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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchStart with the official Medium preset unless your group already knows it wants easier or harder combat. In Windrose, server access and networking are configured in ServerDescription.json, while difficulty and gameplay modifiers are configured in WorldDescription.json. The official examples are documented starting points, not independently tested proof that one preset is universally optimal.
The current official Dedicated Server Guide was updated 18 May 2026 for game version 0.10.0.5.120-073042fb. Parameter names and ranges may change, so verify the live guide against the version installed on your server before copying exact values.
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What are the best server settings for Windrose?
For a new co-op crew, use the documented Medium example: enemy health and damage at 1.0, enemy ship health and damage at 1.0, boarding difficulty at 1.0, combat difficulty set to Normal, shared co-op quests enabled, and immersive exploration disabled. This gives you the guide’s clear baseline without quietly changing several systems at once.
Move to Easy when the group finds combat too punishing, or to Hard when ordinary encounters no longer feel threatening. Use Custom only when you can identify the specific problem you want to solve—for example, reducing boarding difficulty without reducing ship damage. Keep an untouched copy of the original JSON before making custom edits.
Windrose has no single best configuration for every crew. A two-player story-focused group, a ten-player group that enjoys difficult fights, and a host troubleshooting connections have different priorities. Treat the values below as official documented settings for the cited build, not as benchmarked performance recommendations.
Which Windrose file controls each setting?
ServerDescription.json: access and networking
This file controls the server’s identity and how players connect. The documented options include server name, invite code, optional password protection, maximum simultaneous players, Connection Service region, and connection mode. Stop the server before editing this file; changing it while the process is running can be overwritten or ignored.
Invite codes are case-sensitive, must contain at least six letters or numbers, and are intended for private access. The guide’s sample uses four player slots, but four is only an example, not a universal Windrose limit. Set the maximum to the number your hardware and group actually require.
WorldDescription.json: difficulty and gameplay
This file contains the world identifier and gameplay parameters. Difficulty presets and Custom values belong here. When moving an existing world, preserve the folder’s world ID and make sure the server configuration points to that same ID; otherwise the server can start with a different world instead of the save you intended.
The official guide describes dedicated servers this way: “Dedicated servers support all the world’s game settings (and a few extras), letting you fully customize your swashbuckling adventures.” That flexibility is useful, but it also means a typo or mismatched world ID can change the result more than a slider choice does.
Official Easy, Medium, Hard, and Custom examples
The following values are the examples in the Windrose Dedicated Server Guide, updated 18 May 2026 for version 0.10.0.5.120-073042fb.
| Preset | Enemy health | Enemy damage | Enemy ship health | Enemy ship damage | Boarding difficulty | Combat difficulty | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.7 | Easy | Groups wanting less demanding combat |
| Medium | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | Normal | The documented starting point |
| Hard | 1.5 | 1.25 | 1.5 | 1.25 | 1.5 | Hard | Crews wanting tougher fights |
| Custom | Set individual boolean, float, and tag parameters; changing values changes the preset label to Custom. | Groups tuning one or two specific systems | |||||
Health and damage are separate controls. Increasing enemy health makes targets take longer to defeat; increasing enemy damage makes mistakes more costly. The Hard example raises both, while Easy lowers both. The guide does not promise a particular completion time, frame rate, or difficulty curve for any preset.
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- Stop the server completely. Do not edit the live configuration while the dedicated-server process is still writing files.
- Back up the server files. Copy
ServerDescription.json,WorldDescription.json, and the relevant save/world folder to a separate location. Keep the original copy until the new configuration has been verified. - Choose the file that matches your goal. Access, invite, password, player count, region, and connection mode belong in
ServerDescription.json. Difficulty, co-op modifiers, exploration, and world settings belong inWorldDescription.json. - Change only the required values. Preserve valid JSON syntax, including commas, quotation marks, and matching braces. If you are changing one multiplier, do not replace the entire file with a preset copied from another world.
- Check the world ID. For an existing save, the world ID in the server configuration must match the world folder ID. This is especially important after transferring a world to a new machine.
- Save, restart, and test with the smallest useful group. Confirm that the server appears with the expected name, that the intended world loads, and that the selected difficulty is active before inviting everyone.
- Keep a change log. Record the old and new value for each custom parameter. If the new setup feels wrong, restoring one known-good value is safer than guessing which of many edits caused the problem.
The dedicated server creates default files on first launch. If a file is missing, start the server once with the documented defaults, stop it cleanly, and then edit the generated file rather than creating an uncertain structure from scratch.
