How to create and host your own Palworld server

With a dedicated Palworld server, you have full control over the game world, player base and mod­i­fi­ca­tions. As soon as you have the hardware ready, you can install the required server ap­pli­ca­tion via SteamCMD or the Steam client.

What are the re­quire­ments for a Palworld server?

While it’s possible to set up and host a dedicated server for Palworld on your own computer, the server ap­pli­ca­tion is rel­a­tive­ly resource-intensive. Due to the large size of the game world, it’s best to host the server on external hardware. Hosting with a pro­fes­sion­al provider will give you the best gaming per­for­mance as it not only gives you access to high-per­for­mance server resources, but also pro­fes­sion­al support. You’ll also benefit from a fast broadband con­nec­tion, which is much quicker than your internet con­nec­tion at home.

Palworld server re­quire­ments can vary depending on how many players are connected to the server at the same time. The minimum re­quire­ments for a Palworld server are:

• Processor (CPU): minimum 3.8 GHz (dual core)
• Memory (RAM): minimum 6 GB, plus an ad­di­tion­al 2 GB per player
• Hard disk space: 30 GB

In addition to the re­quire­ments above, there are also server operating system re­quire­ments. For a Windows Server 2022, for example, an ad­di­tion­al 1.4 GHz in processor per­for­mance, 2 GB RAM and 36 GB hard disk space (512 MB and 32 GB without graphical user interface) are required.

What options does IONOS offer for hosting a Palworld server?

Various providers offer a range of server hosting options for Palworld. With IONOS, you can choose between three different server types for hosting games with a dedicated server:

• Cloud server: IONOS cloud servers offer the perfect in­tro­duc­tion to hosting. All resources are vir­tu­al­ized and flexibly scalable. Billing is cal­cu­lat­ed to the minute.
• vServer/VPS: IONOS vServers also rely on vir­tu­al­iza­tion (fixed host system). The monthly costs for this server model are fixed, re­gard­less of how much the server is used.
• Dedicated server: When you opt for a dedicated server from IONOS, you receive en­ter­prise-grade hardware without the use of vir­tu­al­iza­tion. Just like with the cloud server option, billing is cal­cu­lat­ed down to the minute.

3 Palworld scenarios and suitable IONOS servers for the job

Unsure which server type and which plan is suitable for your gaming habits? Below we present three possible usage scenarios for your own Palworld server, including the most suitable server plans from IONOS.

How to set up and configure a Palworld server (Windows)

Once you have rented the hardware (or put it together yourself), you can start setting up your Palworld server. The in­struc­tions below are for IONOS customers (vServer, Cloud Server, Dedicated), and the operating system used in the in­struc­tions is Windows Server 2022.

Step 1: Establish remote con­nec­tion to the server

In order to install and set up your Palworld server, you need an active con­nec­tion to the hardware you’re renting from IONOS. The easiest way to remotely connect to Windows Server 2022 is via the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). You can set this up quickly and easily in the IONOS Control Panel:

1. Log in to your IONOS customer account.
2. Click on the Server & Cloud category.
3. Select the correct hardware for the Palworld server.
4. Click on the download link next to where it says Remote Desktop con­nec­tion.
5. Double-click on the down­loaded .rdp file.
6. Log in with your in­di­vid­ual server data (“user” and “initial password”) and confirm the server’s cer­tifi­cate to establish the remote con­nec­tion.

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Step 2: Install SteamCMD

As soon as the con­nec­tion to the hardware has been es­tab­lished, you can start setting up the Palworld server by in­stalling SteamCMD on the system. This command-line client allows you to connect to the public Steam servers and download dedicated server ap­pli­ca­tions.

Click on the following SteamCMD download link and unzip the in­stal­la­tion package into a folder of your choice, such as C:\SteamCmd. Then execute the unzipped file to install the command-line tool.

Step 3: Download the Palworld server

As soon as you execute the file steamcmd.exe, the command-line client will start, and you can connect to the public Steam servers at any time. When it comes to the Palworld dedicated server software, an anonymous login is more than enough. You can log in anony­mous­ly using the following command:

login anonymous

By using app_update together with the Steam App ID for Palworld Dedicated Server (2394010), you can download the server software:

app_update 2394010 validate

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Step 4: Configure the Palworld server

As soon as all program files have been down­loaded, you can start con­fig­ur­ing the Palworld server. You will find the required con­fig­u­ra­tion file with the name PalWorldSettings.ini in the following sub­di­rec­to­ry of your SteamCMD in­stal­la­tion: .\steamapps\common\PalServer\Pal\Saved\Config\WindowsServer. You can use this file to set the dif­fi­cul­ty level or make in­di­vid­ual settings for pa­ra­me­ters such as the spawn rate of Pals or the amount of ex­pe­ri­ence points received.

The most important pa­ra­me­ters include the following:

ServerPlayerMaxNum=32: The default maximum player count is set to 32. You can adjust this number to limit the number of players that can play on the server. ServerName="Default Palworld Server": Assign a unique name to your Palworld server, otherwise it will be shown as “Default Palworld Server”. ServerDescription="": Providing a brief de­scrip­tion gives users an idea of the gaming ex­pe­ri­ence they can expect on your server. AdminPassword="": Assign a unique password for the admin login on your server. ServerPassword="": Using a server password is rec­om­mend­ed for private gaming sessions. That way, only users who have this password can log in.

Make sure to always separate the in­di­vid­ual pa­ra­me­ters with a comma and then enclose them together in paren­the­ses. Before spec­i­fy­ing the option settings, there are in­struc­tions that state that what follows is a script with server options. Here is a simple con­fig­u­ra­tion example that limits the number of players to 8 and assigns a name to the game server:

[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]
OptionSettings=(ServerPlayerMaxNum=8,ServerName="Palworld Server by IONOS")

Step 5: Open the ports

In order for players to be able to access your Palworld server, you need to open certain ports in the server firewall. For your Palworld server, these are the port for Steam requests, or more generally for game data traffic (TCP/UDP: 27015) and the server’s public port (TCP/UDP: 8211). With IONOS, you can configure the server firewall in the control panel of your customer account:

1. Log in to your IONOS customer account.
2. Switch to the Server & Cloud menu and select your Palworld server.
3. In the left-side menu, click on Network and Firewall Policies.
4. Now create a rule under Incoming for each of the TCP/UDP ports 8211 and 27015.

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Step 6: Start the server

After con­fig­ur­ing and opening the ports, you can start your Palworld server. To do this, execute the file PalServer.exe in the start folder of the server directory .\steamapps\common\PalServer. A command prompt window will open to let you know that the server has been started.

Step 7: Connect to the newly created Palworld server

You and your fellow players can now connect to the server at any time, create char­ac­ters and hunt Pals. If you cannot find your server in the official list, you can find it by entering the IP address:

1. Launch Palworld.
2. Click on Join Mul­ti­play­er Game.
3. Then go to the Community Servers category.
4. Find your server using the search function. Al­ter­na­tive­ly, type the server’s IP address along with the port :8211 into the input field below and click on Connect.

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After suc­cess­ful­ly es­tab­lish­ing a con­nec­tion, it’s time to create your character. Once your have your character, select one of the starting points and then you and your friends will be ready to embark on an adventure!

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