How to Set Up a 7 Days to Die Dedicated Server: The Complete Guide

Dedicated server, or hosting from the game?

7 Days to Die gives you two ways to share a world. Hosting from the game means one player starts a multiplayer game and friends join that player. It costs nothing, but the world only exists while the host is playing, and the host's PC runs the game and the world at the same time.

A dedicated server is a separate program from The Fun Pimps that runs the world without a game client. Nobody has to keep the game open, crops keep growing, land claims hold, and friends in other time zones can log in whenever they like. A rented server is that same dedicated server, run for you in a datacentre with a control panel on top.

What V3 changed for server owners

7 Days to Die left early access with version 1.0 on 25 July 2024. The Fun Pimps have since shipped numbered updates: 2.0 Storm's Brewing (June 2025) brought crossplay to dedicated servers, and V3.0 Dead Hot Summer went stable on 29 June 2026. At the time of writing the current stable version is V3.3.0 (5 October 2026). These are the changes that matter if you run a server, taken from the V3.0 release notes and the Steam patch notes:

• Sandbox options replace the old difficulty settings. V3.0 added more than 150 sandbox options and a set of official presets. Thirty legacy properties, including GameDifficulty, XPMultiplier, DayNightLength, BloodMoonFrequency, BloodMoonEnemyCount and LootAbundance, were removed from serverconfig.xml. Their job is now done by one SandboxCode property, so an old config or an Alpha 21 guide that sets them changes nothing on V3.
• Old saves need their settings rebuilt. To carry on a V2.6 world on V3, The Fun Pimps say to recreate your old settings in the game's Sandbox Options menu, copy the code it shows and paste it as the SandboxCode value in the new serverconfig.xml.
• Preset codes changed again in V3.1. V3.1.0 Henpocalypse (27 July 2026) split the enemy and animal density and respawn options into day and night values. The patch notes ask you to check custom preset codes, because an invalid code can fall back to default settings.
• Mods made for 2.x need new builds. V3.0 reworked the UI framework, renamed Localization.txt to Localization.csv and moved the web dashboard into the game code, so many older mods fail to load (mods).
• Server and players on the same version. After the V3.1.0 release The Fun Pimps reminded players that joining a dedicated server needs the matching game branch. Update the server after each stable patch and tell your players to do the same.
• Patches keep coming. The Fun Pimps now have a separate team for smaller updates between major releases (3.1, 3.2 and beyond), while work on V4.0 runs in parallel. V3.3.0 (5 October 2026), for example, brought bigger backpacks and an 8 x 6 inventory grid. Expect regular patches, each one on the experimental branch first.

On our 7 Days to Die server hosting you choose the game version in the panel's Mod Manager, so you can move to a new release when your mods are ready, or stay on an older build.

Host it yourself or rent a server: an honest comparison

The dedicated server is free, so running your own is a good way to learn. The outline:

1. Install The Fun Pimps' dedicated server through Steam or SteamCMD (community guides use app 294420 for SteamCMD).
2. Edit serverconfig.xml: server name, password, world, player limit and, since V3.0, a SandboxCode for the gameplay settings. Keep a copy of your edited file, because an update can bring a new serverconfig.xml (V3.0 did).
3. Open the server's ports on your router and firewall so players outside your home can reach it.
4. Start it with the start script that comes with it, and leave it alone while a new world generates.
5. Update it by hand after every patch. The server and every player must run the same game version.

Mind the hardware. The Fun Pimps' own Steam requirements ask for 8 GB of RAM for the game (12 GB recommended) and note that running a dedicated server and the game on the same computer doubles the RAM requirement. Horde night is the real test: dozens of zombies pathfinding through a destructible world at once.

Our view after hosting game servers since 2008: if a few friends play together and you have a spare PC, start at home. Rent one when the world must stay up while you sleep, when console friends join, or when the group and the mod list grow. An 8 to 16 slot vanilla server on a 6 km world runs comfortably on the RAM included with every GTX plan; see our 7 Days to Die server plans for current prices.

Setting up your server in the GTX game panel

7 Days to Die servers on GTX run in our game panel and are set up as soon as you order. This is the order we tell new customers to work in:

1. Log in to the game panel at gamepanel.gtxgaming.co.uk and open your 7 Days to Die server.
2. Stop the server with STOP before you change anything.
3. Open Configuration Files and edit serverconfig.xml with the Config Editor: server name and password, the world under Map Settings, and a preset under Sandbox Settings. Press Save & Exit.
4. Press START and watch the Web Console. The first start of a new world can take up to an hour while the map generates. Don't stop the server during that time, or the map is corrupted and has to generate again. When the console says GameServer.LogOn successful, the server is online.
5. Join it. Your IP and port are under Connection Info in the Connection & Controls box. Find the server in the in-game browser, or give your friends the IP and port to connect directly.

