How to Set Up a Conan Exiles Dedicated Server: The Complete Guide

Enhanced or Legacy: which Conan Exiles server do you need?

Conan Exiles left Early Access on Steam on 8 May 2018. On 5 May 2026 Funcom turned the Steam version into Conan Exiles Enhanced, a free upgrade to Unreal Engine 5 built with Inflexion Games. The Unreal Engine 4 game did not disappear: it is now Conan Exiles Legacy, a branch Steam players pick under Properties, Game Versions & Betas. A server runs one or the other, and Funcom is clear that a player's game version must match the server's. What changes for a server owner, from Funcom's announcements and its Enhanced FAQ:

In short: pick Enhanced for almost every PC group. It is the version Steam installs, it gets the new content, and an Exiled Lands world can move to it. Pick Legacy only when your community depends on UE4 mods that have not been rebuilt for Enhanced, or to keep an old Isle of Siptah world running as it is: Siptah bases cannot move to Enhanced (moving a world).

Xbox and PlayStation are a separate story. Funcom kept the consoles on the UE4 game with their own servers, and console players cannot join a PC server. In September Funcom said more about Enhanced on consoles would be revealed in October.

What changed in Conan Exiles in 2026

Conan Exiles had its busiest year since launch, and most of it changed how servers work. The points that matter if you run or plan a server, from Funcom's Steam announcements and patch notes:

• Enhanced arrived on 5 May 2026. Free for every Steam owner, with the new engine, a revamped interface, several single-player characters per account and crafting that takes ingredients from nearby storage.
• Two maps became one world. On Enhanced the Isle of Siptah is joined to the Exiled Lands: any server hosts both, players travel between them without a restart, and the island still needs its DLC. Bases on the old separate Siptah servers could not move with it.
• Legacy mods stopped loading. Since hotfix 1.0.1 an Enhanced server ignores UE4 mods. They stay in modlist.txt until you change the active mods, then they are removed.
• Update 2.2.0 rebuilt the networking. On 15 September 2026 the game moved to Unreal Engine 5.8.2 and Epic's Iris networking. Funcom calls it the biggest server performance improvement it has made so far, and says servers saw roughly half the lag. The engine change forced every mod to be recooked, so mods showed as out of date until their authors rebuilt them.
• New content keeps coming. Legacy of the Giant-Kings, a free four-part story arc, began with Part One on 21 July and continued with Part Two (patch 3.0.0) on 6 October 2026, opening Rifts across the Exiled Lands and the Isle of Siptah.

Every patch means the same routine for a server: check your mods, update the server, then let players back in (updates).

Host it yourself or rent a server: an honest comparison

The Conan Exiles dedicated server is free, and you do not need a second copy of the game. Funcom's own route is its Dedicated Server Launcher, a small Windows program that downloads the server with Valve's SteamCMD, installs Workshop mods, edits the main settings, tests your ports and restarts the server on a timer. Since version 1.9.0 (5 May 2026) it installs Enhanced by default and fetches UE4 from the Conan-Exiles-Legacy branch. The steps, from Funcom's guide:

1. Put the launcher in its own folder near the root of a drive, for example C:\ExilesServer, not on the desktop or in Downloads.
2. Run it, choose Enhanced (UE5) or Legacy (UE4), and set the server name, passwords, region and player count.
3. Press start: the launcher installs SteamCMD, then downloads the server (SteamCMD app 443030) and the mods you listed.
4. Forward the ports on your router for both UDP and TCP: 7777 (game), 7778 and 27015 (Steam query), plus your RCON port if you use RCON. Add inbound firewall rules for the same ports.
5. Press Test Port Accessibility, then look for your server in the in-game server browser.
6. Turn on the launcher's backups, its restart schedule and "Start server if not running", so the world comes back after a crash or a reboot.

Our view after hosting game servers since 2008: if a few friends play while you are online and your PC has memory to spare, start at home with Funcom's launcher. Enhanced is not light: our own 30 slot demo server used about 8.5 GB of memory with nobody online. Rent when the world must stay up while you are offline, when the clan grows, or when you want backups and restarts handled for you. Our Conan Exiles Server Hosting plans are set up as soon as you order, run Enhanced or Legacy, and start at 10 slots with up to 10 GB of RAM included.

