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How to Set Up a Necesse Dedicated Server on Windows & Linux

By Matthew Zhao|November 1, 2026

NecesseGuides

A Necesse settlement does not stop when you log off. Settlers keep to their jobs, raids keep their own schedule, and a world hosted from your own gaming PC goes dark the moment you close the game. A dedicated server keeps the settlement reachable for everyone in your group, whether or not the person who started it is online.

This guide installs the Necesse Dedicated Server with SteamCMD, sets the world, slots and password, opens the port, makes you the owner, and covers backups and the problems people hit most. The official reference is the Necesse Wiki multiplayer page, with a Linux page alongside it. Necesse updates often, so check them if a step here no longer matches what you see. At the time of writing, the server download page lists v1.3.3 as the current version.

Why Run a Dedicated Necesse Server?

The settlement stays up: Necesse is a sandbox survival and base-building RPG set in an infinite, procedurally generated world, where you recruit settlers, explore, and fight monsters and bosses, according to its Steam page. A dedicated server means that world is there when your friends log in, not only when the host is playing.

Your gaming PC stays free: The server runs as its own process, so you are not asking one machine to run the game and host the world at once.

Rules you control: The Steam page lists customisable difficulty and gameplay rules, such as turning off raiders or changing day and night length. On a server you also set the slots, password, message of the day and who holds permissions.

Big groups: The Steam page says dedicated servers are for large groups. The wiki's launch prompt accepts 1 to 250 player slots.

What You'll Need

A machine to run it on: Windows, macOS or Linux. The server is available for Windows64, MacOS and Linux64 from the official download page, and from Steam as the "Necesse Dedicated Server" tool.
SteamCMD, or the Steam client if you prefer the Tools library. The server is Steam app ID 1169370, and it installs with an anonymous login, so you do not need to own the game on that machine.
A way to open UDP port 14159 on your router and firewall.
RAM and CPU: The developer publishes no server RAM or CPU figure. The Steam store page lists requirements for the game client (4 GB RAM minimum, 8 GB recommended), and those are not server numbers. Watch memory on your own machine and leave headroom. The Linux wiki's Docker example uses OpenJDK 17, and the Steam install ships its own Java runtime.

Step 1: Install the Server

With Steam: In your library, filter for Tools, then install "Necesse Dedicated Server."

With SteamCMD on Windows: Download SteamCMD, extract it, and run steamcmd.exe. Then enter:

login anonymous
force_install_dir C:\Necesse
app_update 1169370 validate
quit

With SteamCMD on Linux: The wiki recommends a dedicated user. On a Debian-based system, enable the i386 architecture and install lib32gcc-s1, create a necesse user, extract SteamCMD into its home directory, then write an update script, for example update_necesse.txt:

@ShutdownOnFailedCommand 1
@NoPromptForPassword 1
force_install_dir /home/necesse/
login anonymous
app_update 1169370 validate
quit

Run it with steamcmd.sh +runscript update_necesse.txt. SteamCMD updates itself first, then downloads the server, which can take a few minutes. Running the same script later is how you update the server.

Step 2: Start It and Pick a World

On Windows, run StartServer.bat for the setup prompts, or StartServer-nogui.bat for the terminal version. On Linux, run StartServer-nogui.sh. With no parameters, the script asks you each time. The prompts cover:

World name
Whether to use custom options
Host port
Player slots
Password (blank for none)
A custom spawn island, or blank for random
A spawn seed, or blank for random
Whether to spawn the guide house

To skip the questions, pass the world name: StartServer-nogui.sh -world SaveGame1. Under the hood the script runs the bundled Java with Server.jar -nogui -world <name>.

To stop the server cleanly, type quit in the console (the Linux page documents stop). Do this rather than killing the process, because the server does not save when it receives SIGTERM, which is what docker stop and many process managers send.

Step 3: Launch Parameters

Parameters are read from DesktopServerWrapper in Necesse.jar, and anything you leave out comes from the settings file. The ones you will actually use:

Parameter	What it does
`-world <name>`	Load a world without the prompt
`-port <port>`	Host port (default 14159)
`-slots <slots>`	Player slots
`-password <password>`	Server password, blank for none
`-owner <name>`	Gives owner permissions to the player with this name
`-motd <message>`	Message of the day; use `\n` for a new line
`-pausewhenempty <1/0>`	Pause the world when nobody is on (default 0)
`-giveclientspower <1/0>`	Anti-cheat checks on client actions (default off)
`-zipsaves <1/0>`	Compress saves (default 1)
`-ip <address>`	Bind to one IP address
`-localdir`	Keep config, logs and saves in the launch folder
`-datadir <path>`	Choose the folder for cache, logs and saves
`-nogui`	Run in the terminal instead of the GUI
`-logging <1/0>` and `-logs <folder>`	Write a log file per session, and where

-help prints the full list for your version.

