How to Set Up Your Enshrouded Dedicated Server

This guide takes you from a brand new Enshrouded dedicated server to your whole group playing together. It takes about ten minutes, and you don't need any technical knowledge.

Before you start

You need:

• An Enshrouded server from us. If you don't have one yet, see our Enshrouded server hosting plans.
• A copy of Enshrouded on Steam for each player.

Your server is already installed and running when you get it. There is nothing to download.

Step 1: Open your server

1. Log in to the Game Panel.
2. Click your Enshrouded server.

You land on the Console page. This shows what the server is doing right now.

Step 2: Name your server and set a password

Everything about your server lives in one file, called enshrouded_server.json. A JSON file is a plain text file that stores settings as names and values.

1. Stop the server first. This matters: the server saves its settings when it shuts down, so changes made while it runs get overwritten.
2. Open Files and click enshrouded_server.json.
3. Change the name line to your server name. This is the name players search for:

"name": "Embervale Crew",

1. Find the userGroups section. Each group has its own password. Set the Friend password to something you'll share with your group:

"name": "Friend",
"password": "pick-a-password",

1. Click Save Content, then Start the server.

Players who join with the Friend password can build, use chests and explore. To learn what each role can do, see Roles and passwords.

Step 3: Pick a difficulty

Enshrouded has five difficulty presets. You set one with the gameSettingsPreset line:

"gameSettingsPreset": "Default",

The options are Default, Relaxed, Hard, Survival and Custom. New groups should start with Default. See Server Settings Explained for what each one does.

Step 4: Connect to your server

1. Start Enshrouded and click Join.
2. In the Server Filter on the right, turn on Show dedicated servers.
3. Search for your server name.
4. Click it, enter the password, and press Join.

Your server is ready when the console shows [Session] 'HostOnline' (up)!. If it's not in the list yet, wait a minute and refresh.

Tip: click the star icon next to your server to favorite it. Favorites always appear at the top of the list.

Step 5: Invite your friends

Send your friends two things: the server name and the Friend password. They join the same way you did in Step 4.

Enshrouded saves each character on the player's own PC, so everyone can bring the character they already have.

Player slots

An Enshrouded dedicated server holds up to 16 players. The slotCount line controls the limit:

"slotCount": 16,

Each player adds load to the server. If your group is smaller, you can lower the number.

Keep your server healthy

• Backups: your world is saved every 5 minutes. Take a manual backup from Backups before big changes.
• Updates: the server updates itself from Steam every time it restarts. This is also how you get Enshrouded 1.0 on launch day.
• Memory: Keen Games says the server uses about 4.4 GB of RAM when idle, plus up to 100 MB per player. Big bases and explored maps use more.

Still stuck?

If the server won't start after you edit enshrouded_server.json, the file probably has a typo, such as a missing comma or quote mark. Open a support ticket with your server ID from the Dashboard and we'll fix it with you.