The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is a survival crafting game developed and published by Free Range Games. Set in the Fourth Age of Middle-earth, it sends a company of Dwarves back into the lost realm of Khazad-dum to reclaim their ancient home from the dark.
The core loop has you mining ore, crafting gear, cooking food, and building outposts while pushing deeper through the procedural mines. Light is survival currency: the dark hides orcs and worse, so torches, forges, and braziers keep the threat back. The mountain reshapes itself between playthroughs, so no two expeditions through Moria are the same.
Return to Moria plays solo or in co-op for a full company of Dwarves, with crossplay across PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. Saves are persistent, so your outposts, supplies, and dug-out tunnels carry over between sessions. On a private dedicated server, the mines stay live around the clock so any Dwarf can drop in and keep delving without waiting for the host.
Return to Moria supports cross-platform co-op, letting a fellowship on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation delve the same mines together. The base game has no official mod loader, but server admins still get deep control over difficulty, world type, and player limits straight from the control panel, with no external tools needed.
On the hardware side, Return to Moria servers lean on single-core CPU performance to keep tick rates stable as the procedural mines grow and orc packs swarm. NVMe storage speeds up map loading and save writes. A 3 GB plan handles small co-op companies, while larger fellowships running long persistent campaigns benefit from the 8 GB plan.
| Server type | RAM needed | Players | Recommended plan |
|---|
| Small company (1-4 players) | 3 GB | Up to 4 | 3 GB plan |
| Standard fellowship (4-6 players) | 5 GB | Up to 6 | 5 GB plan |
| Large expedition (6+ players) | 8 GB | 6+ | 8 GB plan |
Running Return to Moria on a dedicated server means your save persists between sessions, your outposts stay intact, and admin tools give you control over difficulty, world settings, and player slots. No Dwarf has a connection advantage because there is no local host holding the save.
PingPlayers pairs dedicated hardware with Ping AI, which handles server setup, config questions, and troubleshooting so your fellowship spends time mining and exploring rather than wrestling with server files.
