Best Palworld Server Settings for Every Play Style

Best Palworld Server Settings for Every Play Style

Running your own Palworld dedicated server means you get to decide how the game actually feels. Want a chilled exploration sandbox? Done. Want a brutal hardcore world where every death hurts? Also done. The problem is that PalWorldSettings.ini has dozens of knobs and very little guidance on where to start.

So here's what we'd actually recommend. Five presets we've tuned for different groups, with the real key names, sensible values, and the gotchas nobody tells you about until you've already lost a Saturday to them.

Before you touch anything

Palworld's config lives in a single file:

• Linux: Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini
• Windows: Pal\Saved\Config\WindowsServer\PalWorldSettings.ini

One quirk that trips people up: every option goes on a single line inside OptionSettings=(Key=Value,Key=Value,...). Don't split it across lines, don't add blank rows between keys. Pocketpair's parser is unforgiving. On a LOW.MS server you can edit it through Configuration Files in the TCAdmin panel at control.low.ms, which handles the formatting for you.

The WorldOption.sav gotcha. Once a world has been created, Palworld writes a WorldOption.sav into the save folder, and from that point on it silently overrides your PalWorldSettings.ini. You'll edit the .ini, restart, and wonder why nothing changed. Anything touching BaseCampWorkerMaxNum, BaseCampMaxNumInGuild or similar world-scoped keys is affected. The fix is documented in Increasing max pals on your server and it's enabled by default on LOW.MS boxes, but it's worth knowing about before you start tweaking.

For the full key reference, the legacy Server configuration for Palworld KB lists every parameter and its default.

1. Casual PvE — relaxed exploration

Our starting point for groups who want to wander, catch Pals, and build without the game kicking them in the teeth. Longer days, softer survival pressure, no death penalty.

DayTimeSpeedRate=0.500000
NightTimeSpeedRate=1.500000
ExpRate=2.000000
PalCaptureRate=1.500000
PalSpawnNumRate=1.300000
PalEggDefaultHatchingTime=0.300000
PlayerStomachDecreaceRate=0.500000
PlayerStaminaDecreaceRate=0.500000
PlayerAutoHPRegeneRate=2.000000
DeathPenalty=None
BuildObjectDeteriorationDamageRate=0.000000
bIsPvP=False

Double XP and capture rate mean progress feels rewarding without being grindy. Halving hunger and stamina drain lets you actually explore instead of babysitting bars. Structures don't rot, so nobody logs back in to find their base in ruins after a week off. Honestly, this is the preset we recommend to most new server owners — you can always add difficulty later.

2. Hardcore Survival — every decision matters

For groups who want Palworld to bite back. Resources are tighter, damage taken is higher, and dying actually costs you.

DayTimeSpeedRate=1.000000
NightTimeSpeedRate=0.700000
ExpRate=0.700000
PalCaptureRate=0.700000
PalSpawnNumRate=0.800000
PlayerStomachDecreaceRate=1.500000
PlayerStaminaDecreaceRate=1.300000
PlayerDamageRateDefense=1.500000
PalDamageRateDefense=1.500000
PlayerAutoHPRegeneRate=0.500000
DeathPenalty=All
bIsPvP=False

Reduced XP and capture rates make every level feel earned. Note the defense multipliers are greater than 1, which means you take more damage, not less — Palworld's naming is counterintuitive here. DeathPenalty=All drops everything including Pals in your inventory on death, which is the whole point. Nights are longer, so plan your supply runs around daylight.

3. PvP — competitive warfare

A quick heads-up: bIsPvP=True on its own doesn't enable player-vs-player damage. You also need bEnablePlayerToPlayerDamage=True, otherwise you've got a PvP flag with no actual PvP. This is the single biggest trap in the whole config.

