Make your Enshrouded server private: user groups & passwordAdmins, friends and guests with their own password - plus kick, ban and reserved slots

Published on November 3, 2026

How user groups work

Since Content Update #2, permissions live in the userGroups block of enshrouded_server.json. The former server password in a line of its own no longer exists. Each group is an entry with a name, a password and a set of switches. A fresh server comes with four groups: Admin, Friend, Guest and Visitor.

Joining is simple: the player selects the server, enters a password, and the server assigns them to the group that password belongs to. Whoever knows the admin password is an admin. Anyone without a valid password doesn't get in. A server with user groups is therefore private automatically - there is no open access without a password.

That leads to the most important rule: every group needs its own password, and you change the default passwords before you share the server address with anyone. Otherwise it is unclear who ends up in which group - and strangers who know the default values would have free access.

The permissions at a glance

By default, Admin may do everything, Friend everything except kicking and banning, while Guest and Visitor may only play but neither open chests nor build. Two subtleties: with canExtendBase, Friend may also place and remove Flame Altars - more than the name suggests. And out of the box, Guest and Visitor only differ in their reserved slots.

Setting passwords: make your server private

1. Stop the server in the web interface.
2. In the game server panel, enter the passwords of the groups under startup parameters. The panel writes them into enshrouded_server.json at every start - a password you change directly in the file would therefore be gone again after the next restart.
3. For the permissions, open enshrouded_server.json in the config editor and adjust the switches of the groups in the userGroups block. These changes are kept.
4. Adjust the groups' permissions as you like, save and start the server.
5. Give the friends password to your group and the admin password only to people who are really meant to moderate.

An example of a group in the file:

{
  "name": "Friend",
  "password": "YourOwnPassword",
  "canKickBan": false,
  "canAccessInventories": true,
  "canEditWorld": true,
  "canEditBase": true,
  "canExtendBase": true,
  "reservedSlots": 2
}

With us, the panel fills the password field from the startup parameters - in the file you only change the permissions. Mind the syntax: the file is JSON, and a missing comma between two groups prevents the start. More on editing safely is in Server settings.

A sensible split for groups of friends

The four default groups don't always fit. For a typical group, this split works well:

• Admin for one or two people who may kick and ban.
• Friend for the regular group: build, use chests, change terrain. With two or three reserved slots, the core group always gets in.
• Guest for players on trial: play along and fight, but demolish nothing and don't empty chests.
• Visitor like Guest, or you don't hand out the password at all.

canEditWorld in particular should not go to guests: anyone allowed to change the terrain can dig craters into a base you have built for weeks within minutes. And because the world lives on the server, only an older save helps then - see Updates and backup.

Kick, ban, unban

Enshrouded has no console commands like /kick or /ban, and no RCON either. Moderation happens in the game itself: players in a group with canKickBan open the player list and kick or ban from there.

A ban ends up in the bannedAccounts block of the configuration file. To let someone back in, stop the server, remove the entry from the list and restart. A kick, on the other hand, only throws someone out - whoever knows the password can come right back. For persistent cases, only a ban or a new password for the group concerned helps.

For access to the web interface there is a second, separate level: subusers. They control who may operate the console, files and restarts in the panel - independently of which group someone is in in the game. How that works is shown in Add subusers. How your fellow players get in with their password is in Join an Enshrouded server.

Frequently asked questions