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The fastest way to fix Conan Exiles server lag is to update the server to Enhanced 2.2.0, then reduce the workload created by oversized bases, purge events, thralls, pets and mods. Funcom says the update’s Iris networking has reduced server lag by roughly half so far, but it does not remove the performance limits created by very large settlements or heavily modded worlds.
Work through the fixes in this order: update the server and recook or update every mod, identify whether the problem is simulation load or an ordinary network issue, control base and AI growth, tune purges, schedule restarts, and only then test hardware or configuration changes. The configuration values discussed below are version-sensitive; make a backup before changing them.
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Lag is not one symptom with one cause. A server can be late processing game simulation, while a player can also experience high network latency, packet loss or a client-side frame-rate drop. The fixes are different, so identify the pattern before changing settings.
Server simulation lag
When the dedicated server is overloaded, players may see delayed combat hits, rubber-banding, doors or crafting stations responding late, NPCs freezing, slow base loads and server-wide stutters. A large number of placed building pieces, active AI entities, purge waves and mod systems all add work that must be tracked and synchronized.
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Network latency or packet loss
If only one player has a high ping while others play normally, the problem is more likely that player’s route, Wi-Fi or internet connection. If everyone’s ping rises together and the server’s CPU is not busy, inspect the host’s network path and firewall rather than rebuilding the map.
Client frame-rate drops
A player may have low frames per second near a dense base even when the server is healthy. Reducing view distance, effects or shadows on that client can help, but it will not repair server-wide delays.
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Start with Enhanced 2.2.0 and Iris networking
Patch 2.2.0 for Conan Exiles Enhanced moved the game to Unreal Engine 5.8.2 and replaced the older UE4 networking layer with Epic’s Iris system. Funcom says the change is intended to let a server retain its speed as it fills up. In Funcom’s explanation of the old behavior, a full server could take eight times longer to perform the same work as a quiet server. Funcom later reported that servers had experienced roughly half the lag they had before Iris was enabled.
Those figures are Funcom’s own statements, not an independent benchmark, and they do not mean that every server will be lag-free. Iris provides headroom; it is not permission to remove building limits or add unlimited AI.
Update procedure
- Stop the dedicated server cleanly and make a copy of the world save, configuration files and mod list.
- Update the server installation and client installation to Enhanced 2.2.0 or the same current build. A mismatched client and server can cause connection and gameplay problems that look like lag.
- Confirm that every installed mod supports the Enhanced build. Version 2.2.0 introduced serialization changes in the base engine and forced a recook of all mods. A mod can remain flagged as out of date until its author publishes a recooked version.
- Start the server with the updated mod set and check the log for load failures, repeated errors or a mod that is being disabled. Test first with a copy of the world if you need to remove or replace a mod.
If the problem began immediately after the update, do not assume the network layer is at fault. A mod that has not been recooked, or a changed asset that causes repeated errors, can consume CPU time and delay loading.
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Measure the problem before tuning settings
Record when the lag occurs, who experiences it and what the server is doing at that moment. A short log is more useful than changing several variables at once.
- Time and trigger: note whether the spike happens during a purge, at player login, when approaching a particular base, after several hours of uptime or continuously.
- Scope: ask whether every player is affected or only one region, platform or connection.
- Server resources: watch CPU utilization, RAM use, disk activity and network traffic in the host control panel or operating system. Sustained CPU saturation points toward simulation work, a mod or insufficient processor headroom.
- Entity and build changes: record recent additions such as thousands of building pieces, new thralls, pet pens, automated systems or a building and AI overhaul mod.
- Restart test: if a restart restores normal performance temporarily, memory growth, a leaking mod or accumulated server state is more likely than a permanent bandwidth problem.
Do not treat a single high CPU reading during startup as proof of a hardware fault. Compare the readings during ordinary play, peak population and the exact lag event.
Control base size and abandoned building pieces
Third-party Conan server guides consistently identify very large bases as a leading cause of persistent lag. Every placed piece has to be tracked, saved and synchronized. A sprawling settlement with thousands of pieces can therefore affect everyone, not just players standing inside it.
Set a practical building policy
- Set a piece limit for each clan or settlement and enforce it before the world becomes difficult to recover.
