Barotrauma is a 2D co-op submarine simulation and survival horror game developed by Undertow Games and published by Daedalic Entertainment. Set beneath the frozen oceans of Europa, a moon of Jupiter, it puts crews of up to 16 players inside a hand-built submarine navigating crushing depths, hostile sea life, and alien ruins. After years in Early Access, the game reached its full release in March 2023.
Barotrauma is built around crew roles. Each player fills a station on the submarine: Captain, Engineer, Mechanic, Medical Doctor, Security Officer, or Assistant. Missions send the crew through dark ocean trenches, alien artifact sites, and hostile outposts. Managing the reactor, patching hull breaches, administering treatment, and tracking contacts on sonar at the same time is what makes a session click.
Barotrauma runs in sessions that span multiple submarine runs, with a campaign mode that tracks crew progress across missions. Groups that keep playing together upgrade their submarine, unlock new equipment, and push deeper into the ocean. A private dedicated Barotrauma server keeps that campaign persistent so the crew picks up exactly where they left the sub.
The Barotrauma modding scene runs through Steam Workshop. Popular mods include Fanatic's Vanilla Expansion (new equipment, creatures, and balance updates), custom-built submarines from the community, More Perks Expanded (extended character progression), and full content overhauls that add new missions and deeper alien encounters. Modded servers shift the loop considerably, adding tools and challenges without breaking the core simulation.
Barotrauma runs on a physics and crew simulation that puts real load on CPU performance. High-frequency CPUs keep the simulation accurate during combat and flooding events, NVMe SSD storage prevents save corruption and mission data loss, and DDR5 RAM keeps modded configurations stable across long sessions with a full crew online.
| Server type | RAM needed | Players | Recommended plan |
|---|
| Vanilla (1-6 players) | 1 GB | 1-6 | 1 GB plan |
| Modded / standard crew (7-13 players) | 2 GB | 7-13 | 2 GB plan |
| Large crew / heavy mods (14-20 players) | 3 GB | 14-20 | 3 GB plan |
A private dedicated Barotrauma server gives your crew total control over the campaign: difficulty settings, creature spawn rates, mission parameters, oxygen and pressure mechanics, round length, and which mods are loaded. The submarine persists between sessions, cargo holds stay stocked, and no one loses campaign progress because a player logged off. Unlike hosting from a personal machine, a dedicated server keeps the sub online 24/7 with no host-dependency.
Hosting a dedicated Barotrauma server eliminates connection drops when the host leaves, removes the performance ceiling of consumer hardware, and keeps the crew experience consistent across every dive. PingPlayers includes high-frequency CPU performance, full configuration control, automated backups, 24/7 real human support, and an integrated Ping AI assistant that helps install mods, configure campaign settings, and resolve common setup issues faster than any forum thread.
