The complete guide · 6 min read
No More Room in Hell Server Hosting: The Complete Guide
This guide is for whoever ends up running the group's server. It covers what makes No More Room in Hell different from other zombie shooters, picking a plan, maps and difficulty, what the 1.15 update changed, and how to keep a server pleasant for eight people who are about to die together.
By Matthew Griffin, Owner, Gaming DeluxePublished · Updated
In this guide
- What Makes No More Room in Hell Different
- Why Run Your Own Server
- Choosing Between 4, 6 and 8 Slots
- Objective Runs, Survival Nights and Workshop Maps
- Difficulty, Passwords and the Settings That Matter
- What the 1.15 Networking Update Means for Your Server
- Keeping a Community Server Alive
- What to Compare Before You Rent an NMRiH Server
- No More Room in Hell Glossary
- NMRiH Server Help and Next Steps
What Makes No More Room in Hell Different
No More Room in Hell began as a Source engine modification and won PC Gamer's Mod of the Year in 2011, before arriving on Steam as a free game on 31 October 2013. It is a tribute to George Romero's Of the Dead films, and it plays like one: slow walkers that become dangerous in numbers, faster runners mixed in, and a world where help is not coming.
What sets it apart is how little it hands you. There is no crosshair and the HUD only appears when you ask for it. Ammunition and weapons are scarce, so you aim down the sights and go for the head. Voice and text chat fade with distance, which is why the game keeps telling you to stay near your walkie talkie. And a single bite can infect you, leaving you to decide whether to warn the team or keep quiet and hope to find a cure.
- Team size: co-op for up to eight players.
- Weapons: more than 30, from a .22 target pistol upwards, plus melee tools.
- Modes: objective maps that change between runs, and Survival, where you hold a shelter until extraction.
- Platforms: Windows and Linux, with cross-platform multiplayer.
Why Run Your Own Server
Public servers are fine for a quick game, but the things that make No More Room in Hell tense are the same things that make it fragile with strangers. A player who wastes the team's last shotgun shells, or who hides an infection until they turn inside the shelter, can end a run in seconds. Your own server means a password, a group that knows each other and a map list that suits how you play.
It also means the server is there when you are. A group that meets on Friday nights does not want to wait for someone's PC to host, or lose the session when the host's connection drops. A dedicated server keeps running whoever is online, and the settings stay exactly as you left them.
Choosing Between 4, 6 and 8 Slots
Because the game caps a team at eight, choosing a plan is simple. Count the people who actually turn up on a normal night and add one or two for the friend who joins late.
| Your group | Plan | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Two to four regulars | 4 Slots | Scarce ammo goes further and every death hurts |
| Four or five, sometimes six | 6 Slots | Space for a guest without a bigger bill |
| A full squad, or a public server | 8 Slots | The most survivors the game allows |
All three plans include 5GB of memory, which is far more than an eight-player Source server uses, so you are never paying for RAM you do not need. If the group grows, upgrade from the client area and the server keeps its maps and settings.
Objective Runs, Survival Nights and Workshop Maps
Objective maps send the team through a chain of tasks towards an exit, and the Steam page promises they can play out differently from one run to the next. Survival flips the pace: you defend and maintain a shelter as the dead pile up, waiting for extraction. Most groups end up preferring one, and a server built around that style is easier to fill with regulars.
The game ships with the Source SDK and a level editor, and its Steam Workshop holds years of community maps. Add the ones you want to the server, put them in the map cycle, and restart. Update 1.15 also distributes the active Workshop map to players joining a local server, which saves a few people from a failed join on a map they do not have.
- Stop the server from the panel and take a backup.
- Upload the map and any content it needs, using SFTP for large packs.
- Add the map name to the map cycle.
- Start the server and watch the console for missing files.
- Join and walk the first area before you invite the group.
