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.