The whole 7 Days to Die dedicated server is configured by one file: serverconfig.xml, a flat list of <property> lines. Here's every setting that actually matters: name and password, the three-port gotcha, difficulty, blood moon cadence, zombie speed, loot, and the land-claim durability knob everyone misreads, each in plain English with a sensible value.
serverconfig.xml: every property at the value you pick, no typo'd property name The Fun Pimps quietly renamed two patches ago. (Admin/ban/whitelist entries live in a separate serveradmin.xml the game manages, not here.)Name, password, and which save the server loads. Two of these decide your world, not just a label.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| ServerName | The name shown in the in-game server browser. People find you by typing part of it, so make it searchable. | My Game Host | your name |
| ServerDescription | One-line blurb under the name in the browser. "PvE, no wipes, friendly" fills slots faster than a clever name. | A 7 Days to Die server | your pitch |
| ServerPassword | Leave blank for an open public server; set one to make it private (friends still join via the browser or direct connect). | (empty) | set for private |
| GameName | Picks the save folder, not just a label. Change it on a live server and you boot a different, usually empty, save while the old one sits on disk. | My Game | set once |
| GameWorld | Which map loads: Navezgane (handcrafted), PREGEN01–PREGEN03 (shipped random maps), or RWG (generate fresh from the seed/size below). | Navezgane | Navezgane / RWG |
| WorldGenSeed | Text seed for a random world: same seed + size always makes the same map. Ignored unless GameWorld is RWG. | asdf | any (RWG only) |
| WorldGenSize | Size of a generated RWG world in metres per side; must be a multiple of 2048. Bigger = longer gen + more RAM. RWG only. | 6144 | 8192 (RWG) |
GameName chooses the on-disk save folder: change it and you silently load a fresh map while your real progress sits untouched under the old name. And WorldGenSeed/WorldGenSize only do anything when GameWorld is exactly RWG; on Navezgane or PREGEN they're ignored.Port and browser visibility. The big gotcha: 7DTD uses three consecutive ports, not one.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| ServerPort | Base game port. 7DTD actually uses this port plus the next two (port+1, port+2), so default 26900 opens 26900–26902. Forward all three. | 26900 | 26900 |
| ServerVisibility | Who sees the server: 2 = Public, 1 = Friends only, 0 = Not listed (direct-connect by IP only). | 2 | 2 |
| ServerMaxWorldTransferSpeedKiBs | Caps how fast the server sends world chunks to a joining player, in KiB/s. Higher = faster joins but more upload; engine caps the useful max around 1300. | 512 | 512 |
ServerPort plus the next two (26900–26902 by default). Forward and firewall all three, and leave at least a 3-port gap between servers on one box. Forgetting +1/+2 is a classic reason a freshly set-up server won't connect.How many players fit and who skips the queue. Reserved slots are carved out of the max; admin slots are extra on top.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| ServerMaxPlayerCount | Total concurrent players allowed. Each one costs CPU/RAM and spawns more zombies, so size it to your hardware, not your ambition. | 8 | 8 |
| ServerReservedSlots | Slots held open for trusted players so regulars always get in. Taken out of Max Player Count: 8 max with 2 reserved means the public can fill only 6. | 0 | 0 |
| ServerAdminSlots | Extra slots that open above Max Player Count for admins, so staff can join even when the server is genuinely full. Bonus capacity, not carved out. | 0 | 0 |
The combat dial plus block-damage and XP multipliers: how hard fights are, how fast bases get chewed, and the leveling pace.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| GameDifficulty | Overall combat difficulty, 0: Scavenger (easiest) to 5: Insane. Mostly changes damage dealt/taken, not zombie count. 2: Nomad is the intended baseline. | 2 | 2–3 |
| BlockDamagePlayer | Percent of damage players deal to blocks when mining or demolishing. Raise to speed teardown/mining; lower to make building more deliberate. | 100 | 100 |
| BlockDamageAI | Percent of damage zombies/animals deal to blocks outside blood moons: how fast a wandering horde tears into your base. | 100 | 100 |
| BlockDamageAIBM | Block damage zombies deal during blood moon: the setting that decides whether your horde base survives the night. | 100 | 100 |
| XPMultiplier | Global experience multiplier as a percent. 100 is vanilla pace; 150–200 is the casual-server sweet spot for groups who don't want a 200-hour grind. | 100 | 150 |
GameDifficulty changes how much damage you deal and take. It does not change how many zombies spawn. The real difficulty lever in 7DTD is zombie speed (next section), not this dial. And note XPMultiplier ≠ 100 flags your server "Modded" in the browser.Day length, how much of it is daylight, and the blood moon schedule: the heartbeat of the server.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| DayNightLength | Real-world minutes per full in-game day. Shorter days mean blood moons arrive faster in real time. Any value other than 60 flags the server "Modded". | 60 | 60 |
