Palworld dedicated server: from installation to anti-cheat

To run a stable Palworld server for 32 players, you need a VPS or dedicated server with at least 16 GB of RAM (32 GB recommended due to progressive memory leaks), 4 CPU cores with high single-threaded performance (3.5 GHz+), and an NVMe drive of 40 GB or more, ensuring no lag during active base building and automation.

System requirements for a Palworld server

When choosing hardware for a Palworld server, it is necessary to consider the specifics of the Unreal Engine 5, on which the game is built. Unlike many other survival games, Palworld consumes RAM extremely aggressively. This is because the server must constantly keep the state of hundreds of "Pals," their work processes at bases, and the state of the open world in memory. Even if players are at different ends of the map, the RAM load grows exponentially.

Why RAM is the top priority?

The minimum threshold of 8 GB RAM is only suitable for 2-4 friends playing in cooperative mode. For a public community or an active clan, a Palworld VPS should have at least 16 GB. However, it is worth remembering the "memory leak" issue, which has not yet been fully resolved by the developers at Pocketpair. After 12-24 hours of continuous operation, the server may start consuming 4-6 GB more than at startup. If physical memory runs out, the process will be killed by the system (OOM Killer) or the server will start using Swap on the disk, leading to unbearable delays (rubberbanding).

CPU and disk subsystem requirements

Core frequency is more important than the number of cores. A Palworld dedicated server does not parallelize main game calculations well, so two powerful cores at 4 GHz will perform better than eight cores at 2 GHz. An NVMe SSD is a mandatory requirement. Read/write speed directly affects player loading times and the absence of freezes during world saves, which occur every few minutes. You can compare requirements with other popular projects in our article about Minecraft Java server on VPS, where resource distribution works differently.

Parameter	Minimum (2-4 players)	Recommended (16 players)	Pro (32+ players)
Processor (vCPU)	2 cores (3.0+ GHz)	4 cores (3.5+ GHz)	6-8 cores (High-freq)
RAM	8 GB RAM	16 GB RAM	32 GB RAM
Storage Type	SSD	NVMe SSD	NVMe SSD (RAID 1)
OS	Ubuntu 22.04 / Debian 12	Ubuntu 22.04 / Debian 12	Ubuntu 22.04 / Debian 12
Approx. Price ($)	$10 - $15	$20 - $35	$45 - $80

Choosing a location and Palworld hosting: DACH and RU segments

To ensure minimum ping in the DACH regions (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and the RU segment, the optimal choice would be to host the server in data centers in Frankfurt or Amsterdam. These nodes are the largest traffic exchange points in Europe. If your audience is concentrated exclusively in Eastern Europe and the CIS, you should consider sites in Warsaw or Helsinki.

Impact of network latency on gameplay

Palworld features a combat system that requires precise dodging and shooting. A ping higher than 80-100 ms makes capturing Pals and fighting dungeon bosses uncomfortable. Using Palworld hosting with direct uplinks to major backbone providers allows you to reduce latency to 20-30 ms for players from Central Europe. When choosing a provider, always check network routes, as we advised in the Vultr vs Valebyte review, to avoid unnecessary traffic "hops."

DDoS Protection

Game servers are often targets for script kiddies. Basic protection at L3/L4 levels should be included in the plan price. For Palworld, UDP flood filtering is especially important, as the game uses the UDP protocol for game data exchange on port 8211. A good host should be able to distinguish legitimate game packets from junk traffic without introducing additional delays in request processing.

Step-by-step Palworld dedicated installation on Linux

For Palworld server setup, we recommend using the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS distribution. This will ensure maximum compatibility with Steam libraries and ease of administration. Do not use the root account to run the server — this is a critical vulnerability. Create a separate palworld user.

System preparation and SteamCMD installation

First, update the packages and install the necessary dependencies for running 32-bit Steam libraries on a 64-bit system:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository multiverse
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt update
sudo apt install lib32gcc-s1 lib32stdc++6 libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 steamcmd -y

Downloading game files

After installing SteamCMD, switch to the palworld user and download the server part of the game. Note that Palworld does not require purchasing a second copy of the game for the server — the files are available anonymously.

/usr/games/steamcmd +force_install_dir /home/palworld/server +login anonymous +app_update 2394010 validate +quit

For the server to work correctly on Linux, it is also necessary to create a symbolic link for Steam libraries, otherwise, the server may throw an error at startup:

mkdir -p ~/.steam/sdk64/
cp /home/palworld/server/linux64/steamclient.so ~/.steam/sdk64/

Fine-tuning Palworld server setup via configuration files

The main configuration of the Palworld dedicated server is located in the PalWorldSettings.ini file. By default, this file is empty, and the server uses standard values. To change the settings, you need to copy the template from the game files to the settings folder.

