Enshrouded Dedicated Server Setup Guide

Overview

Enshrouded is Keen Games' co-op survival action RPG set in the world of Embervale, for up to 16 players. A dedicated server keeps your world online whether or not anyone is playing, so your group can drop in and out without one of you hosting from your own game.

GameGrid runs the official Enshrouded dedicated server from Steam. You do not install SteamCMD, open ports or edit the server's files: everything is set from the control panel.

The world lives on the server: buildings, chests, terrain and quest progress are saved there. Each player's character (level, skills, inventory and what they have explored on the map) is kept by the player's own game, so a player keeps their character across servers.

Enshrouded servers are Steam PC servers. Every player needs Enshrouded on Steam.

What GameGrid sets up for you

• Your port. Enshrouded uses a single UDP port. GameGrid assigns it from your server's own block and writes it into the server's configuration at every start. It is on the Connect card of the Overview page, and shown read-only in the System category of Settings. You never configure port forwarding. See Enshrouded Server Ports and Addresses.
• The difficulty preset. Every GameGrid Enshrouded server runs on the game's Custom preset, so every gameplay value you see in Settings is the value the game actually uses. To play one of the game's own presets (Default, Relaxed, Hard or Survival), load it with Start from a preset in Settings. See Enshrouded Difficulty Presets and Start From.
• User groups with their own passwords. A new server starts with Enshrouded's four groups, Admin, Friend, Guest and Visitor, and each group gets a 16-character password generated for your server alone. See User Groups, Passwords and Permissions.
• Text chat on. Enshrouded ships with text chat off. GameGrid creates new servers with it on, because the chat bridge to Discord and in-game account linking both read it.
• A clean stop. Stop and Restart shut Enshrouded down the way the game expects, and it saves the world before it exits.
• The GameGrid server module. Enshrouded has no admin console of any kind, so GameGrid installs its own small server module into every Enshrouded server, before every start. It is what makes item delivery, player positions on the map, teleport and chat reading possible. It runs on the server only, so your players install nothing for it.

Before anyone joins: the first settings

Open Settings.

1. In Basic, give your server the name your players will search for, set Player Slots (1 to 16), and tick any tags that describe it, such as a language, Looking For Players or Base Building. Tags help players filter the server list.

2. Choose how the game should play. In the gameplay settings, pick a preset under Start from a preset, press Load, change anything you like, and press Save Changes. See Enshrouded Server Settings.

3. Decide the tombstone setting (what a player drops when they die) before anybody dies. See Enshrouded Gameplay Settings Explained.

4. Set up your user groups. Decide which group each of your players belongs in. To hand out a group's password, press Show beside its masked password in User Groups, then Copy.

5. If you want bigger stacks, more backpack slots or bigger storage chests, set them now in Inventory & Storage, so every chest placed in the new world gets the bigger size. See Bigger Stacks, Backpacks and Chests.

Enshrouded reads its settings only when it starts. When you save a change that needs a restart and the server is running, GameGrid restarts it for you to apply the change, and the message after saving says so. A stopped server is not started: the change applies at its next start.

Starting the server

Start, Stop and Restart are in the status bar at the top of every server page.

1. Press Start.

2. The first start creates the world, which takes longer than later starts. Watch the Console: it follows the server's own log, and GameGrid adds the line [GameGrid] Server is ready: players can join. when players can connect.

3. When the status shows the server online, players can join.

How players join

Players join from Enshrouded's own server list. In the game's server filter they first turn on the option that shows dedicated servers; most "I cannot see the server" reports are that filter. Then they search for your server's name, or search by its address, and enter a password when they join.

The password decides what a player can do. Each user group has its own password, and the group whose password a player types is the group they play in for that session, with that group's permissions. Give your friends the Friend password, your co-admins the Admin password, and so on.

Because GameGrid runs every server on the Custom preset, the game's server list may show your server's difficulty as Custom whichever preset you started from.

Step by step: How to Join Your Enshrouded Server.

Where everything is

What Enshrouded's server does not have

Enshrouded's dedicated server has no admin console: no RCON, no chat commands and nothing that accepts typed commands. On GameGrid:

• The Console page shows the server's own log, followed live from the start of each boot, without a command box. GameGrid adds short [GameGrid] lines to it: starts, stops, crashes and restart attempts, backups, settings events, mods applied, and each player joining and leaving with their Steam ID. The Players filter shows the joins and leaves, Chat shows chat, and Server shows the GameGrid lines. See The Enshrouded Console and Server Log.
• The player list shows who is on by name. Enshrouded's own server reports how many players are on but not their names, so GameGrid takes the names from the server's log and from its server module.
• Kicking and banning are done in game, in the Social tab, by a player who joined with the password of a group that has the kick and ban permission. See Managing Players on Enshrouded.
• Nothing can put a message on a player's screen, so restart warnings go to your Discord alert channel. See Restarts and Player Warnings on Enshrouded.
• In-game chat reaches GameGrid through its server module: the Console shows each line as [Chat] name: text, and /chat-link can post it into a Discord channel. It goes one way: messages typed in that Discord channel are not sent into the game. See Sending Enshrouded Chat to Discord.

The Economy page: shop, kits and player links

Your server has an Economy page, the same one every GameGrid game has. Scan Game Items on the Shop tab lists every item a shop can sell, under the names players see in game, such as Stapelia Starflower, Wood Logs or Hunter's Bow. You set prices there and build kits in the Kit Manager.

• Linking. A player runs /link in your Discord server and types the code they are sent as !link CODE in the in-game chat within 10 minutes. Naming a character, or being connected as one, links nobody. The link is stored against the player's Steam account. See Linking Discord Accounts to Enshrouded Players.
• Purchases and kits. Players buy with /buy and claim kits with /kits claim, and the items go straight into their inventory while they are on the server. Nothing is refused for its size or because many people are buying: every order joins your server's delivery queue, and the Discord reply gives the player's place and updates when the order arrives. A player who is away is waited for, up to 7 days. See How Items Are Delivered on Enshrouded.
• Stack sizes. The Shop tab has a Stack column showing how many of each item fit in one slot on your server. See The Enshrouded Shop and Item Catalogue.

Read how players earn before you announce a shop: on Enshrouded it is the daily login, Discord activity and the awards you give. See Enshrouded Economy Overview.

First boot checklist

1. Set the server name, player slots and tags, and load a preset with Start from a preset.

2. Decide the tombstone setting.

3. Copy the passwords of the groups you will hand out.

4. Start the server and wait for the ready line in the Console.

5. Join from your own game with the Admin password. Your join in the Console lists the permissions you were given, so you can see you are in the Admin group.

6. Take a manual backup from Backups once the server is how you want it.

7. Tell your players how to join, including the dedicated-server filter.

Where to go next

• How to Join Your Enshrouded Server
• Enshrouded Server Settings
• User Groups, Passwords and Permissions
• The Enshrouded World Map
• Enshrouded Server Troubleshooting