Game Server Hosting Beyond Minecraft: Rust, ARK, Valheim, and More

Minecraft isn't the only game that benefits from proper dedicated hosting. Survival and sandbox titles like Rust, ARK: Survival Evolved, Valheim, and Palworld are notoriously heavy on server resources — here's what actually matters for each.

Rust

Rust servers are CPU and storage-intensive, especially with large procedurally generated maps and active raiding.

• Recommend high single-core clock speed — Rust doesn't multi-thread as well as you'd hope
• NVMe storage is critical; map saves and the game's file-based database write frequently
• Plan for wipes — automated scheduling for map/BP wipes saves manual admin work

ARK: Survival Evolved / Ascended

ARK is one of the heaviest games to self-host due to its huge maps and dinosaur/structure count.

• 6GB+ RAM minimum per map, more with mods
• Frequent auto-saves benefit heavily from NVMe I/O speed
• Mod support (via CurseForge/Steam Workshop) needs a host with an easy mod-sync workflow

Valheim

Comparatively lightweight, but still benefits from a dedicated host over "leave my PC on":

• 2–4GB RAM is usually enough for small-to-mid player counts
• Persistent uptime matters since Valheim world state is tied to a single running server
• Cross-play/backup support avoids losing a base to a corrupted save

Palworld

A newer, resource-hungry addition to the genre:

• Recommend 8GB+ RAM for a comfortable multiplayer experience
• Community server crashes were common early on — a host with quick game update deployment matters
• Anti-cheat and DDoS protection are important given rapid playerbase growth

What All of These Have in Common

• Automated backups before every server-side game update
• One-click reinstall/update tools instead of manual SteamCMD wrangling
• DDoS protection as standard, not an upsell
• Support staff who know these specific games, not just "generic Linux VPS" support

RepublicNodes hosts a wide range of game servers — Minecraft, Rust, ARK, Valheim, Palworld, and more — all on NVMe storage with DDoS protection included by default.