Before choosing a server, it is important to know that from a game-play perspective, there is no difference between playing the Steam version vs the official launcher version, all players have the same in-game experience. Some things you might want to know though include the following:

1. With the Steam client, you can pay using your Steam wallet.
2. Any downtime with Steam or steam servers, will prevent you from logging into Wurm.
3. You can easily login with multiple characters using the official Wurm launcher rather than Steam.
4. The so-called 'Wurm Online Steam Servers' is a misnomer. Any player, old or new, on Steam or not, can access the newer 'North Cluster' and older 'South Cluster' introduced with the Steam release.

So to be extra clear in this regard, you can join any Wurm Online server regardless of whether you're using the Steam client, or the official Wurm Online web client.

In Wurm Online, servers (called islands) are grouped into clusters. The two primary clusters are the Northern Freedom Islands (NFI) and the Southern Freedom Islands (SFI) henceforth referred to as Either the North or South.

The newest cluster is the Northern cluster and the Southern cluster has been around for much longer. Unlike most MMO's, in WO you are not locked to a specific server so there is no such thing as a server transfer, or a server transfer fee. If you're on server A and you want to travel to Server B, you simply hop in a boat and sail to that other island. If you don't have a boat, then you can craft one, or ask for a ride. However, you cannot [currently] sail between the North and South clusters as each is completely independent from the other. Whether or not they will ever be joined is unknown at this time.

When you choose your server, you will at the same time choose your cluster but you may want to be aware of the fact that the Northern Cluster is smaller, with only 4 islands than the Southern cluster with 8 islands including one massive island called Xanadu.

So now that you understand that all servers/islands within a cluster are connected, let me expand a bit on what that actually means.

1. You can sail to any island within the same cluster.
2. You cannot sail between the North and South clusters.
3. You can trade with and mail items to other players within the same cluster only.
4. You can chat with everyone regardless of cluster in both public and private DM's.

Before showing the cluster maps with their server/island names, one more thing should be mentioned. The servers are not geo-located so if you're looking for a server with the least amount of latency, then your best bet is to go with a smaller, less populated server. Server populations are discussed in the next segment.

Note that the Southern Freedom Islands in-game map shown below is labeled simply as 'Freedom Islands' whereas the Northern Freedom Islands are correctly labeled. Maybe some day this will get updated. (Stares at Code-Club AB without blinking an eye).



Both maps above showing you the Northern and Southern clusters also show the names of each server/island and displays the size as well. Note the dimensions displayed because the islands on the North appear larger than the islands on the South, this is simply because there's more room to zoom in on Northern islands.

One of the most common question asked when deciding on a server is which servers are the most and least populated. Luckily for us, this information is available in live time and can be viewed here[freedom007.game.wurmonline.com].

When comparing server populations, keep two things in mind:

1. The size of the island. A smaller island like Harmony (North) compared to a larger island like Xanadu (South) might have similar populations but due to the fact that Xanadu is 4x larger, the population density is less saturated meaning that even though they both have similar populations (in this example) that you are more likely to run into someone on Harmony than on Xanadu. This of course depends on where you are located within the island as well.

2. Number of Settlements. Another good metric that helps when deciding on a server is to look at the total number of settlements on the island. A settlement is a chunk of land claimed by another player. There may only be x number of players on at the moment, but the number of currently claimed settlements tells another story in terms of how many people are playing, but currently on break or simply not playing at the moment. There isn't a single URL for this so in this example of Xanadu[xanadu.game.wurmonline.com], to check other servers, simply replace the server name with the server you would like to check in the URL field of your browser.

The size and age of a single island reflects opportunity as well:

1. Smaller islands have fewer spawns of mobs and livestock and livestock can get snagged up quickly by players that have not yet established their own breeding program.
2. On the other hand, unique spawns like dragons are much easier to locate on a smaller island. Xanadu for example, with those vast forests, are great places for dragons and giants to hide for months or even years.
3. A larger island will have more choices in where to deed (land claims).
4. An older island will have more older disbanded deeds that can be reclaimed by anyone.
5. Larger islands will also have more disbanded deeds to explore for Archeology than smaller (and newer) islands.
6. Exploring the wilds might be best on a larger server while exploring deeds might be best on a smaller server.
7. On the other hand, traveling from opposite ends of a server is much faster on a smaller island than on a larger island.

So it all boils down to preference and with Wurm, you have plenty of choices.

In conclusion, just remember one important detail: That once you have crafted yourself a boat, you can move to or explore any island you wish, provided that it is within your cluster. Some players even go as far as to claim land on multiple islands within their cluster.

One last note here. There can be no duplicate names in Wurm regardless of cluster or servers and there is no option to delete a character. So if you decide that you prefer an island on a different server and want to create a new character, it will have to be with a different name. Or, any character that has never been premium gets deleted after 3 months of inactivity. Any character that has been premium at least once, will never be deleted regardless of inactivity time. So if you're undecided on a server and want a first-hand experience to help decide, don't roll a character with your alpha name... until you're sure of the cluster you want.

Good luck in Wurm and if you have any questions you can always hop on the in-game CA Help channel and ask there. I'm also happy to answer any server-selection related questions here. And if you spot any errors, or something that needs to be updated, then reply to this guide. Thanks for reading.