Step 4: Config and Save Files

By default Necesse keeps its files under %AppData%\Necesse on Windows and ~/.config/Necesse on Linux:

cfg/server.cfg holds the server settings. Stop the server before editing it.
saves/ holds your worlds. Saves are zipped by default, so a world named SaveGame1 is SaveGame1.zip.
logs/ holds the log files.

Each world also has a worldSettings.cfg inside its save. To edit it, extract the zip, change the file, and zip the folder again. The wiki suggests renaming the original zip first so you keep a copy.

Add -localdir and these folders sit next to the server instead, which makes it easier to see what to copy when you back up or move the server.

Step 5: Open the Port

Necesse uses one port, UDP 14159 by default. Forward it on your router to the server machine, and add an inbound UDP rule in Windows Firewall or your Linux firewall. If you change -port, open that port instead.

Two notes from the wiki: port checkers can give false negatives, so test by joining from outside your network, and players need your public IPv4 address. Addresses from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255 are private and only work on the same network.

Step 6: Join the Server

In Necesse, choose Multiplayer, then Direct join, and enter the server's IP and port. Use the same game version as the server. A mismatch after an update is the most common reason a friend cannot connect, so update the server whenever the game updates.

Admin and Permissions

Necesse has four permission levels, lowest to highest: User, Moderator, Admin and Owner. Players who join start as User.

Start the server with -owner <name> to make that player the owner when they join.
From the server console or in-game chat, an owner can run /permissions set <name> <permission>, plus /permissions list and /permissions get.
Moderators get /kick, /save, /players and /say. Admins add /ban, /unban, /difficulty, /raids, /deathpenalty, /maxlatency, /motd and /pausewhenempty. Owners add /password, /permissions and /stop.
/password with no argument removes the password.

Commands marked as cheats, such as /give and /tp, warn before they run and disable achievements for that world. /allowcheats cannot be undone, so think before you type it on a world you care about.

Backups

The save is a zip file named after your world, so a backup is a copy of that file.

Run /save as a moderator or above, or better, stop the server with quit so the save finishes.
Copy saves/<WorldName>.zip somewhere else, with a date in the name.
To restore, stop the server, put the old zip back in saves/, and start it with -world <WorldName>.

Before you edit worldSettings.cfg or change anything risky, take a copy first. Keep a few older copies rather than one, because a corrupted save copied over your only backup helps no one.

Troubleshooting

Friends cannot connect: Check, in this order, that the server is running, that UDP 14159 is forwarded to the right machine, that the firewall allows it, and that they are using your public IPv4 address and not the 192.168.x.x one. Then check game versions.

Edits to server.cfg vanish: The wiki says to stop the server before editing the file, so do your edits with it stopped.

Progress is missing after a restart: The server was killed instead of stopped. Use quit or stop, and if you run it in Docker give it a long stop grace period so the save can finish. The Linux page's example uses 60 seconds.

The world will not load by name: The -world value must match the save's name. Check what is in saves/.

The update script did not install anything: Run it again and read the SteamCMD output, then confirm that app_update 1169370 validate finished with the server files present.

FAQ

What port does Necesse use?

UDP 14159 by default. Change it with -port, and open the port you choose.

How many players can a Necesse server hold?

The wiki's setup prompt accepts 1 to 250 slots, set with -slots. What your hardware and connection can carry at that size is a separate question, and the developer publishes no figure.

How do I make myself the owner?

Launch with -owner <your player name>. Once you join, you can promote others with /permissions set <name> <permission>.

Do I need to own Necesse to run the server?

The dedicated server is its own Steam app, 1169370, and the wiki's install steps use an anonymous login. Players still need the game to join.

How do I update the server?

Rerun app_update 1169370 validate in SteamCMD (or update the tool in Steam), then restart. Keep it in step with the game version your players run.

Necesse Hosting on EZ Game Host

If you would rather not run the machine yourself, EZ Game Host offers Necesse server hosting on Ryzen 9950X cores and NVMe storage with always-on DDoS protection and a 99.9% uptime SLA. At checkout you name your world, set your player slots and add an optional password. The panel has a console, file manager and schedules, every plan has 3 backup slots, and our team is there 24/7. Plans are monthly and you can cancel any time.