Editing PalWorldSettings.ini

File path: /home/palworld/server/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini. Key parameters to change immediately:

• ServerName: Your server's name in the list.
• AdminPassword: Password for access to in-game commands.
• ServerPassword: Password to enter the server (if private access is needed).
• PublicPort: Default is 8211.
• DeathPenalty: What a player loses upon death (None, Item, Gold, All).

Setting the difficulty in Palworld is very similar to working with other survival games. If you have previously handled administration, for example, setting up a Rust server on VPS, the logic of resource and damage multipliers will be familiar to you. Increasing PalSpawnNumRate will make the world more alive but will significantly increase the CPU load.

Performance parameters in the config

To optimize a Palworld VPS, it is recommended to pay attention to the bEnableInvaderEnemy (base raids) and BuildObjectMaxNum parameters. If many people play on the server, limiting the number of buildings per player will help avoid critical FPS drops for clients when near massive bases. It is also worth setting bEnableNonLoginPenalty to false if you do not want to punish players for being offline during the early stages of server development.

Solving performance issues and Palworld VPS optimization

Even on the most powerful hardware, a Palworld server can start to "lag" after a few days of operation. The main reason is the accumulation of garbage in RAM and cache clogging. There are several proven methods for maintaining a high TPS (Ticks Per Second) for the server.

Combating Memory Leaks

The most effective way to combat leaks is an automatic server restart on a schedule. We recommend performing a restart every 6-12 hours. For this, it is best to use systemd. Create a unit file /etc/systemd/system/palworld.service:

[Unit]
Description=Palworld Dedicated Server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=palworld
WorkingDirectory=/home/palworld/server
ExecStart=/home/palworld/server/PalServer.sh -useperfthreads -NoAsyncLoadingThread -UseMultithreadForDS
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

The flags -useperfthreads and -UseMultithreadForDS force the server to use multithreading more efficiently, which is critical for Palworld dedicated instances on multi-core processors.

Linux network stack optimization

To reduce latency and handle a large number of UDP packets, add the following lines to /etc/sysctl.conf:

• net.core.rmem_max = 16777216
• net.core.wmem_max = 16777216
• net.ipv4.udp_rmem_min = 16384
• net.ipv4.udp_wmem_min = 16384

This will expand the network card buffers, preventing packet drops during sudden spikes in online players.

Security and anti-cheat for your game world

One of the main problems with a Palworld server is the almost complete lack of built-in anti-cheat in current versions. Cheaters can spawn items, kill players from a distance, and destroy buildings. The solution to this problem lies on the shoulders of the administrator and third-party tools.

Using PalGuard and Community tools

PalGuard is a server extension that adds player verification functionality, action logging, and basic protection against popular exploits. It allows you to:

1. Block modified packets that spawn invalid amounts of resources.
2. Set limits on player movement speed (SpeedHack protection).
3. Maintain a detailed log of chat and administrator actions.

Additionally, it is recommended to close all ports except the game port (8211 UDP) and SSH using ufw. This is a standard security practice we described in the guide on migrating from Hetzner to Valebyte.

Whitelists

For private communities, the best protection is a Whitelist. Palworld does not yet have built-in native support for whitelists via config, so administrators often use RCON scripts or Discord bots that check a player's SteamID upon connection and kick those not in the database. This is the only 100% reliable way to protect the server from griefers at the moment.

Backups and game server updates

Regular backups will save your Palworld dedicated server in case of database corruption (which sometimes happens after game updates) or a successful cheater attack. The save folder is located at Pal/Saved/SaveGames.

Script for automatic backups

Create a simple bash script and add it to crontab to make a backup every hour:

#!/bin/bash
SAVE_DIR="/home/palworld/server/Pal/Saved/SaveGames"
BACKUP_DIR="/home/palworld/backups"
TIMESTAMP=$(date +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")
tar -czf $BACKUP_DIR/palworld_backup_$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz $SAVE_DIR

Keep backups for at least the last 7 days. If you plan to move or scale, the data transfer procedure is identical to that used when moving from Reg.ru or Beget: archiving, transferring via scp/rsync, and deploying at the new location while preserving access rights.

Updating the server

Developers release patches frequently. To update the Palworld server setup, simply run the SteamCMD installation command again. It will check the version and download only the changed files:

/usr/games/steamcmd +force_install_dir /home/palworld/server +login anonymous +app_update 2394010 +quit

Always make a backup before updating! After an update, you may sometimes need to update the symbolic links to Steam libraries if they were changed in the new version.

Conclusion

For a comfortable Palworld experience, choose a VPS with 16-32 GB of RAM and a high processor frequency in locations with minimum ping to your players. Be sure to set up automatic restarts via systemd to clear memory and use third-party anti-cheat solutions like PalGuard to protect a public server.