- Discourage duplicate floors, decorative shells and unused storage buildings. Consolidating a base often helps more than changing a tick-rate value.
- Ask players to remove temporary structures after events, farming runs and abandoned projects.
- Use a separate location for test builds instead of allowing unlimited experimental construction in the main population center.
Keep abandonment cleanup enabled
One commonly cited cleanup setting is DisableBuildingAbandonment=False in ServerSettings.ini. This recommendation has only medium-low confidence because it comes from a community guide rather than a current Funcom performance specification, and server rules may make automatic decay undesirable.
Before changing it, back up ServerSettings.ini, confirm the exact spelling and capitalization used by your build, restart the server, and verify the result in a test area. Explain the decay policy to players so they do not mistake an intentional cleanup rule for lost progress.
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Tune purge events when spikes match purge activity
If the server is stable most of the time but slows sharply when a purge starts, the purge is a strong suspect. Community tuning guides describe purges as a common source of spikes on otherwise healthy servers and suggest lowering purge intensity. The evidence for a specific ideal value is low confidence, so there is no universal number that can be safely recommended for every population, mod list or hardware configuration.
A safe purge-testing method
- Record the current purge and difficulty values before editing them.
- Change one intensity-related setting by a small step rather than disabling every purge rule.
- Run the server through a comparable purge window and compare CPU use, player latency and NPC behavior.
- Keep the lower setting only if it reduces the spike without making purges fail to spawn or become trivial.
Do not use purge reduction to mask a base that is already beyond the server’s capacity. A smaller purge may hide the symptom while ordinary exploration and building remain slow.
Reduce thrall, pet and AI overhead
Thralls and pets are persistent actors. Their movement, inventories, combat behavior and location updates create ongoing simulation work, and a dense settlement can multiply that cost. Community guides also flag AI-heavy and building-focused mods as expensive, although the exact cost varies by mod and configuration.
Practical limits
- Set a sensible thrall and pet allowance per player or clan instead of allowing every recruit to remain active.
- Remove unused followers and pets, especially those left loaded in crowded compounds.
- Separate large animal pens and NPC halls from the busiest crafting and marketplace areas.
- Review mods that add autonomous workers, complex AI routines, decorative interactables or large numbers of placeable objects.
- Disable one suspected mod at a time on a copied world, then compare CPU use and lag. Removing several mods simultaneously makes the cause harder to identify and can damage dependencies.
Keep a written mod order and version list. After an Enhanced update, an outdated mod can cause both performance problems and serialization errors, so recooking or replacing it is preferable to compensating with more hardware.
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Schedule regular restarts
Several community guides recommend restarting a Conan Exiles server every 12 to 24 hours. A restart can clear accumulated memory use, apply mod updates and recover from a gradual decline in responsiveness. The recommendation has medium confidence because the ideal interval depends on the world, population and mods.
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How to make restarts safe
- Announce a maintenance window and warn players before the restart.
- Use a graceful shutdown so recent building, inventory and character changes are written to the save.
- Keep a rotating backup rather than overwriting the only copy.
- After startup, verify that all mods loaded, the world is visible and the server appears in the browser before inviting players back.
- Record whether the restart improved performance and how long the improvement lasted.
If the server becomes slow again after a predictable number of hours, inspect the mod list, entity count and memory trend instead of shortening the restart interval indefinitely.
Check CPU and RAM before changing configuration
When CPU utilization is pinned during normal play, the likely causes are a workload-heavy mod, too many entities or insufficient processor headroom. Adding RAM will not fix a server that is waiting on a saturated CPU. Conversely, a server that is paging or exhausting memory can stutter even when average CPU use looks moderate.
| Figure or recommendation | How to interpret it |
|---|---|
| 12 GB RAM | A fan-run Conan Exiles wiki lists this as a baseline for large servers, but the figure predates the Enhanced build. Treat it as historical guidance, not a current minimum. |
| Exact Enhanced hardware minimum | Not established in the available official material. Workload, player count, mods and build density matter as much as the nominal RAM total. |
| 16 GB or more | Some hosting advice recommends this for UE5 servers, but the recommendation could not be reliably attributed and should not be treated as an official requirement. |
| Reported 2x–4x memory increase | A launch-week guide mentioned this as an unverified observation. Do not use it as a guaranteed multiplier when choosing hardware. |
Choose a plan with spare CPU capacity at peak population and enough RAM to avoid swapping. Ask a host for per-core performance, reserved memory, disk type and restart control rather than relying only on a headline player count.
