Enshrouded Multiplayer and Servers Explained

Everything here comes from Keen Games: the FAQ on the official Enshrouded website, the 1.0 changelog published on October 14, 2026, the launch FAQ and the post-launch hotfixes. Keen’s website FAQ was written during Early Access and still uses some future tense; we note where that matters.

How many players can play together?

Up to 16. Keen’s FAQ describes Enshrouded as a co-op online multiplayer game and encourages you to “grab a friend or three (and up to 16!)”. It also stresses that you can play the whole game solo, and even offline. Some content is aimed at groups: the 1.0 changelog says the Hollow Halls are best visited with dependable friends.

There is no player-versus-player mode. Keen’s FAQ says none is planned because the game is about playing together, with a vague “maybe” for small side modes in the future.

What are the ways to play with friends?

There are three:

• Host from your own game. Your world runs on your PC and friends join you. When you leave, the world goes offline with you. In 1.0 the hosting menu was simplified into a few selectable modes with extra options if you need them.
• Run a dedicated server. Keen’s FAQ says you can set up a dedicated server so friends can play without you being online, and points to the Multiplayer & Server Hosting section of its support knowledge base for setup.
• Rent a server. Keen has partnered with GPortal so you can rent a dedicated server from inside the game, and the FAQ notes that other hosting providers work too.

When you join someone else’s world, you bring your own character. Characters and worlds are separate in Enshrouded, which is why the next question matters.

What does your character keep on another server?

According to Keen’s FAQ, a character moved to another world keeps:

Keeps	Doesn’t keep
All equipment and inventory	Most crafting recipes, which depend on the survivors and crafting stations in each world
Level and unlocked skills	Survivors available to summon; you have to free them again in the new world
Map memory: discovered locations and fog of war removed	Towers that other players found and shared with the group
Personal crafting recipes that need no workbench
Shroud Roots already collected, so you can’t farm them by starting new worlds
Lore texts and tutorials already found, and towers you found yourself

In practice, a well-equipped character joining a fresh world arrives strong but has to rebuild the base side of progression: crafting stations, survivors and their recipes.

How do permissions work?

The 1.0 update reworked them. When you host, you set a default permission level for everyone who joins with a single password, and you can then promote or demote each player individually from the social menu at any time. The game remembers each player’s level when they leave and rejoin, and the chat tells hosts and admins who joined and with which permission level. Players without enough permission can no longer, for example, throw fish into your base to fill its animal limit.

Dedicated servers still use user groups with their own passwords, as before. On a dedicated server you can’t promote or demote players while playing.

Does the game get harder with more players?

You can make it. The server settings have an option for how many enemies spawn in each encounter, and 1.0 added an Automatic setting that scales the number of enemies to the size of the party. Only players actively playing nearby count as the party; friends elsewhere in Embervale don’t. The enemy damage slider in the server difficulty settings was also recalibrated in 1.0 to match the damage you actually take, and Keen fixed a case where one enemy type didn’t scale its health with party size.

Was multiplayer fixed after launch?

Several multiplayer problems were fixed in the first week:

• Hotfix 1.0.0.1 (October 15) fixed problems with the multiplayer session lists.
• Hotfix 1.0.0.3 (October 21) fixed an endless black screen some players got when loading a multiplayer game.
• The 1.0 update itself reduced the memory used for server and client communication, made movement more responsive when a server is under heavy load, and made gliding less dependent on the server’s tick rate. The compass also shows other players’ directions correctly now.

If a world’s performance is poor, the server performance warnings were reworked in 1.0 so they no longer trigger too early.

Is there crossplay or a console version?

Not yet. In its October 13 launch FAQ, Keen said Enshrouded would not be cross-platform at launch, that it is working on cross-platform play and that it has no estimate of how long it will take. Keen’s website FAQ says the game will come to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S after its completion, without a date in Keen’s own posts. Enshrouded is on Steam for Windows and has been Steam Deck Verified since October 23, and Keen’s FAQ lists GeForce Now support.

What hasn’t been announced?

• A date for cross-platform play or for the console versions.
• Mod support: Keen’s FAQ says it would love to support mods but can’t promise it.
• Whether enemies will attack bases: the website FAQ says enemies only attack players, not bases, and that this might change after Early Access; Keen hasn’t said more since 1.0.

For what changed in 1.0 overall, see Enshrouded 1.0 changes; for platform and save questions, the launch FAQ. All guides are on the Enshrouded hub.