The settings that matter: serverconfig.xml and sandbox presets

Two files run a 7 Days to Die dedicated server. serverconfig.xml holds the settings, and serveradmin.xml in the save folder lists your admins, bans, whitelist and command permissions (admins). Since V3.0 the gameplay settings no longer sit in serverconfig.xml one by one: they come from a sandbox preset or a custom SandboxCode.

Where each setting lives on V3:

• Name, description and password: ServerName, ServerDescription and ServerPassword, which decide how the server shows in the browser and who can get in.
• Listed or hidden: ServerVisibility. 2 lists the server publicly, 0 keeps it out of the browser and friends join by IP.
• Player limit: ServerMaxPlayerCount, 8 at most if console players join (crossplay).
• The world: GameWorld, WorldGenSeed, WorldGenSize and GameName, for Navezgane, a random world (RWG) or a pregen world (worlds).
• Difficulty, XP, loot, day length, Blood Moon frequency and size: the sandbox preset or SandboxCode, moved out of separate serverconfig.xml lines in V3.0.
• Admins, bans and whitelist: serveradmin.xml, where permission level 0 is the highest.

Sandbox presets. The default preset is Adventurer, the same as the old default difficulty. Next to the classic difficulty presets, V3.0 added official presets such as Undead Matinee, Madmole's Mayhem, Legacy Survival, Bite Club and 7 Days Later. In the GTX panel you pick one from the Sandbox Preset dropdown under Sandbox Settings in the Config Editor. For your own mix, build the settings in the game's Sandbox Options menu, copy the code it shows and paste it as a Custom Code. Paste the whole code exactly; to change it, build a new one in the game.

Crossplay: PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox on one server

Crossplay on dedicated servers arrived with 2.0 Storm's Brewing. PC players can join a server whatever its settings; console players only see servers whose settings are compatible with consoles in their region. The Fun Pimps' crossplay server requirements list four values in serverconfig.xml:

The same page, written for 2.x in June 2025, also gives allowed ranges for XP, block damage, Blood Moon enemy counts, air drops and loot. In V3.0 those values moved into the sandbox system and we have not seen an updated list from The Fun Pimps, so if console friends cannot find your server after you change the sandbox settings, go back to an official preset and test again. The server log reports settings that are not compatible with consoles when crossplay is on.

On GTX you set the four values in the Config Editor with the server stopped. To make a console player an admin you need their EOS ID: open the Web Console, ask them to join and copy the number shown after EOS_.

Worlds, seeds and saves

A 7 Days to Die server runs one of three kinds of world, chosen with GameWorld in serverconfig.xml (Game World under Map Settings in the GTX Config Editor):

• Navezgane, the hand-made map. Everyone knows the towns and traders, and the seed field does nothing.
• A random world (RWG) made from WorldGenSeed and WorldGenSize. The same seed and size on the same game version give the same map, but the generator changed in V3.0, so a seed list from Alpha 21 no longer shows you the map you will get.
• A pre-generated world loaded by name. On version 1.0 and later the included ones are called Pregen04k1 to Pregen04k4, and likewise for 6k, 8k and 10k (for example Pregen10k2). Type the name exactly, in both the Pregen/Custom World Name and Game Name fields. Names can change between builds: the File Manager shows the worlds your version includes in Data/Worlds.

Bigger worlds take longer to generate and need more RAM. As a starting point we size our plans for 6 km worlds on Basic, 8 km on Recommended and 10 km on Ultra.

Moving your own world to the server. On Windows a save sits in C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie\Saves\<NAMEOFWORLD> and a random world's map in ...\7DaysToDie\GeneratedWorlds\<NAMEOFWORLD>. Zip each folder, upload it to \Saved\Saves\ and \Saved\GeneratedWorlds\ on the server, extract it, then set the Game Name, World Gen Seed and World Gen Size to match the save exactly. If one is different, the server makes a new world instead of loading yours.

Admins, permissions and moderation

Adding an admin. Stop the server, open serveradmin.xml with the Config Editor under Configuration Files, choose the player's platform and enter their Steam64ID (Steam) or EOS ID (Epic or Xbox) and name, then start the server. Lower numbers mean more power: level 0 is the super admin and can run every command, and an admin can only run commands set to their own level or higher. The permissions come pre-configured, so only change the command levels if you need to.

Running commands without joining. In the panel, open Server Details, choose Web Control Panel and press Execute to get its password, then log in to the Web Control Panel. Its console takes the same commands as the in-game console (F1 on PC). Type help for the full list, or help ban for one command.

The moderation commands you will use most:

• lpi lists every player and their ID. Use it first.
• kick <id> [reason] kicks a player from the game.
• ban add <id> <duration> <unit> [reason] bans a player for minutes up to years, for example ban add 171 10 hours griefing.
• ban remove <id> lifts a ban, and ban list shows every ban with its duration and reason.

Need a co-admin who can restart the server or edit files? Give them a sub-user in the panel instead of your own login. For the cheat side of the console (god mode, teleport, giving items), see the 7 Days to Die cheat commands guide.

