Return to Moria Dedicated Server: Setup, Invite Code, Saves and RAM

A Return to Moria dedicated server keeps your company's hold under the Misty Mountains open when the host goes to bed, so the forges, the mined-out halls and the stores of ore wait for the next dwarf who logs in. This guide covers the official dedicated server, hosting it yourself, its config file, world type and difficulty, the invite code, bans, saves and the RAM it needs on our Return to Moria server hosting.

• What it is: Free Range Games' free Return to Moria Dedicated Server, Steam app 3349480, about 4 GB. There is a Windows build only.
• Players: a company of up to eight dwarves.
• Joining: an invite code that stays the same for the life of the world, or the address and port.
• On 1up: in beta. Free runs it with the hourglass at ×1.5, and Starter keeps it online 24/7 at €5/month with 4 GB of RAM.

1. Self-host or hosting?

The dedicated server is free on Steam. It is a Windows program, so on Linux it needs Wine, and its console window needs a display, even a virtual one.

1. Install: with SteamCMD, steamcmd +@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows +login anonymous +app_update 3349480 validate +quit.
2. Configure: edit MoriaServerConfig.ini next to MoriaServer.exe. It holds the password, the world type and difficulty under [World.Create], the ListenPort, and the AdvertiseAddress and AdvertisePort friends use to reach you.
3. Start: run MoriaServer.exe, which launches Moria/Binaries/Win64/MoriaServer-Win64-Shipping.exe Moria.
4. Port: UDP 7777 for the game and the discovery. There is no query port and no remote console.
5. Stop cleanly: press Ctrl+C in the console window. The server rewrites the save and exits in two or three seconds; closing the window hard can lose the last changes.

At home, the server itself is light, about 1 GB with nobody inside, but the PC has to stay on, UDP 7777 has to be forwarded and the advertised address has to match your public IP. A hosted server fills in the address and the port for you.

2. Create a Return to Moria server on 1up

1. Create an account and press Create server.
2. Choose Return to Moria and a region, London or Paris. The wizard measures your ping and suggests the nearest one.
3. Pick a plan. On Free the wizard shows the hourglass at ×1.5 before you create the server; Starter and up carry the 3 GB the game needs 24/7.
4. Choose the world type, the difficulty and a password if the hold is private.
5. Create the server and follow the Console. The first start downloads about 4 GB and carves the world, a few quiet minutes. The hold is open when the console prints the line with the invite code.

On 1up the Windows server runs under Wine 11 with a virtual display on Linux. You do not set anything up for that, and the address and port in the config are filled in from the node your server runs on.

3. The settings in the Game tab

World type and difficulty are read only when the server creates a new world. An existing hold keeps what it was made with, and the Worlds tab is where you start a new one. The password is read on every start, so a change applies after one restart.

4. How friends join

1. On the title screen of Return to Moria, choose Join Other.
2. On the code tab, paste the invite code from the console: D- followed by twelve letters and digits.
3. Or, on the address tab, type the server address with its port, as the panel shows it.
4. Enter the password when the game asks for it.

The code is tied to the world, not to the session, so it keeps working after restarts and updates. Pin it once in your group chat. A refused code usually means the hold had not finished opening: wait for the hosting line in the console.

5. Bans and the console

Return to Moria has no remote console at all. On 1up the panel console is a window on the log: the invite code, the advertised address and any error.

To keep a player out for good, block them from the in-game player list as the host. The server stores blocked players in MoriaServerPermissions.txt, and our backups carry that file with the saves.

6. How the world is saved

Everything the company builds lives in one save file per world, under Moria/Saved/SaveGamesDedicated. The game rewrites it when it is told to stop: on 1up the stop sends the interrupt the console window expects, the log shows *** INTERRUPTED ***, the save is written and the server exits in two or three seconds. Backups copy the save folder and the permissions file.

7. How much RAM, and what it costs

We measured about 1 GB with a world loaded and nobody inside, and 1.2 GB right after a new world is generated. Each dwarf pulls more of the mines into memory as the company spreads out, so the server starts at 3 GB and 4 GB is what we suggest for eight players. The 4 GB game, the Wine layer and the saves fit in 10 GB of disk.

Real prices, as on our pricing page:

Free includes 3 hours of server time a day and 30 hours a month. Return to Moria needs more RAM and disk than Free carries, so the hourglass runs at ×1.5 and those 3 hours become 2 hours of real play: enough to try the hold with a few friends. Casual stops at 2 GB, below the 3 GB the game needs, so the wizard does not offer it for this game.

8. If something goes wrong

• Version error: your friends are on a newer patch than the server; a restart closes the gap.
• Invite code refused: wait for the hosting line in the console, then try again.
• The first start stops early: read the last red line of the console; a full disk during the 4 GB download is the usual cause.
• Difficulty did not change: it only applies to a new world. Start one from the Worlds tab.

If your group likes co-op survival, our guides to an Abiotic Factor dedicated server and the best co-op survival games to host are good next reads.

Written on 2026-10-28. Ports, paths, memory and the stop come from our Return to Moria image, measured on 2026-10-28; panel fields and plans come from 1up v1.53.0 of 2026-10-28.

Change log

• 2026-10-28: first version.