Unturned Server Hosting

What a Dedicated Unturned Server Changes

Unturned's multiplayer runs on the Unturned Dedicated Server tool, U3DS for short, which Smartly Dressed Games ships alongside the game on Windows and Linux. Started from a Steam Library at home, it opens as a LAN server: friends can join through a Steam invite or a randomly generated Server Code, but nobody else can see it.

Turning that into a proper Internet server takes a login token, either port forwarding or Steam's Fake IP relay, and a machine that never switches off. A hosted server takes care of the network side. Ports are already open on ours, so the server can be found by address without Fake IP, and it stays online while everyone sleeps.

Getting on the Internet Server List

The single most important setting is the Game Server Login Token, or GSLT. Servers without one count as anonymous and are hidden from the Internet list. A token also keeps your Server Code the same between restarts, and helps Steam move players' Favorites and History if your server's address ever changes.

1. Sign in at Steam's game server account page while logged in to your Steam account.
2. Create a token using Unturned's app ID, 304930, with a memo naming the server.
3. Paste it into the Login_Token setting in the Browser section of the server config, or pass it with the GSLT command in Commands.dat.
4. Restart. The server now logs in to Steam and appears on the Internet list.

Commands.dat: Name, Map, Players and Rules

Basic server settings live in Commands.dat in your server's folder, one command per line. Lines starting with two slashes are comments. The ones nearly every server sets:

• Name and Map: the server's list name and the level it loads, PEI by default.
• MaxPlayers: the player limit, which the official wiki puts at 1 to 200.
• Owner and Cheats: your Steam64 ID for admin rights, and whether admin cheat commands work.
• Password, PvE and Perspective: a join password, PvP off, and first person, third person or both.
• Mode: Easy, Normal or Hard, which picks the matching difficulty settings.

Most settings only take effect when the server starts, so stop it before editing. Runtime commands such as Save, or Admin to add an admin, are typed in the server console or in chat with an @ or / in front by someone with admin rights.

Difficulty Settings and the Server Config

Deeper options, such as loot spawn chances, hitmarkers and the public listing settings, sit in the server config. Since version 3.25.8.0 that is Config.txt, with comments explaining every option and separate files for each difficulty. Servers created earlier still carry a Config.json, which the game converts to the newer format at start-up.

Workshop Mods and Curated Maps

Workshop content goes in WorkshopDownloadConfig.json, as File IDs taken from each item's page address. Every start, the server installs and updates the items and their dependencies, and joining players download them automatically. Curated maps, the community-created maps officially linked from inside the game, work the same way.

After the map has downloaded, set it with the Map command. PEI, Washington, Yukon, Russia and Germany need no download, because they ship with the game.

Rocket, OpenMod and Plugin Data

Plugins add what the base game leaves out: economies, kits, teleports, moderation tools. Rocket is the long-standing framework. Its original authors stopped maintaining it on 20 December 2019, and Smartly Dressed Games forked it to keep it working with the game, now under the name Legally Distinct Missile. The current build ships inside the dedicated server, and our Mod Manager installs it for you.

Plugins are named in RocketPlugins.json and downloaded with the panel's Rocket Plugins button, then configured through the XML files they create on first start. Plugins that keep data in MySQL can use the database details in the panel, and phpMyAdmin from the Mod Manager's tools makes the tables easy to check. OpenMod is the other framework the official documentation covers.

Saves, Restarts and Wipes

One detail catches many new owners: Unturned has no built-in autosave. The Save command writes the world while the server runs, and Shutdown saves before closing. In the panel, a scheduled Console/RCON task can send Save a few minutes before each planned restart, and another can post a warning in chat.

PvP servers often wipe on a fixed rhythm, and Scheduled Tasks has a Wipe Server task for exactly that. The server stops while the task runs, so it doubles as a restart. Take a backup before the first wipe until the schedule is proven.

Staying Within the Hosting Rules

Servers on the public list follow Smartly Dressed Games' hosting rules, and breaking them can get a server banned from the list. The money rules matter most: you may not sell or give away access to vanilla premium content, meaning Gold Upgrade benefits and any cosmetic sold in the Stockpile or on the Steam Market. Custom cosmetics you own the rights to are fine.

The rules also forbid roleplaying current real-world tragedies, and ask servers behind anycast proxies to tell Smartly Dressed Games, because those proxies distort the ping shown in the server browser.

What to Compare Before You Rent an Unturned Server

Unturned hosts offer similar headline features. These details decide how the server feels after a month.

1. Slot rangeCheck you can pick the slot count you need, not just a few fixed sizes, and change it later.
2. Memory per planLarge curated maps and plugin sets need more memory; see what the base price includes.
3. Plugin supportOne-click Rocket, a way to download plugins and access to their config files save hours.
4. SchedulingWith no autosave in Unturned, scheduled saves, restarts and wipes are essential, not extras.
5. Database accessEconomy and stats plugins often want MySQL. Ask whether it is available and how you reach it.
6. Locations and pingA location near your community improves both the game and how high you sit in the list.
7. Billing termsMonthly billing with no minimum term and no setup fee keeps an experiment cheap.

Unturned Server Glossary

U3DS

The Unturned Dedicated Server tool that runs a server without the game client.

Commands.dat

The file of startup commands: name, map, player limit, owner, password and rules.

Config.txt

The detailed server config, per difficulty, since version 3.25.8.0.

GSLT

Game Server Login Token, the Steam token that puts a server on the Internet list.

Server Code

A 17-digit code players can use to join; fixed between restarts once a GSLT is set.

Fake IP

Steam's relay option for joining by address without port forwarding.

Curated map

A community-created map officially linked from in game and downloaded through the Workshop.

File ID

The number in a Workshop item's address, listed in WorkshopDownloadConfig.json.

Rocket (LDM)

The plugin framework Smartly Dressed Games maintains as the Legally Distinct Missile.

OpenMod

An alternative plugin framework for Unturned servers.

Stockpile

Unturned's in-game shop for cosmetics, which servers may not resell.

Unturned Server Help and Next Steps

Official documentation and our own guides.

• Setting up a Server, Smartly Dressed Games docsCommands.dat, Workshop and curated maps.
• Game Server Login Tokens, Smartly Dressed Games docsWhy the token matters and where it goes.
• Server Hosting Rules, Smartly Dressed Games docsMonetization and moderation.
• How to install and configure Rocket pluginsOur knowledge base guide.
• Gaming Deluxe control panelWhat the panel does and how to log in.
• Contact support24/7 help with plugins, Workshop items and wipes.