How to make your own dedicated server in V Rising

V Rising, a gothic survival crafting game by Stunlock Studios, is in Early Access on Steam but is already garnering plenty of critical praise.

In the game, players begin as a freshly-awakened vampire who must reclaim their former power and glory after humanity rose up against them. To do so, they must build a castle to call home, grow in power by feeding on creatures and humans, and battle bosses to progress their skills.

V Rising currently supports both co-op and PvP online gameplay, and players can also host private games if they'd like.

It also allows players to host a dedicated server through Steam either on their hardware or via a server rental service.

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Hosting your own dedicated server for V Rising

Players can team up with fellow vampires or battle it out on a dedicated server (Image via Stunlock Studios)

When starting out in V Rising, players can make multiple selections through the game's menus. Typically, this sees players picking their preferred server to join between PvE and PvP.

However, another option exists that allows players to choose from two different options for dedicated server hosting. They can choose between hosting a dedicated server on a player's own hardware or renting a server via the G Portal.

If players have the right hardware and a solid internet connection, hosting personally is a cheaper option in the long run.

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Steps to host a dedicated server on your hardware

1. Create a folder for your server. This can be named anything, but it wouldn't hurt to name it after something V Rising-related or dedicated server-related.
2. Download SteamCMD, which is a program that will assist players in hosting their server.
3. Extract the zip file for SteamCMD to a folder where you can find it easily.
4. Create a file called FetchServerFiles.bat and place the code "@echo off start “” steamcmd.exe +login USER PASS +force_install_dir “C:\VRisingServer” +app_update 1829350 validate +quit" into the file with a text editor before saving your changes. In the area of the code that reads "C:\VRisingSever" be sure to use the name of your dedicated server folder you created in Step 1.
5. Run the .bat file to fetch the necessary server files.
6. To physically start the folder, create another .bat file called StartServer.bat. Insert the code "start “” VRisingServer.exe -log" into it, then run the file. It will take a few minutes for the batch file to load.
7. Players should have their server active at this point and will also have files, including ServerHostSettings.json and ServerGameSettings.json. Players can modify these files to fine-tune their server's settings. For more details on doing so, players can head to Stunlock Studios' Github site for V Rising.

To join your newly-made server, head into the game and select the Play Online server button. Players can also use Direct Connect if they've made their dedicated server password-protected.