Windrose dropped into Early Access today – April 14, 2026 – and it's already living up to the hype. 1.5 million Steam wishlists, 22,000 concurrent players within hours of launch, and a publishing deal with Pocketpair (yes, the Palworld folks). Kraken Express built something genuinely interesting here: a PvE pirate survival game with soulslite combat that actually feels punishing in the right ways. Think Dark Souls on the open sea, except you're managing a crew and looting hand-crafted islands instead of rolling through Lordran.
I've been poking around in the server files since the moment they went live, and I wanted to put together a proper walkthrough for anyone thinking about running their own dedicated server. Whether you're setting one up yourself or letting a host like us handle the grunt work, here's what you need to know.
Why Bother With a Dedicated Server?
Fair question. Windrose supports up to 10 players in a session, and you can just host from within the game client. But there are a few reasons that falls apart pretty quickly.
The big one is RAM. The dedicated server alone wants 8–16 GB depending on how many players you're running. That's just the server process. You still need the actual game running on your PC too, which means you're realistically looking at 24 GB of RAM minimum if you're hosting and playing at the same time. Most people don't have that kind of headroom, and even if you do, your framerates will suffer for it.
Then there's the always-on problem. Windrose uses an invite code system instead of traditional IP:port connections – I'll get into that in a minute – and those codes are tied to a specific server instance. If your PC goes to sleep, crashes, or you just want to close the game for the night, everyone's locked out until you spin it back up. Your crew in a different timezone? They're out of luck.
A dedicated server solves both of those. It runs 24/7, it doesn't compete with your game client for resources, and your invite code stays valid as long as the server's up. For a game with a 50–70 hour main story spread across three biomes and 90+ points of interest, that matters. Nobody wants to lose progress because the host had to reboot.
The Invite Code Thing
This is probably the most unusual part of Windrose's multiplayer setup. There's no server browser. You don't type in an IP address and port number. Instead, each dedicated server generates a unique invite code, and players use that code to join from the main menu.
It's actually a pretty clean system once you're used to it. You grab the code from your server, send it to your friends, and they punch it in. Done. No fiddling with port forwarding or firewall rules on the player side.
The server itself still needs UDP ports 7777 and 7778 open, but that's the host's problem, not your players'. If you're renting from a hosting provider, those ports are already configured for you.
I wrote up a detailed guide on how the invite code flow works: How to Join Your Windrose Server Using an Invite Code. Worth bookmarking if your crew needs a reference.
Self-Hosting vs. Renting
I'm obviously biased here since I work at LOW.MS, so take this with the appropriate grain of salt. But I do think renting makes more sense than self-hosting for most groups.
If you self-host, you need a Windows machine – the dedicated server is Windows-only right now – with at least 16 GB of RAM to spare, a decent CPU, and an internet connection that can handle the upload bandwidth for up to 10 players. You also need to deal with SteamCMD installation (App ID 3041230), port forwarding, keeping the server updated when patches drop, and actually monitoring the thing so it doesn't silently crash at 3 AM.
Renting from a game server host means someone else handles all of that. At LOW.MS, we've got Windrose plans for 4, 6, 8, or 10 players – all running 10 GB of RAM, which gives plenty of overhead even at full capacity. You can check current pricing on our Windrose server page.
I'd say 4 players is the sweet spot for most groups, by the way. Kraken Express themselves recommend it for optimal performance, and from what I've seen in testing, the combat encounters scale better with a smaller crew. Ten players is there if you want it, but the game feels tighter with four.
What You Actually Get
I'm not going to rattle off a feature checklist – you can read the product page for that. But a few things are worth calling out specifically for Windrose.
Cloud backups happen automatically, which matters more than usual here. Windrose has permadeath mechanics and the soulslite combat is genuinely difficult. When someone accidentally deletes a world file or a patch corrupts save data (it's Early Access, it will happen), you want backups you didn't have to remember to make.
DDoS protection is there if you need it. Probably less of a concern for a PvE game than it would be for something competitive, but it's nice to not think about.
The control panel at control.low.ms gives you a File Manager, Web Console, and Log Viewer, which you'll actually use. Windrose has two main config files – ServerDescription.json for your server's identity and connection settings, and WorldDescription.json for gameplay and difficulty tweaks. Being able to edit those directly in a browser without SSH-ing into anything saves a surprising amount of time, especially during Early Access when you're tweaking settings after every patch.
We've also got servers in multiple regions, so you can pick something geographically close to where most of your crew is. Matters more than people think for a game with real-time combat.
And 24/7 support, for what it's worth. Early Access games generate a lot of "is this broken or am I doing it wrong?" questions, and we're around to help sort that out.
Getting Your Server Running
Here's the actual getting-started process if you go with LOW.MS. It's shorter than you'd expect.
- Order a Windrose server from our game servers page. Pick your player count and region.
- The server installs and boots automatically. Takes a couple of minutes.
- Log into the LOW.MS Control Panel at control.low.ms. You'll see your server in the dashboard.
- Start the server if it's not already running. First boot takes a bit longer while it generates the world.
- Once it's up, grab your invite code. The server logs will show it, or you can find it through the control panel.
- Share the code with your crew. They enter it from the Windrose main menu and they're in.
That's it. No SteamCMD, no port forwarding, no config file editing unless you want to customize things.
Tweaking Your Server
You'll probably want to adjust settings eventually. The defaults are fine for a first session, but once you've got a feel for the game's difficulty curve, you might want to tune things like enemy damage scaling, co-op difficulty multipliers, or exploration settings.
I put together a full breakdown of every setting in both config files: Windrose Server Configuration Guide. That covers ServerDescription.json and WorldDescription.json in detail, with notes on what each value actually does.
One thing to be aware of – there are no in-game admin commands right now. The UE5 console is locked, so you can't do things like teleport players or spawn items from within the game. Everything is done through the config files or the control panel. Kraken Express might open that up later, but for now, that's where we're at.
If you run into issues – server not starting, players can't connect, world not generating properly – check the Windrose Server Troubleshooting guide before opening a support ticket. It covers the common Early Access gotchas.
Some Early Impressions
Since this is a blog and not a setup manual, I'll throw in a few opinions.
The combat is legitimately good. I went in expecting "pirate game with dodge rolls" and got something that actually demands you learn enemy patterns and manage stamina properly. The three ship types each feel meaningfully different to sail. And the world design – 90+ hand-crafted points of interest across three biomes – means exploration stays interesting way longer than it does in most survival games that lean on procedural generation.
Running it on a dedicated server with a small crew of 3–4 people has been the best way to experience it, in my opinion. You can leave the server running, hop on when you have time, and your progress is always there waiting. The invite code system means adding a new friend to the group takes about ten seconds.
For a deeper look at what settings work well for different group sizes and playstyles, check out Best Windrose Server Settings. I go into specific recommendations there rather than just explaining what each toggle does.
Windrose is shaping up to be one of the more interesting survival games this year. The Pocketpair backing probably helps with long-term development support, and Kraken Express seems to be patching quickly based on the first day. Worth getting a server set up now while your crew is excited about it – that launch window enthusiasm doesn't last forever.