Your players join your Sons of the Forest server with its Server Address, shown on the server's Overview page in the panel. Sons of the Forest is a first-person survival horror game by Endnight Games set on a cannibal-infested island, and a hosted server keeps your shared world running for up to 8 players even when you are not playing.
Join in a few steps
- Open your server in the panel. If the status badge says Offline, click Start and wait until it says Online. See How to start, stop, restart and force-stop your server.
- On the Overview page, click the copy icon next to Server Address. It looks like
address:port.
- Launch Sons of the Forest on Steam from the account that owns the game.
- From the main menu, open the multiplayer section and look for the dedicated server list (the game calls it the dedicated server browser).
- Find your server by the Server Name you set in the panel and select it. Enter the Server Password when asked.
- If you cannot find it in the list, use the Direct Connect option instead and enter the Server Address from the Overview page, then the Server Password.
Ports
Players connect with the single address:port shown on the Overview page, which is the game port. The query port and the BlobSync port are assigned to the server automatically and are used internally, so players never type them.
Game version
The game version on the server and on the player's PC must match. Auto Update is on by default and downloads the newest build every time the server starts, so after a game update restart the server and players can join again. Turn Auto Update off only if you deliberately want to stay on an older build.
If you cannot join
- The server must be Online. Check the badge at the top of the page.
- Copy the address again from the panel. A missing or mistyped port is the most common cause.
- Make sure every player runs a compatible game version.
- Check the password, if you set one. See How to set up your Sons of the Forest server.
- More checks: How to join your server and Sons of the Forest server problems and fixes.
