How to Set Up a Conan Exiles Server

Ports a Conan Exiles server uses, and what each one carries

Those defaults come from community configuration documentation; Funcom's own Dedicated Server Launcher presents "Game Client Port" and "Steam Query Port" as editable fields rather than fixed numbers. The same community guides warn that 27025, 27026 and 27027 cause problems and are best avoided.

The split matters when something goes wrong. The game port and the query channel fail independently, so a server whose game port is reachable while its query port is blocked will accept a connection typed in by hand and still be missing from the browser list.

Installing the server files with SteamCMD and choosing a branch

The dedicated server is a separate free Steam application, app ID 443030, pulled with an anonymous login:

steamcmd +login anonymous +force_install_dir /path/to/conan-server +app_update 443030 validate +quit

Steam's application info for 443030 lists both operating systems, with depot 443031 for Windows and depot 443032 for Linux. The Enhanced patch notes put it directly: "Conan Exiles Dedicated Server is now available for Linux. Steam will download the Windows or Linux server based on your operating system." Older Linux instructions predate that binary: they force SteamCMD's platform with +@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows, then run ConanSandboxServer.exe through xvfb-run and wine64.

The application carries two branches. The default is the Enhanced build; the other is keyed conan-exiles-legacy and described in the application info as the "UE4 version of Conan Exiles Dedicated Server." SteamCMD selects a named branch with its usual -beta argument. Funcom's own Dedicated Server Launcher, distributed through the Funcom forums and downloaded from dl.conanexiles.com, offers the same choice as a selector; its 1.9.0 notes read "Support for the UE5 version of Conan Exiles as 'default', the UE4 version is fetched from the 'Conan-Exiles-Legacy' branch".

Where the config files live and which keys to set

Run the server once so it writes its configuration. On a Windows host the files land in ConanSandbox\Saved\Config\WindowsServer\ — the same folder Funcom's launcher uses, which its documentation describes as where it stores "everything it needs." A community deployment of the native Linux build reports the equivalent directory as ConanSandbox/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/.

Edit with the server down. Toolguy, who maintains the official Dedicated Server Launcher, writes on the Funcom forums that "the game server itself is known to rewrite the ini files and remove what it does not like," and gives the order as: update through the launcher, shut the server down, quit the launcher, edit the ini files, then start the server manually without the launcher and confirm the changes survive.

Engine.ini holds network and identity settings:

[URL]
Port=7777

[OnlineSubsystemSteam]
ServerQueryPort=27015
ServerName=Your server name
ServerPassword=

A published server Engine.ini also carries a slot limit under its own header: MaxPlayers under [/Script/Engine.GameSession]. Funcom's launcher exposes the same idea as a Player Count field.

ServerSettings.ini holds gameplay and admin values, among them AdminPassword, PVPEnabled, MaxNudity, serverRegion, IsBattlEyeEnabled and LogoutCharactersRemainInTheWorld.

Server settings that changed in the Enhanced build

If you are carrying an ini file across from a Legacy (UE4) server, Funcom's Enhanced patch notes name exactly what moved.

Added: CraftFromStorageRadius, BuildFromStorageRadius, PersonalCraftFromStorageRadius, BuildingReplicationDistance, CachedBuildingReplicationDistance, bUndermeshDetectionEnabled.

Removed: ServerCommunity, IsVACEnabled, AllowedDistanceUndermeshSquared, BarkeeperAbandonmentTimer.

Check your file against both lists before the first boot on the new build, so that the settings you believe are in force are ones this version still reads. The same notes record "Added support for loading saved games from Conan Exiles Legacy," so an existing world database can come across with the configuration.

Turning on remote console (RCON)

Remote console is part of the dedicated server: the official Dedicated Server Launcher exposes a port and a password field for it. Community server documentation is consistent on the block itself:

[RconPlugin]
RconEnabled=1
RconPassword=your-password
RconPort=25575
RconMaxKarma=60

RconPort=25575 over TCP is a community-documented default rather than a value stated in Funcom's own documentation, and it can be changed: one published real-world configuration runs it on 25576 and writes RconEnabled=True instead of 1. RconMaxKarma is described in that documentation as a DDoS-prevention threshold, with 60 the value the guides use.

Watch which file you put it in. Hosting-provider documentation places the block in Game.ini; a published server Engine.ini carries the same section instead. The sources disagree, so inspect what your installation already contains rather than adding a second copy. Wherever it lives, the chosen port has to be forwarded and reachable over TCP before an external client can authenticate.

Loading mods onto a dedicated server

Mod content comes from the Steam Workshop for the game application, 440900, and reaches the server as .pak files placed in a Mods folder — one server guide gives the path as ConanSandbox/Mods. Beside them sits modlist.txt, listing each .pak filename one per line with an asterisk in front:

*modname1.pak
*mod2.pak

Community server documentation is consistent that the file is read top to bottom, so the first line loads first; map mods usually go at the top, and a mod that another one extends sits above it.

The official launcher reaches the same end state automatically. Its mod field accepts either "An actual numerical value like '860241645'" — a Workshop item ID — or "A full path pointing to a PAK file present on the user computer," and "when the update is done a brand new 'modlist.txt' will be generated" in the Mods subfolder. Only the Workshop-ID entries stay managed: a manually pathed .pak is written into the list but not checked for updates.

Clients have to match. Server documentation describes a "MOD MISMATCH" screen appearing on the joining player's side, offering to subscribe to and install the mods the server is running.

Failures that come up most, and what each one points at

• Reachable by IP, absent from the browser. The query channel is the usual suspect. Confirm 27015/UDP is open and that the address the server advertises is reachable by clients.
• Players cannot connect to unofficial servers after Enhanced. Funcom's Enhanced issues list gives two steps, both on the player's machine, not the server. In Steam, under Settings > In Game, change the server browser ping/minute "from 5000 to 500". Then delete the bUseBuildIdOverride and BuildIdOverride lines from the Engine.ini in \ConanSandbox\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\ — note that directory: it is the client's config folder, not the server's WindowsServer one.
• Nothing launches after a mod change. Funcom's list says to rename modlist.txt in ConanSandbox\Mods, "as some incompatible mods might be preventing the game from launching properly" — taking the list out of the boot path so you can isolate the offender.
• Out-of-memory kills on the Enhanced build. A Funcom forum report shows a kernel OOM event logging total-vm: 13750008kB and anon-rss: 6156044kB on a five-player world that had run inside 8 GB before the upgrade, with the native Linux build and the Windows build under Wine both affected.
• Native Linux server will not load the world. A community deployment project warns: "the server will fail to load or recognize the database if the database name is not in all-lowercase (game.db)", because Linux is case-sensitive; its start script renames a mixed-case Game.db in ConanSandbox/Saved/ before launch.