The Conan Exiles server settings admins actually change — harvest and XP rates, survival, combat, the Purge, and the PvP / PvE / PvE-Conflict switches — each explained in plain English with a sensible recommended value and the exact key. Including the one that trips up every new admin: getting max players above 40.
ServerSettings.ini, the Engine.ini snippet, and a launch script — with the correct key casing and the Max Players fix built in.
Conan spreads its server config across three places. Most of what you'll touch is in ServerSettings.ini — but the single most-Googled Conan admin problem lives in Engine.ini.
Almost everything: rates, survival, combat, PvP toggles, the Purge, decay, clan size, community type. This is the file you'll spend 90% of your time in.
The one critical override: ServerMaxPlayers. The ServerSettings.ini cap silently stops at 40 — to go higher, it must be set here.
Boot-time flags — the game port (7777), query port (27015), and which map. Lives next to ConanSandboxServer.exe.
ServerSettings.ini does nothing — Conan silently caps it at 40. The cap only moves when ServerMaxPlayers is set in Engine.ini under [/Script/Engine.GameSession]. The generator writes that snippet automatically the moment you set Max Players above 40.
The rates everyone changes first. All multipliers on the vanilla rate; 1.0 is official. Watch the two that run backwards — they're time/cost multipliers, so lower = faster/cheaper.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| HarvestAmountMultiplier | Resources gathered per hit. The headline harvest rate. | 1.0 | 2–3 |
| PlayerXPRateMultiplier | Global XP gain (there are also per-source XP multipliers for harvest/kill/craft/time). | 1.0 | 2 |
| ItemConvertionMultiplier | Crafting time — and yes, "Convertion" is a real Funcom typo you must keep. Lower = faster crafting. | 1.0 | 0.5 |
| CraftingCostMultiplier | Resource cost to craft items. Lower = cheaper recipes. | 1.0 | 0.8 |
| ThrallConversionMultiplier | Time to break a thrall on the Wheel of Pain. Lower = faster thralls. | 1.0 | 0.3–0.5 |
| ResourceRespawnSpeedMultiplier | How fast harvested nodes regrow. Higher = faster respawn. | 1.0 | 1–2 |
| ItemSpoilRateScale | How fast food/perishables spoil. 0 = nothing spoils. | 1.0 | 0.5–1.0 |
ItemConvertionMultiplier in Conan's ini. If you "correct" it to Conversion, the game ignores it. Keep the typo — it's intentional on our side because it has to be.
The grind-comfort knobs. Active = drain while moving/fighting; idle = drain while standing still. Lower values = gentler survival; most boosted servers soften these.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| PlayerActiveThirstMultiplier | Thirst drain while active. Lower = drink less often. | 1.0 | 0.5–1.0 |
| PlayerActiveHungerMultiplier | Hunger drain while active. Lower = eat less often. | 1.0 | 0.5–1.0 |
| PlayerIdleThirstMultiplier | Thirst drain while idle/AFK. | 1.0 | 0.5 |
| PlayerIdleHungerMultiplier | Hunger drain while idle/AFK. | 1.0 | 0.5 |
| StaminaCostMultiplier | Stamina drain from sprinting/attacking. Lower = more endurance. | 1.0 | 0.5–1.0 |
| PlayerCorruptionGainMultiplier | How fast corruption builds. 0 turns corruption off entirely. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
Damage scaling for players, NPCs and thralls, plus gear durability. 1.0 is vanilla. The "taken" multipliers scale damage received — higher means you take more.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| PlayerDamageMultiplier | Damage players deal. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| PlayerDamageTakenMultiplier | Damage players take (higher = squishier players). | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| NPCDamageMultiplier | Damage NPCs/creatures deal. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| ThrallDamageToPlayersMultiplier | Damage your thralls/pets deal to players (PvP balance lever). | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| DurabilityMultiplier | How fast gear wears out. Lower = gear lasts longer; 0 = no durability loss. | 1.0 | 0.5–1.0 |
Conan ships three modes, and they're all driven by a couple of toggles. Get these right and you've defined what kind of server you're running.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| PVPEnabled | Master PvP switch. Off = PvE (no player damage). On = open PvP. | Off | choose |
| RestrictPVPTime | Limits PvP to set time windows — turn this on (with PVPEnabled) for PvE-Conflict. | Off | PvE-C: On |
| CanDamagePlayerOwnedStructures | On = bases are raidable. Off = "fight but no raiding" hybrid. Independent of the PvP switch. | On | choose |
| RestrictPVPBuildingDamageTime | Separate schedule for raiding — fight 24/7 but bases only raidable in a set window. | Off | raid-win |
| clanMaxSize | Members per clan. 1 disables clans. Note the lowercase key. | 10 | 6 PvP |
PVPEnabled off. PvP = PVPEnabled on (24/7). PvE-Conflict = PVPEnabled on plus RestrictPVPTime on, then set the weekday/weekend windows (times are 24-hour HHMM — 1800 = 6pm). For "raid only on weekends," leave PvP on all week but restrict building damage with RestrictPVPBuildingDamageTime.
