---
title: "Hosting an Enshrouded server: the complete guide"
description: "The game is downloaded again on every start, two passwords decide your rights, and the RAM we recommend comes with a caveat we write down plainly."
url: https://tickserv.com/guides/enshrouded-server-hosting
site: "TickServ (https://tickserv.com)"
lang: en
published: 2026-09-08
games: [enshrouded]
---
# Hosting an Enshrouded server: the complete guide

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 here it is only billed for the hours it runs.

## 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.

## 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.           |

## 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:

1. Grab the **`savegame` folder** from your Enshrouded server.
2. Zip it as is — the world file inside **has no extension**, and its name is an identifier of the game's own.
3. Upload the archive when you create the server.

⚠️ **Do keep the folder around the file.** On other games we can recognise a world by its extension and file it away for you; here, nothing tells a world file apart from any other file. The folder is what tells us where it goes.

## 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 the **dedicated CPU** level |

⚠️ **And here is the caveat, written down rather than glossed over: no size in our grid reaches the six cores the publisher recommends.** The dedicated CPU level is the closest thing — cores shared with nobody — but 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**.

## 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.

> [Create your Enshrouded server](https://tickserv.com/games/enshrouded) · [What it costs, exactly](https://tickserv.com/cost/enshrouded)