Vintage Story When you order a Vintage Story server you choose between two server software options: Vanilla, the official server from Anego Studios, and Stratum, a performance focused build of that same server. Both run the same worlds and the same mods.
This article covers which one to pick and what to check before switching an existing server.
The short answer
Pick Stratum if your server is busy, heavily modded, or has been running long enough to build up real world and entity load. Pick Vanilla if you play with one or two people on a young world, if you pin your server to a version below 1.22.3, or if you rely on the Synergy or Tungsten mods.
Neither option locks you in, and the world format is identical, so moving between them does not cost you your save. The switch itself is a reinstall though, so it is not a toggle you flip back and forth. Moving back to vanilla is the heavier direction, because Stratum’s server files have to be removed before the server is reinstalled.
What Stratum changes
Stratum is server side only. It replaces the software running on your server and does not touch the game your players run, so nobody needs to install anything to join.
Its patches target the parts of a Vintage Story server that struggle under load: networking and packet batching, chunk sending, entity ticking, AI task scanning, pathfinding moved onto worker threads, and block tick smoothing. It also adds server side anti-cheat checks and admin tooling for profiling, moderation, and scheduled backups.
The practical effect shows up under pressure, not at idle. A two player world will feel much the same on either option.
Check these before you switch
1. Your server version. Stratum is built against Vintage Story 1.22.3 and newer. If your server version is set to latest you are fine. If you have pinned an older version for mod compatibility, stay on vanilla until your mod list moves up. See changing your Vintage Story server version.
2. Performance mods you already run. Stratum is not compatible with Synergy or Tungsten. Both are performance mods whose optimizations Stratum already includes, so running them together is redundant and can cause problems. Remove them first.
3. Th3Essentials, if you use it. Stratum ships its own /message command, which collides with the same command in Th3Essentials. The visible symptom is a Discord chat relay that stops working after the switch. Set MessageEnabled: false in Th3Config.json to resolve it.
4. Everything else in your mod list. Standard mods need no changes. They install exactly as they do on vanilla, through the mod database, the console, or the file manager. See installing mods on your Vintage Story server.
5. Your current Server Options. Write down your Server Options and your start command before the switch. A reinstall resets them to the new build’s defaults, and the values are passed to the server at startup, so your configured settings are replaced. This is the one thing that does not carry over on its own.
What carries over
| Carries over | |
|---|---|
| World save | Yes, same format in both directions |
| Standard mods | Yes |
| Player connection details | Yes, same address and same client |
| Server Options and start command | No, these reset to the new build’s defaults |
| Synergy or Tungsten | No, remove before switching to Stratum |
Th3Essentials /message | Needs MessageEnabled: false after switching to Stratum |
Staying up to date
Leave your version on latest and your server pulls the current Stratum build every time it restarts, so you stay current without doing anything. Set the version explicitly only if you need to sit on a specific build while a mod catches up.
Switching an existing server
Choose your server software when you place the order. If you already have a server, Vanilla and Stratum are separate server builds, so moving between them means reinstalling. There are two ways to do that.
If you are starting fresh, use the Switch Game tool in the Game Panel. It is self serve and takes a couple of minutes. It also wipes the server completely, so only take this route if you do not need what is currently on it.
If you are keeping your world, open a ticket and our team will handle the switch without wiping it.
Take a backup before any software change either way. Your server is backed up automatically twice a day with 45 day retention, and you can also create one yourself from the panel. See restoring a backup.
What actually costs performance
Stratum helps with load the server creates for itself. It does not undo a mod list that is doing too much. If you are chasing stability rather than choosing software, these are the usual causes, in rough order:
- Entity heavy mods. Anything that adds a lot of creatures or spawns them densely. Entity ticking is the most common source of sustained load.
- World generation mods. These push RAM hard during startup and chunk generation, so a server can look fine at idle and struggle when players explore in different directions.
- Mods that overlap. Two mods solving the same problem often patch the same code, which costs performance and causes crashes that are hard to attribute.
Two Server Options are worth knowing as direct levers: Max Chunk Radius sets the view distance, and Tick Time sets how fast the server simulates the game. Both are documented in Vintage Story startup parameters.
If your server is crashing rather than just running slowly, isolate the mod responsible with the linear and binary search method.