Configuring Palworld

Palworld offers a lot of configuration options for the server, giving you control over how you play the game with your friends. A significant portion of the configuration options are not documented at this time, but they can be used as the official or community documentation develops.
An official documentation source for configuration options can be found here, but no matter where you find the list of options you want to change, you can follow the steps below to get there.

stop your server

Before editing any of your server's configuration files, make sure you stop your server!

existing world?

Changing the settings won't modify the behavior in an existing save and will by default require a reset. If you'd like to modify the settings for an existing world, you can try this community made tool by downloading your save and following the instructions on your PC.

Locating the configuration files

The configuration files for Palword servers hosted on the WinterNode GCP are located at /Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer and can be viewed/edited using the File Manager or SFTP.

If you're using Linux, they'll be located at /steamapps/common/PalServer/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/ starting in the directory you're running your SteamCMD server from.

If you're using a Windows machine they'll be located at /steamapps/common/PalServer/Pal/Saved/Config/WindowsServer/ in the Steam installation directory, or the directory where you've installed the SteamCMD server.

The configuration files themselves are the same across platforms, so you'll be able to migrate the settings between servers should the need arise.

Which files matter?

Nearly all of the files contained within the configuration folder are empty by default, except for 2, Engine.ini and GameUserSettings.ini.
The GameUserSettings.ini file mostly contains holdover options from the client version of the game related to graphics and controls settings, but does have the name of your dedicated server file under the DedicatedServerName setting.
Finally the Engine.ini file is entirely useless to you as a user and just tells the game engine where to look for important files. All of the remaining files are left as "placeholders" for future settings/features.

The file we're most interested in is PalWorldSettings.ini, which we have to fill in with the contents from DefaultPalWorldSettings.ini.

Copying the default file

Under normal circumstances the PalWorldSettings.ini file is empty, as mentioned above, but the WinterNode GCP should copy the DefaultPalWorldSettings.ini file to the PalWorldSettings.ini file for you to make the configuration process easier. If the PalWorldSettings.ini file is still empty, give your server a restart and check again. If it's still empty or you're not using the WinterNode GCP, follow the steps below.

The DefaultPalWorldSettings.ini file can be found in your server's root directory on the WinterNode GCP, or in the /steamapps/common/PalServer directory on Windows/Linux. This file contains the default settings for the PalWorldSettings.ini file and is meant for us to use as a template.
You'll need to copy it's contents and paste them into the empty PalWorldSettings.ini file you located before where you can then start modifying the settings.

Modifying the files

Modifying the configuration files is as simple as the following steps, with a few caveats we'll go over after.

1. Stop your server
2. Navigate to and open the file you want to modify
3. Find the setting within the file and change it
4. Save the file
5. Start your server

Caveats:

• You should always back up your server before making changes to the server configuration. This both ensures that you have a copy of the configuration as it was before you changed it, but also a copy of the world before the changes took effect.
• Some settings available in the files may be available in your server's Startup Parameters, check that page out before modifying the server's config files.
• The format of the file matters a lot. You can't use any line breaks in PalWorldSettings.ini, and every entry must have a , after it except for the last one. All of the "string" or "word" settings have " characters around them, and everything that is a number is left on it's own.
• Changing the settings won't modify the behavior in an existing save and will by default require a reset. If you'd like to modify the settings for an existing world, you can try this community made tool by downloading your save and following the instructions on your PC.

Common configuration settings

Here are a few common configuration choices, what file they're located in, their default value, and what their known possible values are.

DeathPenalty=All

The different options for what happens when a player dies.

Found in: PalWorldSettings.ini
Possible settings:

• None : Nothing dropped
• Item : Drop all items but not equipment or carried pals
• ItemAndEquipment : Drop all items and equipment, but not carried pals
• All : Drop all items, equipment, and carried pals

bEnableInvaderEnemy=true

Whether or not the server attempts to spawn invader enemies.

Found in: PalWorldSettings.ini
Can be true or false

Memory leak

This setting is known to be associated with a memory leak. Setting it to false and disabling the invader enemy spawns is a known method of mitigating this specific memory leak.

ExpRate=1.000000

The rate at which players gain experience. A higher number means a faster rate. Caps out at 20.

Found in: PalWorldSettings.ini

Difficulty=None

Despite this looking like it should set the difficulty, it doesn't seem like this setting does anything. If you want to change the difficulty, you'll have to tweak the other settings.

Found in: PalWorldSettings.ini

PalEggDefaultHatchingTime=10.000000

The default egg hatching time multiplier, which is applied to eggs based on their size.

Found in: PalWorldSettings.ini

RCON: Enabled, but private

RCON is enabled by default but only for the WinterNode GCP's server console and can not be access by the public internet. For more information on how to enable it, check out this section in our Getting Started with Palworld guide.