Setting up a Conan Exiles server in the GTX game panel

A GTX server is installed and ready when your order completes. The first setup takes a few minutes in the game panel, with the same tools for Enhanced and Legacy:

1. Find your details. The Connection & Controls box shows the connection, SFTP, query and RCON addresses, each with a copy button; Server Details has the passwords and ports in one place.
2. Change the admin password. Every new server starts with a default admin password, named in our admin guide. Press STOP, open Configuration Files, set AdminPassword in ServerSettings.ini, add a ServerPassword if the server is private, save and press START.
3. Name it and set the region. Set a short server name in Configuration Files that is easy to search for. serverRegion in ServerSettings.ini starts at 0 (Europe); 1 is North America, 2 Asia, 3 Australia, 4 South America and 5 Japan. It changes how the server list filters your server, not where the server runs.
4. Check the version. Steam Update offers Latest Version (UE5) and Legacy Version (UE4). Run it after every game patch too, with the server stopped.
5. Add mods with the Steam Workshop button (mods), then start the server.
6. Watch it boot. A Conan Exiles server can take 3 to 10 minutes to start, longer with a big database and many mods. Follow it in the Web Console instead of pressing RESTART.

Joining your server: the server browser and Direct Connect

Players join from Conan Exiles on Steam, on the same version as the server: Play Online, then search the server browser for the server's name, or choose Direct Connect and paste the IP and port from the panel's Connection & Controls box, with the server password if you set one. Direct Connect works even while the server list does not show your server, so share the address with your clan on day one.

Server missing from the list? Work through these in order:

• Is it online? If Direct Connect fails too, the problem is the server, not the list: read the Log Viewer (troubleshooting).
• Same version? Enhanced and Legacy players do not see each other's servers, and after a patch a server still on the old version no longer matches the game. Press STOP, run Steam Update, press START.
• Region and filters. Check serverRegion, and in the browser set Combat Mode to ALL, Community to ALL and the filter to Internet or Community.
• Search and refresh. Type the server's name and refresh a couple of times: the first refresh does not always list every match. Ticking Show Invalid Servers can help as well.
• Get listed elsewhere. The TopConanServers button in the panel adds your server to that community listing, and GameTracker lists it too.

The server is for the PC game: Xbox and PlayStation players cannot join it, and there is no crossplay between PC and console.

Server settings: PvP, PvE, PvE-Conflict, rates and the purge

Conan Exiles has no single PvP or PvE switch. Funcom's launcher guide explains that the official server types are a mix of many settings, set in the in-game admin interface. You change them in two places, on Enhanced and Legacy alike: in game, logged in as admin, from the server settings menu, or in ServerSettings.ini under Configuration Files with the server stopped. Multipliers use 1.0 as normal: 2.0 doubles a value, 0.5 halves it. The core of the three classic server types:

On top of that, the settings owners change most (names as they appear in ServerSettings.ini):

• Progression: PlayerXPRateMultiplier for all XP, with separate time, kill, harvest and craft multipliers.
• Gathering and crafting: HarvestAmountMultiplier, ResourceRespawnSpeedMultiplier, CraftingCostMultiplier and ItemConvertionMultiplier (crafting speed, spelt that way in the file).
• Day and night: DayCycleSpeedScale for the whole day, with DayTimeSpeedScale and NightTimeSpeedScale for each part.
• Survival and death: PlayerActiveThirstMultiplier, PlayerActiveHungerMultiplier, DropEquipmentOnDeath and EverybodyCanLootCorpse.
• Ownership and clans: NoOwnership lets everyone loot every chest and use every machine; clanMaxSize caps clan size.
• Avatars: AvatarsDisabled turns the gods' avatars off, AvatarLifetime sets how long one lasts.
• Server list: ServerCommunity (0 None, 1 Purist, 2 Relaxed, 3 Hard Core, 4 Role Playing, 5 Experimental) and serverRegion decide how players find you.

Raid hours, the purge (the NPC armies that attack player bases) and thrall settings sit in the same in-game server settings menu: switch the purge on or off, make it harder or easier, and set building damage to set hours so bases are not raided around the clock. Region control can also block players by country, so make sure your own players' countries stay allowed.

Maps: the Exiled Lands, the Isle of Siptah and custom maps

On Enhanced: one server, both maps

The Exiled Lands and the Isle of Siptah are one world on Enhanced. Every server hosts both, players who own the Isle of Siptah DLC travel to the island without a restart, and everyone else stays in the Exiled Lands. There is no separate Siptah server and no map to switch: the whole world is saved in game.db.

