To run an Enshrouded dedicated server, download Keen Games' free server program (Steam app 2278520) with SteamCMD, set a name and passwords in enshrouded_server.json, and open one UDP port, 15637. Version 1.0 launched on 15 October 2026 and the server still ships for Windows only, so a Windows VPS is the supported way to keep your world online around the clock. A dedicated server is a separate program that hosts the world on its own, so it stays up when every player has logged off. In our lab the 1.0 server used 0.8 to 1.2 GB of RAM and about a quarter of one CPU core at idle, with no players connected. VPS Mini fits two to four friends, VDS Small with dedicated vCPUs suits a regular group, and VDS Medium matches Keen's spec for 16 players.
Key facts, checked on 2026-10-16:
- Keen released Enshrouded 1.0, the end of Early Access, on 15 October 2026 (Keen on Steam).
- Keen's installation article says only Windows is supported for now; Linux support is planned.
- The default port is
queryPort15637 (Keen's server FAQ), andslotCountaccepts 1 to 16 players (Keen, server configuration). Our 1.0 lab server listened on UDP 15637 only; nothing answered on 15636. - Keen's FAQ gives about 4.4 GB of RAM at idle plus up to 100 MB per player, 6 GB at most. Keen's recommended specs ask for 16 GB of RAM and 2 Mbit/s of upload per player.
- The 1.0 server download is 8.1 GB (8,102,035,771 bytes, as reported by SteamCMD in our lab).
What changed for an Enshrouded dedicated server in 1.0
Most of the 1.0 patch notes are about the game. For anyone running a server, four things matter:
- Older guides get the ports wrong. Many 2024 guides say to open 15636 and 15637, but Keen's FAQ lists only
queryPort15637. Our 1.0 server had no TCP game port, and a query to 15636 timed out. - The 1.0 readme adds two settings,
flameLevelFogRemovaland anAutomaticvalue forrandomSpawnerAmount. Both are in the settings table below. - Saves use a new format that Keen's 1.0 changelog (14 October 2026) says gives smaller files. Saves from version 0.8 or earlier are backed up, then converted the first time 1.0 loads them. Our fresh world was one 42 KB file,
world0.ksd, plus ten rolling copies insavegame\backup. - Dedicated servers keep their password groups. In-game hosts can now promote or demote single players, but the changelog says this is not possible on a dedicated server.
In-game host, home PC or Windows VPS?
There are three ways to share an Enshrouded world, and they differ in who has to stay online.
| Option | The world is online | What you look after |
|---|---|---|
| In-game hosting | Only while the hosting player is in the game | Nothing extra |
| Dedicated server on a home PC | While that PC stays on | Forwarding UDP 15637 on your router, and 2 Mbit/s of upload per player |
| Dedicated server on a Windows VPS | Around the clock | Game and Windows updates. Its own public IPv4 address matters, because Keen's FAQ says the server uses IPv4 only. |
Why Windows, and does it run on Linux?
Keen ships one server program, enshrouded_server.exe, a Windows executable. Linux hosts run it through Wine or Proton, layers that translate Windows system calls for Linux. In our lab, Wine 10.0 from Debian 13 ran the 1.0 server without tweaks:
# as the steam user, in our Debian 13 lab container (Linux + Wine, not supported by Keen)
~/steamcmd/steamcmd.sh +@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows +force_install_dir /home/steam/enshrouded +login anonymous +app_update 2278520 validate +quit
cd ~/enshrouded && WINEDEBUG=-all wine enshrouded_server.exeSteamCMD printed Success! App '2278520' fully installed., and within 45 seconds the log showed [Session] 'HostOnline' (up)!, the line Keen's FAQ names as the sign that the server is ready. Keen does not support that path, though: if a patch breaks something under Wine, you wait for a community fix. On Windows Server, Keen's documentation applies as written.
Enshrouded server requirements: the RAM and CPU we measured
We ran the 1.0 server in a container limited to 2 vCPUs and 5 GB of RAM on our Amsterdam test server (AMD EPYC 7742), with swap off, and sampled its resident memory (RSS, the RAM the process really holds) and CPU every 2 to 5 seconds. These figures were measured under Wine on Linux; on Windows, expect about the same or more.
