How to Play The Forest with Friends

Joining a The Forest dedicated server happens in Steam, not in-game. How to add it, and P2P versus a dedicated server.

Updated September 12, 2026

The Forest

The Forest gives you two ways to play together, and they behave very differently. One person can host from inside the game, which is quick and works for an evening. Or you run a dedicated server, which stays up whether anyone is playing or not. The awkward part is joining a dedicated server: it does not happen in the game at all. It happens in Steam, through a menu most players have never opened.

The short version

In-game hosting supports up to 8 players and only exists while the host is playing. A dedicated server runs independently and players join it by adding the query port as a Steam favourite — not the game port, and not from inside The Forest.

The Two Ways to Play Together

	In-game host	Dedicated server
World is alive	Only while the host plays	Always
Player cap	Up to 8, per the official wiki	Set by your plan
Host needs to be online	Yes	No
Host's connection carries everyone	Yes	No
Joining	Steam invite or friends list	Steam server favourites
Admin commands	No	Yes, with the admin password

The wiki puts the ceiling plainly: "In P2P, it is possible to play with up to 8 players in a single game. To play with more players, you will need to run a Dedicated Server, which are often more popular."

The cap is rarely the real reason people move, though. The reason is that a peer-hosted world stops existing the moment the host closes the game — nobody else can log in and keep building, and everyone's ping is measured against one person's home broadband. A dedicated The Forest server removes both problems.

Hosting From Inside the Game

Fine for a fixed group playing together at the same time.

Start The Forest and choose Multiplayer.
Start New Game (or continue an existing one) and set it to allow friends or invites.
Invite through Steam.

The host's save is the world. If they stop playing, so does everyone else.

Joining a Dedicated Server

This is the part that trips people up, so here it is in full. The wiki is explicit that it cannot be done in the game: "This needs to be done within Steam for it to work, it cannot be done in game."

In Steam, open View → Servers.
Select the Favorites tab.
Click Add a Server.
Enter the server's address followed by the query port — for example 203.0.113.10:27016.
Click Refresh.
The server appears in the list. Double-click to join, entering the password if one is set.

The query port, not the game port

Endnight's defaults are serverGamePort 27015 and serverQueryPort 27016, and Steam's browser wants the query one. Your server has its own allocated ports — read them off the Network tab in the panel and give your players the query port. Handing out the game port produces a server that looks healthy in its own logs and is invisible to everyone trying to find it.

Once a server is favourited, Steam remembers it. Players only do this once.

Passwords

There are two, and they do different jobs.

Server Password gates entry. Endnight's config comment is "Server password. blank means no password", and the wiki's advice is blunt: "It is recommended to have a password to prevent griefers." A public The Forest server with no password will eventually meet someone who wants to burn your base down.

Admin Password grants moderation. Supply it when joining and you get the / chat commands — /kick, /ban, /save, /shutdown. Both are set on the Startup tab. Give the admin password to nobody you would not trust with /restart, which deletes the save. The Forest console commands has the full list.

When Somebody Cannot Join

Work through these in order.

A pending game update. If one person is refused and everyone else is fine, have them restart Steam so it applies any pending update, then retry. Check Auto-Update is set to 1 on the server too, so it is not the side that is behind.

Wrong port. Confirm they used the query port. Re-read it off the Network tab rather than trusting what was pasted into a group chat.

Password. Confirm exactly what is set on the Startup tab. The field is limited to short passwords, so a long one may not be what you think it is.

Server full. The cap is set for you and not editable from the Startup tab.

They are on PlayStation. No amount of configuration fixes this one — see Is The Forest crossplay?.

The server is not actually up. The console prints Game autosave started when it is ready. If that line is absent, the problem is the server, not the player.

Turn showLogs on while you are troubleshooting

In TheForestDedicatedServer_Data/forest/config/config.cfg, set showLogs on. The wiki recommends it for exactly this: "this will show if your server is working or not and what issues you may be having, if any."

Settings That Change How Co-op Feels

A few config-file options are worth agreeing on with your group before you start, because changing them later on a lived-in world is disruptive.

Setting	Effect on a group
`difficulty`	`Peaceful`, `Normal` or `Hard` on the Startup tab
`veganMode`	"No enemies" — a pure building server
`vegetarianMode`	"No enemies during day time"
`allowBuildingDestruction`	`off` stops cannibals and players wrecking what you build
`treeRegrowMode`	"Regrow 10% of cut down trees when sleeping" — worth it on a long-running server
`allowCheats`	Whether players may use the F1 console at all

difficulty is a Startup field. The rest are edited in the config file — see How to Set Up a The Forest Dedicated Server.

Common Questions

Can we play together without a dedicated server?

Yes, up to 8 players, hosted by one person from inside the game. The world only exists while that person is playing.

Do all of us need to own the game?

Yes. Everyone needs their own copy of The Forest. Nobody needs the dedicated server tool — that is only for self-hosting.

Can I invite friends to a dedicated server through Steam?

No. The Steam invite system is for in-game hosted sessions. Dedicated servers are joined through View → Servers → Favorites, which is why it is worth walking one person through it and letting them relay it.

Why can't I see my server in the in-game browser?

Because that is not how The Forest servers are found. Use the Steam favourites route above.

Can we carry our in-game hosted world over to a server?

Not as a supported operation. Save files can be copied between locations, but the wiki's own advice applies: "ALWAYS back up your saves before doing any modifications." See The Forest Server Saves: Slots, Autosaves and Init Type.

How many players can a dedicated server hold?

Endnight's documented default is 8. Your server's cap is set for you and shown as Max Players on the Startup tab.

Does progress carry over between sessions?

On a correctly configured server, yes — but it depends on Init Type being set to Continue and on the Steam account token. Both are covered in the saves guide.

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