Factorio Dedicated Server: Headless Setup, Space Age and Joining

A Factorio dedicated server keeps your factory running for the whole group while nobody has the game open, and lets friends drop in on their own schedule. This guide covers Wube's free headless server, our Factorio server hosting, the settings that matter, Space Age versus vanilla, joining and saves.

• Version: the stable release is 2.0.77. The 2.1 line is still experimental.
• Self-hosting: download the free headless build, create a save with --create, start it with --start-server-load-latest and forward UDP 34197.
• Space Age: the headless build ships the expansion, and a self-hosted map is a Space Age map by default. On 1up a new map is vanilla unless you turn Space Age on.
• Joining: Multiplayer → Connect to address, with the address, the port and the password.
• On 1up: Factorio needs 2 GB of RAM, so it runs on the Free plan for up to 4 players. We recommend 4 GB for a big base.

If you are still weighing a free server against a paid one, our comparison of free and paid game server hosting sets out the trade-offs.

1. Factorio 2.0, 2.1 and Space Age: what your server runs

Factorio publishes two release lines. The latest-releases API lists 2.0.77 as stable for the game, the expansion and the headless server, and 2.1.21 as experimental. 2.0.77 came out on 21 May 2026 as a bugfix release; 2.1.21 followed on 6 October 2026. A server and its players must match: the multiplayer page of the wiki says all game instances need "exactly the same" game versions and mods. Keep everyone on stable unless the whole group opts into the experimental branch.

Space Age is the paid expansion released on 21 October 2024: space platforms, four new planets, quality and elevated rails, packaged as mods that ship with the game. Two facts matter for a server:

• The headless server includes it. Wube staff confirmed on the official forum that the free headless build comes "with Space Age support", and that "by default --create will produce a space-age save".
• Players without it cannot join a Space Age map. A player who does not own the expansion gets "Your active mods don't match the server's", as a forum thread on running 2.0 without Space Age shows. Section 5 explains how to start a vanilla map instead.

2. Self-host or hosting?

A dedicated server, also called headless, runs the game without graphics. The wiki lists what that changes: the server has no character of its own, it pauses while nobody is connected (unless you change that), and it saves on exit and autosaves as usual.

• Host from the game: Multiplayer → Host new game. Free and quick, but the factory stops when the host quits.
• Self-host the headless server: free and fully yours. A machine stays on, you forward a UDP port and you update it yourself.
• A hosted server: the factory runs in a data centre and you manage it from a web panel.

The factorio.com FAQ offers "a free lightweight dedicated headless server package" for Linux and says the normal Windows game can run as a headless server.

3. Self-host the headless server

These steps follow the Multiplayer page and the command line parameters of the official wiki.

1. Download. On Linux, get the headless package from factorio.com/download. The wiki notes that it leaves out graphics and sound and is not linked against libraries such as Xlib or libGL, which makes it the right choice for a rented server. Factorio needs glibc 2.31 or newer. On Windows, use the normal game install.
2. Extract and use a separate user. For example, unpack it to /opt/factorio, create a factorio user and give it the folder. The wiki asks you not to run the server as root.
3. Create a save. The server needs one before it starts: ./bin/x64/factorio --create ./saves/my-save.zip. Add --map-gen-settings and --map-settings here if you want custom terrain, pollution or biter settings; they only work together with --create.
4. Write the settings file. Copy data/server-settings.example.json and edit the copy (section 4 goes through the keys).
5. Start it. ./bin/x64/factorio --start-server-load-latest --server-settings ./data/server-settings.json. On Windows, the wiki suggests a .bat file with start /wait .\bin\x64\factorio.exe --start-server-load-latest --server-settings .\data\server-settings.json.
6. Open the port. Factorio uses UDP only, on port 34197 by default. Forward it on your router, check that no firewall blocks it, and make sure the router does not randomise the source port of outgoing packets, which the wiki flags as a common trap.

To give yourself admin rights, put a server-adminlist.json in the same folder as factorio-current.log, containing a list of names such as ["you", "friend"]. The file is also written when you promote a player from the console.

4. Create a Factorio server on 1up

1. Create an account and press Create server.
2. Choose Factorio. Pick a region, London or Paris; the wizard measures your ping and suggests the nearest one.
3. Leave the template on Vanilla, the only one, on Factorio 2.0.77, the current stable release.
4. Set a password, then create the server. The first start downloads the headless build and creates the map.
5. When it is online, copy the IP line from the Overview: it holds the address and the port. The port is not 34197 on our nodes, so take both from the panel.