| Server state | Server memory (RSS) | CPU, 100% = one core | Time to ready |
|---|---|---|---|
| First start, new world, idle for 7 minutes | 1,157 to 1,175 MiB | 22% average, 28% peak | Under 45 s, cold disk cache |
| Restart, same world, idle for 6 minutes | 817 to 818 MiB once settled | 24% average, 29% peak | 4 s |
| Restart after editing the config | 1,042 MiB | 23 to 30% | 4 s |
Our lab has no game client, so we could not test players. For load, we rely on Keen:
| Keen's figure | Memory | CPU |
|---|---|---|
| Server FAQ (last edited February 2025) | About 4.4 GB idle, up to 100 MB per player, 6 GB at most | Refers to the specs page |
| Specs for 4 to 6 players (January 2024) | 16 GB | 6 cores, 12 threads, 3.2 GHz |
| Specs for 16 players (January 2024) | 16 GB | 8 cores, 16 threads, 3.7 GHz |
Keen's FAQ figure dates from Early Access, and the 1.0 changelog says Keen reduced the memory needed for server and client communication. Windows needs room on top: Microsoft lists 2 GB as the minimum for Windows Server 2019, 2022 and 2025 with the desktop, and recommends 4 GB for 2025 (Microsoft). Windows' 2 GB, plus our 1.2 GB idle peak, plus 100 MB per player gives roughly 3.6 GB for four players and 4.8 GB for sixteen, before big bases. That is our estimate, not a Windows measurement. Bandwidth is easy: 16 players need about 32 Mbit/s of upload.
Which plan and which city for your Enshrouded server
Enshrouded server hosting on a VPS comes down to two choices: the plan and the city. Windows Server 2019, 2022 or 2025 runs on VPS Mini and all VDS plans, and you pick the version at the configure step. Moving from an older server? See the end of support for Windows Server 2016. Every plan has NVMe storage, unmetered traffic and its own IPv4 and IPv6 address. The latency figures are the lowest round trips from our own test with ping.pe, a public tool that pings an address from probes in many cities, run on 6 October 2026 and published on our Amsterdam and Prishtina pages.
| Your situation | Plan | City | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 to 4 friends in Germany, the Benelux or the UK, a few evenings a week | VPS Mini: 4 shared vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB NVMe, 1 Gb/s | Amsterdam: 6.6 ms from Frankfurt, 6.7 ms from London | The smallest Windows plan, and tight. Pick Windows Server 2022 or 2019 (Microsoft recommends 4 GB for 2025), set slotCount to 4 and run nothing else on it. |
| A regular group of 4 to 8 in Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia or the wider Balkans | VDS Small: 4 dedicated vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 240 GB NVMe, 10 Gb/s | Prishtina: 3 ms from Skopje on our own network | Our pick for most groups. No neighbour can take CPU time from your world, and 8 GB covers Windows plus a full server by the math above. |
| Friends in Ireland or western Britain | VPS Mini for 2 to 4, VDS Small for more | Dublin | Same plans. We have no ping.pe figures for Dublin yet, so ping it from your own connection first. |
| A mixed group from Vienna to Istanbul | VDS Small | Amsterdam or Prishtina: Vienna 18.1 and 18.6 ms, Istanbul 42.8 and 40.9 ms | Almost a tie, so pick the city nearer the rest of the group. |
| 16 slots, full most nights | VDS Medium: 8 dedicated vCPU, 16 GB RAM, 480 GB NVMe, 10 Gb/s | Where most of the 16 live | Matches Keen's 16-player spec of 8 cores, 16 threads and 16 GB. |
| Enshrouded plus another game server | VDS Medium, or VDS Large: 16 dedicated vCPU, 32 GB RAM, 960 GB NVMe, 10 Gb/s | Where most players live | Every extra server needs its own memory, port and CPU time. |
A shared vCPU is a processor core you share with other customers on the same host; a dedicated vCPU is reserved for your server, as our guide to VPS vs VDS vs dedicated servers explains. If Keen's older 4.4 GB idle figure holds on your Windows build, Mini will be too small; copy your savegame folder, then upgrade from the client area with a short reboot. Availability by city is on the Windows VPS plans page.
How to set up an Enshrouded dedicated server on Windows
We could not run Windows in our lab, so the PowerShell commands below come from Keen's, Valve's and Microsoft's documentation and are not tested by us. The SteamCMD command and app ID are the ones we ran.
1. Connect over Remote Desktop
On a Windows PC, open Remote Desktop Connection, type your server's IPv4 address and sign in as Administrator. Our guide on how to connect to and lock down RDP on Windows Server covers a long password, Network Level Authentication and account lockout. Do that first: a server in the public list makes your IP address known.
2. Download SteamCMD and the server
SteamCMD is Valve's command-line Steam client; it can download many dedicated servers, this one included, without a Steam account. Right-click Start, open PowerShell or Terminal as administrator, and paste:
# in PowerShell as Administrator, on the Windows VPS
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path C:\steamcmd, C:\enshrouded
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steamcmd.zip -OutFile C:\steamcmd\steamcmd.zip
Expand-Archive -Path C:\steamcmd\steamcmd.zip -DestinationPath C:\steamcmd
C:\steamcmd\steamcmd.exe +force_install_dir C:\enshrouded +login anonymous +app_update 2278520 validate +quitSteamCMD first updates itself, then downloads about 8.1 GB. The last line should read Success! App '2278520' fully installed. Valve's SteamCMD page documents the tool.
