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How to Host a Space Engineers Server on a VPS (2026)

Published May 4, 2026 · 6 min read · Galaxy Cloud Solutions

Space Engineers is a game about building things in space, which is deeply satisfying, and also about your friend disconnecting at a critical moment and taking the server with them, which is deeply not satisfying. A dedicated server solves the second problem. Everyone can keep engineering even when no one is the designated host. You need a bit more RAM than most games though — Space Engineers is not lightweight.

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What You Need

• VPS with at least 4GB RAM (Space Engineers is memory-hungry)
• 30GB+ free disk space
• Ubuntu 24.04
• SteamCMD

Step 1: Install SteamCMD and Dependencies

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y lib32gcc-s1 curl screen libcurl4
mkdir -p ~/steamcmd && cd ~/steamcmd
curl -sqL "https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steamcmd_linux.tar.gz" | tar zxf -

Step 2: Download the Server

mkdir -p ~/se
~/steamcmd/steamcmd.sh +force_install_dir ~/se +login anonymous +app_update 298740 validate +quit

Step 3: Create a Start Script

cat > ~/se/start.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
cd ~/se
screen -dmS se mono ~/se/DedicatedServer64/SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe   -noconsole   -path ~/se/saves
EOF
chmod +x ~/se/start.sh

Step 4: Configure the Server

On first run, Space Engineers generates a config in ~/se/saves/. Edit SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg to set your server name, password, and game settings.

Step 5: Open Ports and Start

sudo ufw allow 27016/udp
sudo ufw allow 27016/tcp
~/se/start.sh

Connect From the Game

In Space Engineers, go to Join Game → Direct Connect and enter your VPS IP with port 27016.

Performance Notes

Space Engineers performance degrades as worlds get larger and more complex. A fresh world runs fine on 4GB RAM. A world with lots of large grids and active pistons/rotors may need more. Monitor RAM usage with free -h and consider upgrading to 8GB if things get sluggish.