Windrose Not Launching or Crashing? Fix Server and Connection Errors

Windrose is still in early access, so crashes and errors are pretty common. In this guide, you'll find what to do if the game won’t launch, crashes, freezes, or won’t connect to the server. If nothing works, you can send a bug report to the developers through the in-game menu.

If Windrose won’t start or keeps crashing, first check:

If you hit Play but nothing happens, the launcher opens and closes right away, or the game crashes at the splash screen, go through these steps one by one.

File integrity issues are currently the most common reason for launch failures after updates.

This will take 1 to 5 minutes depending on your drive speed. Any missing or corrupted files will be re-downloaded.

Aggressive antivirus programs (Kaspersky, ESET, Bitdefender, Avast) sometimes quarantine the game’s DLL files or block it from launching, especially right after an update. To avoid this:

Major changes in the game's rendering can cause crashes with outdated drivers. Download the latest version directly from your GPU manufacturer's website, not through Windows Update:

Some game components struggle with non-Latin characters in file paths. If your Windows username or computer name contains Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Russian, or any other non-Latin characters, this can cause the game to fail at launch.

If the game keeps crashing and you think your saves are corrupted (for example, the game was fine until it crashed mid-session), there’s a specific fix for the RocksDB base storage:

This is a simple workaround to fix RocksDB state mismatch. It’s safe—you’re just renaming a file, not deleting anything.

If Windrose launches but won’t let you join co-op or connect to a friend, the issue is usually with Windows Firewall, version mismatch, or network settings. Sometimes the problem pops up right at the start if you skip through the prompts or click the wrong button. On your first launch or when creating a server, Windows might ask:

Click Allow. If you accidentally clicked Deny, Windows Firewall will block access to online play. You’ll need to fix this in your Windows Firewall settings.

Before trying technical fixes, start with the obvious steps:

If none of these help, move on to the next steps.

Open the game and check the version number in the bottom right corner of the main menu. Both players need to have the exact same version—even a single number difference can prevent matchmaking. Update the game through your store (Steam / EGS / etc.) and try again.

If you’re playing on a dedicated server, its version must also match the client version. To update the server:

Some internet providers use outdated DNS servers that can’t resolve the game’s hosts. Try this:

If Windrose launches fine but crashes while playing, the problem is usually with drivers, GPU overload, overheating, or running out of memory. Follow these steps in order.

Start here, outdated drivers are the most common cause of mid-game crashes, especially after updates.

Restart your system after installing.

If frame generation (DLSS 3 Frame Gen, FSR 3 Frame Gen, or a similar feature) is enabled, try turning it off in the game’s video settings. Frame Gen can be unstable in certain scenarios and cause unexpected crashes.

If crashes keep happening even after disabling frame generation, try turning off post-processing in the video settings. Post-processing effects (like bloom, motion blur, depth of field, ambient occlusion) put extra load on your GPU, which can cause crashes on some hardware setups. Disabling these effects will lower image quality, but for some players it helps avoid crashes.

A high frame rate combined with heavy scenes is a classic cause of GPU memory issues. Set a 60 FPS cap in the game settings or your graphics card control panel, then see if the problem still occurs.

Temporarily reduce the render resolution scale to about 50 percent. If the crashes stop, it means your GPU was overloaded, leading to running out of video memory or overheating.

Hot summer weather and a dusty case can cause mid-game crashes that look like driver problems, but are actually overheating issues.

If nothing helps, send a bug report through the in-game menu. Describe the situation and when the crashes happen as clearly as possible. The developers review reports quickly and work to fix issues.