The More RAM You Give It

There are three ways to play multiplayer Minecraft: Java Edition, which is free. - You have three options: join a public Minecraft server, create your own or buy a Minecraft Realm. - If your friends are on the same network, you can set up a LAN Minecraft server for local multiplayer.

The simple yet limitless game of Minecraft has millions of players, so it's easy to find friends to play with. It's not always easy to play multiplayer with friends.

Multiplayer Minecraft will be different depending on whether or not you have the console-friendly Bedrock Edition. Whichever edition you have, you can only play with friends who have the same version.

If that version is Java, there are few different ways to go about playing with your friends.

Hosting a multiplayer Minecraft server should take no more than a few minutes.

Here's what you need to know.

Quick tip: To play together, you must all be using the same version Minecraft.

How to play with Minecraft friends

Servers are the basic building block of Minecraft's multiplayer mode. Everyone who is playing together must be on the exact same server.

There are thousands of Minecraft servers already out there, which you and your friends can join to play together in moments - see the section below on how to join a friend's or a public server for more details. The only downside there is that you'll be sharing these servers with lots of other people you don't know.

If you and your friends want to have a private game, you can create a Minecraft server for free. It takes some effort and the person creating the server will need to be able to access the internet quickly. You might also consider one of these other options.

These are the steps that you will need to take to either join an already-running Minecraft: Java Edition or create your very own multiplayer server.

Join a server

1. Launch Minecraft and choose Multiplayer.

2. Click Add Server.

3. In the Server Address box, enter the host server's address and click Done. This could be an IP address or a URL.

4. Wait for the server to connect, and when it appears in the list, select it and click Join Server.

Join and create your own server

The steps below describe how to set up a server on a Windows 10 PC. However, the steps for Linux and Mac computers should be the same.

1. Launch a web browser of your choice and navigate to minecraft.net/download. Scroll down and select Java Edition Server.

2. Next, find and download Minecraft server software. Put it somewhere you'll find it. The file will be named.jar.

3. Create a new folder on your computer and name it whatever you like, then place the .jar file you downloaded inside of it. This is where you will keep all your server files.

4. Next, create a plain text file. Right-click in the folder and select New, then Text Document. Name the text document "start.txt"

Quick tip: You can create an.txt document on a Mac by using the TextEdit program. In Linux, the terminal can be used to issue the "cat” command.

5. Navigate back to the Minecraft server download webpage. Copy the command text which is:

java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar minecraft_server.1.18.2.jar nogui

Note that the numbers near the end will differ based on the most current version of Minecraft.

6. Paste the command text string in your start.txt.

7. Within the string of command text, you'll see the words "minecraft_server.1.18.2.jar." This section of text will need to be renamed "server.jar". The new line of code will now read as follows:

8. You can also change the RAM allocation for your server in this line of code. The more RAM you give it, the smoother your server can run, but the more stress it'll put on the computer.

9. The RAM is determined by the first two numbers in the line of code, which are amounts of RAM in megabytes (MB). It defaults to 1024MB RAM or one gigabyte, (GB).

Quick tip: Unlike with storage space, when it comes to RAM, one gigabyte equals 1,024 megabytes - not 1,000. As such, you can set the RAM amount to multiples of 1,024 gigabytes.

1. Launch Minecraft while your server has been up and running. Next, select Multiplayer.

2. Select Add Server in the bottom-right corner.

3. Simply type the number "0", or the word, "localhost" into the Server Address field.

Use a LAN server

1. One player should launch a game world solo and then enter the pause option. From there, they'll select Open to LAN.

2. In the menu that opens, select the game mode and whether to allow cheats, then click Start LAN World.

4. The other player, or players from the same network, should launch Minecraft. But rather than jumping into a Minecraft world, click the Multiplayer option in the main menu.

5. Minecraft will automatically scan for games on the shared network. Click Join Server when the right world appears.

6. If it fails to find the server, the players can click Direct Connection. In this menu, under Server Address, enter the IP address of the computer hosting the server, followed by a colon (:) and the five-digit port number. Pubg qa