The horrors of the deep have ways of capturing the curiosity of the most daring adventurer who seeks answers to questions nobody asked, or it can simply remind you how good things are on the surface and how you shouldn’t risk any of that by strolling around the dark in search of funny looking fish people.
But every time you make an attempt to even join a friend on their submarine trip you get this: “Steam authentication error.” If this has happened to you then read the guide and learn a few troubleshooting methods you can do to get back into the game.
Can’t Join Friend Server Issue Fix – Barotrauma
Before you continue, make sure that you’re running the game via Steam to minimize any errors. If you run the game directly from your root folder, you won’t be able to join any of your friends as you don’t have a valid steam ID attached to a copy of the game you’re running.
Here are some other things to consider just to make sure that the problem isn’t coming from your side:
- Make sure to not have any special symbols on your username as these characters cannot be recognized which in turn will prevent you from joining a session.
- Check if your game version matches the one you’re trying to join.
- Check if you have any mods installed, if you and your friends don’t have the same game files then this will easily prevent any of you from joining each other.
If the previous methods haven’t worked for you then the next best thing is to perform a clean reinstall followed by verifying your game files.
Here’s how you should do it:
- Start by uninstalling the game from Steam
- If Steam deleted the contents of your game but not the folder itself then you will have to check your steamapps folder next to delete the folder completely, the address should look like this: “Steam\steamapps\common\Barotrauma”
- Re-install the game and right-click on it in your library to where it says ‘Properties’ to run a Steam verification
- Run the game and see how it goes
Check your workshop tab as well to make sure you aren’t subscribed to anything at the moment. With these steps, you’ll be able to join your crew once more and inject them with alien eggs!
ALSO READ: Barotrauma: Can You Refill Welding Fuel?