Difficulty, Passwords and the Settings That Matter
Difficulty does more to the feel of a server than anything else you can change. Choose it before you invite people and stick with it for a while, so the group learns what each map demands. Since update 1.15, the server browser shows the difficulty in the game description, which helps a public server attract the right players.
Set a server password if the group wants privacy, and an RCON password so you can run admin commands from the console. Keep a copy of your working config files before you edit them. If a change does not behave as expected, putting the old file back and restarting is quicker than hunting for the line that broke.
What the 1.15 Networking Update Means for Your Server
Released on 1 September 2026, update 1.15 is the biggest technical change the game has had in years. It upgraded the Source engine build, added 64-bit binaries that start automatically on 64-bit systems, and brought a Vulkan renderer that is now the default on Linux. For players, the patch notes list less prediction error and better game feel, thanks to more precise networking of the local player's position.
The Steam Networking part is mostly about games hosted from a player's own PC: they no longer need port forwarding, and the Create Server dialog offers public, friends-only and unlisted options. A rented server still has its own address, so the simplest way in for your group is the IP and port from our panel, or the server browser if you leave the server listed.
- Bandwidth: player and zombie movement now uses less network traffic.
- Crowds: zombie performance on crowded maps was optimised further.
- Voice: voice commands from muted players are now blocked by default.
Keeping a Community Server Alive
A public No More Room in Hell server lives or dies on its regulars. Keep the name and description clear about the difficulty and the map style, keep the map list short enough that people learn it, and restart at a quiet hour so the first group of the evening gets a clean map. Give a trusted regular a sub user login in the panel, so somebody can restart or change maps when you are not around.
If you are moving from another host, copy your config files and custom maps off the old server, upload them here, and the server uses them on its next start. Our offsite backups cover the last 7 days, but your own snapshot before a big change is always the faster way back.
What to Compare Before You Rent an NMRiH Server
For a free game it is tempting to pick the cheapest offer. These points matter more.
- Plans that stop at eightThe game caps co-op at eight players, so a host selling far bigger plans for it is selling slots you cannot use.
- File accessWorkshop and custom maps need SFTP or a proper file manager, not just a settings form.
- Location and pingRun a ping test. Headshots and melee timing suffer first when latency climbs.
- Self-service backupsYou should be able to restore a backup yourself, without waiting on a ticket.
- Updates after patchesCheck how quickly the server can be brought up to date after a game patch.
- TermsLook for monthly billing with no minimum term and no setup fee.
No More Room in Hell Glossary
- Objective map
- A map where the team completes a series of tasks to reach an exit; the order and details can change between runs.
- Survival
- A mode where the team defends a shelter against the undead until extraction arrives.
- Runner
- A fast zombie, as opposed to the classic slow walker.
- Infection
- What a bite can cause: an infected player will eventually turn unless a cure is found.
- Map cycle
- The list of maps the server loads one after another.
- RCON
- Remote console access, protected by its own password, for running admin commands.
- Workshop map
- A community-made map from the game's Steam Workshop page.
- Steam Networking
- Valve's relay networking, added in update 1.15 so player-hosted games no longer need port forwarding.
NMRiH Server Help and Next Steps
Places to go next while you set up the server.
How this guide was made: researched from the game's Steam store page and the developers' own update notes on Steam, drafted with AI assistance, checked against our live order form for every plan, price and location, and reviewed by Matthew Griffin before publishing. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
Sources, checked 23 October 2026:
- No More Room in Hell on Steam (No More Room in Hell Team / Lever Games, 31 October 2013; free to play; co-op with up to eight players; Windows and Linux; Workshop, Source SDK and level editor; 2GB minimum RAM)
- NMRiH Networking Update (1.15) Released, Steam announcement, 1 September 2026
- NMRiH Shoreline Update (1.14), 20 October 2024, and updates 1.14.1 (18 March 2025) and 1.14.2 (2 April 2025), Steam announcements
- Gaming Deluxe order form, No More Room In Hell (4, 6 and 8 slots)
