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The best starting point for most Palworld dedicated servers is a balanced profile: keep damage multipliers at 1.0, set DeathPenalty=Item, leave raids enabled for an active survival loop, and change XP, capture, and gathering rates only when your group has a specific time budget. There is no universal difficulty slider; challenge is assembled from individual options in PalWorldSettings.ini.
Use the presets below as starting points, not immutable standards. Community guides disagree about the Difficulty key, the default death penalty, and the direction of at least one damage multiplier. Confirm the defaults in the file shipped with your server build, test one change at a time, and restart after every edit.
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How Palworld server difficulty actually works
A dedicated server does not offer one reliable “easy,” “normal,” or “hard” switch. Survival pressure comes from several independent values: how much damage players and Pals deal or receive, how quickly the world gives experience and resources, what is lost on death, whether bases are attacked, and whether hardcore rules are active.
Those options are read from the server’s PalWorldSettings.ini at startup. For a Linux dedicated server, the active file is:
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/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.iniDo not edit DefaultPalWorldSettings.ini at the server root and expect the change to apply; it is not the live configuration file used for these settings. Hosting panels generally implement the same sequence: stop the server, edit the game settings, save, and start it again.
Because values and defaults can change between Palworld builds, treat every number in a community preset as a starting point. Keep a copy of the original file so you can compare your build’s actual defaults and roll back safely.
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1. Record the current state
- Tell connected players that the server will be stopped. A clean shutdown prevents recent progress from being lost.
- Back up
PalWorldSettings.iniand, if your host permits it, the save directory. Name the copy with the date and current game version. - Write down the existing values you intend to change. This makes it possible to revert one setting without overwriting unrelated changes.
2. Stop the server completely
Do not edit while the process is still running. A running instance can overwrite your changes when it shuts down, and the server will not reread the file until its next start.
3. Preserve the file’s syntax
Palworld settings are normally stored as comma-separated key/value pairs inside the options line. Keep the existing spelling, commas, quotation marks, and Boolean format. Use the names already present in your file instead of adding a second copy of the same key.
4. Restart and verify
Start the server after saving, connect with an administrator account, and test the behavior that changed. If the result is unchanged, stop the server and inspect the path, key spelling, and whether the host’s control panel regenerated the file.
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Settings that have the biggest effect on challenge
DeathPenalty: decide what a mistake costs
DeathPenalty changes the consequences of dying more dramatically than most progression settings. Community guides commonly list these values:
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| Value | Reported consequence | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
None |
No inventory loss on death. | Relaxed or time-limited group servers. |
Item |
Items are lost; equipment is kept. | Balanced survival with a recoverable setback. |
ItemAndEquipment |
Items and equipped gear are lost. | Groups that want recovery runs to matter. |
All |
Items, equipment, and Pals are lost. | Hardcore rules only, after every player agrees. |
Two community references disagree about the default: one reports All on many dedicated servers, while another reports Item for version 1.0. That conflict is why you should read the value in your own file rather than assume a default from an older guide.
PlayerDamageRateDefense: incoming damage
The reported default is 1.0. Most summaries interpret a higher value as more damage taken by players, making the game harder; a separate guide describes values below 1.0 as more punishing, which is inconsistent with the other references. The parameter name is easy to misread, so test it with a controlled encounter before committing to a public server.
For a conservative baseline, leave it at 1.0. To increase danger, try 1.5 and check the result. A community hardcore combination uses 1.5 or higher, but that recommendation has low confidence and should be validated on your build.
PlayerDamageRateAttack: outgoing player damage
This multiplier controls how hard players hit. Lowering it lengthens fights and makes equipment, positioning, and healing more important; raising it speeds progression and can offset a severe incoming-damage setting. One published casual table uses 1.5 for player attack damage, while its hard profile uses 4.0 for player defense (incoming damage). Those values are not universal defaults and should not be copied as a matched pair without testing.
