Invite-code co-op and dedicated servers, step by step.
FAQ
Multiplayer & Servers FAQ
Host co-op or dedicated server, settings generation, operations and migration.
Questions in this guide
Host co-op or a dedicated server with friends?
Few players, short term: host co-op; long term, many players or offline uptime: dedicated.
Host co-op costs nothing to set up, but the world follows the host: nobody plays when the host is offline, and the host's connection is everyone's latency. A dedicated server runs 24/7, allows more players and exposes every world parameter, at the cost of self-hosting or renting. The single test: should this world stay alive when one particular person is away? If yes, go dedicated.
What's the minimal path to upgrade a private server to 1.0?
Back up → stop → upgrade → verify settings → validate then reopen, keeping a rollback point throughout.
Five steps: ① full backup of world files, player files and PalWorldSettings.ini before stopping; ② actually stop the server before touching anything; ③ upgrade the server build; ④ verify settings line by line — especially the Global Palbox export/import toggles, CrossplayPlatforms and rate multipliers that upgrades love to reset; ⑤ walk through it yourself (loads, character, base, Pals all intact) before reopening to players. Keep the backup until stability is confirmed — rollback stays one copy away.
Can I use the generated ini directly?
Treat it as a draft: verify line by line before production, especially the toggles.
The generator outputs a PalWorldSettings.ini draft from your choices. Numeric parameters (rates, caps) copy over safely; what needs human review are the toggles and platform fields — Global Palbox export/import, CrossplayPlatforms, PvP switches — where a wrong value hits every player's assets or connectivity. Dry-run in a test environment before production.
Server memory keeps climbing over long uptimes — now what?
Monitor, back up, rule out mods, then schedule restarts around peak hours.
Triage order: put monitoring on first to see whether growth is a linear leak or tracks player count; A/B against a clean, mod-free server build — server-side mods are the most common leak source; once confirmed as engine-level accumulation, schedule restarts in off-peak windows. The script's hard rule: auto-backup before every restart, with an in-game broadcast beforehand.
How do I carry a world across accounts or drives?
Test loading and character mapping on a copy in isolation before switching for real.
The iron rule: only ever operate on a copy. Duplicate the world folder into an isolated environment (another machine or path) and test-load it, focusing on player-file-to-character mapping — after an account change the player ID changes and old characters may not attach. Only after the copy checks out do you switch production over; the original stays untouched throughout, so failure costs nothing.
Anything to know about hardcore / random modes?
Random-spawn mode drops pre-1.0 placement data; agree on hardcore death rules with the whole group first.
Officially stated: to reflect the 1.0 habitat rebalance, random Pal spawn mode no longer carries placement data from v0.7.3 and earlier — old random worlds will see different spawn distributions by design, not corruption. Hardcore and all multipliers live in world settings: get the whole group's informed consent on hardcore's death penalties (permanent character or Pal loss) before opening, so the first wipe doesn't end the server; the settings generator drafts private-server configs fastest.
Random spawn is a world-settings option decided when the world is created. The official notes add one thing about the mode: turning it on grants all Pal gear from the start, and that perk applies only when starting on a newly created world — worlds carried over from save data of v0.7.3 or earlier fall outside it. That perk is easy to overlook: with random spawn enabled you start with every Pal saddle unlocked instead of crafting them one at a time. It suits returning players starting over — habitats were rebalanced anyway, so hunting Pals from memory no longer works.
Related guides
Backup, install/uninstall and troubleshooting.
Community TOP3 and 24 Mods' author status.
Other guide FAQs
First lesson for returning players: can old saves still be used, should you restart, and how to transfer and back up.
The 1.0 endgame regions and Awakening materials: how to farm Radiant Gems and craft Awakening Crystals.
Mutation odds, the four new cakes, the combo reshuffle and legendaries — the companion Q&A to the breeding calculator.
All 24 rainbow passives split into four sources — wild random, rare individual, mutation-only and pal-exclusive. Identify the source before you start rolling eggs.
1.0's capture bonus change, tower boss rework, cheaper condensation and 10-level work suitability.
Does a second copy of the same buff double it, and do two different effects cancel each other out? This one lays out what the 1.0 data layer actually lets you check.
Chromite, Nightstar Sand and midgame material gaps: a direct answer first, then the mining guide for spots and production lines.
Lag, sanity, sickness, the tech tree and resource activities — quick answers for daily base life.
Real questions from Reddit and Discord, answered from the site's 1.0 data tables: boss walls, stacking rules, oil nodes, schematics.