Sons of the Forest Server Requirements Calculator

Sons of the Forest dedicated server requirements

Endnight Games ships a free dedicated-server application (installable through SteamCMD), but they do not publish an official server spec sheet. The numbers below are drawn from hosting-provider documentation and community benchmarks, and they are deliberately conservative. The single most important fact for planning: the game has a hard 8-player ceiling that cannot be raised, so you never need to scale beyond a single small instance.

RAM

A quiet, freshly-started server uses roughly 2-3 GB (the published minimum is 3 GB for 2 players). As players join, build bases, and the world accumulates structures and NPCs, usage climbs. A mid-game 6-8 player save comfortably fits in 6-8 GB, and community reports note RAM growing an extra 500-800 MB on heavily-built worlds after 30+ in-game days. For a realistic plan:

• 2-3 players: 4 GB
• 4-5 players: 6 GB
• Full 8-player lobby (mid-game): 8 GB
• Long-running / heavy-build 8-player world: 10 GB (the headroom hosts commonly recommend so a ballooning late-game save never starves the server)

You will see hosts advertise "8 GB minimum" or recommend "10 GB." Treat 8 GB as the floor for a busy full lobby and 10 GB as the buy-once-and-forget figure for worlds you intend to run for weeks. A small co-op session genuinely runs in 3-4 GB.

CPU

This is the part that matters most. The core simulation tick is largely single-threaded, so a CPU with high per-core clock speed will keep latency low far better than one with many slow cores. Practical guidance, mirroring published host minimums:

• Minimum: 2 cores at 2.4 GHz for 2 players.
• Recommended: 4 cores at 3.0-3.5 GHz+ for 3-8 players.

A modern quad-core (or 4 dedicated vCPUs) with strong single-thread performance handles a full 8-player session with built-up bases comfortably. Spending on more than ~4 fast cores yields little benefit for vanilla.

Storage

The published minimum is about 10 GB; budget around 12 GB for the server install plus save data to be safe. Saves themselves are small and grow slowly as the world expands, so per-player storage is effectively negligible. An SSD/NVMe volume is worth it for faster autosave writes and quicker restarts, but raw capacity is rarely the bottleneck.

Network and bandwidth

With only 8 players, bandwidth demands are modest - plan on roughly 5-6 GB of egress per active player per month for steady play, well within any typical hosting allowance. What matters more is low latency to your players and a stable connection. Three UDP ports must be open (these are the defaults and can be changed in the config):

• 8766/UDP - game port
• 9700/UDP - blob sync port
• 27016/UDP - query port

On first launch the server checks that these ports are reachable and will refuse to start if they are not forwarded.

Operating system

The official dedicated-server binary is Windows-only (Windows 10 or newer, or Windows Server 2016+). There is no native Linux server build; "Linux" hosting works by downloading the Windows server files via SteamCMD and running them under a compatibility layer (Wine, typically with a virtual framebuffer such as xvfb). That is reliable for vanilla but complicates modding.

Vanilla vs. modded

Vanilla servers are light. Modded servers (using the community RedLoader/RedModding tooling) are effectively Windows-only and consume more memory and CPU - plan on roughly 1.5x the RAM and a faster CPU. If you intend to mod, choose a Windows host to avoid the fragility of running mods through Wine on Linux.

Optimizing your Sons of the Forest server

Because the bottleneck is CPU clock speed and gradually-rising memory rather than raw horsepower, most wins come from configuration and maintenance, not bigger hardware.

• Schedule periodic restarts. Memory usage creeps upward over long-running, heavily-built worlds. A nightly or every-few-days automatic restart clears accumulated memory and keeps the simulation tick responsive. This is the single most effective maintenance habit.
• Pin a fast core. Since the simulation is single-thread-heavy, prefer a host with strong per-core performance. On bare metal or a VPS you control, you can pin the server process to a high-clock core to reduce scheduling jitter.
• Right-size MaxPlayers. In dedicatedserver.cfg the default is 8 and the hard cap is also 8 (valid range 1-8). Setting it above 8 parses but the server still refuses connections beyond 8, so set it exactly to your group size to avoid surprises.
• Keep the save on SSD/NVMe. Autosaves and save-slot writes are smoother on flash storage, which also speeds up the restart cycle above.
• Watch base sprawl. Server load scales with the number of placed structures more than with player count. If a long-lived world starts to stutter, demolishing abandoned mega-bases reduces the per-tick simulation cost.
• Use the built-in config, not GPU tweaks. A dedicated server does no rendering, so GPU/graphics advice (resolution, GPU scheduling) applies to clients, not the server. Don't pay for a GPU on a headless server.
• Allocate adequate RAM up front. Letting the server hit its memory ceiling causes freezes and crashes; give a full 8-player world 8 GB, and 10 GB if it will run for weeks, so it never starves.
• Open exactly the three UDP ports (8766, 9700, 27016) and confirm your provider isn't rate-limiting UDP, which can cause join failures even when the server is healthy.

What to look for in a host

Sons of the Forest is light on raw resources but particular about a few things, so weigh these factors when choosing where to run it:

• High single-thread CPU performance. Because the simulation tick is largely single-threaded, a host running modern, high-clock processors will give you smoother gameplay than one advertising lots of slow cores. Ask about the actual CPU model and clock speed, not just vCPU count.
• RAM headroom. Pick a plan that comfortably exceeds your peak usage - 8 GB for a busy full lobby, 10 GB for a long-running world - so the server never hits its memory ceiling, which causes freezes and crashes.
• Low latency to your players. With only 8 slots, server location matters more than bandwidth. Choose a region close to your group, and look for hosts that publish multiple data-center locations.
• DDoS protection. Game servers are common targets; built-in network filtering keeps your lobby from being knocked offline.
• Automatic backups and easy restarts. Saves are small but precious. Look for scheduled backups and one-click or scheduled restarts (useful for clearing gradual memory growth).
• File and console access. Direct access to dedicatedserver.cfg (via FTP/SFTP and a web console) lets you tune MaxPlayers, passwords, and game settings without waiting on support.
• OS choice for modding. If you plan to run community mods, confirm the host offers a Windows server - mods are effectively Windows-only, and Linux hosts rely on a Wine compatibility layer that complicates modding.
• SSD/NVMe storage for faster save writes and restarts.

You don't need a large or expensive plan for vanilla Sons of the Forest - prioritize CPU quality, the right OS, and good network/backup features over headline resource numbers.

CPU note: Single-thread-bound for the core simulation tick; prioritize high clock speed (3.0-3.5 GHz+ per core) over core count. A modern quad-core handles a full 8-player session comfortably; more than ~4 fast cores adds little for vanilla.

Numbers are conservative estimates from hosting-provider docs and community benchmarks - Endnight publishes no official server spec sheet. The 8-player cap is a hard engine limit, and the config default for MaxPlayers is 8 (range 1-8). CPU is single-thread-bound, so clock speed beats core count. Vanilla is light (mid-game 8-player saves sit around 6-8 GB); plan 10 GB headroom for long-running late-game worlds, since RAM grows with base size and game days. Modded servers (Windows-only via RedLoader) need ~1.5x RAM. Schedule restarts on long-running worlds.