Don't Starve Together Server Hosting on a KVM VPS

Pick Don't Starve Together as the game of our Game Server, choose a plan and pay. We build the VPS (KVM, NVMe, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS); about six minutes after boot the panel is ready, and the server downloads the game's dedicated server from Steam and generates the world. You get:

• A Don't Starve Together dedicated server named "My DST Server", in survival mode, with two shards: the surface and the caves. It has 16 player slots by default.
• Pterodactyl, an open-source (MIT) web panel, at an HTTPS address like game-k3x9q2.devoster.app, with a console, file manager, SFTP on port 2022, two backup slots and schedules. You are its admin and log in with your email and a generated password shown in the Devoster dashboard.
• Ports 10999 (surface) and 11000 (caves), UDP, open on your dedicated IPv4 address.

The server is created but not started: it needs your Klei server token first (next section). The software is free; you pay only the VPS plan, with 10% off yearly. The server comes with full root, free nightly backups kept 3 days plus one snapshot, 1 Gbps with unlimited bandwidth and network-level DDoS protection from the datacenter. Already have a Devoster VPS? You can reinstall it with the Game Server from VPS Control at no charge. Other apps are on the One-Click Apps page.

Don't Starve Together is a trademark of Klei Entertainment. Devoster is not affiliated with or endorsed by Klei Entertainment.

Every Don't Starve Together dedicated server needs a token from the owner's Klei account. Only you can create it, so the server waits for it:

• Sign in at accounts.klei.com, open the Game Servers page for Don't Starve Together, add a new server and copy its token (Klei calls it a cluster token).
• In the panel, open the server's Startup tab and paste the token into SERVER_TOKEN, replacing the placeholder.
• Press Start on the server's console. The surface and the caves start together, and the console shows both.

The token is free and tied to your Klei account. If you ever regenerate it at Klei, paste the new one in the same field and restart.

Players open Don't Starve Together, choose Browse Games and search for your server's name. To keep it to your friends, set cluster_password in DoNotStarveTogether/config/server/cluster.ini with the file manager and restart. The name, description, game mode (survival, endless or wilderness) and player slots are fields in the Startup tab.

These are estimates, not guarantees. The surface and the caves each run as their own process, which is why the caves cost about as much again. The plan's RAM is fixed for the game, with about 768 MB kept for the panel and Ubuntu. After upgrading your plan, raise the server's memory in the panel's admin area.

• In-game admins: add Klei user IDs (they start with KU_) to adminlist.txt in DoNotStarveTogether/config/server/. The console also takes commands such as c_announce("..."), c_save() and c_rollback().
• Mods: list Workshop mods in dedicated_server_mods_setup.lua and enable them in each shard's modoverrides.lua; players download them when they join.
• Game updates: the server updates itself from Steam every time it starts. We also watch Steam: when a new build ships, the server announces a restart in five minutes and then restarts to update, so players on the new version can still join.
• Daily restart: early each morning, with the same warning. Change or switch it off in the Schedules tab.
• Backups: two backup slots in the panel, kept on the VPS, so download the ones that matter now and then. Nightly VPS backups (kept 3 days) and your snapshot cover the whole server.
• One DST server per VPS: the caves shard uses a fixed port, so plan on a single Don't Starve Together server, next to other games if the RAM allows.

The panel can't send email, because outbound mail is blocked on our VPSes. To let a friend restart the server or edit its files, create their account in the panel's admin area with a password you give them, then add them from the server's Users tab.

The server is in Utah, USA, our only location: typical round trips are under about 70 ms across the continental US and Canada. The VPS is unmanaged; you have full root, and the mods you install and the people you let in are your responsibility. Every player needs their own copy of the game.