The Game tab holds Factorio's settings. Each one writes a key of server-settings.json (the seed goes to map-gen-settings.json and Space Age to mods/mod-list.json), and each applies on restart. The Generated file section shows the result, read only.

Some keys are fixed. The server keeps five autosave slots, only admins can run commands or pause the game (allow_commands is admins-only), and require_user_verification stays on, which Wube's example settings file describes as allowing only "clients that have a valid Factorio.com account". The server is not published on the public game list, because that requires a factorio.com login stored on the server, so friends join by address.

Two notes from the panel:

• Pause when empty saves resources but stops the factory clock. Turn it off if you want your trains and research to keep running overnight.
• Max players counts connected players. Wube's example file notes that admins can still join a full server.

5. Space Age or vanilla

On 1up a new server creates a vanilla map, so every friend can join whether or not they own the expansion. If everyone owns Space Age and you want it:

1. In the Game tab, turn Space Age on. It enables the space-age, quality and elevated-rails mods.
2. Start a new world from Server → World. The switch only applies when a world is created; on the Free plan there is no backup, so this deletes the current map for good.
3. Start the server.

Turning the switch off works the same way, on a new world. Disabling the mods on a map that already has Space Age content is not the same as starting vanilla, so do it on a fresh map.

Self-hosting works the same way: Wube staff point to a mods/mod-list.json with space-age disabled before you run --create.

6. How friends join

The wiki lists three ways to join from the main menu: browse public games, browse LAN games, or Connect to address. For a 1up server, use the last one:

1. Open Multiplayer → Connect to address.
2. Paste the address and port from the IP line of the Overview, for example 203.0.113.10:31234.
3. Type the server password when the game asks for it.

Every player needs the same Factorio version and the same mods as the server, and a factorio.com account, because user verification is on.

7. Admins and the console

On 1up you are the server owner, not a player in the game. To give someone admin rights in Factorio, use op in the Players tab, or run promote <player> in the Console; only the server owner can promote or demote.

The Console sends commands through Factorio's RCON, without the slash. Its quick commands are shout, kick, ban, players online and server-save, and it also accepts unban, mute, unmute, purge, whisper, admins, mutes and banlist get. All of these are standard console commands from the wiki.

Four extra commands, teleport, daytime, alwaysday and give, run small Lua scripts. The wiki is clear about the cost: as soon as a script command runs, "achievements will be permanently disabled for the save". The panel asks you to confirm each one; if your group cares about achievements, never use them.

8. Saves, backups and moving a factory

Factorio saves a whole map as a single .zip. On your PC the saves live in the user data folder: %appdata%\Factorio\saves on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/factorio/saves on macOS and ~/.factorio/saves on Linux, according to the wiki's application directory page.

To move a single-player or self-hosted map to 1up:

1. Stop the server.
2. Open Files, go to factorio/saves and upload your .zip.
3. Start the server. It starts with --start-server-load-latest, which loads the newest save in that folder, so the file you just uploaded wins.

Keep the map's mods and version in mind: a Space Age save needs a server with the expansion enabled, and a save from the experimental 2.1 branch will not load on 2.0.77.

Autosaves rotate through five slots in the same folder. For a copy outside the server, the Free plan keeps no backups, so download the latest save from Files now and then. Casual keeps 1 backup and Starter keeps 3.

9. RAM and plans for Factorio

Factorio needs 2 GB of RAM on 1up, and we recommend 4 GB once the factory grows. With prices from our pricing page:

• Free (€0): 2 GB of RAM, 6 GB of disk and 4 player slots, no backups. Enough for a starter base with friends.
• Starter (€5/month): 4 GB of RAM, the size we recommend for a big base, 20 GB of disk, 10 slots and 3 backups.
• Pro (€10/month): 8 GB of RAM, 60 GB of disk, 30 slots and 5 backups. Our pick for a megabase or a larger group.

The simulation is the same for every player, so a bigger factory costs memory and CPU on the server, not just on the clients. If you also run survival games, our Core Keeper dedicated server guide follows the same steps. For factory building in 3D, our Satisfactory server hosting runs Coffee Stain's dedicated server; it needs 8 GB, so 24/7 starts on Pro.

Tested on Factorio 2.0.77 (headless), 2026-10-07: versions, settings and paths checked against the factorio.com release API, the official wiki and our image on 1up v0.268.0.

Change log

• 2026-10-07: first version, for Factorio 2.0.77.
• 2026-10-26: current Starter and Pro figures (€5/4 GB, €10/8 GB/30 slots).