On Legacy: one map per server

A UE4 server runs either the Exiled Lands or the Isle of Siptah, and each has its own database: game.db for the Exiled Lands, dlc_siptah.db for Siptah. To switch a GTX Legacy server to Siptah, back up, press STOP, open Engine.ini in Configuration Files, set the map to Siptah and start again. If it will not start, update your mods, delete the steamapps folder in the File Manager and run Steam Update to validate the files.

Custom maps from the Workshop

Custom maps are Workshop mods: install the map with the Steam Workshop button, then put the map's exact name in the map field of Engine.ini, with the same capitals and underscores (for example Savage_Wilds). You find the name in the File Manager, in the conanexiles\mods folder named after the map's mod ID. Players need the map mod too. Our custom map guide was written on Legacy: on Enhanced, use a map whose Workshop page says Version: Enhanced.

Travelling between servers

Several servers can be linked so players travel between them: the community-made Amunets Server Transfer mod runs on every server, a small web space holds the travel file (cluster.ini, with each server's address, RCON port and RCON password), and each server learns its alias name with the admin command DataCmd TransferConfig. Our cluster guide was written for Legacy servers, so check the mod's Workshop page for Enhanced support before you plan an Enhanced cluster.

Admin, RCON and bans

Admin rights come from the admin password, on Enhanced and Legacy alike. Funcom's launcher guide calls it the password you use with MakeMeAdmin to reach the admin control panel. In game:

1. Join your server, press ESC and open Settings, Server Settings.
2. Click Make me Admin and type the admin password.
3. Press CTRL+SHIFT+C for the admin panel: spawn items, set the time of day, cloak and more.
4. Press Insert or ~ for the admin console, for commands such as SummonPlayer (bring a stuck player to you), Fly, God and ToggleDebugHUD (server performance and player count on screen).

Away from the game, the panel's Web RCON button runs commands on a running server: list the players first to get a player ID, then pick the command. Any RCON tool works too, with the RCON details from Server Details; RCON uses TCP, so a home server needs that port forwarded for TCP.

• Ban a player: add their Steam64ID (17 digits, starting 7656119) to blacklist.txt in Configuration Files and restart. The ID is logged next to their name in ConanSandbox.log, in the Log Viewer.
• Keep it private: a server password, or the panel's Whitelist Players tool.
• Share the work: give a co-admin a sub-user with their own panel login instead of your password.

Mods: the Steam Workshop on Enhanced and Legacy

Conan Exiles mods come from the Steam Workshop, and players need the same mods, in the same versions, as the server. The version matters most: an Enhanced server only loads mods built for Enhanced. Since hotfix 1.0.1 it ignores Legacy (UE4) mods, and after update 2.2.0 every Enhanced mod had to be recooked, so after a big engine update some mods show as out of date until their authors rebuild them. A Legacy server keeps using UE4 Workshop mods.

Install mods in the GTX panel

1. Press STOP.
2. Open Steam Workshop and search by name or mod ID, or browse by popularity or collection.
3. On Enhanced, press More Information first: the mod's Workshop page says Version: Enhanced near the top on the right if it is built for Enhanced.
4. Press Install. The mod ID goes into modlist.txt for you. Install mods in the order you want them to load: if you reorder modlist.txt by hand, the next mod update resets it to the install order.
5. Press START and share the list with your clan, for example as a Workshop collection.

A long list goes in faster with Plant Workshop Mods under MORE: enter the IDs in load order as @ModID1;@ModID2;@ModID3;, then in Steam Workshop switch to installed content and press Reinstall All. The ID is the number after ?id= in the mod's Workshop address. To keep mods current, add an Update Workshop Mods scheduled task, for example every 12 hours at a quiet time: the server restarts to apply the updates. Hosting yourself? Funcom's launcher takes Workshop IDs or paths to .pak files and writes modlist.txt in ConanSandbox\Mods for you.

Moving a world: saves, UE4 to Enhanced and the Isle of Siptah

A Conan Exiles world lives in one database file, game.db, in the ConanSandbox\Saved folder of the game on your PC or of the server. To play a world from your PC online on a GTX server:

1. In Steam, right-click Conan Exiles, choose Manage, Browse Local Files, then open ConanSandbox, Saved: game.db is your save.
2. Stop the server and back it up, or download its current game.db, in case you want that world back.
3. Connect over SFTP and upload your game.db to ConanSandbox/Saved, replacing the server's file.
4. Start the server.

