How to make a Satisfactory server

Your Satisfactory server is installed and waiting for you. Here's how to start it, add it in the game, bring your friends in and keep your factory saved.

What you get after ordering

Your server is installed and stopped, ready for its first start. Its admin password is made for you at setup, and it's shown in the left rail of your dashboard as Admin password. You'll need it in the game in a moment.

Start the server

Press Start, then open the Console. Satisfactory's own log is long and technical, so the console hides it and shows a short list of plain-English lines instead:

The first time it starts, Play Your Way sets your server up with your server's name and the admin password, so it's ready to manage from the game.

The Console tab shows what the server is doing. The game has its own console too, for things like an FPS counter: Satisfactory console commands worth knowing.

Start your world

A new server has no world yet. With the server running, pick one of these in your dashboard:

• Start a new world: open the Saves tab, press New world, name it, pick its starting area and choose whether to play the tutorial.
• Bring your world from your PC: open the World Import tab and drop in your world's .sav. The server is backed up first, then the game loads your world straight away.

The guide Satisfactory worlds and saves walks through both, and where your saves are on your PC.

Add your server in the game

1. Launch Satisfactory and choose Server Manager from the main menu.
2. Choose Add Server. It asks for two things, and the left rail of your dashboard shows each with its own copy button:
   • Server Address: your Server address from the rail.
   • Port: your Port from the rail. Replace the game's 7777 with it.
3. If the game asks whether to trust the server's certificate, say yes. Your server makes its own certificate, so the game can't check it with anyone else.
4. When the game asks for a password, enter your Admin password from the rail.
5. Once a world is running (see Start your world above), select your server and press Join Game. A world takes about half a minute after it loads before players can join: wait for Ready to join on your dashboard, or Your world is ready in the console.

Your friends add the server the same way, with the same address and port, then press Join Game. They don't need the admin password to play: anyone who has it can change the server's settings and load other worlds, so keep it to yourself. Satisfactory admin password: find or reset has more on the two passwords.

Player limit

Satisfactory lets in 4 players by default, which is what the game is tuned for. To allow more, change Max Players in the Startup tab, then restart the server. More players work, but each one adds load, so a bigger group is happiest on a bigger plan. The Players tab shows who's on right now.

Server settings

The Server Settings tab holds the game's own server options: how often it autosaves, saving when a player leaves, network quality, the time of the daily world reload, pausing when nobody is on, and seasonal events. The server must be running to change them. The guide Satisfactory server settings explains each one, along with the Startup tab and what stays in the game's Server Manager.

Saves

By default the game saves your world every 5 minutes while it runs, and whenever a player leaves; the Server Settings tab changes both. When nobody is on, the server pauses the world, so nothing changes and nothing is lost while it's empty. Turn Pause when nobody is on off to keep your factory running while you're away: it keeps autosaving with nobody on. Once a day the server also saves and reloads the world, at a time you can pick on the Server Settings tab.

When you press Stop or Restart in your dashboard, or a scheduled restart runs, Play Your Way saves your world first, so a restart with friends on never throws away the last few minutes. The next start loads that save.

The Saves tab lists every world on your server and its saves. Load one to roll back or switch worlds, download a copy, Save now, or start a New world. Rotating Autosaves in the Startup tab sets how many autosaves the server keeps before it reuses the oldest. Backups keeps copies of your worlds, server settings and mods that you can restore in one click. The game itself isn't in a backup: it comes from Steam, so a restore puts your world back on the game's current version. Satisfactory worlds and saves covers all of this.

Factory Stats, Factory Planner and Interactive Map

Three tabs, together under Factory in your dashboard's menu, read your latest save. Pick the world save once, at the top of any of them, and all three show it. The guide Satisfactory Factory Stats, Planner and Map goes through each one.

Factory Stats has four sections:

• Overview: the live game, your power, what needs attention, your top products, power by generator, and how much of the world you've collected.
• Production: every item your factory makes and uses each minute, as cards (Resource stats) or as one flow from raw resources to power (Factory flow). Click an item to see where it comes from and where it goes.
• Production lines: every group of machines on one recipe, slowest first, with the reason. The reasons come from the machines themselves: a full output means a line is backed up, an empty input means it's waiting.
• History: charts of your power, machines and what your factory makes over time, one point for each hour the world is played.

Factory Planner: pick what you want to make and how many a minute, and it lays out every step down to the raw resources, with machines, clock speeds, power and Power Shards. Swap recipes, count what your factory already makes, and save plans for everyone on your server. Its settings start from what your world has unlocked. Plan this on any item or line in Factory Stats opens it here.

Interactive Map: your bases as you built them, every machine at its real spot, the resource nodes, and what's still out there to collect. Hover anything for its details. The Layers button beside the zoom buttons chooses what the map shows. Show on map anywhere in Factory Stats or the planner opens it here.

Experimental branch

To run the game's Experimental branch, set Game Branch to experimental in the Startup tab and restart. Everyone who joins needs the Experimental branch too. Make a backup first: a world saved on Experimental may not load on the normal game.

Mods

Your dashboard has no mod installer for Satisfactory, but Satisfactory Mod Manager on your PC can install mods on your server over SFTP. How to install mods on a Satisfactory server walks through it.

If something isn't working

• The server doesn't show up after Add Server: check the Port box. It starts at 7777, and your server's port is the one in your dashboard's rail.
• Friends can see the server but can't join: make sure they added it with the exact address and port from your dashboard, and that their game is on the same branch and version as the server.
• The game asks you to claim the server: the server's settings were reset, for example by a reinstall. Start the server and wait a minute: Play Your Way sets it up again by itself. If it still asks, contact us.
• The game says the server is claimed by someone else: someone set it up in the game before Play Your Way could. Contact us and we'll reset it for you.
• Only one player lags: check their ping against what ping to expect from each city. If it is well above the figure for their city, the delay is on their connection rather than the server.

For more, from a world that won't load to a server that stops by itself, see Satisfactory server won't start or connect?.