Hosting a Sons of the Forest world that never waits for the host

Why give the forest its own machine?

Because your group's world should not depend on one person's evening. When a friend hosts from the game itself, the world exists only while they are playing, and their home connection carries everyone. A dedicated server is a separate program that runs the world on its own, so people can drop in on their own schedule.

Endnight, the studio behind the game, added this server in Patch 07 and keeps an official guide for it on Steam. It is free, and it is a separate download from the game, so you can run it without owning Sons of the Forest on that machine.

The one catch: it is a Windows program

Endnight's guide only describes Windows: the server is an .exe started from a .bat file. You will see people running it on Linux through Wine or Proton, which are compatibility layers that let Windows programs run elsewhere. Those setups are made by the community, not by Endnight, and when a game update breaks one, nobody official will fix it for you.

So the calm choice is a server with Windows Server installed. Be clear on the cost: you pay for the Windows Server licence by the core (a flat charge up to eight cores, then per core above that), on top of the machine's monthly bill. It is also x86 only, so our ARM machines are out.

Up and running in an evening

1. Order a machine with Windows Server and connect to it.
2. Get SteamCMD, Valve's command-line Steam downloader: download steamcmd.zip from Valve, make a folder for it and unzip it there.
3. Start SteamCMD and type the three lines below. They pick a folder, log in anonymously and download the server (app 2465200). Valve recommends choosing the folder before logging in.
4. Double-click StartSOTFDedicated.bat in that folder. On the very first launch the server creates its settings files and then stops. That is expected.
5. Edit the settings (next sections), allow the three ports through Windows Firewall, and launch it again.

force_install_dir c:\sons-dedicated\
login anonymous
app_update 2465200 validate

Typing those same lines again later is also how you update the server after a game patch.

Letting your friends in

Your friends reach the world through three ports, and all of them use UDP:

• 8766 is the game itself (GamePort).
• 27016 lets Steam list your server so people can find it (QueryPort).
• 9700 is BlobSync, which sets up game systems and swaps data with players (BlobSyncPort).

Each time it starts, the server checks itself: it fetches its public IPv4 address from Steam and tests whether those ports can be reached. If one test fails, it refuses to start and tells you why. Endnight says only IPv4 is officially supported and asks for a static public address. A rented server comes with one IPv4 address of its own, so there is no home router to set up; what is left to check is Windows Firewall. Players can join from the server list, or since Patch 09 enter the address and game port to connect directly.

The settings file, in plain words

Settings live in dedicatedserver.cfg, a JSON text file inside the server's data folder (by default under AppData\LocalLow\Endnight\SonsOfTheForestDS in the Windows user's profile). JSON is fussy, so one missing comma stops the server at its self-check. The ones you will actually touch:

• ServerName: what friends see in the list.
• MaxPlayers: anything from 1 to 8.
• Password: up to 40 characters; players type it to get in.
• SaveMode: leave it on continue, which keeps loading your world. new wipes the save slot and starts fresh, and it wipes again on every restart until you change it back.
• GameMode: normal, peaceful, hard, hardsurvival, creative, or custom. It is fixed when the world is first created, so choose before your first session.
• SaveInterval: seconds between autosaves; 600 out of the box.

To manage players from inside the game, put your SteamID in ownerswhitelist.txt, in the same folder, one ID per line. Owners can make others admins, kick and ban. Endnight compares owners to the host of a normal co-op game, so add only people you would hand the keys to. Endnight's own example file puts names on # lines, like this:

# Server owners, one SteamID per line
# Alex
76561190000000000

Treat the server password like any other password. It sits in plain text in dedicatedserver.cfg, so keep that file away from shared folders and screenshots. You can also pass settings at launch, but a password typed on the command line can show up in the list of running processes.

Keeping your world safe

• Back up the Saves folder. It sits next to the settings file. Copy it somewhere off the server regularly, ideally while the server is stopped. Since Patch 08 the server also saves right before it shuts down.
• Update without losing your changes. Valve warns that validate puts every original file back, so anything you edited inside the install folder, such as the .bat, gets reset. Your settings and saves live in the data folder, which updates leave alone.
• Turn on log files with LogFilesEnabled set to true when something goes wrong; they are written to a logs folder.
• Lock down remote access. Allow Remote Desktop only from your own address. On rack servers and blades there is also a remote console in the browser, handy when Windows stops responding.

The server that fits

Endnight lists no hardware requirements for the server, and the specs Steam shows for the game itself are for a gaming PC, not this program. The biggest group it allows is eight, so you are not shopping for a giant. Our suggestion: a machine with a few quick cores rather than lots of slow ones, which also keeps the per-core Windows licence down. Run a full evening with everyone online and watch Task Manager before deciding it is right.

You get the whole machine with nobody else on it, an unmetered port and no long contract. Start on our game server page, check which city is closest to your group on our data center locations, and compare every line on the full server range. If your group also plays Valheim, our Valheim walkthrough covers that server too.

Questions people ask

Can I run it on a Linux server to skip the Windows licence?

Only through Wine or Proton, which the community maintains and Endnight does not document. It may work today and break with the next patch. If you want something that just runs, choose Windows Server and count the licence in your monthly cost.

How many friends can join at once?

The settings accept between one and eight players. Paying for a bigger machine will not raise that limit.

My server will not start. What should I check first?

Read the console: the self-check names exactly what failed. The usual suspects are a JSON typo in dedicatedserver.cfg or a UDP port that Windows Firewall is still blocking. On the very first launch it stops on purpose after creating its default files.

Do I need a second copy of the game for the server?

No. The server downloads through SteamCMD with an anonymous login, so the machine needs no Steam account. Every player still needs their own copy to join.

Will an update wipe my world?

Updates replace the program's own files, not your data folder, so saves and settings stay put. Keep a backup of the Saves folder anyway, and double-check that SaveMode is not set to new before restarting.