Custom Windrose settings: defaults, ranges, and effects
The official guide lists the following defaults and accepted ranges. These are documentation values, not fresh in-game measurements. The guide warns that parameter names and ranges may change in later builds.
| Setting | Default | Documented range or values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
CoopQuests |
true |
true or false |
When enabled, completing a co-op quest completes it for players who currently have that quest active. |
EasyExplore |
false |
true or false |
A legacy-named option. Setting it to true disables map markers for points of interest, making exploration harder. |
| Enemy health | 1.0 | 0.2–5.0 | How much health hostile characters have. |
| Enemy damage | 1.0 | 0.2–5.0 | Damage dealt by hostile characters. |
| Enemy ship health | 1.0 | 0.4–5.0 | Durability of hostile ships. |
| Enemy ship damage | 1.0 | 0.2–2.5 | Damage dealt by hostile ships. |
| Boarding difficulty | 1.0 | 0.2–5.0 | How many enemy sailors must be defeated to win a boarding action, according to the guide’s description. |
| Co-op stat correction | 1.0 | 0.0–2.0 | Adjusts enemy health and posture loss based on player count. |
| Co-op ship stat correction | 0.0 | 0.0–2.0 | Adjusts enemy ship health based on player count. |
| Combat difficulty | Normal |
Easy, Normal, or Hard |
Changes boss-encounter difficulty and general enemy aggression. |
Why the exploration option is easy to misunderstand
EasyExplore is a legacy key whose name does not describe the effect clearly. Leaving it at false keeps the usual map markers. Setting it to true removes markers for points of interest, so use it only when the crew deliberately wants a more discovery-focused run.
How to tune co-op scaling without changing every fight
Start with the preset that matches the group’s general skill, then adjust the co-op correction values only if multiplayer scaling is the problem. CoopStatCorrection affects enemy health and posture loss as player count changes; CoopShipStatCorrection affects enemy ship health as player count changes. The guide provides ranges but does not define a universal value for every party size, so make one small change at a time and record it.
Which Windrose settings should you change for co-op?
Story-focused or mixed-skill groups
Use Medium first, keep CoopQuests enabled, and avoid changing several multipliers before the group has played a representative session. Shared quest completion prevents players who currently have the same co-op quest from needing separate completions.
Groups struggling with combat
Use the official Easy example if the problem is broad: it lowers character and ship health, character and ship damage, and boarding difficulty together, while selecting Easy combat difficulty. If only boarding is frustrating, a Custom setup that changes boarding difficulty alone gives a more targeted result than moving the entire world to Easy.
Experienced crews
Use Hard when the group wants the documented higher-challenge profile. It raises enemy and ship health to 1.5, enemy and ship damage to 1.25, boarding difficulty to 1.5, and selects Hard combat difficulty. These are challenge multipliers, not evidence of competitive balance or an expert-validated “endgame” configuration.
Region, ICE/P2P, Direct IP, and port forwarding
Connection Service region
UserSelectedRegion accepts SEA, CIS, or EU in the documented settings. The guide says EU covers both Europe and North America. Leave the field empty when you want the service to choose a region based on latency rather than forcing one of those values.
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Region selection and connection mode are separate decisions. Choosing a region does not turn a Connection Service session into a Direct IP server, and changing the connection mode does not automatically select the best region.
ICE/P2P through the Connection Service
The guide’s example uses ICE/P2P. Its FAQ explains that ports are dynamically assigned through NAT punch-through, so do not assume every Windrose server needs one permanent forwarded port. If players cannot connect on this path, check whether UPnP is enabled and working on the host network, then confirm that the selected region and invite details are correct.
Direct IP between homes
For Direct IP connections across the internet, the host needs a public external IP address and must forward both TCP and UDP traffic for the chosen port. The exact port depends on the server configuration; a sample port such as 7777 should not be treated as a mandatory Windrose-wide value. Players then connect using the host’s public address and that configured port.
Direct IP on a LAN
For players on the same local network, the guide says a public IP and internet port forwarding are not required. Use the host’s local IP address and the selected server port. Local firewall rules can still block traffic, so allow the dedicated-server application and the relevant TCP/UDP traffic if the server is visible to the host but not to other machines on the LAN.
How much RAM does a Windrose server need?
