Before you spin up a Windrose dedicated server – whether self-hosted or through a provider – you need to know what the game actually demands. I've set up a fair number of these now, and the resource requirements are reasonable but worth understanding upfront. Windrose is an Unreal Engine 5 title, and UE5 servers aren't light. Here's what you're working with.
Operating System
Windows only. Windrose's dedicated server binary (WindroseServer-Win64-Shipping.exe) is a Windows executable. There's no Linux server build available, and no announcement from Kraken Express about one coming. Wine/Proton compatibility hasn't been reliably tested for the server component, though the community has had partial success running it under Wine in Docker – we've got a separate guide on that if you're determined to run it on Linux.
You'll need Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit. Server editions of Windows work too, but there's no particular advantage to them for this use case.
CPU
The developers recommend a minimum of 2 CPU cores at 3.2 GHz. That's the floor for running the server with a small group.
In practice, Windrose's server is moderately CPU-intensive during world simulation – combat calculations, NPC AI, structure loading. It's not going to peg all your cores, but it does want consistent single-thread performance. Favor clock speed over core count.
One gotcha worth flagging if you're self-hosting on older hardware: the server binary requires AVX2 instruction support. Modern consumer CPUs have had AVX2 since Haswell (2013) and Zen 1 (2017), so this isn't an issue for anything recent. But older Xeons like the E5-2650 v2 lack AVX2 and will crash with an illegal-instruction error before the server even logs startup. If you're pulling a decade-old server out of a closet to host Windrose, check the CPU spec sheet first. On LOW.MS, our nodes are modern Ryzen 9 so this never comes up.
RAM
This is the big one. RAM requirements scale directly with player count:
For a duo, 8 GB is the minimum. At 4 players you'll want 12 GB to keep things comfortable, and for a full 8–10 player server, 16 GB is the recommendation.
These numbers come from the developer recommendations and align with what we've seen on our own hardware. Windrose loads world chunks into memory as players explore, so more players spread across the map means more loaded chunks means more RAM.
The game's official maximum is 10 players, so 16 GB is effectively the ceiling for server RAM.
Storage
35 GB SSD minimum. This covers the server installation files and leaves room for save data growth. Windrose saves use RocksDB, which is compact but grows over time as players build and explore.
An SSD isn't optional – the server reads world data from disk during gameplay. HDD latency will cause noticeable hitching for players. NVMe is ideal but SATA SSD is fine.
Network
Two UDP ports are required:
| Port | Protocol | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 7777 | UDP | Game traffic |
| 7778 | UDP | Query |
These are the default launch parameters. The game also uses NAT punch-through for player connections, but the server still needs these ports available. On a hosted server like LOW.MS, port configuration is handled automatically. For self-hosts trying to decide whether they need to forward ports manually, there's a dedicated guide on port forwarding and UPnP that covers when it's actually necessary.
Bandwidth requirements are modest. Windrose uses P2P relay networking with NAT punch-through, which means traffic patterns differ from traditional direct-connect game servers. A stable connection matters more than raw throughput. For 10 players, a few Mbps of upstream is plenty.
SteamCMD
The server is installed and updated via SteamCMD. Most hosting guides use App ID 3041230 (the game client ID) for server installation, though SteamDB lists a separate dedicated server app ID (4129620) as well. You need to own the game to download the server files either way.
On a LOW.MS server, Steam Update in the panel handles all of this for you.
Self-Hosting Considerations
If you're planning to run the server on the same PC you play on, add the requirements together. The game client wants 16 GB on its own (UE5 is not shy about memory). Running client and server simultaneously, you're looking at 24 GB RAM minimum, and that's going to feel tight with 6+ players connected.
You'll also be sharing your CPU and network connection between the client and server. During intense combat with multiple players, this can cause problems. It works, but the experience is noticeably worse than having the server on separate hardware.
Your upload speed becomes critical too. Residential internet connections often have asymmetric speeds – fast download, slow upload. Every connected player needs a steady stream of data from your server. If your upload is under 10 Mbps, expect issues with more than a few players.
LOW.MS Plans
All of our Windrose plans come with 10 GB RAM, which comfortably covers every player count up to the game's maximum of 10. We offer plans sized for 4, 6, 8, and 10 players.
The RAM is the same across all tiers because the game benefits from having headroom even at lower player counts. It means your server won't start struggling if an extra friend or two joins unexpectedly.
Check the Windrose hosting page for current plan details and pricing. Port configuration, SteamCMD updates, AVX2-capable CPUs, and Windows hosting are all handled – you just pick your player count and go.
For server setup instructions, the setup blog post covers the process from purchase to first connection.