| DayLightLength | How many of the 24 in-game hours are daylight. Default 18 leaves 6 hours of dangerous night. Lower for longer scarier nights; raise toward 24 for an easier server. | 18 | 18 |
| BloodMoonFrequency | Days between blood moon horde nights. Default 7 (the namesake). Set it to 0 and blood moons never happen at all, which some pure-builder servers want. | 7 | 7 |
| BloodMoonRange | Random wobble around the horde day, in days. 0 = exactly on schedule (day 7, 14, 21…). Set 2 and a "day 7" horde lands anywhere from day 5 to 9. | 0 | 0 |
| BloodMoonWarning | In-game hour on horde day when the red countdown appears. Default 8 (8am). Set it to -1 to disable the warning entirely for surprise hordes. | 8 | 8 |
BloodMoonFrequency 0 = never: no horde nights, ever. For a gentler server raise it to 10–14 rather than disabling it. Combine a non-zero BloodMoonRange with BloodMoonWarning -1 for genuinely unpredictable hordes.Speed is the single biggest difficulty lever in 7DTD: far more than GameDifficulty. Four separate speed dials let you keep days calm and nights terrifying.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| EnemyDifficulty | Zombie toughness baseline. 0: Normal (standard) or 1: Feral (every zombie a tougher, more aggressive feral variant). Feral is a big step up. | 0 | 0 |
| ZombieMove | How fast normal zombies move during the day. 0: Walk (classic shamble) up to 4: Nightmare. Most servers keep days at Walk/Jog. | 0 | 0 |
| ZombieMoveNight | Movement speed for normal zombies at night. Default 3: Sprint is why nights are the dangerous part of vanilla. Drop to Run/Jog for a forgiving server. | 3 | 2–3 |
| ZombieFeralMove | Movement speed for feral zombies specifically, regardless of time. Default 3: Sprint. Ferals are already tougher, so fast keeps them threatening. | 3 | 3 |
| ZombieBMMove | Movement speed for the blood moon horde. Default 3: Sprint. Walk makes it a manageable siege; Nightmare makes it a frantic last stand. | 3 | 3 |
| BloodMoonEnemyCount | Target blood moon zombies alive per player. Default 8. A ceiling, not a guarantee, also bounded by Max Spawned Zombies and scaled by party gamestage. | 8 | 8 |
GameDifficulty for how hard a server feels. Sprinting zombies turn a casual server hardcore overnight. Keep ZombieMove (day) low and put the danger in ZombieMoveNight. And remember BloodMoonEnemyCount is capped by MaxSpawnedZombies (Performance), which wins if the per-player math exceeds it.How much loot the world hands out, how often it refills, and what you drop when you die: the most-felt knobs on any server.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| LootAbundance | Percent multiplier on container loot. 100 is vanilla scarcity; 150–200 is the standard casual boost. Any value other than 100 flags the server "Modded". | 100 | 150 |
| LootRespawnDays | In-game days before an emptied container refills. Default 30 effectively means "loot a POI once and it's dry forever". Many hosts drop this to 7. 0 disables respawning. | 30 | 7 |
| AirDropFrequency | Game-hours between supply air drops. Default 72 (every three in-game days). Lower for a more generous server. Set 0 and air drops stop entirely. | 72 | 48 |
| AirDropMarker | Whether air drops show a map/compass marker. false means you spot the plane and track the crate by eye; true is the casual convenience. | false | true |
| DropOnDeath | What happens to your inventory on death. 1: Everything (vanilla), 0: Nothing (casual favorite), 2/3 middle grounds, 4: Delete all. Anything ≠ 1 flags "Modded". | 1 | 0 |
LootAbundance ≠ 100 and DropOnDeath ≠ 1 both flag your server Modded in the browser (alongside DayNightLength ≠ 60 and XPMultiplier ≠ 100). It's harmless, the server works exactly as configured, but some players filter Modded out of their search.Land claim blocks protect bases. The counter-intuitive part trips up everyone: a durability modifier of 0 means indestructible, not unprotected.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| LandClaimCount | How many land claim blocks each player can place at once. Default 1. Raise it to let players protect a main base plus outposts or a horde base. | 1 | 1–3 |
| LandClaimSize | Width in blocks of the square protected area, centered on the claim block. Default 41 (41×41). Keep it odd so it centers on the keystone. | 41 | 41 |
| LandClaimExpiryTime | Real-world days a player can be offline before their claim stops protecting the base. Default 7. Raise it so weekly players don't return to a raided base. | 7 | 10 |
| LandClaimDecayMode | How protection fades while offline. 0: Slow/Linear, 1: Fast/Exponential, 2: None (full until expiry, then open). 2 is the forgiving choice. | 0 | 0 |
| LandClaimOnlineDurabilityModifier | Block-hardness multiplier inside a claim while the owner is online. Default 4 (4× tougher). 0 = outright indestructible, not unprotected. | 4 | 4 |
| LandClaimOfflineDurabilityModifier | Same hardness multiplier for when the owner is offline. Default 4. 0 = indestructible: an offline base literally cannot be damaged. Great for casual, wrong for PvP raiding. | 4 | 4 |
| LandClaimOfflineDelay | Minutes after logout before the offline durability modifier kicks in. Default 0 (immediate). Set 30 so a rage-quitter doesn't instantly gain offline protection mid-raid. | 0 | 0 |
