How to Host an Unturned Server on Loafhosts

Unturned is Smartly Dressed Games’ open-world zombie survival game, the one with the blocky, low-poly look that hides a surprisingly deep survival, crafting, and base-building loop underneath. Hosting your own dedicated server means your world, your bases, and your rules stay online around the clock instead of living and dying with whoever happens to be running the game. This guide walks through deploying an Unturned server on the Loafhosts LPV5 panel, the Startup settings that control your server’s identity and Steam visibility, where your saves and config actually live on disk, tuning the server with the built-in Config Editor, adding Steam Workshop maps and mods, and connecting once everything is running.

What Unturned Is, in Brief

Unturned is a survival, action, and adventure title built around scavenging, base building, and fending off the infected (and other players, if you allow it) across a handful of official maps plus a large library of community-made Workshop maps. A dedicated server keeps a map’s world state persistent, supports Steam Workshop maps and mods, and lets you set rules like difficulty, PvE-only play, and structure decay independently of any one player’s game session.

Tip: Unturned is comparatively light on resources: 2 GB RAM covers a small server, 4 GB is a comfortable recommendation once you add Workshop maps or a busy player count.

Sizing Your Custom Server

Loafhosts runs one configurable Custom server: you slide RAM from 1 to 32 GB and storage from 10 to 500 GB and pick a protection tier. More RAM and CPU headroom is worth it once you run a busy public server, a large Workshop map, or several mods at once; a small build is great value for a server for you and a few friends. Pricing starts at $13.50/mo, and longer billing cycles save up to 25%.

Tip: Size up on RAM and CPU headroom if you run a busy public server, a large Workshop map, or a heavier modlist

Tip: A small build is plenty for a friends-only server and keeps costs down

Tip: Every Custom server uses AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPUs, DDR5 memory, and NVMe storage

Tip: Every Custom server includes unlimited player slots, so sizing is about performance, not a seat cap

Note: The Advanced and Strict protection tiers add Terabit.io L4/L7 DDoS filtering

Note: The Basic protection tier includes standard DDoS mitigation; Terabit.io filtering comes with Advanced and Strict

Picking a Server Region

Host close to the bulk of your players to keep ping down. Custom servers are available in New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Frankfurt, which covers US East, Central, West, and EU, with Montreal available for Strict protection.

1. List where your core players actually live, not where you live
2. For a US East or Canadian group, choose New York, or Montreal if you want Strict protection; for European groups, pick Frankfurt
3. For a Central US group, choose Dallas
4. For a US West or Pacific group, choose Los Angeles
5. If your group is split, favor the region with the most players and the lowest average ping

Deploying Your Server on LPV5

Loafhosts runs the LPV5 panel inside LoafHub at hub.loafhosts.com. After checkout your Unturned server deploys in about 60 seconds with no setup fees.

1. Configure your Custom server, pick your region, and complete checkout at loafhosts.com
2. Open LoafHub at hub.loafhosts.com and log in
3. Select your new Unturned server to open the LPV5 panel
4. Wait for the 60-second deploy to finish and the server to show a ready state
5. Open the Console tab so you can watch the first boot
6. Press Start and confirm the server reaches a running state

Tip: There are no setup fees, so the price you saw at checkout is the price you pay

Tip: Bookmark hub.loafhosts.com for quick access to the panel

Note: The first boot runs a SteamCMD install of the Unturned dedicated server files (a separate Steam app from the game itself) before the server process starts, so the very first start takes longer than later restarts.

Startup Settings: Name, Password, Max Players, and GSLT

Unturned’s core identity settings live on your server’s Startup tab in the panel, not in a config file you edit by hand. The startup command launches Unturned_Headless.x86_64 with your server’s name, password, port, and GSLT baked in as arguments, so these are the variables to set before you press Start for the first time:

The game port itself is fixed to your server’s allocated port and is managed by the panel; you do not set it by hand.

A GSLT (Game Server Login Token) is a free token Steam issues per running server instance. Without one, direct-connect friends can usually still join, but the server can be dropped from or fail to appear in Steam’s public server browser. Generate one from your Steam account for app ID 1110390 (the dedicated server app, not the 304930 store app you own the game under) and paste it into the GSLT variable before you go public.

Tip: Get your GSLT from Steam’s game server account management page, using app ID 1110390

Warning: Without a valid GSLT, your server can still run for direct-connect friends, but it will not reliably show up in, or can be periodically dropped from, the public Steam server browser

Note: Community convention puts the query port at game port + 1 and the RCON port at game port + 2. Vanilla Unturned has no built-in query or RCON of its own; the query response and the RCON console both come from RocketMod, which this server ships with pre-installed.

Where Your Saves and Config Live

Each Unturned server instance keeps its world data and config files under a per-instance folder named Servers/<SRV_ID>/. On Loafhosts that instance ID is fixed and hidden from the customer, so your files always live at:

• Servers/UnturnedServer/Server/Commands.dat: the primary server config file (server name, port, password, max players, map, difficulty, and more)
• Servers/UnturnedServer/Server/Config.json: a per-server JSON config that, where it overlaps with Commands.dat, takes precedence
• Servers/UnturnedServer/: the rest of the world save data for that instance

You can browse and edit any of these directly in the panel’s File Manager if you need to reach a setting the Config Editor does not cover, but for the common fields, use the Config Editor below instead of hand-editing the file.