Mods, modlets and overhauls

Modding has kept 7 Days to Die alive for over a decade, but there is no Steam Workshop for it: mods live in the server's Mods folder. Upload a mod's folder there with the File Manager or SFTP, restart, and read the log for errors before you add the next one.

• Modlets are small mods that change loot, spawns, recipes or other values. Many run on the server alone, so players join without downloading anything.
• Overhauls such as Darkness Falls, Undead Legacy and Ravenhearst remake large parts of the game. Every player installs the same overhaul in the same version to join.
• Versions decide everything. A mod is built for one game version. Darkness Falls V6, for example, runs on 7 Days to Die 1.4, so a Darkness Falls server runs that version, chosen in the Mod Manager, and so does every player. Check a mod's supported version before you update the server.

Our guide to 7 Days to Die mods on V3 explains what V3.0 broke for mods and which kinds of mod can run with Easy Anti-Cheat on.

Backups, restarts and updates

A 7 Days to Die world is weeks of building, so protect it before you need to. On GTX:

• Manual backup: stop the server, press Backup Server, start it again. Do this before every big change: mods, a wipe or a new version.
• Automatic backups: a Scheduled Backup task under Scheduled Tasks, for example every 12 hours. Each backup briefly stops and restarts the server. Backups are kept for up to six months, and the Backup Manager (with its own password) lets you download one to your PC.
• Restarts with warnings: the Backup and Restart with Messages task warns players at 10, 5, 2 and 1 minute, saves the world, restarts the server and makes a backup. You can change the warning texts in Service Settings.
• Discord: paste a Discord webhook into Service Settings and the server posts its restart, update, start and stop messages to your channel.
• Rolling back: Restore Server puts the server back to a dated backup after a bad mod, a broken update or a griefed base.

Updates. The Fun Pimps put each update on the experimental branch first and then release it as stable. On GTX you change version in the Mod Manager: stop the server, uninstall the installed version, install the one you want, check serverconfig.xml (settings differ between versions) and start it. If you run mods, check they support the new version first.

Performance, RAM and player count

7 Days to Die looks light until horde night: dozens of zombies pathfinding through a fully destructible world is a heavy single-thread load, and big random worlds with long-lived bases push RAM and disk. Our plan presets are a starting point:

• Basic: 8 slots and up to 10 GB of RAM, for small crews on a 6 km world.
• Recommended: 16 slots and up to 12 GB, for modded community servers on an 8 km world.
• Ultra: 30 slots and up to 16 GB, for big communities, 10 km worlds and overhauls like Darkness Falls.
• Custom: 8 to 100 slots with RAM tiers up to 64 GB, for anything the presets don't cover.

As a rule of thumb, an 8 to 16 slot vanilla server on a 6 km world is comfortable on the included RAM; a modded server or an 8 km world should take a RAM upgrade; and a 10 km world running an overhaul benefits from 16 GB or more plus a CPU priority upgrade. Remember that a crossplay server is capped at 8 players whatever slot count you pick.

• Restart regularly. Game servers slowly use more memory the longer they run, which shows up as lag after a day or two. A restart every 4 hours suits busy or heavily modded servers, every 6 hours most others.
• Watch the graphs. Activity and Stats shows players, CPU, disk and memory live and for past days, so you can see whether the lag comes on horde night or builds up over time.
• Upgrade only what you need. Slots, RAM, CPU priority and hardware can each be changed in the Client Area without losing server data.

Troubleshooting a 7 Days to Die server

The problems our support team sees most, and what to check first:

• The server is started but nobody can join. A new world is still generating, which can take up to an hour on first start. Watch the Web Console for GameServer.LogOn successful; you can ignore [GSM] GameSparks Connected messages meanwhile.
• The map is broken after a restart. The server was stopped while the world generated, which corrupts the map. Generate it again and leave it running.
• The server made a new world instead of my save. Game Name, World Gen Seed and World Gen Size must match the save exactly, on the same game version (worlds).
• A pregen world won't load. Type the name exactly, capitals included, in both fields, and check the worlds your version includes in Data/Worlds.
• Console players can't see the server. Check the four crossplay values, no mods, 8 players at most, and sandbox settings consoles accept (crossplay).
• Players can't connect after an update. The server and the players are on different versions or branches. Match them.
• My old difficulty settings are ignored. On V3 they come from the sandbox preset or SandboxCode, not from separate serverconfig.xml lines (settings).
• It won't start after adding a mod. Read the Log Viewer, remove the last mod you added, and restore a backup if the world is affected.
• It lags on horde night. Check RAM and CPU for your world size and mods, and schedule a regular restart (performance).

Still stuck? Our support team runs these servers every day and is on live chat and tickets 24/7.

Playing on your server: game guides

Once the world is running, these guides help your group play it: the Navezgane map, sharing quests with friends and the secrets the developers hid in the game. We check them against the current version, but the game itself always has the last word after a patch. They are in one list: browse the play guides.