Icarus’s biggest expansion yet adds Elysium — a new 8×8km map with radiation zones, The People’s Syndicate military NPCs, the first NPC settlement Eden, Tech Tier 5, oil drilling and Tier 5 gear including chainsaws and the Hoverframe vehicle. The free Kepler Update brought Tier 5 tech to all owners, oil geysers on all maps, curved building pieces, NPC traders and major building overhauls. Elysium is noticeably more CPU-intensive than Olympus — factor this into your RAM and hardware decisions.
Icarus is one of the harder survival games to host correctly — Dean Hall’s studio RocketWerkz built it on Unreal Engine 4, which means the main game loop runs on a single CPU thread. AI, weather simulation, voxel mining, player interactions and the dynamic storm system all compete for that same thread. On cheap hardware or an overloaded shared node, the result is visible: stuttering during forest fires, lag when multiple players trigger voxel mining simultaneously, and the notorious five-minute shutdown that catches every new server owner off guard. This guide is built for UK communities who want a UK-node server with hardware that handles Icarus’s demands post-Dangerous Horizons — with GBP pricing, verified London locations and the config details that stop servers from mysteriously dying.
Icarus ships with ShutdownIfNotJoinedFor=300 and ShutdownIfEmptyFor=300 — both five minutes. Your server boots, runs for five minutes, then shuts itself off. New owners think it crashed. It didn’t. Set both to 86400 in ServerSettings.ini on day one. Setting them to 0 makes it worse (immediate shutdown). This is the single most common Icarus support ticket.
The SessionName setting in ServerSettings.ini is currently broken — it appears in the config file, looks legitimate, and does nothing. To actually name your server in the browser, pass -SteamServerName=My Server as a command-line argument. On managed hosts this is set in the Commandline Manager or Startup tab, not the config file editor.
Running a prospect on Elysium (Dangerous Horizons), Prometheus (New Frontiers) or Styx (Styx Expansion) requires players to own that DLC to join — the host’s ownership doesn’t cover their group. If half your squad can see the server but can’t load in, check who owns what. Keep an Olympus prospect available as fallback for mixed groups.
- Top 3 UK picks
- All providers compared — full table
- Maps guide — Olympus, Styx, Prometheus & Elysium
- Prospect types — Open World, Mission, Outpost
- Hardware guide — RAM, CPU & why UE4 matters
- ServerSettings.ini — the complete reference
- Mods — .pak files, no Workshop, what that means
- Best host by use case
- FAQ
Best Icarus server hosting UK
Ranked by UK/London node, CPU performance for Icarus’s UE4 single-thread demands, Dangerous Horizons readiness, and GBP value. DatHost does not offer Icarus — top 3 is LOW.MS / Host Havoc / GTX Gaming.
LOW.MS
Gold Pick
🇬🇧 London UK
Dangerous Horizons ready
LOW.MS earns the top UK spot through three things working together: the right hardware for how Icarus actually uses CPU (single-thread heavy, boosted by high clock speeds), a London UK node that keeps British players under 20ms during weather events and combat, and the published configuration knowledge that prevents the five-minute shutdown issue and the SessionName bug from ruining your first week. Their Icarus plans go up to 20 slots following the Week 54 patch that removed the old 8-player cap — though most regular co-op groups land somewhere between four and eight players in practice.
The Dangerous Horizons expansion released 5 March 2026 made Elysium’s radiation zones, military NPC patrols and increased creature density noticeably more demanding than Olympus. LOW.MS explicitly recommends 10GB headroom with room to scale for groups running heavy open-world bases or the Elysium map. Their cloud backup system is particularly valuable for Icarus because the game’s prospect save files (.prospect format) can be corrupted by game updates, and having a pre-update snapshot has saved entire communities from losing weeks of progress.
Daily scheduled restarts via Scheduled Tasks prevent the memory leak accumulation that affects UE4 servers over long uptimes — common in Icarus during extended open-world sessions. At £8.12/mo with a 5-day refund and full TCAdmin access for ServerSettings.ini editing and command-line configuration, LOW.MS is the most complete Icarus package for UK communities.
