManageCampaign: Grants ManageMoney, SellInventoryItems, SellSubItems, ManageMap, and ManageHires.
• ConsoleCommands: Allows console command use, with individual command permissions still required.
• ServerLog: Allows reading server logs.
• ManageSettings: Allows changing server settings.
• ManagePermissions: Allows changing other clients' permissions, limited to permissions the player already has.
• KarmaImmunity: Prevents karma effects.
• ManageMoney: Allows taking bank money without a vote, setting salaries, and taking wallet money.
• SellInventoryItems: Allows selling shop items from personal inventory.
• SellSubItems: Allows selling shop items from the submarine.
• ManageMap: Allows choosing campaign map missions and destinations.
• ManageHires: Allows hiring and firing NPC crewmates.
• ManageBotTalents: Allows selecting NPC crewmate talents.
• All: Grants every permission.