Funcom's Enhanced FAQ adds rules for older worlds:

• Exiled Lands, UE4 to Enhanced: Enhanced reads a UE4 game.db, characters and buildings included. Keep a copy of the UE4 file: once a world is converted it cannot go back to UE4.
• Isle of Siptah from UE4: bases cannot move, because the island's position changed when it joined the Exiled Lands. Funcom's route is to start a fresh Exiled Lands world on UE4, move the characters to it with the Server Transfer Tool (the server must allow character imports), then upgrade that world. Characters keep their level, inventory and followers, so dismantle bases and carry the materials in your followers' inventories.
• Server Transfer Tool rules: characters only move to a server of equal or lower restriction, in the order official PvP, official PvE-Conflict, official PvE, private server, single player. Single-player characters cannot be imported into any dedicated server, and a one-day cooldown applies.

Backups, restarts and updates

A Conan Exiles world can be years of building, so treat backups as part of running the server. In the GTX panel:

• Back up before every change: STOP, Backup Server, START, before updates, new mods, a map switch or a wipe. A Scheduled Backup task does it on its own, for example every 12 hours; each backup briefly stops and restarts the server.
• Keep a copy at home: the Backup Manager downloads any backup to your computer.
• Undo a mistake: Restore Server puts the whole server back to a dated backup. Rollback Server swaps only the world database for an earlier copy, from 1 (newest) to 100 (oldest): start at 1 to lose as little as possible.
• Restart on a schedule: a Scheduled Restart task every few hours keeps memory use in check. Tasks run on the server's clock, shown under Server Details as Server Local Time.
• Update after every patch: players on the new version cannot join an old server. Check your mods, then STOP, Steam Update, START.
• Start over: Wipe Server for a new season; Reinstall when files are broken. A reinstall deletes every server file, but your backups are kept.

Hosting yourself? Funcom's launcher can copy game.db, the last log and the three ini files each time the server shuts down, and keep a set number of days.

Performance, RAM and player count

A Conan Exiles server holds up to 70 players. Its memory use grows with the world: players online, building pieces and placeables, thralls and mods all add to it. Our own sizing advice, from the plans we run:

For scale, our 30 slot Enhanced demo server used 8.5 GB of its 12 GB with nobody online. Funcom's update 2.2.0 helps busy servers most: before Iris, Funcom says a full server took eight times longer than a quiet one to do the same work, and with Iris it keeps its speed as it fills up.

• Watch first: Activity and Stats shows live and past player, CPU and memory graphs. Upgrade RAM when memory sits near the limit, the CPU package when memory is fine but the server still lags at busy times.
• Tickrate: our servers run at the default 30 ticks a second; the 60 tickrate option updates the world twice as often, for smoother combat on busy PvP servers.
• Change any time: slots, RAM, CPU and hardware packages change in the Client Area under Upgrade/Downgrade Options; restart the server to apply them.

Troubleshooting a Conan Exiles server

• Not starting, or stuck in a boot loop: wait 3 to 10 minutes and follow the Web Console; every RESTART starts the boot again. Still down? The database may be corrupt: STOP, Rollback Server to copy 1, START, and go further back only if you need to.
• Broken after a game update: outdated mods are the most common cause. The Log Viewer names the mod that fails: remove it or wait for its update. On Enhanced, UE4 mods are ignored.
• Crashing: usually a game bug or a mod, most often right after an update. If it will not come back, use the same rollback steps. Hosting yourself? Funcom asks admins with crashing servers to add -SendUnattendedBugReports to the launch line, so its team receives the crash reports.
• Everyone disconnected at once: the server most likely crashed. If only you drop, check your own firewall and Wi-Fi.
• Not in the server list: same version, region and browser filters, then Direct Connect (joining).
• Mod mismatch on join: players need the same mod versions as the server; restarting Steam updates theirs.

Playing on your server: game guides

Once the server is up, the game begins: capturing thralls and breaking them on the Wheel of Pain is a big part of Conan Exiles, and our Conan Exiles thrall guide covers capturing, breaking and managing them. Server owners can shape that part of the game too: thrall wake-up time and the purge are server settings (settings). More play guides are listed in the play guides topic.