- ✓ Ryzen 9 9950X + DDR5 — handles UE4 single-thread peak
- ✓ Windows Server — native Icarus binary, no Wine overhead
- ✓ London UK — sub-20ms during weather events and combat
- ✓ Up to 20 slots · most complete ICARUS config docs
- ✓ Cloud backups · 5-day refund · 4.8★ Trustpilot
- ✓ Dangerous Horizons / Elysium fully supported
- ✗ TCAdmin panel isn’t the most modern interface
- ✗ Entry price slightly higher than GTX Gaming
Host Havoc
Silver Pick
🇬🇧 London
Dangerous Horizons ready
Host Havoc’s own physical hardware is directly relevant for Icarus during the events that stress the server most: a forest fire spreading across Olympus while five players are simultaneously running voxel mining operations, or a Group 15 airstrike triggering multiple AI spawn events during an Elysium prospect. On shared cloud nodes, these CPU spike events can cause throttling from neighbouring servers. Own-hardware deployments don’t have this problem — your server gets its CPU budget regardless of what other customers are doing at the same moment.
Their sub-10-minute support response is valuable for Icarus specifically because the game has several frustrating configuration gotchas. When your server mysteriously stops five minutes after every restart (ShutdownIfNotJoinedFor bug), when your prospect won’t reload after a game update (save format change), or when players can’t connect despite the server showing as online (version mismatch after a patch), getting a knowledgeable human response quickly makes the difference between a five-minute fix and an evening of troubleshooting.
- ✓ Own hardware — no spike throttle during storms/fires
- ✓ London UK · “Dangerous Horizons ready” confirmed
- ✓ Icarus Mod Manager support for .pak mods
- ✓ All 4 maps (Olympus, Styx, Prometheus, Elysium)
- ✓ 4.8★ from 1,515 reviews · <10 min support
- ✓ Open World persistence · FTP · NVMe · backups
- ✗ 72h refund window
- ✗ Slightly higher entry price vs GTX Gaming
GTX Gaming
Bronze Pick
🇬🇧 London + Stockholm
Best budget UK
GTX Gaming currently runs over 350 active Icarus servers — the largest operational count of any provider on our panel. That scale means genuine experience handling every Icarus patch, including the v3.0 Dangerous Horizons release that changed the game’s hardware profile significantly. They explicitly commit to adding every new map and DLC immediately on release without requiring support tickets. Their DDR5 5.7GHz hardware is well-suited to Icarus’s high-clock single-thread demands, and both London and Stockholm nodes cover UK and Scandinavian communities from low-latency positions.
At competitive entry pricing with a 7-day refund, GTX Gaming is the strongest budget UK-node option for Icarus on our list. The 7-day window is important because Icarus’s configuration quirks (the shutdown timers, the SessionName bug, prospect management) take a few days to understand properly — longer than the 72-hour window most competitors offer. Their control panel exposes all four prospect types (Open World, Mission, Outpost, across all four maps) and handles ServerSettings.ini configuration without requiring FTP for common settings.
- ✓ 350+ active Icarus servers — proven at scale
- ✓ DDR5 5.7GHz · London + Stockholm UK
- ✓ All maps + DLCs added day one (incl. Elysium)
- ✓ 7-day refund · competitive entry pricing
- ✓ 4.7★ (1,386 reviews) · DDoS protection
- ✗ Less Icarus-specific documentation than LOW.MS
- ✗ Older Intel/Ryzen mix — verify exact hardware on order
All Icarus hosting providers compared — from our 25-provider panel
GBP ($1=£0.741, €1=£0.865, ). ✅ UK = confirmed London node. Elysium = Dangerous Horizons DLC support. DatHost does not offer Icarus.