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Experience, capture, and gathering rates
ExpRate, PalCaptureRate, and the gathering multiplier alter how quickly a group reaches new technology and replaces losses. They change the time commitment more than the moment-to-moment combat skill check.
- A community casual table lists
ExpRate=1.5andPalCaptureRate=2.0. - A friends-server recommendation uses
ExpRate=2.0,PalCaptureRate=1.5, and a gathering rate of2.0. - Keep these rates at your build’s defaults when you want the intended progression pace, then adjust only the bottleneck your group identifies.
High rates can undermine a hard death penalty: if a replacement Pal, level, or tool is earned almost immediately, losing it has little strategic weight. Conversely, a modest increase in capture or gathering can make a demanding combat profile practical for a group that plays only a few hours a week.
Raids and base pressure
bEnableInvaderEnemy controls whether invading enemies can attack bases. Turning it off removes a recurring source of pressure and is commonly recommended for casual play. Keeping it on gives builders a reason to fortify, maintain defenses, and return to the server regularly.
Raids are a separate decision from combat multipliers. You can keep player damage at 1.0 while enabling raids, or make combat severe while disabling invasions for a group that wants dangerous exploration but protected construction.
Hardcore flags and Pal loss
Community hardcore recipes combine DeathPenalty=All, bHardcore=True, and PlayerDamageRateDefense of 1.5 or higher. Some also enable bPalLost. The available summaries provide limited confirmation for this combination, so treat it as an experimental ruleset: test on a copy of the world, explain the permanent-loss implications to every player, and confirm that each key is accepted by your server version.
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Other values with uncertain or indirect effects
- A summary claims that setting structure damage to
0makes structures effectively invulnerable. That behavior is not independently verified here; test it on a disposable structure before using it on a shared world. - Dropped-item settings are reported to control how many items remain in the world. Higher values keep more items present; lower values reduce clutter and may help performance. The exact key and effect can vary by build, so verify in your file.
BaseCampWorkerMaxNumhas been reported not to take effect when changed in the INI. Do not use it as a difficulty control unless an in-game test proves that your build honors it.
Community starting presets
The following profiles translate the reported community values into practical starting points. They are not official Pocketpair presets, and cells marked as a recommendation describe intent rather than a guaranteed result.
| Profile | Damage and survival | Progression | Raids and special rules | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relaxed | Keep damage near 1.0; DeathPenalty=None or Item. |
Use modest boosts if the group has limited play time. | Set bEnableInvaderEnemy=False if bases should be safe. |
New players, builders, or short weekly sessions. |
| Casual community profile | PlayerDamageRateAttack=1.5; PlayerDamageRateDefense=0.7 in one published table. |
ExpRate=1.5; PalCaptureRate=2.0. |
Choose None or Item for death loss. |
Faster progress without removing combat. |
| Friends server | Keep damage at 1.0 unless testing shows the group needs a change; use no-drop death rules if recovery runs are unwanted. | ExpRate=2.0; PalCaptureRate=1.5; gathering rate 2.0. |
Disable raids for a casual schedule. | Small groups sharing a world after work or school. |
| Balanced | All damage rates at 1.0; DeathPenalty=Item. |
Leave XP, capture, and gathering at your build’s defaults. | Enable raids if base defense is part of the desired loop. | Players who want a clear baseline before tuning. |
| Hard | Increase incoming damage cautiously; one community table uses PlayerDamageRateDefense=4.0. |
Keep progression near default so danger is not erased by rapid replacement. | Keep raids enabled. | Experienced players who want costly mistakes. |
| Hardcore | PlayerDamageRateDefense at 1.5 or higher; DeathPenalty=All. |
Use default or deliberately slow rates. | bHardcore=True; optionally bPalLost=True after testing. |
Groups explicitly consenting to severe or permanent loss. |
The casual row contains a notable ambiguity: the value 0.7 for player defense comes from a community table whose interpretation conflicts with another guide. Treat it as an unverified preset value, not proof that lower always means harder.
