---
title: "Core Keeper server hosting: the complete guide"
description: "World mode cannot be changed after creation. Direct connection or game code, seasonal events you can force, and why renaming the server does not lose the cavern."
url: https://tickserv.com/guides/core-keeper-server-hosting
site: "TickServ (https://tickserv.com)"
lang: en
published: 2026-09-01
games: [core-keeper]
---
# Core Keeper server hosting: the complete guide

Core Keeper is a slow-progress game: you dig, you set up a base, you come back three evenings later. That is exactly the kind of run that suffers when it depends on one player's PC. A dedicated server keeps the cavern alive between sessions, and is only billed while it runs.

## 1. Create the server

Pick **Core Keeper**, the RAM and the performance level. The server starts on its own; you get a stable connection address and a password to share.

Two choices are made **at creation and cannot be changed afterwards**: the world mode and the seed.

## 2. World mode, decided once and for all

| Mode         | What it changes                                     |
| ------------ | --------------------------------------------------- |
| **Normal**   | The game's default balance.                         |
| **Casual**   | Weakened enemies — for exploring and base-building. |
| **Hard**     | Tougher enemies, less room for error.               |
| **Creative** | Every item unlocked, no resource constraints.       |

⚠️ The game **cannot move a world from creative to non-creative**, nor the other way round, nor change difficulty after the fact. The mode is written into the world when it is created. To try another one, create a second server — the first costs nothing while it is off.

The **seed** follows the same rule: left empty it is random; filled in, it gives back exactly the same cavern.

## 3. Joining the game

Two routes, and it is worth knowing which to use.

- **By address** — in game, enter the IP address and port shown in your dashboard, then the password. That is the direct route, and it works from any platform.
- **By game code** — Core Keeper also shows a **session code**, which you will find in your dashboard. That is the simplest route for players on a games console, who have no address field to type into.

You have **no ports to open**: the game port (27015) and the Steam query port (27016) are already in place.

One detail that matters: our servers are configured for **direct connection**, not only through the Steam relay. Without that, a Core Keeper server literally has no reachable IP address — it is the default behaviour of the official image, and the reason some hosts only ever hand you a game code.

The server takes **8 players by default, up to 10**.

## 4. Seasonal events, forced or not

By default the server follows the **real date**: Easter, Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's, the game's anniversary, cherry blossom and Lunar New Year arrive when they arrive.

You can **force** an event — play Halloween in June — or **turn them all off**. That setting can change at any time; it takes effect on the next start.

## 5. Mods

**Our Core Keeper servers run vanilla.** The game has no official server-side mod loader, and community solutions bind to one precise game version — a server that updates itself would break them without warning.

## 6. How much RAM?

Core Keeper is a Unity game with a map that grows as you explore: memory rises with the area you have uncovered, not with the number of players.

| Your game                         | What we suggest       |
| --------------------------------- | --------------------- |
| Early run, group of 2 to 4        | 4 GB, eco tier        |
| Well-explored cavern, full group  | 8 GB, eco tier        |
| Long campaign, heavily built base | 8 GB on dedicated CPU |

The price follows the RAM and the performance level, **never the game**.

One thing to know about starting up: the game is **not** baked into the image — it is re-downloaded from Steam every session, since the machine is new. The first start of an evening is therefore slower than waking a server someone left idling elsewhere. That is the price of "€0 when off": we genuinely destroy the machine.

## 7. Renaming your server does not lose your world

The server name can be changed whenever you like. The save, though, is indexed by its **number** (`worlds/0.world.gzip`) and not by the name — so renaming is safe. It is a classic trap elsewhere: on other games, changing the server name makes the run "disappear" because the save path depends on it.

## 8. Your world is kept between sessions

The world is saved on shutdown and restored on the next start, at no cost. A timestamped backup is taken regularly while the server runs, and the most recent one is kept; the backup option keeps several, staggered over several days back.

Already have a cavern going? Bring it over:

1. Get the `worlds/<n>.world.gzip` file from the server's data folder (`core-keeper-data`).
2. Put it **at the root of the archive**, with no folder around it.
3. Upload the archive when you create the server. One world per server: if the archive holds several, we keep the most advanced one.

## 9. Shut down when you're done

Server off = €0. Auto-shutdown kicks in on its own once nobody is connected. On a game played in waves — one intense weekend, then three weeks of nothing — that is where the gap with a monthly plan opens up.

> [Create your Core Keeper server](https://tickserv.com/games/core-keeper) · [What it costs, exactly](https://tickserv.com/cost/core-keeper)