Setting Up an Enshrouded Dedicated Server on Ubuntu: A Beginner's Guide

Embark on an adventure in the mystical world of Embervale with your own dedicated Enshrouded server. This guide will walk you through setting up a dedicated server for Enshrouded on Ubuntu, ensuring you and your friends can enjoy this survival action RPG to its fullest.

Enshrouded: A Vast World of Survival and Magic

Enshrouded is an immersive survival action RPG set in a vast, voxel-based open world. Players must navigate through dangerous terrains, craft items for survival, and battle against various creatures. The game supports cooperative play for up to 16 players, allowing for a shared adventure in the magical world of Embervale.

Preparing Your Environment

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu 22.04 (While these steps are written for Ubuntu, they should also work if you wanted to set up an Enshrouded server on other Linux distributions such as Debian.)
• sudo privileges
• ufw settings (Please note that the Enshrouded dedicated server uses ports 15636 and 15637 by default. You must port forward both ports to allow outside access to your server. Additionally, if you are using a firewall such as UFW you will need to allow these ports.)

System Update

Ensure your Ubuntu system is up-to-date to avoid any compatibility issues.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Install Required Packages

Install essential packages for setting up your server.

sudo apt install software-properties-common lsb-release wget

Wine Installation

We'll use Wine to run the Enshrouded server application, designed for Windows, on Ubuntu.

Create Keyring Directory

This directory stores the Wine GPG key.

sudo mkdir -pm755 /etc/apt/keyrings

Download Wine GPG Key

Securely download the Wine repository GPG key.

sudo wget -O /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq-archive.key https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key

Add Wine Repository

Fetch the latest Wine version by adding its repository.

sudo wget -NP /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/$(lsb_release -is | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')/dists/$(lsb_release -cs)/winehq-$(lsb_release -cs).sources

You can add a new architecture by using the following command.

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Update and Install Wine

Refresh your package list and install Wine.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-staging

We need a few extra packages for Wine to work with the Enshrouded dedicated server on Ubuntu.

sudo apt install cabextract winbind screen xvfb

Next, we must add the multiverse repository to our Ubuntu device. This is because SteamCMD is a closed-source tool that is not included in the standard repositories.

sudo add-apt-repository multiverse

SteamCMD and Enshrouded Server Installation

SteamCMD Setup

Install SteamCMD, required to download the Enshrouded dedicated server.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install steamcmd

Creating a User to Run the Server on Ubuntu

As the SteamCMD tool is not meant to be run by the root user, we must create one.

• Use the following command to create a user called “enshrouded” on your system.

sudo useradd -m enshrouded
sudo -u enshrouded -s
cd ~

Server Installation

Use SteamCMD to install the Enshrouded dedicated server.

/usr/games/steamcmd +@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows +force_install_dir /home/enshrouded/enshroudedserver +login anonymous +app_update 2278520 +quit

Running and Managing Your Server

Starting the Server

We can start the Enshrouded server on our Ubuntu device using the command below. You will notice that we must use “wine64” at the start to ensure we launch the server using Wine.

wine64 ~/enshroudedserver/enshrouded_server.exe

Once your server has started, the following two lines should appear within the terminal. While you can connect to the server now, you will likely want to adjust the configuration file.

[Session] 'HostOnline' (up)!
[Session] finished transition from 'Lobby' to 'Host_Online' (current='Host_Online')!

Configuring the Enshrouded Dedicated Server on Ubuntu

After running the Enshrouded Dedicated Server on Ubuntu, it will automatically create a configuration file.

• You can edit this configuration file to control the number of players and set a password for the server.
• Set the server ip (important!), server name, password, and slot count as desired.

nano ~/enshroudedserver/enshrouded_server.json

Creating a Service

A service file helps ensure that your server restarts if it crashes and also means it will automatically start when your server powers on.

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/enshrouded.service

Add the following configuration:

[Unit]
Description=Enshrouded Server
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=enshrouded
Group=enshrouded
WorkingDirectory=/home/enshrouded/
ExecStartPre=/usr/games/steamcmd +@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows +force_install_dir /home/enshrouded/enshroudedserver +login anonymous +app_update 2278520 +quit
ExecStart=/usr/bin/wine64 /home/enshrouded/enshroudedserver/enshrouded_server.exe
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and Start the Service

Ensure your server starts with your system.

sudo systemctl enable enshrouded
sudo systemctl start enshrouded

Disable and Stop the Service

sudo systemctl disable enshrouded
sudo systemctl stop enshrouded

Conclusion

By following this guide, you've set up your own Enshrouded dedicated server on Ubuntu, ready to host your adventures in the mystical world of Embervale. Gather your friends and start your journey in this captivating survival action RPG.