Claiming a Satisfactory server: passwords and sessions

This is the step with no equivalent in other games, and the one everyone trips over once. An installed Satisfactory server has no owner, no world and no protection: it is waiting to be claimed.

What claiming does

You connect to the server from the game by its address. The client detects it is unclaimed and offers to claim it. You give it a name and an admin password.

From then on, you are the only one who can manage that server: create sessions, load others, change settings.

Two passwords, not to be confused

• The admin password gives control of the server: session management, save uploads, shutdown. It is not for playing.
• The join password, optional, gates entry into the game. Without it, anyone who knows the address can join your factory.

The second is the one people forget, and it is the one that protects the world day to day.

Claim it quickly

Until someone claims it, the first person to connect can. On a server whose address is public, leaving it a day is not risk-free. Do it immediately after installing.

Sessions

A Satisfactory server can hold several saves, called sessions. Only one is active at a time, but the others stay on the server and reload whenever you decide.

Very convenient, and it deserves a naming discipline: six months in, a list of sessions called "save1", "save2" and "test" means nothing to anyone. Putting a date in the name solves it permanently.

Changing administrator

The admin password can be changed from the game by whoever holds it. If nobody holds it any more, the only way out is resetting the server state — which requires file access, and therefore hosting that allows it.

That is a practical argument for hosting with full access. Our Satisfactory hosting provides it, which makes the situation recoverable rather than terminal.