Enshrouded Server Hosting: RAM, Player Groups and Setup

Enshrouded is a co-op survival game about building, exploring and pushing back the Shroud together. Played through one person's game, though, the world sleeps whenever the host is offline, and the whole group waits for them to log in. Enshrouded server hosting keeps Embervale online around the clock, so friends can play on their own schedule while the base keeps growing.

Below we cover how much memory a server really needs, how the four password groups work, which settings to look at first, how to find your server if it does not show up in the list and how to protect the world with backups.

Why a dedicated server instead of hosting in-game

When a player hosts from the game, the world exists only while their session is running. Nobody else can gather resources, build or move the story forward, and the host's PC carries both the game and the server. With a bigger group and a growing base that quickly turns into lag for everyone.

A dedicated server keeps the world independent of any single player. It is online when the host is asleep, everyone connects to the same fixed address and nobody has to deal with port forwarding at home. It is the same reason groups move to dedicated servers in Valheim and Project Zomboid.

How much RAM an Enshrouded server needs

Enshrouded is lighter on a server than it looks. In our tests a fresh server started under a 2 GB limit and used about 0.7 GB with nobody online. What grows the load is players: every person online, every active area of the map and every large base adds memory and CPU work.

The map is the same handcrafted world for everyone — there is no seed or map size to choose — so the plan depends on the size of your group and how much you build:

Sixteen players is the game's own cap for a dedicated server. Plans above 12 GB do not add slots — they add headroom for huge bases and long sessions. The full range is on the Enshrouded page.

Memory is only half of it. During play the server simulates enemies, building physics and terrain changes, and the busiest work sits on a few threads — which is why fast cores matter more than many slow ones, just like in Minecraft.

Four password groups: Admin, Friend, Guest and Visitor

Instead of one server password, Enshrouded has player groups. Each group has its own password and its own rights: whoever joins with the Admin password can kick and ban players and has full access to bases, while Friend, Guest and Visitor get progressively fewer permissions — for example, whether they can edit or extend a base and open chests.

On Elysium the server is created with unique passwords for all four groups, so nobody can join with default values. The Admin password is shown in your client area; the passwords of the other groups are on the Startup tab of the panel, where you can also change them.

Difficulty and game settings

Server settings live in enshrouded_server.json. Besides the name, slots and groups, the file has gameSettingsPreset — presets such as Default, Relaxed, Hard and Survival — and a gameSettings block for fine-tuning when the preset is Custom: enemy damage and health, hunger, day length, resource yield and more.

Agree on difficulty before your group gets deep into the world. Settings can be changed later, but switching from a relaxed run to a punishing one halfway through usually frustrates more than it challenges. Edit the file in the Files tab and restart the server for the change to apply. The server name and group passwords are the exception: they come from the Startup tab and are written into the file on every start, so change them there.

How to join if the server is not in the list

A well-known quirk of Enshrouded: a dedicated server does not always appear in the in-game server browser, even when it runs perfectly. The workaround takes a minute:

1. Copy the server address and port from your client area.
2. In Steam, open View → Game Servers → Favorites and add the server by address.
3. Start Enshrouded — the server now appears among your favorites, and you join with your group's password.

Share the address and the right password with your friends and they can do the same.

Backups, characters and updates

In Enshrouded the world and the character are stored in different places. Bases, the map and the progress of the flame live on the server; your character and its inventory are saved on your own PC. That means a server backup protects the shared world, and each player keeps their character even if you roll the world back.

Elysium makes a nightly automatic backup of every server, and you can create manual copies on the Backups tab — do that before every game update and before big rebuilds. How often to back up depends on how much progress your group can afford to lose; the logic from our article on whether daily backups are enough works for any game.

The server updates the game automatically on start. When a patch comes out, restart the server: the game version on the server and on players' PCs has to match, otherwise nobody can join.

Location and ping

Combat in Enshrouded relies on dodges and blocks, so lower ping makes fights noticeably more pleasant. Pick the location closest to most of your players — our guide on choosing a server location applies to any game, and the available cities are on the locations page.