| # | Provider | GBP/mo | 🇬🇧 UK? | Elysium | Trustpilot | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LOW.MS | £8.12 | ✅ London | ✅ | 4.8★ (193) | Ryzen 9 9950X · Windows native · 5-day refund · full ICARUS docs | Visit → |
| 2 | Host Havoc | from £8.34 | ✅ London | ✅ | 4.8★ (1,515) | Own HW · <10 min · Icarus Mod Manager · “DH ready” | Visit → |
| 3 | GTX Gaming | from ~£5 | ✅ London + Stockholm | ✅ | 4.7★ (1,386) | 350+ ICARUS servers · DDR5 · 7-day refund · all DLCs day one | Visit → |
| 4 |  BisectHosting | ~£8.89–13 | ✅ London | ✅ | 4.8★ (25,348) | 21 locations · 15 min support · NVMe · 3-day backup | Visit → |
| 5 |  Apex Hosting | ~£11+ | ✅ London | ✅ | 4.8★ (8,054) | Beginner-friendly · guided setup · 7-day refund | Visit → |
| 6 |  Shockbyte | ~£7.41+ | ✅ EU | ✅ | 3.8★ (10,176) | Budget entry · 100% uptime SLA · 72h refund | Visit → |
| 7 |  Gaming Deluxe | ~£10 | ✅ London · GBP | ✅ | 4.5★ (82) | UK company · GBP billing · DDR5 5.0GHz+ | Visit → |
| 8 |  GGServers | ~£4.45 | ✅ London | ✅ | 4.6★ (3,407) | Budget UK · London · NVMe | Visit → |
| 9 |  SparkedHost | from £5.93 | ✅ EU + UK | ✅ | 4.8★ (2,291) | Ryzen 5 7600 · DDR5 · 48h refund · Apollo panel | Visit → |
| 10 |  G-Portal | ~£7/mo equiv. | ✅ Frankfurt | ✅ | 4.0★ (2,836) | Pay-as-go · $2.75/3 days · Frankfurt DE | Visit → |
| 11 |  Nitrado | ~£5–12 | ✅ EU | ✅ | 3.6★ (7,403) | Pay-as-go · flexible EU · share access | Visit → |
| 12 |  Survival Servers | ~£7.41+ | ✅ EU | ✅ | 4.7★ (862) | Survival specialist · Xeon NVMe · instant game switch | Visit → |
| 13 |  ScalaCube | ~£5.93 | ✅ UK + EU | ✅ | 4.5★ (4,713) | UK node · beginner-friendly · one-click setup | Visit → |
| 14 |  Indifferent Broccoli | ~£12.59 | ⚠ Germany EU | ✅ | 4.4★ (792) | Uncapped RAM pool · 7-day refund · EU only | Visit → |
| 15 |  AleForge | £5.93 (8GB) | ⚠ US only | ✅ | 4.9★ (139) | Cheapest/GB · US only · Ryzen 9 7950X · 7-day | Visit → |
| 16 |  Hostinger | £7.03 | ✅ UK VPS | ✅ | 4.7★ (66k+) | VPS · full root · Windows VPS option · manual setup | Visit → |
| 17 |  4NetPlayers | ~£4.50 | ✅ EU | ⚠ Verify | 4.4★ (7,900) | Budget EU · verify Icarus support directly | Visit → |
DatHost does not offer Icarus. ⚠ = verify directly. Prices GBP, . All servers require a Steam game port (UDP 17777) and query port (UDP 27015). Windows Server recommended over Linux for native performance.
All four Icarus maps — and what they mean for your server
Icarus has four maps, each with different hardware demands, DLC requirements, and gameplay character. Your map choice is also the most common cause of “half my group can’t connect” — because DLC maps require every player to own that DLC, not just the server host.
The original Icarus map. Varied biomes — forests, tundra, desert, caves. Good starter terrain with a relatively safe landing zone. All players who own the base game can join Olympus prospects regardless of DLC ownership. The standard recommendation for mixed groups where not everyone owns DLC. Oil geysers were added to Olympus with the free Kepler Update (March 2026).
Water-heavy biome map with rivers, swamps and coastal terrain. Different resource distribution from Olympus, requiring adapted survival strategies. Medium complexity. Players need to own the Styx Expansion to join Styx prospects. Lighter hardware demand than Prometheus or Elysium.
The second major expansion map. Introduces narrative-driven story missions that continue the Icarus lore. New biomes and resources, Group 15 story content. Higher hardware demand than Styx. Players must own New Frontiers to join Prometheus prospects.
8×8km extreme-difficulty map. No safe landing zone. Radiation zones require Hazmat Suit or Containment Armor. The People’s Syndicate military NPCs actively patrol. First NPC settlement Eden serves as mission hub. Tech Tier 5 progression. Oil drilling and refinement chain. 35+ new creatures. Most CPU-intensive map — plan 10–16GB RAM minimum.
Open World, Mission & Outpost — choosing the right prospect type
Icarus organises gameplay into “prospects” — individual world instances saved as .prospect files on your server. A server can only run one active prospect at a time, but you can switch between saved prospects from the control panel. The prospect type you choose fundamentally shapes how your group plays.
