This guide covers the basics of getting an Enshrouded dedicated server running with us — ordering, logging into the control panel, starting the server, connecting, setting a password, uploading a save, and keeping things up to date. If you've never run a game server before, don't worry; we've tried to keep it jargon-free.
Ordering a server
Head over to our Enshrouded server hosting page and pick the slot count that suits your group. Enshrouded caps out at 16 players, so anywhere up to that is fair game. Run through checkout and the server will start provisioning automatically. You'll get an email with the details once it's ready — it only takes a few minutes in most cases.
One thing worth knowing up front: we pre-configure the game and query ports for you. There's no router forwarding, no enshrouded_server.json port-wrangling, nothing to copy out of a wiki. It just works.
Logging in and finding your server
Everything lives in our TCAdmin control panel at https://control.low.ms. Sign in with the credentials from your welcome email and you'll see your Enshrouded service on the dashboard. Click into it and you'll land on the server overview page — this is where the IP, port, start/stop buttons and the left-hand sidebar of tools all live.
Make a note of the IP and port shown on that page. You'll want them for connecting and for sharing with friends.
Starting the server
Your server starts on its own after provisioning, so for most people there's nothing to do here. If you ever need to start, stop, or restart it manually, use the STOP and RESTART buttons at the top of the server overview page. The status indicator will flip to online once the world has loaded; Enshrouded usually takes a little longer to come up than something like Minecraft, so give it a moment.
Connecting, and inviting friends
Launch Enshrouded from Steam, hit Play, then Join, and either search for your server name in the list or use the Add Server option to punch in the IP and port directly. Direct connection is the more reliable of the two, honestly — the public browser is fine, but it can be slow to populate.
Share the IP, port and (if you've set one) the password with your friends and they connect the exact same way. There's a longer walkthrough with screenshots in How to join your Enshrouded server if anyone in your group gets stuck.
Setting a password and server name
Both of these live in enshrouded_server.json, which sits in the root of your server directory. The cleanest way to edit it is through Configuration Files in the left sidebar — we ship a dedicated editor for this file so you don't have to hunt for the right keys. File Manager works too if you'd rather edit the raw JSON yourself.
Change the server name and password, save, then restart the server for the new values to take effect. We strongly recommend putting a password on any server that isn't meant to be fully public — Enshrouded's browser surfaces open servers and you will get random joiners otherwise.
Uploading an existing save
If you've been playing locally or moving from another host, your world files go into ./savegame in the server root. Stop the server first, upload the files through File Manager, then start it back up. We've got a dedicated walkthrough at Transfer or upload your save to your Enshrouded server which covers the gotchas.
Keeping the server updated
When Keen Games ships a patch, clients on the new version won't be able to connect to a server still running the old one — this trips people up every single patch day. Head to Steam Update in the sidebar, run an update, and restart when it finishes. That's all there is to it. We'd suggest doing this as soon as you notice a patch has dropped rather than waiting for someone to report they can't join.
A quick note on mods: Enshrouded doesn't officially support them. The engine is proprietary and there's no mod loader. There's a community tool called Shroudtopia floating around but it's unofficial and not something we install or support on our servers.
Where to go next
Once you're up and running, the Enshrouded server settings guide is the next thing worth reading — it walks through the options in enshrouded_server.json that actually matter (difficulty, tombstone mode, that sort of thing). And if anything isn't behaving, our Enshrouded server troubleshooting article covers the issues we see most often in support tickets.
If you get stuck on something that isn't covered, open a ticket — we're around 24/7 and happy to help.