LandClaimOnlineDurabilityModifier or LandClaimOfflineDurabilityModifier to 0 doesn't remove protection. It makes claimed blocks impossible to damage. It's the single most-misread setting in the file, so be deliberate: 0 is perfect for a casual server, exactly wrong for a PvP raiding economy.The settings that decide whether the server runs smoothly or chugs. The two spawn caps are the big ones; dynamic mesh is gorgeous and expensive.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| MaxSpawnedZombies | Hard cap on total zombies alive across the entire map. Default 64. Overrides Blood Moon Enemy Count: if the per-player horde math exceeds it, this wins. | 64 | 64 |
| MaxSpawnedAnimals | Whole-map cap on living animals (deer, boars, wolves, bears). Default 50. A performance dial: too low and hunting for food/hides gets sparse. | 50 | 50 |
| ServerMaxAllowedViewDistance | Farthest view distance (chunks) the server lets clients request. Default 12 (the max); engine clamps to 6–12. Lowering it eases a busy box. | 12 | 10–12 |
| DynamicMeshEnabled | The system that lets damaged structures collapse and deform realistically. A big part of the modern feel, but CPU- and RAM-hungry. Off is a real perf win on a struggling server. | true | true |
| EACEnabled | EasyAntiCheat. A mutually-exclusive choice: on is required for console/crossplay; off is required for most mods to load. No middle ground. | true | true (vanilla) |
MaxSpawnedZombies is a hard whole-map ceiling that overrides BloodMoonEnemyCount: a big group can hit this cap long before everyone gets their full per-player horde. It's also the biggest performance lever; pushing past ~80 hurts framerate and server tick on most hardware. And EACEnabled is either/or: vanilla/crossplay needs it on, mods need it off.No single "best", but this is a comfortable group baseline for co-op survival. Set a password if you want it private, forward ports 26900–26902, and leave EAC on for a vanilla server. Tune zombie speed to taste; that's the real difficulty dial.
| Setting | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| GameDifficulty | 2 (Nomad) | The intended baseline: meaningful fights without being made of paper. |
| XPMultiplier | 150 | Brisk progression for a group with day jobs, without trivializing it. |
| LootAbundance | 150 | Keeps progression moving; the standard casual-server boost. |
| LootRespawnDays | 7 | Cleared towns become worth revisiting instead of dry forever. |
| DropOnDeath | 0 (Nothing) | Keep your gear on death: forgiving for a mixed-skill co-op group. |
| BloodMoonFrequency | 7 | The classic weekly horde cadence: keep it for the namesake tension. |
| ZombieMoveNight | 2 (Run) | Nights stay dangerous without vanilla's brutal full Sprint. |
| LandClaimExpiryTime | 10 | Weekly players don't return to a decayed, raidable base. |
| PlayerKillingMode | 0 (No killing) | Pure PvE: nobody can hurt anyone. Drop it for a PvP server. |
serverconfig.xml, in the root of your 7 Days to Die Dedicated Server install folder (next to 7DaysToDieServer.exe / the Linux binary). It's a flat list of <property name="…" value="…" /> lines: no sections, no nesting. Edit the values and point your start script at the file with -configfile=serverconfig.xml, or build a complete one with the generator. Back up the stock file first. Admin/ban/whitelist entries are separate: they live in serveradmin.xml.GameDifficulty 2 (Nomad), XPMultiplier 150, LootAbundance 150, LootRespawnDays 7, DropOnDeath 0 (keep your gear), BloodMoonFrequency 7, and PlayerKillingMode 0 for pure PvE. The real difficulty dial is zombie speed: keep days at Walk and set ZombieMoveNight to Run for dangerous-but-fair nights. The generator has a PvE Co-op preset that sets most of this for you.BloodMoonFrequency sets the in-game days between horde nights: default 7, the game's namesake. Raise it to 10–14 for more build time between hordes. Set it to 0 and blood moons never happen at all, which some pure-builder servers prefer. BloodMoonRange adds random wobble so hordes don't land on a perfectly predictable day, and BloodMoonWarning sets the hour the red countdown appears (-1 removes it). Note the horde size you set with BloodMoonEnemyCount is a per-player target, still capped by MaxSpawnedZombies.LandClaimOnlineDurabilityModifier and LandClaimOfflineDurabilityModifier multiply how tough claimed blocks are; default 4 means 4× normal hardness. Setting either to 0 does not remove protection: it makes claimed blocks completely indestructible. That's perfect for a casual server where you never want offline bases touched, and exactly wrong for a PvP server with a raiding economy. If you want claims raidable, use a low positive number like 1–2, not 0.DayNightLength ≠ 60, LootAbundance ≠ 100, XPMultiplier ≠ 100, DropOnDeath ≠ 1, and creative mode on. The tag is harmless, your server works exactly as configured, but some players filter Modded servers out of their search, so it's worth knowing why a vanilla-feeling server might show up tagged.ServerPort: the port itself plus the next two (26900–26902 by default). Forward and firewall all three; forgetting the +1/+2 ports leaves a server that looks up but won't connect. The other gotcha is EACEnabled: it must be on for console and crossplay players to join, and off for most mods to load. You can't have modded crossplay; decide which server you're running and set it accordingly.