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Guides / Palworld / Game and server settings

Palworld hardcore mode on a dedicated server

Turn on Palworld hardcore mode: a player who dies cannot return as that character. Set Hardcore, New character after a hardcore death and Pals lost. Next start.

Updated , checked on Palworld v1.0.5.102999

Hardcore mode is the setting bHardcore. In the panel it is Hardcore. When it is On, a player who dies cannot come back as that character. It is Off by default. Tell your players before you switch it on, because a death can end a character for good. The change applies at the next start.

The three settings

All three are in the Death and PvP group of Game settings in the Config Editor. All three are Off by default.

PanelKeyPocketpair’s words
HardcorebHardcore“Enable Hardcore. You will not be able to respawn on death.”
New character after a hardcore deathbCharacterRecreateInHardcore“Whether you may recreate your character upon death in Hardcore mode.”
Pals lost on deathbPalLost“Permanently lose Pals on death.”

The panel’s own help texts say:

  • Hardcore: “A player who dies cannot come back as that character.”
  • New character after a hardcore death: “On a hardcore server, a player who died can make a new character.”
  • Pals lost on death: “Pals are lost for good on death, in Pocketpair’s words.”

Not checked on 1.0.5 as of 4 November 2026: whether Pals lost on death means a Pal that falls in battle, or the Pals of a player who dies.

Choose how hard it is

  • Hardcore On, New character after a hardcore death Off. A death is the end. This is the strictest.
  • Hardcore On, New character after a hardcore death On. A player who dies can start again with a new character.
  • Pals lost on death is a separate setting. You can turn it on with or without Hardcore.

It is not documented how an existing character is treated when you switch Hardcore On on a world players already use. Not checked on 1.0.5 as of 4 November 2026. Consider a new world, and make a backup first. See backups.

Turn it on in the panel

  1. Tell your players.
  2. Open the Config Editor page.
  3. Choose the source Game settings.
  4. In Death and PvP, switch Hardcore (1) On. Switch New character after a hardcore death (2) and Pals lost on death (3) as you chose above.
  5. Choose Save.
Config Editor, Game settings, Death and PvP group with the Hardcore, New character and Pals lost rows
  1. Hardcore
  2. New character after a hardcore death
  3. Pals lost on death

If the server is running, the panel says “Saved, waiting for the next restart: (names).” The change waits. Choose Restart now to apply it at once. If it is stopped, it is written at once and used from the next start.

What players drop

Hardcore does not set what is dropped when a player dies. That is What players drop when they die. See death penalty.

By hand

The settings are in Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini. The file has one OptionSettings=(...) line. Inside that line, change these pairs and keep the commas between them:

bHardcore=True,bCharacterRecreateInHardcore=False

Stop the server first: the game writes the file again when it stops. With server mods on, this file is in another folder under Pal/Saved/Config. Open Config in Files and use the folder that holds it. The Config Editor page finds it for you, and Edit the whole file as text there is safer than editing in Files.

If it does not work

  • Nothing changed. The server has not restarted since you saved.
  • The world has its own settings. A WorldOption.sav file in the world ignores these if that file holds them. See WorldOption.sav.

More about the game: Palworld servers.

Sources: docs.palworldgame.com: Configuration

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