How to make a server harder without making it tedious
- Start with one axis. Set the death penalty first, because it defines the cost of failure. Leave rates and damage at 1.0 until the group has played a session.
- Adjust incoming damage in small steps. Move from 1.0 to 1.25 or 1.5, then test ordinary wildlife, a dungeon, and a boss-level encounter. Large jumps can turn a survivable hit into an instant wipe.
- Keep outgoing damage independent. If fights are too long but incoming hits feel right, raise player attack damage slightly instead of reducing enemy danger through a broad progression boost.
- Add raids deliberately. Enable
bEnableInvaderEnemyonly after players understand base alarms, repair costs, and defensive layouts. - Protect the economy from accidental difficulty. If you raise death consequences, do not simultaneously multiply XP, capture, and gathering unless the goal is a fast-reset server.
- Document the rules. Put the active values in your server welcome message so new players know whether items, equipment, or Pals can be lost.
How to make a server easier while keeping meaningful survival
- Change
DeathPenaltyfromAlltoItemAndEquipment,Item, orNonebefore changing combat. - Increase capture or gathering modestly when replacement work, rather than combat, is frustrating the group.
- Disable
bEnableInvaderEnemyif unattended bases are causing losses that players cannot reasonably prevent. - Keep incoming damage at 1.0 while giving players a small attack multiplier so encounters remain dangerous but shorter.
- Do not rely on
BaseCampWorkerMaxNumas an accessibility fix until your build demonstrates that the key works.
Troubleshooting settings that appear not to work
The server ignores every change
Confirm that the server was stopped before editing, that you changed /Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini, and that the process was restarted afterward. A panel may expose a separate “game settings” editor and regenerate the file on startup; use one control path consistently.
One key has no visible effect
Check capitalization and spelling against the existing options line, remove duplicate copies of the key, and test in a fresh or disposable area. Some values are version-sensitive, and at least one reported setting, BaseCampWorkerMaxNum, may not apply from the INI at all.
The damage direction seems backwards
Because published explanations conflict for PlayerDamageRateDefense, perform a controlled test: record health lost from the same enemy attack at 0.7, 1.0, and 1.5, restoring the original value between tests. Keep the value that produces the intended result on your build and note it in the server rules.
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The difficulty preset overrides individual values
Sources disagree on the Difficulty key. One says it has no effect on dedicated servers; another describes it as a preset that can override individual multipliers and recommends Difficulty=None when setting multipliers manually. If your server exposes this key, set it explicitly to the option your build documents, then verify each individual multiplier after restart. Do not assume that changing a preset leaves custom values untouched.
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Reduce the dropped-item retention value if your build provides one, clean up abandoned loot, and observe server performance over a normal play session. More persistent dropped items are reported to increase world clutter; lower retention can reduce that burden, but the exact effect is build-dependent.
Maintenance and operational considerations
Difficulty is only enjoyable when the server remains stable. One hosting guide recommends restarting about every 24 hours to flush a reported memory leak. That is an operational suggestion, not a gameplay setting; schedule it during a quiet period, announce the window, and never treat it as a substitute for diagnosing crashes or save problems.
Keep dated backups of both the configuration and save data before major ruleset changes. When updating Palworld, compare the new default file with your backup because keys, defaults, and supported values can change. Re-test death behavior, damage direction, raids, and any hardcore flag after an update rather than assuming the previous interpretation still applies.
A practical recommendation
For a new shared server, begin with the balanced profile: damage multipliers at 1.0, DeathPenalty=Item, default progression rates, and raids enabled only if the group wants base-defense obligations. After one or two sessions, change one variable at a time. Use None and modest rate increases for a relaxed community, or move toward DeathPenalty=All, higher incoming damage, and bHardcore=True only when every player understands the recovery and permanence involved.
That incremental approach is safer than copying a “hard” preset wholesale because the community values are not consistent, the live defaults vary by server version, and some INI keys may be ignored. The server’s own file and a controlled in-game test are the final authority.
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