The official requirements table lists the following guidance. Every row specifies two CPU cores at 3.2 GHz and 35 GB of SSD storage; the changing figure is RAM for the stated player count.
| Concurrent players | CPU listed by the guide | RAM listed by the guide | Storage listed by the guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 2 cores at 3.2 GHz | 8 GB | 35 GB SSD |
| 4 | 2 cores at 3.2 GHz | 12 GB | 35 GB SSD |
| 10 | 2 cores at 3.2 GHz | 16 GB | 35 GB SSD |
These are the Windrose guide’s stated requirements for its 2026 update, not independent benchmark results. The source does not publish average CPU use, latency measurements, or a tested maximum player count. Leave operating-system headroom instead of allocating every available gigabyte to the server, especially when other services share the machine.
Running the client and server on one PC
For a machine running both the game client and the dedicated server, the guide recommends 24 GB of total RAM and strongly recommends an SSD. That recommendation is separate from the per-player server figures above: a combined workload needs room for the client, server, operating system, and background processes.
Installation and first launch
The official dedicated-server application is available free on Steam. The guide also documents SteamCMD installation and updating, which is the more practical route for headless, remote, or automated machines. The dedicated-server build is marked Windows-only in the guide.
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- Install the dedicated-server application through Steam or install it with SteamCMD.
- Launch it once so the default configuration and save directories are created.
- Stop the process cleanly before editing either JSON file.
- Set the server name, case-sensitive invite code, optional password, player limit, and connection choices in
ServerDescription.json. - Set the world ID and gameplay values in
WorldDescription.json. - Start the server and test joining before distributing the invite code to the whole group.
Version matching, updates, and save transfers
The client and dedicated server should use matching game versions. After a game patch, update the server before troubleshooting a failed connection or a world that behaves differently. The guide’s documented version is 0.10.0.5.120-073042fb; later builds can alter keys, ranges, or defaults.
Back up before every meaningful change
Copy the save and configuration files before changing presets, moving the server, or applying an update. A backup is useful only if it is stored outside the live save directory and can be identified by date or version.
Move a world without creating a new one
- Shut down the client and dedicated server completely.
- Back up the world folder and its configuration.
- Transfer the complete world folder to the destination server’s save profile.
- Preserve the folder’s world ID.
- Set the destination server’s world ID to that same identifier.
- Start the server and verify the expected world before allowing normal play.
Starting the destination server before the folder and ID are aligned can create or load a different world, making later recovery harder.
Windrose server troubleshooting checklist
The server starts with the wrong difficulty
- Confirm that the edited values are in
WorldDescription.json, not only in the server-access file. - Check that the JSON is valid and that the server was stopped before saving.
- Verify that the world ID points to the save you intended to load.
- Look for a preset or launcher process that may have regenerated the file from defaults.
- Restore the backup, then change one parameter and retest.
Players cannot join
- Confirm that the client and server versions match.
- Identify the connection path first: Connection Service/ICE, Direct IP over the internet, or LAN.
- For Connection Service, try leaving the region blank for latency-based selection and check UPnP if NAT punch-through fails.
- For internet Direct IP, verify the host has a public external IP and that both TCP and UDP are forwarded for the configured port.
- For LAN, use the host’s local IP and check local firewall permissions; internet port forwarding is not required.
- Recheck the invite code’s capitalization and minimum six-character requirement.
The server feels harder or easier than expected
- Compare character and ship sliders separately; a change to one does not imply a change to the other.
- Check combat difficulty as well as numeric multipliers.
- Review boarding difficulty independently if boarding is the only issue.
- Check whether
EasyExplorechanged map markers rather than combat. - Record the active values so the group can agree on one controlled adjustment.
A practical decision guide
| Your group’s priority | Recommended starting point | What to change next |
|---|---|---|
| “We want the documented baseline.” | Medium | Play first; change only an identified pain point. |
| “Combat is overwhelming for several players.” | Easy | Use the complete Easy example or selectively lower one Custom multiplier. |
| “We want stronger enemies and ships.” | Hard | Use the complete Hard example, then record any targeted Custom adjustment. |
| “Only one mechanic is frustrating.” | Custom | Change one relevant value, retain the original file, and test. |
| “Players cannot connect.” | Keep gameplay settings unchanged | Diagnose the actual connection mode, region, NAT, firewall, and version first. |
The most reliable Windrose setup is the one whose trade-offs your crew understands and can restore. Start from the official Medium example, separate access settings from world settings, back up before editing, and make Custom changes narrowly rather than treating an untested combination as universally best.
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