The official server binaries for one of the “closest to original launch” TERA has finally seen the light of day (once again by RZ’s Archgeus who also made public v71.03 in November 2023). Like with the EME v71.03 release, he wrote “don’t ask” as to how the files for this version became available. Both him and hsdn have been instrumental with these releases (not gatekeeping anything unlike how so many other projects are).
UPDATE: added the following videos (June 30, 2025 – 3 years post official closure)
v31.04 (May 2015) is the build that has many of the earlier game systems intact (Alliances, Crusades, Sky Castles) but obviously not the original Vanarch political system (since this was replaced with Exarchs in Alliances). This also has the original Island of Dawn starter zone questing (which was removed and changed to Stepstone Island in November 2015) and the 2013 character lobby.
TERA PC now has these different releases preserved which allows one to be able to experience the game (in those different incarnations) well after its complete closure back on June 30, 2022. As noted before, I’m a huge advocate for game preservation and having this ability to run such games after the developer and/or publisher terminates the development/operation of the game (more so given how most titles nowadays are run online as live service games utilizing this server/client architecture even if that game is mostly single player). With TERA PC, I have each of these releases working offline with the server running within a virtual machine and game client running outside of that (what I refer to as TERA Offline which I eventually intend to repurpose my 2019 Mac Pro to run them since it has 320GB of RAM).
Basically, this is actual proof that even an MMO can be run offline (just requiring adequate hardware). Tweaks can also be made to the configuration in order to reduce the usual multiplayer restrictions (like many party dungeons can be modified to allow for solo entry and play; maybe the more problematic ones are those requiring multiple players to deal with certain mechanics). Yes, it would be nice if it could all be rolled up into a much more easily configurable local binary but this is to be expected the server side components are meant to be able to scale.
As for v31.04, previously only the private server administrators of TERA CZ (now shuttered) and TERA Akeron (which has added their own updates over time) had a “close to classic” version of the game publicly available for play but also held tight reigns on the actual files. Given the small tidbits of information regarding this release (the official binaries and datasheets are from the Russian 31.04 with protocol 286406), that seemed to be close to what these other projects were based on (an early Destiny Games “leak”).
As I noted before, it’s rare to just have one leak of any type of official server binaries (and having knowledgable enough people who are able to remove all of the server side DRM to allow it to all run). With TERA PC, it’s an incredible treasure trove of FIVE different versions (31.04, 71.03, 92.03, 92.04, and 100.02) that have been made public since 2021.
UPDATE: On a related note, part of this also will also segue into the whole “Stop Killing Games” drama that has been happening recently in May/June 2025 (I’ve just been so out of it recently that I haven’t had the energy to even begin to write about that).
