SOTF Port Reference Card

Sons of the Forest dedicated servers require three UDP ports. All three must be open inbound and forwarded through NAT. Missing even one will cause connection or save-sync failures.

Required Ports

Config Key	Port	Protocol	Purpose
GamePort	8766	UDP	Primary game traffic — player movement, entities, gameplay state
QueryPort	27016	UDP	Steam server browser queries — server listings and ping
BlobSyncPort	9700	UDP	World and save file blob synchronization between server and clients

What Breaks If Each Port Is Blocked

8766

GamePort blocked

Players cannot connect at all. The server is completely unreachable. This is the most critical port.

27016

QueryPort blocked

Server will not appear in the Steam server browser or server lists. Direct IP connections may still work, but players can't find the server through the in-game browser.

9700

BlobSyncPort blocked

World data and save files cannot sync. Players may connect but experience missing terrain chunks, incorrect world state, or cannot load into the game world properly.

Windows — Firewall Rules (Officially Supported)

Supported

Run these in an elevated (Administrator) Command Prompt or PowerShell:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SOTF GamePort" ^
  protocol=UDP dir=in localport=8766 action=allow

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SOTF QueryPort" ^
  protocol=UDP dir=in localport=27016 action=allow

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SOTF BlobSyncPort" ^
  protocol=UDP dir=in localport=9700 action=allow

Also remember to forward these ports on your router if the server is behind NAT.

Linux / Container Host — iptables & ufw (Unofficial Wine / Docker)

Unofficial

If hosting via community Wine or Docker containers on Linux, allow inbound UDP traffic through the host firewall:

# Allow SOTF server ports (inbound UDP)
iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 8766 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 27016 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 9700 -j ACCEPT

# Make persistent (Debian/Ubuntu)
apt install iptables-persistent -y
netfilter-persistent save

# Or with ufw (simpler alternative)
ufw allow 8766/udp
ufw allow 27016/udp
ufw allow 9700/udp

Router / NAT Port Forwarding

In your router's port forwarding settings, create three rules pointing to your server's local IP address:

External Port	Internal Port	Protocol
8766	8766	UDP
27016	27016	UDP
9700	9700	UDP

LAN or Double-NAT Setup

If your server is on a LAN (no public IP), behind double-NAT, or you get a "network accessibility check" error on startup, add this to your dedicatedserver.cfg:

"SkipNetworkAccessibilityTest": true

This bypasses the automatic connectivity check. Players will need to use your local or VPN IP to connect directly.

Need general port forwarding help? See our Port Forwarding Guide.