How to set up an Enshrouded 1.0 dedicated server
Enshrouded is played together on one shared world: you build a base, push back the Shroud, and come back three evenings later where the group left off. As long as the game is hosted on one player's PC, it stops when they close it — and nobody else can make progress in the meantime. A dedicated server keeps it standing, and our Enshrouded server hosting is only billed for the hours it runs.
Enshrouded 1.0 (15 October 2026)
The game leaves Early Access on 15 October 2026, on PC and PS5. Nothing for you to do: as described in §2, your server re-downloads the published version on every start, so the first start after that date is already 1.0.
- Confirmed by Keen Games: the date (Steam announcement of 25 June 2026), the PS5 release on the same day, the Xbox version in spring 2027; then in the launch FAQ of 13 October 2026: Early Access saves stay usable, converted to a new format, and no crossplay at launch (our servers are PC servers).
- Published on 14 October 2026: the 1.0 changelog; on a dedicated server, groups and their passwords work as before, and nothing is announced about ports or hardware.
- Checked on our side on the evening of 15 October 2026: the 1.0 server starts (after a fix shipped that evening, before the first customer) and carries over an Early Access world by converting it. The measurements: Enshrouded 1.0 dedicated server, what we measured.
A launch week for four, five 3-hour evenings, costs €0.90 on eco 16 GB. Details and dated sources: Enshrouded 1.0, what changes on October 15.
1. Create the server
Pick Enshrouded, the RAM and the performance level. The server starts on its own; you get a stable connection address and two passwords (more on that in §4).
There is nothing to lock in at creation: the difficulty preset, text chat and voice chat can be changed whenever you like, and the new setting applies on the next start.
2. The first start downloads the game
This is what sets Enshrouded apart here, and it is worth saying before you buy: the server is not baked into the image, it is downloaded from Steam on every start, onto a brand-new machine. Measured on our pre-production on 8 September 2026: 8.8 GB pulled in about 95 seconds, then verified, then the world loaded — 5 min 21 s end to end, machine included.
Two concrete consequences:
- your archive only ever holds your world, never the game's 8.8 GB — that is what makes restoring it instant;
- your server always comes back on the published version of the game, with nothing for you to do. That is necessary: a player's client updates itself through Steam, and a server left behind would become unreachable.
We allow 15 minutes of patience at start-up, far more than the five we measured: what varies here is not the game but Steam's network.
3. Joining the game
In the game, join a server with the address and port shown in your console, then enter the password.
You have no ports to open: the game port (15636) and the query port (15637) are already in place. That second port is what makes the server show up in the game's browser, and it is also how we know how many players are connected.
The server takes 8 players by default, up to 16.
4. Two passwords, and why
Enshrouded no longer protects a server with a single password: since its second major update, groups carry the passwords, and the one you type decides your rights. Your account therefore shows two of them:
| Password | What it grants |
|---|---|
| Player | Build, open chests, edit the world — the game, basically. No kicking, no banning. |
| Admin | All of that, plus kicking and banning in game, and a reserved slot: you get in even at 16 players. |
⚠️ Never share the admin password with the group: it is what grants moderation rights. And do not worry about one of them going missing: a group left without a password would be, per the publisher's own documentation, open to anyone with that group's permissions. Here, if the password failed to arrive, the server draws a random one — it becomes unreachable rather than open.
The detail of groups, rights and reserved slots: roles and reserved slots.
5. Settings you can change whenever you like
| Setting | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Difficulty preset | Default, Relaxed, Hard or Survival: how aggressive enemies are and how plentiful resources are. |
| Text chat | On here, although the game ships with it off — without it, players have no way to write in game. |
| Voice chat | Off by default. Can be switched on, either proximity-based or across the whole server. |
An enshrouded_server.json with no effect? The three causes.
6. No console, and moderation happens in game
There is no console for Enshrouded in your account, and that is not a matter of convenience: this server has no RCON, no admin API, no commands on its standard input. Nothing to open, so nothing we could hand you.
That does not leave you without options: kicking and banning happen from inside the game, with the admin password from §4. The address, the server state, the logs and the number of connected players all stay visible in your account.
7. Your world is kept between sessions
On shutdown the server gets its exit signal and we give it up to 90 seconds to write its world — a server killed mid-write is a save lost without a word. The world is then archived, and restored on the next start, on a brand-new machine.
Already have a world running? Bring it over:
- Grab the
savegamefolder from your Enshrouded server. - Zip it as is — the world is a
world0.ksdfile (1.0) or, for an Early Access world, an extensionless file named3ad85aea. - Upload the archive when you create the server.
No panic if all you have is the file: a lone world0.ksd (or 3ad85aea), zipped alone or under a folder with any name, is placed in savegame/ for you, and the World Mover on the create page recognises Enshrouded by that file. An archive with neither name is sent as is: keep the savegame/ folder around the file then, it is what tells the server where to look.
8. How much RAM?
This is the most demanding game in our catalogue, and the honest figure is not the first one you read.
The publisher's FAQ spells out actual usage: the process takes about 4.4 GB at idle, then up to 100 MB per player, "and in total the server should not use more than 6 GB". On memory alone, 8 GB would do.
But the same publisher's recommendation is 16 GB and at least six cores, and their server has a reputation for being CPU-hungry. Recommending the lowest tier would be promising an experience we cannot deliver.
| Your game | What we recommend |
|---|---|
| Up to 16 players | 16 GB, on eco (€0.06/h) |
On eco, 16 GB comes with 8 shared vCPUs at our reference provider: more than the six cores recommended. It is also the size covered by the free first hour.
⚠️ The caveat, written down rather than glossed over: those cores are shared. And depending on your country or current availability, the machine you get may have fewer (2 to 4). The dedicated CPU level (16 GB, €0.13/h) gives cores shared with nobody, but only 2. If you plan to keep all 16 slots full permanently, you are at the edge of what we can serve. With two or four of you, no problem at all.
The price follows the RAM and the performance level, never the game.
“Server Overloaded”: why more RAM does little
The yellow or red “Server Overloaded” message (rubberbanding, teleporting enemies) is the most common complaint from groups on a dedicated server. It means the server is short of compute time, not memory: according to hosting guides, it shows up when many regions of the world are active at once, that is when players spread out. Going from 8 to 16 GB does nothing for that by itself; the process fits in 6 GB according to the publisher.
What helps, in order:
- Keep the group together: fewer active regions, less computing.
- Lower “Number of enemies” in the server settings (
Fewinstead ofNormal). That setting switches the difficulty preset to Custom. - Pick the right CPU: the Eco tier (shared vCPU) suits a small group playing together; when the team splits across several regions, the dedicated CPU tier keeps a neighbour on the machine from taking compute from you.
Honestly: Keen has published no official fix and the message sometimes returns even on big machines. These three levers lower the risk, they do not remove it.
9. What about mods?
There are none, and that is not a limit on our side: Enshrouded does not load server-side mods. Nothing to install, nothing to keep in sync between players.
10. Shut it down when you are done
Server off = €0. Auto-shutdown kicks in on its own once nobody is connected, and the world comes back untouched next time. On a game you play in seasons — two weeks of building, then nothing until the next update — that is where the gap with a monthly plan opens up.