3. Open UDP 15637 in Windows Firewall
Windows Firewall blocks unsolicited incoming traffic by default, so allow the game port before the first start:
# in PowerShell as Administrator, on the Windows VPS
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Enshrouded UDP 15637" -Direction Inbound -Protocol UDP -LocalPort 15637 -Action Allow
Get-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Enshrouded UDP 15637" | Select-Object DisplayName, Enabled, Direction, ActionThe second command should show True, Inbound and Allow (syntax from Microsoft's New-NetFirewallRule reference). No TCP rule is needed, and 15636 can stay closed.
4. Start it once
# in PowerShell, on the Windows VPS
cd C:\enshrouded
.\enshrouded_server.exeWait for [Session] 'HostOnline' (up)! in the console. The first start writes enshrouded_server.json, a savegame folder and a logs folder next to the program. Then click the console's title bar and press Ctrl+C. In our Wine lab the same signal, sent with kill -INT, stopped the server in 1 to 2 seconds, and the world was saved on the way out.
5. Set the name, slots and passwords
Save a copy of C:\enshrouded\enshrouded_server.json, then open it in Notepad with the server stopped:
# lines to change near the top of C:\enshrouded\enshrouded_server.json (server stopped, edited in Notepad)
"name": "Embervale with friends",
"slotCount": 6,Further down, each entry under userGroups (Admin, Friend, Guest and Visitor) has its own "password" line with a random value. Give Admin a long password only you know and Friend the one you share, keeping the quotes and the comma. The password a player types decides their group, so to become admin on your own server, join with the Admin password. When we set a new name and 6 slots in the lab, a server query answered with the new name and players=0/6.
6. Join and check from outside
Start the server again. In the game, choose Join and enable the filter that shows dedicated servers. If yours is missing, add it in the Steam client under View, Game Servers, Favorites, with the + button and YOUR_IP:15637, as Keen's favourites guide shows. If Steam lists your server's name and player count there, the port is open.
Steam's public address list, https://api.steampowered.com/ISteamApps/GetServersAtAddress/v0001?addr=YOUR_IP, is a weaker check. It listed our lab server on 15637 although no port was open to it, so it proves registration with Steam, not reachability.
How to configure enshrouded_server.json
These are the settings the 1.0 server wrote at first start. Keen's gameplay settings page explains the rest of the gameSettings block, with the allowed range of each value; its sample file still shows version 0.9.
| Setting | Default in 1.0 | What to do with it |
|---|---|---|
name | "Enshrouded Server" | The name in the server list. Everyone sees it. |
slotCount | 16 | 1 to 16. Keen notes that each slot adds load, so lower it on a small plan. |
queryPort and ip | 15637 and "0.0.0.0" | Leave both. If you change the port, open the new one in the firewall. |
saveDirectory | "./savegame" | Leave it. You copy this folder before updates. |
userGroups | Admin, Friend, Guest, Visitor with random passwords | Set your own passwords. reservedSlots keeps places free for a group. |
gameSettingsPreset | "Default" | Relaxed, Hard, Survival or Custom. Only Custom applies the values in the gameSettings block. |
randomSpawnerAmount | "Automatic" in the file our server wrote | Few, Normal, Automatic, Many or Extreme. Automatic, new in 1.0, scales each encounter to the number of players actively playing nearby, says the 1.0 changelog. |
flameLevelFogRemoval | 11 | New in 1.0, range 0 to 20: the Flame level a world needs before Flame Altars can push back the Shroud. 11 is the final level; a lower value unlocks it sooner. |
bannedAccounts | Empty list | The server's ban list. Edit it by hand only with the server stopped. |
A single typo stops everything. In the lab we deleted one comma: the server printed Internal Error: Failed to parse Config and quit, and nothing listened on 15637. The file was not reset to defaults, so find the missing comma or quote, or restore the copy from step 5.
How to update the server without losing your world
Each time Keen posts a patch, stop the server with Ctrl+C in its window, then run the routine below. We ran the same copy-then-update steps in our Linux lab; the PowerShell lines follow Microsoft's documentation and are not tested on Windows.
# in PowerShell as Administrator, on the Windows VPS, with the server stopped
$stamp = Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd-HHmm"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path "C:\enshrouded-copies\$stamp"
Copy-Item -Recurse -Path C:\enshrouded\savegame -Destination "C:\enshrouded-copies\$stamp\savegame"
Copy-Item -Path C:\enshrouded\enshrouded_server.json -Destination "C:\enshrouded-copies\$stamp\"
C:\steamcmd\steamcmd.exe +force_install_dir C:\enshrouded +login anonymous +app_update 2278520 +quitSteamCMD ends with Success! App '2278520' fully installed., or already up to date. when nothing changed; in our lab that check took 6 seconds. Add validate before +quit only when files seem damaged, because it re-reads all 8 GB. Then start the server and wait for HostOnline.