ExpRate=2.500000
PalCaptureRate=1.500000
PalSpawnNumRate=1.500000
PlayerDamageRateAttack=1.200000
PalDamageRateAttack=1.200000
BuildObjectDamageRate=1.500000
BuildObjectDeteriorationDamageRate=0.500000
DeathPenalty=ItemAndEquipment
bIsPvP=True
bEnablePlayerToPlayerDamage=True
ServerPlayerMaxNum=32

High XP keeps people in the fight after losses instead of ragequitting. Boosted attack damage makes duels decisive. Raised BuildObjectDamageRate means mega-bases aren't invincible, which keeps raiding viable. ItemAndEquipment is our preferred death penalty for PvP — it stings enough to matter, but losing your entire Pal roster every fight gets old fast.

4. Breeding and base building focus

For players who are here for the automation loop. Fast egg hatches, bigger workforces, no structure decay.

ExpRate=1.500000
PalCaptureRate=1.300000
PalSpawnNumRate=1.500000
PalEggDefaultHatchingTime=0.100000
BaseCampMaxNumInGuild=6
BaseCampWorkerMaxNum=20
BuildObjectDeteriorationDamageRate=0.000000
DeathPenalty=Item
bIsPvP=False

A quick note on PalEggDefaultHatchingTime: it's a multiplier against the base hatch duration, not a literal hours value, and lower is faster. 0.100000 means eggs hatch at roughly a tenth of the normal time, which is what you want for breeding iteration.

BaseCampWorkerMaxNum defaults to 15 and BaseCampMaxNumInGuild defaults to 4 (max 10). We're pushing both up here. Because these are world-scoped, they're exactly the keys that WorldOption.sav loves to override — make sure you've followed the max pals workflow or your bigger bases simply won't take effect. Ask us how we know.

5. Large community server

For 16+ player servers where stability beats spectacle. The goal here is keeping the tick rate healthy, not cranking every multiplier to the moon.

ExpRate=1.500000
PalCaptureRate=1.200000
PalSpawnNumRate=1.000000
PalEggDefaultHatchingTime=0.500000
BaseCampMaxNumInGuild=3
BaseCampWorkerMaxNum=15
BuildObjectDeteriorationDamageRate=0.300000
DeathPenalty=Item
PlayerAutoHPRegeneRate=1.500000
ServerPlayerMaxNum=32
bEnableInvaderEnemy=False
bIsPvP=False

Two things worth calling out. First, ServerPlayerMaxNum caps at 32 — that's a hard engine limit, not a LOW.MS one. Second, bEnableInvaderEnemy=False is the single biggest memory-leak fix the Palworld community has found. Invader raids spawn entities that don't always clean up properly, and on a busy server those leaks compound fast. Unless raids are core to your group's fun, turn them off. Same caveat on BaseCamp* keys applies here — if edits don't stick, that's WorldOption.sav talking.

For bigger communities, make sure automatic cloud backups are on under Cloud Backup in the panel, and pick a region close to your players. LOW.MS runs multi-region infrastructure with DDoS protection on every node, and our 24/7 team is there if things go sideways. You can see current plans on the Palworld hosting page.

Fine-tuning tips

Start soft, tighten later. It's much easier to make a world harder than to take progress away from players who earned it under easier rules. Dramatic mid-campaign nerfs are how communities implode.

Test with a small group. Some multiplier combinations interact in weird ways. A half-hour playtest with two or three people catches most of them.

Keep a copy of your settings outside the server. Paste your OptionSettings line into a note somewhere. If a file ever gets clobbered, you'll thank yourself.

Watch entity-heavy settings. Anything that spawns more Pals, more workers, or more bases hits the server hardest. If tick rate drops, those are the first knobs to wind back.

Admin and related reading

Admin commands are run from in-game chat after authenticating with /AdminPassword <yourpassword>. Our Palworld admin commands reference covers the useful ones. If players are struggling to connect in the first place, the connection timed out troubleshooting guide is usually where we'd start.

Once you've picked a preset, edit your config, restart the server, and hop in to make sure everything took. And if a setting stubbornly refuses to apply — you know the drill by now. Check WorldOption.sav.