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Community guides mention ServerMaxTickRate in Engine.ini; one host example uses ServerMaxTickRate=30 and describes a 30–60 range. This advice has low confidence for the current Enhanced build. Older network settings may not map cleanly to Iris, and raising a tick rate can increase CPU demand instead of reducing lag.
Safe configuration workflow
- Stop the server and back up the entire configuration directory.
- Confirm that the setting is supported by the current build and is not being overwritten by the host panel.
- Change only one value, using a conservative value such as the documented example of 30 if you are testing that setting.
- Restart, observe CPU use and test combat, travel, building and a purge.
- Revert immediately if CPU saturation, crashes, desynchronization or worse rubber-banding appears.
Do not copy old bandwidth, tick or replication recipes from UE4-era guides without verifying that they apply to Enhanced 2.2.0 and Iris.
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Make sure ports and connectivity are correct
Ports are setup requirements, not performance fixes. Funcom’s dedicated-server documentation lists these defaults:
| Port | Protocol | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 7777 | UDP | Game traffic |
| 7778 | UDP | Pinger traffic |
| 27015 | UDP | Server query |
| 7777 | TCP | Mod download when needed |
| 25575 | TCP | RCON |
Use the ports required by your installation and host, and avoid exposing RCON publicly without access controls. Correct forwarding can fix connection failures or a server that disappears from the browser; it will not cure simulation lag caused by a huge base or overloaded CPU.
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Choose a hosting approach that leaves performance headroom
Whether you self-host or rent a managed server, evaluate the same three things: who keeps the build and mods current, how much CPU and RAM is reserved, and how much control you have over restarts and configuration.
| Decision factor | Questions to ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Build currency | Can the operator update to Enhanced 2.2.0 and handle recooked mod versions promptly? | A stale server or incompatible mod can create errors and lag before hardware is even considered. |
| Hardware headroom | Is CPU capacity reserved, and how much RAM is available after the operating system and control panel? | Shared or oversold resources can cause spikes when other workloads run. |
| Operator control | Can you schedule 12–24-hour restarts, edit supported settings and create backups? | Maintenance controls help prevent gradual degradation and make testing reversible. |
A higher advertised player limit is not proof of better performance. A smaller server with a clean mod set, controlled building and spare CPU can feel better than a larger nominal plan running a dense, heavily modified world.
Fixes for common lag patterns
| What players report | Most likely direction | First action |
|---|---|---|
| Everyone rubber-bands near one enormous base | Building-piece and entity load | Audit the base, remove unused pieces and enforce a building cap. |
| Lag starts exactly when a purge begins | Purge workload | Lower purge intensity in a controlled test and measure CPU use. |
| Only one player has high ping | Player-side route, Wi-Fi or packet loss | Compare that player’s connection with another player in the same region. |
| Performance declines after many hours | Memory growth, mod issue or accumulated state | Restart on a schedule and inspect logs and memory trends. |
| Lag began after updating to Enhanced | Outdated or unrecooked mod | Update, recook or temporarily remove the offending mod on a backup world. |
| Server is slow everywhere and CPU is saturated | Too much simulation work or insufficient CPU | Reduce AI, pets, thralls and mods before considering a larger plan. |
| Players see low FPS only inside a dense settlement | Client rendering load | Lower client graphics settings and reduce visual clutter; server tuning alone may not help. |
A maintenance plan that prevents the next spike
- After every game update: back up the world, update the server and clients, verify mod recooks and inspect startup logs.
- Weekly: review the largest bases, abandoned structures, thrall and pet counts, and recently added mods.
- Every 12–24 hours: perform a graceful restart if your uptime tests show a measurable decline.
- During an incident: record the time, player count, purge state, CPU, RAM and affected location before changing anything.
- After a change: test travel, combat, crafting, base loading and a purge, then keep or revert the change based on observed results.
This process keeps Iris’s additional capacity available for normal play instead of spending it on unlimited construction and persistent AI. It also gives you a way to distinguish a real server bottleneck from an isolated client or network problem.
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