The copy is the step people skip, and 1.0 shows why it matters: Keen converted old saves to a new format the first time 1.0 loaded them. The ten rolling copies in savegame\backup sit on the same disk as the world, so also copy the newest dated folder to your own PC over Remote Desktop. Worlds are small (Keen's FAQ says 1 to 100 MB), and character progress is not on the server at all: Keen stores it on each player's PC.
Keeping the server online after you log off
When you finish in Remote Desktop, close the window with the X instead of signing out. Closing only disconnects you and the server keeps running; signing out ends your session and the server with it. Avoid clicking inside the console text too: Windows may start selecting text, which pauses the program until you press Esc.
Windows updates restart the machine now and then. A scheduled task can start Enshrouded again after a reboot (from Microsoft's ScheduledTasks documentation, not tested by us):
# in PowerShell as Administrator, on the Windows VPS
$action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "C:\enshrouded\enshrouded_server.exe" -WorkingDirectory "C:\enshrouded"
$trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -AtStartup
Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Enshrouded server" -Action $action -Trigger $trigger -User "SYSTEM" -RunLevel HighestA task running as SYSTEM has no visible console, so there is no Ctrl+C: Stop-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Enshrouded server" ends it without a clean shutdown and can lose the minutes since the last automatic save. If that bothers you, start the server by hand after reboots. Either way, give every group a password, Guest and Visitor included.
Server not showing up or players can't join? Quick fixes
| What you see | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Nobody can join after a game patch | Steam updated the players' games, but a SteamCMD server stays on its old build until you update it | Copy the savegame, update, start again |
| Not in the server list, and the Steam favourites check fails | UDP 15637 (or your queryPort) is closed in Windows Firewall | Add the rule from step 3. Opening 15636 does not help on 1.0. |
| The server quits right after it starts | A typo in enshrouded_server.json (Failed to parse Config in the log) | Fix the comma or quote, or restore your copy |
| The world freezes while you are in Remote Desktop | A click in the console text paused the program | Press Esc in the console |
| Offline the next morning | You signed out of Remote Desktop, or Windows restarted for updates | Close RDP with the X; use the scheduled task or start it by hand |
| Everyone lags while the CPU sits idle | Possibly a flood of traffic aimed at your IP address | Compare with our guide on how to tell if a server is under DDoS attack; it is written for Linux, but the symptoms match |
If Remote Desktop itself will not connect, our guide to fixing Remote Desktop connection errors goes through the usual causes.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Enshrouded dedicated server free?
Yes. The Enshrouded dedicated server is a separate free download, Steam app 2278520, and SteamCMD fetches it with an anonymous login, so the server needs no Steam account and no copy of the game. Every player still needs their own copy of Enshrouded.
Which ports does an Enshrouded 1.0 server need?
One: UDP 15637, the default queryPort, open for incoming traffic. In our lab the 1.0 server listened on UDP 15637 only and did not answer on 15636, the second port older guides list. If you change queryPort, open the new port instead.
How much RAM does an Enshrouded server need?
In our lab the Enshrouded 1.0 server used 0.8 to 1.2 GB of RAM at idle with no players, measured under Wine on Linux. Keen's FAQ says about 4.4 GB idle plus up to 100 MB per player, and Keen's specs ask for 16 GB. With Windows Server on top, plan 4 GB for a few friends and 8 to 16 GB for a full world.
Can I run an Enshrouded dedicated server on Linux?
Not officially. Keen supports only Windows and says Linux support is planned. The Windows server ran under Wine 10.0 on Debian 13 in our lab without tweaks, but that setup is unsupported, so after a bad update you depend on community fixes. Windows Server is the safer choice.
How many players can join an Enshrouded server?
Up to 16. The slotCount setting in enshrouded_server.json accepts 1 to 16, and Keen notes that every extra slot adds load. reservedSlots in a user group keeps places free for your friends.
Will my Early Access world work on the 1.0 server?
Yes. Keen's launch FAQ says Early Access saves work in Enshrouded 1.0 and are converted to a new, more efficient format. The 1.0 changelog adds that the skill tree resets the first time an existing save is played in 1.0. Copy the server's savegame folder before you update, so an untouched copy survives if the conversion goes wrong.
Your world, your server
Enshrouded 1.0 is easy to host once you know its habits: one UDP port, one JSON file you edit with the server stopped, and a savegame folder you copy before every update. Start on VPS Mini for a few friends, or go straight to VDS Small if your group plays most nights; you can upgrade later with a short reboot. RS Computers runs KVM servers in Amsterdam, Dublin and Prishtina with Windows Server and full administrator rights. Compare plans on our Windows VPS page, or ask us on Telegram which size suits your group. Running other games too? See our guide to hosting a game server on a VPS.