Persistent sandbox with no timer and no extract deadline. Everything you build stays. Resources regenerate over time. Players join and leave freely — the world exists independently of any individual player’s session. No mission objectives unless you create them yourself. Best for: regular play groups who want a persistent home base, long-term progression through tech trees, and Tier 5 builds.
The original Icarus format: a timed contract with a hard extract deadline. Miss the dropship and you lose your gear. Great for focused, exciting sessions with defined objectives and built-in tension. Poor choice for groups with irregular playtimes — if you don’t finish before the timer, everyone loses their equipment. Best for: dedicated sessions with all players available for the duration.
Persistent like Open World but smaller and structured around a specific facility. Keeps your built base between sessions while providing defined objectives. Good middle ground for groups who want structure without the punishing Mission timer. Build a permanent outpost, upgrade it, run missions from it. Popular for communities who want progression goals alongside a permanent home.
RAM & CPU — why Icarus is harder to host than most survival games
Most survival game hosting guides talk about RAM in terms of player count. For Icarus, the calculation is more complex — map choice, build density, prospect type and event load all drive hardware demands independently of player count.
| Configuration | Players | Min RAM | Recommended | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olympus, vanilla, small group | 2–4 | 8GB | 10GB | Stable performance, no Tier 5 automation |
| Olympus Open World, active builds | 4–8 | 10GB | 12–14GB | Large builds pile up chunk data over time |
| Prometheus or Styx prospect | 4–8 | 10GB | 12–16GB | DLC maps are heavier than Olympus |
| Elysium (Dangerous Horizons) | 4–8 | 12GB | 16GB+ | Radiation zones + military NPCs + 35+ creatures |
| Large group, modded, Elysium | 10–20 | 16GB | 24–30GB | Scale generously — Elysium is demanding |
Icarus is built on Unreal Engine 4. The main game loop — AI pathfinding, weather simulation, player interactions, storm events, voxel updates — runs on a single CPU thread. High single-core clock (5GHz+) directly improves server performance during forest fires, Group 15 events and heavy voxel mining sessions. More cores don’t compensate for lower clock.
The Icarus dedicated server binary is Windows-native. Linux installations use community Docker images which add a compatibility layer and introduce performance overhead. For maximum performance, choose a managed host that runs Icarus on Windows Server — LOW.MS and Host Havoc both do this explicitly.
Icarus, like most UE4 games, accumulates memory over long uptimes. After 12–24 hours of continuous operation, server performance starts to degrade — stuttering during events, slower load times for connecting players. Schedule a daily restart at off-peak hours (typically 5am for UK communities) through Scheduled Tasks in your panel.
Icarus prospect saves (.prospect files) grow as players build. A large Open World base with months of construction can be several gigabytes. NVMe storage makes prospect loading fast; SATA SSD causes visible load delays for connecting players. Important both for initial join time and for the restart cycle.
Required server ports
-Port=17777 -QueryPort=27015 -SteamServerName="My Server"ServerSettings.ini — the complete reference for UK Icarus servers
Icarus config lives at Icarus/Saved/Config/WindowsServer/ServerSettings.ini. The file is generated after the first prospect is created — if it doesn’t exist yet, start a prospect and it will appear. Edit via your host’s Configuration Files tab, File Manager, or FTP.
The SessionName setting appears in the config file and looks legitimate, but currently does nothing — your server name in the browser will not change. To name your server, pass -SteamServerName=Your Server Name as a command-line argument. In TCAdmin this is Commandline Manager; other panels have a Startup tab or similar.
To create a new prospect from config: CreateProspect=Olympus_OpenWorld 3 false MyBase — format is [type] [difficulty 1–4] [hardcore true/false] [save name]. Common types: Olympus_OpenWorld, Elysium_OpenWorld, Styx_OpenWorld. Set once to create, then remove and set ResumeProspect=True with LastProspectName for future restarts.
Icarus doesn’t have RCON in the traditional sense. Admin commands are triggered in-game via the chat box with /AdminLogin YourPassword. Available commands: KickPlayer, BanPlayer, UnbanPlayer, KickAll, ShutdownOnEmpty. There’s no Save or Broadcast command — this surprises admins coming from Rust or ARK.
