How to Set Up an Icarus Dedicated Server

Icarus, RocketWerkz's session-based survival game, supports dedicated servers so your prospects (missions) and base progress persist independently of whoever happens to be hosting. That's a meaningful upgrade over client-hosted play, where the world only exists while the host's game is open.

What you'll need

• A Docker-capable Linux VPS.
• 6 GB RAM minimum, 8–12 GB for a full team running multiple concurrent drops.
• 30–50 GB disk — Icarus prospects and the underlying Windows-compatibility runtime both take real space.

Step 1: Install Docker and prep directories

Icarus' dedicated server binary is Windows-only, so the community image runs it under Wine. Two mounts keep your data and the game install separate:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
mkdir -p /opt/icarus/data /opt/icarus/game

Step 2: Launch the container

docker run -d --name icarus --hostname icarus --restart unless-stopped --stop-timeout 90 \
  -p 17777:17777/udp -p 27015:27015/udp \
  -e SERVER_NAME='My Icarus Server' \
  -e SERVER_PASSWORD='' \
  -e SERVER_ADMIN_PASSWORD='changeme12' \
  -e SERVER_PORT='17777' \
  -e SERVER_QUERYPORT='27015' \
  -e PUID='4711' -e PGID='4711' \
  -v /opt/icarus/data:/home/icarus/drive_c/icarus \
  -v /opt/icarus/game:/opt/icarus \
  mornedhels/icarus-server:latest

The extended --stop-timeout 90 matters here — Icarus needs longer than most games to flush its save state on shutdown, and cutting that short risks a corrupted prospect.

Step 3: Set a real admin password

Change SERVER_ADMIN_PASSWORD from the placeholder before you invite anyone — this is what grants in-game admin commands, and Icarus servers are reachable by anyone who knows your IP unless you also set SERVER_PASSWORD.

Step 4: Open the ports

sudo ufw allow 17777/udp
sudo ufw allow 27015/udp

Prospects vs. the open world

Icarus draws a distinction worth understanding before you size a server: short "prospect" missions with a hard time limit and gear you bring back, versus the persistent open-world "Styx" map for longer-term base-building. A dedicated server running Styx alongside active prospects is a heavier, longer-running load than one only ever hosting short prospect drops — factor in which mode your group actually plays more of when picking a tier, not just player count on its own.

Sizing your server

Icarus scales with how many prospects (missions) run concurrently as much as with raw player count:

• 6 GB RAM / 4 players — one active prospect at a time, small team.
• 8 GB RAM / 8 players — our most-picked tier, comfortable for a full session with an open world alongside prospects.
• 12 GB RAM / 8 players — extra headroom for running the open-world "Styx" persistent map plus active prospects simultaneously.

A note on mods

Icarus has no Steam Workshop integration, but there's a genuinely sizeable unofficial modding scene — Nexus Mods lists over 230 curated Icarus mods, installed manually or through third-party managers like the community-built Icarus Mod Manager, since there's no in-client browser. Because mods install by hand and can break when Icarus patches (a real, recurring complaint in the community), we're not pretending this is a stable "best mods" list the way an established Workshop-backed game would be — treat modding here as something to explore once your dedicated server is solid, not a day-one requirement.

Backing up your prospects

Everything lives under /opt/icarus/data. Snapshot it before Icarus updates — the game patches frequently in Early Access-adjacent development, and a save-breaking patch is not hypothetical for this title.

Keeping the server online and checking on it

The --restart unless-stopped policy brings the container back automatically after a crash or reboot. Use docker logs -f icarus to watch it boot (Wine-wrapped Windows servers like this one tend to log more verbosely than native Linux binaries, which is normal) and docker stats icarus to confirm real RAM/CPU use matches the tier you picked once your team is actually playing.

Troubleshooting common issues

• Container takes a long time to become reachable: this is expected on first boot — the image downloads the full Icarus dedicated server through its internal SteamCMD/Wine layer, which can take several minutes depending on your VPS's connection.
• Prospect fails to load or corrupts on shutdown: this is almost always an unclean shutdown. Never docker kill the container directly — use docker stop (which respects the 90-second --stop-timeout) so Icarus gets time to flush its save state properly.
• Team can't join: confirm 17777/udp and 27015/udp are both open on the host firewall, and that SERVER_PASSWORD (if set) matches what everyone's entering.

Session length and player scheduling

Because prospects have a hard mission timer, a dedicated server changes the social dynamic of Icarus in a subtle but real way: instead of everyone needing to be online at the same time to start a session (as with client-hosted play), players can drop into an already-running open-world map on their own schedule, saving prospects for the times the group actually overlaps. That flexibility is a big part of why Icarus groups move to dedicated hosting once they outgrow casual, everyone-online-at-once play.

Nxeon's Icarus server hosting runs this Wine-wrapped container setup pre-configured on NVMe VPS instances at the tiers above, so your prospects stay live without you hand-managing the Docker plumbing.