Note: SRV_ID is fixed by the server template and not user-editable, so your save path is always Servers/UnturnedServer/ (this is expected, not a bug).

Editing Settings with the Config Editor (BETA)

Loafhosts includes an Unturned Config Editor that reads and writes Commands.dat through a grouped form, plus a form for the Workshop download list, so you rarely need to open either file by hand. It is currently a BETA feature. Open your server in the panel, find Server Config in the sidebar, and you get labeled fields for your server name, max players, owner Steam64 ID, ping timeout, map, difficulty, structure decay, camera perspective, cheats, PvE, Gold-only, anti-cheat, and welcome message, plus two one-click presets (PvE and Hardcore PvP). The game port and server password are shown locked in the editor, since those live on the Startup tab. See the dedicated Unturned Config Editor guide for the full field list, the presets, and what is and is not covered.

Tip: Use the Config Editor for the common Commands.dat fields; use the File Manager only for anything the editor does not expose

Adding Steam Workshop Maps and Mods

Unturned’s modding path is Steam Workshop. The dedicated server can auto-download Workshop maps and mods on startup by reading a list of Workshop item IDs out of WorkshopDownloadConfig.json in the server root. The Config Editor’s Mods group gives you a single field for this: paste in a comma-separated list of Workshop item IDs (for maps and for mods) and save. On the next restart the server downloads and loads everything in that list.

1. Find the Workshop item ID for a map or mod on the Steam Workshop (it is the number in the item’s URL)
2. Open the Unturned Config Editor and go to the Mods group
3. Add the item ID to the comma-separated Workshop item IDs field, alongside any you already have
4. Save, then restart the server so it downloads and loads the new items

Note: A Workshop map changes what map your server actually loads (via the Map field in Commands.dat), so treat installing a Workshop map the same as changing your world: back up first

Warning: RocketMod, the mod/permissions framework this server ships with, has been unmaintained by its original authors since 2019. Its own plugins, and Workshop items generally, can occasionally stop loading cleanly after an Unturned game update until the item’s author republishes it. If something you added stops working after a game update, check the console log at startup for a load error before assuming your config is wrong.

RCON

This server ships with RocketMod pre-installed and symlinked into the Modules folder, which gives you an admin permissions framework and a plaintext Telnet RCON console out of the box, enabled and password-set through Rocket.config.xml. This is a different protocol from the Source RCON that games like Rust or Squad use, so a generic Source RCON client will not speak to it; you need a Telnet client pointed at the RCON port (by convention, game port + 2). Rocket.config.xml is not currently exposed in the Config Editor, so if you need to change the RCON password or toggle, do it through the File Manager.

Backups, Schedules, and Auto-Restart

The panel’s standard server tools all work on an Unturned server the same way they do on any other game:

• Backups: snapshot your whole server, including your Servers/UnturnedServer/ world save, before installing Workshop maps, changing difficulty, or making any change you might want to undo
• Schedules: automate recurring tasks like a nightly restart or a backup, without you needing to be online to trigger them
• Auto-Restart: have the panel detect a crashed or hung server process and bring it back automatically

Tip: Take a backup before adding a Workshop map or mod, since a map change effectively changes what world your players load into

Connecting to Your Server

Once the server shows fully started in the console, players can join with the IP and port from the panel, or find it in the in-game server browser if you set a GSLT and left it public.

1. Confirm the console shows the server has finished loading
2. Copy the server IP and port from the panel
3. In Unturned, open the server browser and search by name, or use the direct-connect option with the IP and port
4. Have one player join to confirm the map, mods, and password (if set) all work as expected
5. Share the IP, port, and any password with your group

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does Unturned server hosting cost?

The Custom server starts at $13.50/mo, and you scale the price by sliding RAM and storage to fit your server. Longer billing cycles save up to 25%, and there are no setup fees.

Do I need a GSLT to run an Unturned server?

Not strictly, but you should get one before going public. Without a GSLT, direct-connect friends can usually still join, but the server can fail to reliably appear in, or be periodically dropped from, Steam’s public server browser. GSLTs are free from Steam, one per running server instance, for app ID 1110390.

How do I install Workshop maps and mods?

Add the Workshop item IDs to the Mods group in the Unturned Config Editor, which writes them into WorkshopDownloadConfig.json, then restart the server. The server downloads and loads everything in that list on the next boot.

Does Unturned have RCON?

Yes, but it is RocketMod’s plaintext Telnet console, bundled with the server, not the Source RCON protocol other games use. You will need a Telnet client, not a generic RCON tool, to connect to it, and its password and enabled flag live in Rocket.config.xml.

Where is my world save data?

Under Servers/UnturnedServer/ in your server’s file system. The instance ID (UnturnedServer) is fixed and not user-editable, so this path never changes.

Can I get a refund if Unturned hosting is not for me?

Yes. Loafhosts offers a 3-day money-back guarantee on game servers, so you can try Unturned hosting and request a refund within that 72-hour window if it is not the right fit.