How to Fish Dedicated Server Guide: Driftwood Setup and Update

Compatibility unverified: Driftwood is third-party software. Steam Cloud is an official client-save feature added in Patch 1.0.12; whether it affects a Driftwood server world has not been verified. Do not describe a client save and a server world as the same data source.

Official multiplayer and Driftwood are different paths

Official / Verified: the Steam store lists How to Fish Single-player and Online Co-op. That ordinary host-and-join flow is part of the game and does not require Driftwood. Driftwood is a third-party client plus a separately hosted server intended to keep a persistent world available when the original player host is offline; it is not an official Dazed Games server package or lobby browser.

Compatibility unverified: as checked September 16, 2026, the latest cited releases remain Driftwood client v0.1.3 and DriftwoodServer v0.1.7. Neither cited release publishes a How to Fish Patch 1.0.12 compatibility statement. Do not infer compatibility from version age, a successful launch, or the fact that ordinary official co-op works.

What Driftwood solves

Driftwood adds a persistent server-side world for players who do not want the original host to be online. The project documents server-side saves and backups, up to 8 player slots, Windows self-hosting, and a separate Driftwood client used by every player to connect.

What changed in v0.1.7

The release notes describe a server-side save fix that walks connected players from the server connection table before the world is written. The patch is optional: if a future game build changes the hooked method, DriftwoodServer can stand the patch down to disconnect-only persistence instead of refusing to host.

v0.1.7 also adds a client identity claim. A modded client can submit its real SteamID64 before spawning so the server can key the save record to that player instead of a synthetic connection identity. The claim is bounded: it must be an issuable individual-account ID, cannot be the host or a synthetic range, must come from the connection’s socket IP, must target a live remote connection with no collision, and the first valid claim wins. It does not prove Steam account ownership because the server itself does not authenticate the account.

Commands and leaderboard

Players can enter these commands in the game’s ordinary chat:

• !help — list player commands.
• !stuck — return yourself to the island spawn when the server permits it.
• !playtime — show your time on the server.
• !top — show the catch leaderboard.

The owner console adds rescue <player> and top. The leaderboard is fed by server-side events and can include fish landed, earnings, bosses finished, best catch and playtime; unidentifiable synthetic connections are not given a reusable player row.

Windows self-hosting steps

1. Create a separate server folder with a copied How to Fish directory, plus separate Saves, Backups, host-state and bin directories.
2. Copy the game files from Steam into that server folder. Do not point the server at the live Steam installation, because Steam can update it without your approval.
3. Download the DriftwoodServer v0.1.7 release, extract it outside the game folder, and copy its winhttp.dll, doorstop_config.ini and BepInEx overlay into the copied game folder.
4. Clone the DriftwoodServer repository and publish the Windows supervisor with the .NET 8 SDK into your server’s bin directory.
5. Copy appsettings.example.json to appsettings.json, set the paths, server name, admin token and gamePort, then pin the copied build with the project’s --verify-build command. Do not start until it reports BUILD_PIN_OK.
6. Open and forward gamePort over UDP and gamePort + 1 over TCP. The exact port is your configuration value; the README example uses UDP 22003 and TCP 22004.
7. Start the supervisor, confirm the world-ready output, and have each player add <address>:<gamePort> in the Driftwood app. Keep the Driftwood client release in view when checking client compatibility; its latest release was v0.1.3 at this review.

Backup and upgrade checklist

• Snapshot or copy the world before changing DriftwoodServer or the game build.
• After upgrading to v0.1.7, reconnect with a test player, change a small amount of progress, stop cleanly, restart the server and verify that the player state remains.
• When Steam updates the copied game, re-copy it, run build verification again, and update the pin deliberately.
• Keep the server world and backups outside the game directory, and never overwrite the only original copy.

Related: Patch notes, Items Disappeared, Fixes, Beginner Guide.