Set to True if you want your group to be able to start and join prospects without you being online as admin. For Open World persistent servers this should almost always be True — otherwise your group is locked out unless you’re there to manually launch the world.
Mods — .pak files, no Steam Workshop, what this means in practice
Icarus uses .pak files for mods, distributed primarily through Nexus Mods. There is no Steam Workshop integration. This has a significant practical implication that catches everyone out: every player on the server must have the same .pak mod files installed locally, in the same folder on their own machine. If one player has a mod the others don’t, they won’t be able to connect.
Place .pak mod files in Icarus/Content/Paks/mods/ on the server. Create the mods/ subdirectory if it doesn’t exist. Upload via FTP or your host’s file manager. Restart the server after adding or removing mods.
Every player needs the same .pak files in the same Paks/mods/ folder in their local Icarus installation. Windows path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Icarus\Icarus\Content\Paks\mods\. The Icarus Mod Manager tool simplifies this.
A community tool that simplifies .pak file management for both servers and clients. Host Havoc explicitly supports it in their panel. Reduces the friction of manual .pak installation by providing a centralized interface for downloading and organizing mods from Nexus and other sources.
Best Icarus UK host for your group
Ryzen 9 9950X · London UK · Windows native · up to 20 slots · best ICARUS docs · cloud backups · 5-day refund · from £8.12/mo. Best hardware for UE4 single-thread + most complete Icarus config documentation of any provider on our list.
Own hardware · London UK · “Dangerous Horizons ready” · Icarus Mod Manager · <10 min response · 4.8★ from 1,515 reviews. Best when shutdown timer bugs or post-update connection issues need fast human resolution.
From ~£5/mo · 350+ active Icarus servers · DDR5 · London + Stockholm · all DLCs day one · 7-day refund. Best value for cost-conscious UK groups wanting proven infrastructure.
Elysium demands 12–16GB+ RAM for a full group. Radiation zones, military NPC patrols and 35+ creatures make it the most hardware-intensive Icarus environment. Plan 16GB minimum with headroom. Both LOW.MS and Host Havoc confirm full Dangerous Horizons support.
Guided setup · London · 7-day refund · 4.8★ from 8,054 reviews. Best for groups setting up their first Icarus server who want help navigating the shutdown timer fix and ServerSettings.ini without deep technical knowledge.
UK-based company · London · GBP billing · DDR5 5.0GHz+ · 7-day backup history · ~£10/mo. Best for groups or organisations wanting GBP invoicing and a British company to deal with for contracts or purchasing.
Icarus server hosting UK — FAQ
ShutdownIfNotJoinedFor=300 (shuts down if no player joins within 5 minutes of boot) and ShutdownIfEmptyFor=300 (shuts down 5 minutes after the last player leaves). To fix it, open ServerSettings.ini and set both values to 86400 (24 hours): ShutdownIfNotJoinedFor=86400 and ShutdownIfEmptyFor=86400. Critically: do NOT set these to 0. Setting either timer to 0 means “shut down immediately” — your server will die the instant it starts. The fix is always a high positive number, not zero.SessionName setting in ServerSettings.ini is currently broken — it appears in the config file but does not change the server’s display name in the browser. To actually name your server, you must pass -SteamServerName=Your Server Name as a command-line launch argument. In TCAdmin (used by LOW.MS and Host Havoc), find this in Commandline Manager and edit the active command line to include the flag. In other panels it’s usually in a Startup Parameters or Launch Arguments section. This is a known bug that RocketWerkz hasn’t fixed as of the Dangerous Horizons v3.0 release.MaxPlayers in ServerSettings.ini to your actual group size, not the maximum — this keeps performance headroom available for event spikes.Icarus/Content/Paks/mods/ on both the server and every client machine. If a player is missing a mod that the server has, they’ll fail to connect. The Icarus Mod Manager (a community tool) simplifies this process. Start your server without mods and add them gradually as your group settles in — every mod addition requires everyone to update their local files.-Port=17777 -QueryPort=27015. If your server appears in the browser but players can’t join, check that 17777 is correctly forwarded. If your server doesn’t appear in the browser at all, 27015 is the culprit.CreateProspect and ResumeProspect=False. If you have a backup from before the update, restore it. This is why the cloud backup habit before every game update is worth building — a pre-update snapshot takes 30 seconds to make and can save hours of recovery effort.