Conan's most-tweaked event: a wave of NPCs that attacks your base when your clan's "purge meter" fills (from killing, gathering, crafting, building). Vanilla settings hit medium clans hard, so most community servers soften it.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| EnablePurge | Master toggle for the Purge event. | On | On |
| PurgeLevel | Difficulty: 0 disables, 1 easiest, 6 hardest. | 4 | 2–3 casual |
| ClanPurgeTrigger | Meter value that makes a clan purge-eligible. Higher = purges happen less often. | 35000 | 50000+ |
| PurgePreparationTime | Seconds between the warning and the wave. Raise it so players can defend. | 1800 | 1800–3600 |
| MinPurgeOnlinePlayers | Players online before a purge can fire. 0 allows offline purges. | 0 | 1+ |
PurgeLevel to 2–3, raise ClanPurgeTrigger so they're rarer, extend PurgePreparationTime so people can log on and defend, and set MinPurgeOnlinePlayers to 1 so an offline player doesn't lose everything to a purge they never saw. Avatars (the god-summons) are in this section too — many PvP servers set AvatarsDisabled on, since one summon can flatten a base in seconds.
Conan has three separate "your stuff disappears" systems — keep them straight or you'll wipe players by accident.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| BuildingDecayTimeMultiplier | Active decay speed. Higher = buildings last longer. | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| MaxBuildingDecayTime | Hard cap (seconds) on how long a structure can go without refresh. Default 604800 = 7 days. | 604800 | 604800+ |
| ThrallDecayTime | How long placed thralls last unattended. Default 864000 = 10 days. | 864000 | 864000+ |
| LandClaimRadiusMultiplier | How much land a foundation claims (blocks others building nearby). Lower = tighter claims. | 1.0 | 0.5–1.0 |
| BuildingDamageMultiplier | Damage dealt to structures (PvP raiding). | 1.0 | 1.0 |
BuildingDecayTimeMultiplier) is wear from neglect — higher = lasts longer. Abandonment (the separate DisableBuildingAbandonment flag) is "this clan hasn't logged in for N days, wipe them." Thrall decay (DisableThrallDecay + ThrallDecayTime) is its own clock. Casual servers usually disable abandonment and thrall decay so players can take a vacation without losing their tower or their named T4 fighter.
No universal "best" — it depends on the server you want. These are sensible starting points; load them, play a week, adjust. Every value maps to a control in the generator.
| Setting | Casual PvE | PvE-Conflict | Hardcore PvP |
|---|---|---|---|
| PVPEnabled | Off | On | On |
| RestrictPVPTime | n/a | On | Off |
| HarvestAmountMultiplier | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| PlayerXPRateMultiplier | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| ItemConvertionMultiplier | 0.5 | 0.7 | 1.0 |
| ThrallConversionMultiplier | 0.3 | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| BuildingDecayTimeMultiplier | 2.0 | 1.5 | 1.0 |
| PurgeLevel | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| clanMaxSize | 10 | 6 | 6 |
The Conan-specific things that quietly break configs.
ServerMaxPlayers in Engine.ini under [/Script/Engine.GameSession], not in ServerSettings.ini — the ServerSettings cap silently stops at 40. The generator writes the Engine.ini snippet for you when you raise Max Players past 40.
clanMaxSize and serverRegion start lowercase; capital-letter versions silently no-op.
Conversion makes the game ignore the value. Keep the typo.
ServerCommunity drives the in-game browser filter: 1 Purist (true vanilla — don't pick this if you boosted harvest), 2 Relaxed (most boosted community servers), 3 Hard Core, 4 Role Playing, 5 Experimental/modded. Misrepresenting it gets your server reported and demoted in browser sort.
ServerMaxPlayers in Engine.ini under [/Script/Engine.GameSession]. The ServerSettings.ini cap silently maxes at 40 — setting it there alone does nothing, which is the #1 Conan admin mistake. Raise Max Players in the generator and the Engine.ini snippet is built for you.
PVPEnabled off (no player damage). PvP = PVPEnabled on (24/7). PvE-Conflict = PVPEnabled on plus RestrictPVPTime on, with time windows set. CanDamagePlayerOwnedStructures is independent — on for raiding, off for fight-but-no-raid. See PvP, PvE & PvE-Conflict.
PurgeLevel (0 disables, 1 easiest, 6 hardest; default 4). Raise ClanPurgeTrigger so purges fire less often, extend PurgePreparationTime to defend, and set MinPurgeOnlinePlayers to 1+ so offline clans aren't wiped. Casual servers run 2–3.
2–3× harvest, faster crafting (ItemConvertionMultiplier ~0.5), cheaper craft costs, 2× building decay, abandonment disabled, and a lower Purge level. PvP stays closer to vanilla. See the recommended table, then tune in the generator.
ConanSandbox\Saved\Config\WindowsServer\ServerSettings.ini and the matching Engine.ini. Managed hosts (G-Portal, Nitrado) expose them under "Configuration Files." Stop the server before editing — Conan overwrites file edits on shutdown if it's running.
ItemConvertionMultiplier ("Convertion"). Correct the spelling and the game ignores it, so you have to keep it as-is.