Palworld Port Forwarding Guide Palworld has been released in early access! But how do you start a server to play with your
Palworld Dedicated Server Docker set up guide
Palworld has been released in early access! But how do you start a server to play with your friends? This guide will show you how to set up a Palworld Server using Docker and get you on your way to playing Palworld!
Hosting your own server will require you to make changes to your router, this can interfere with normal operation, proceed with caution.
Step 1: Prerequisites
- Make sure you are running Windows 10
- 10GB of storage is available
- Make sure that you have at least 6GB of RAM free to run the server. (6GB is required for servers with up to 4 players, increasing the player count will require up to 10GB of RAM)
- (Preferably) A wired internet connection. Wifi can get unstable and can cause issues with people connecting to your server.
- A Static IP address on your computer (Not sure how to do this? check out this guide!).
Step 2: Installing Docker
The following steps will guide to through the Docker Desktop installation:
- Go to the Docker Desktop download page.
- Download and Run the Docker Desktop Installer.exe
- The Setup installer will guide you through the process
- The installer will have you log out of your desktop to finish the installation.
- After you’ve logged in again press + R to open a run window.
- Type PowerShell and press enter as demonstrated in the image below
- To test the docker installation type docker run hello-world and press enter.
If output is shown as the example above, good job! You’ve now got Docker up and running! Let’s move forward with the next steps.
Step 3: Preparing the folder
Now you’ve got Docker up and running, it is time to prepare the folder to make sure that your configuration persists if you shut down your server. This step is really quite simple.
- Open up windows explorer with + E.
- Navigate to the Desktop folder
- Create a folder called Palworld (you can name this folder anything you want, but for the sake of clarity, we’ll use this name)
- Go into the Palworld Folder
- Take note of the path you are currently in by clicking on the navigation bar:
Now you are almost ready to start your server. For this guide, we will use Docker Compose to configure your server.
- In the Palworld folder, you’ve just created, open up a notepad.
- Copy and Paste the following in that file:
Note:
Be sure to change the ''/c/Users/thijs/Desktop/Palworld/" to match where you put the Palworld folder. And be sure to remove the ":".
services:
palworld:
image: thijsvanloef/palworld-server-docker
restart: unless-stopped
container_name: palworld-server
ports:
- 8211:8211/udp
- 27015:27015/udp
environment:
- PORT=8211
- PLAYERS=16
- MULTITHREADING=false
- COMMUNITY=false # Enable this if you want your server to show up in the community servers tab, USE WITH SERVER_PASSWORD!
# Enable the environment variables below if you have COMMUNITY=true
# - SERVER_PASSWORD="worldofpals"
# - SERVER_NAME="World of Pals"
# - ADMIN_PASSWORD="someAdminPassword"
volumes:
- /c/Users/thijs/Desktop/Palworld:/palworld/
Note:
For all configuration options visit: https://github.com/thijsvanloef/palworld-server-docker
- Click on Save As
- Give it the same name and type as the image below:
- Save the docker-compose.yml in the Palworld folder.
Step 4: Running the Palworld server using Docker
Now all files are in order and we are ready to move forward and start the server!
- Press + R to open a run window.
- Type PowerShell and press enter.
- Type the following commands:
cd C:\Users\thijs\Desktop\Palworld
docker-compose up -dNow if you’ve done everything correctly, your folder should now look like this:
Step 5: Firewall Rules
Before you and your friends can connect to the Palworld server, you’ll need to make changes to your firewall to allow connections on specific ports.
By default, a Palworld server uses the following ports:
| Default Port (UDP only) | Port Usage | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 27015 | Query Port | This is the port that you need to enter in the game when you first connect to a dedicated server. |
| 8211 | Game Port | This port can be redirected at the moment. It is automatically incremented if multiple instances of the server are launched and the default is in use already. |
Now you can add these port exceptions to the firewall by hand, but let’s not, that takes way too much time, let’s do something different:
- Press + R to open a run window.
- Type PowerShell and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to run it as administrator.
- Type the following 3 commands:
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Palworld Port 27015" dir=in action=allow protocol=UDP localport=27015
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Palworld Port 8211" dir=in action=allow protocol=UDP localport=8211And now your firewall has been magically configured!
Step 6: Port forwarding
Still having trouble with getting your friends to join the server?
Check out the expanded Port Forward guide
Now, let’s move forward by port forwarding. Before doing that, you would want to set a static IP address on your computer.
After you’ve done that, you can move forward with the actual port forwarding:
First, you’ll need to know what the IP addresses of your computer and router are. This can be done by doing the following:
- Press + R to open a run window.
- Type CMD and press Enter. (This should open a black window.)
- Please type “ipconfig” and press enter.
You’ll see some information about the network settings:
You’ll want to make a note of the “Default Gateway” & IPv4 address. In my case, it is:
- Default Gateway: 192.168.2.254
- IPv4 address: 192.168.2.202
You’ll need to enter this address in your browser and log in to your router. Visit this site to find your specific model and were to find the Port Forward settings.
Once you’ve navigated to the Port Forwarding rules, please enter the following information:
| Rule Name | IP Address | Port Range | Protocol |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palworld Query Port | -Your IPv4 Address- | 27015 – 27015 | UDP |
| Palworld Game Port | -Your IPv4 Address- | 8211- 8211 | UDP |
Now hit save and your Palworld server is open to the public!
But your friends still don’t know where to find you. For that, you’ll need your public IP address. You can use a site like www.whatismyip.com to get your public IP address.
Step 7: Connecting to your Palworld Server
Still having trouble with getting your friends to join the server?
Check out the expanded Port Forward guide
Woohoo! You’ve made it to the last step! You’re in the home stretch.
Now you can finally boot up your game.
Once in the main menu, click on Dedicated Server and then the “Join” on the bottom of the screen.
Only YOU can use "localhost" as the address, your friends will need to enter you public IP address.
You can find your public IP address on www.whatsmyip.com
That’s it! You now have a running Palworld server using Docker!
Keep in mind, if you no longer want to use the server, you can use the following 2 commands to shut the server down (this will not remove your save files):
cd C:\Users\thijs\Desktop\Palworld
docker-compose downYou may also like:
Palworld Dedicated Server Docker set up guide Palworld has been released in early access! But how do you start a server to
By Thijs van Loef
Posted on: 19/01/2024
34 Comments on Palworld Dedicated Server Docker set up guide
Do you have ARM docker version?
I tried your docker image. However. it shows exec format error.
Thank you very much.
I do not have an ARM image yet, could you open a feature request on https://github.com/thijsvanloef/palworld-server-docker/issues/new/choose
I have docker on my nas. Can you help me to install?
Hi Larifair, currently I am unable to help individuals set up their server. The process of setting up the server in a Docker container on a NAS should be the same as setting it up on windows/linux (Given that the NAS meets the hardware requirements).
Hey Thijs,
Thank you so much for the docker image and the helpful write ups. I used them to host my server from Ubuntu and its been working well. I am fairly new to docker and I have a user who's save file appears to be corrupted. I hosted a second server and got their hex code so I know which .sav file is theirs on the main server.
My question is where should I delete it from? When I search .save files I see two in the overlay2 files, one in /diff and one in /merged. I just want to make sure I don't mess up the server or anyone else's characters.
Thanks!
Hi Matt, I am still lacking some information to be able to help you resolve your issue. Could you please open an issue on the GitHub repository?
I ended up figuring it out. I needed to go into the container via bash and delete the .sav file that had the issue from within. Nothing wrong with your setup at all just my inexperience with docker. Thanks for replying!
Glad you were able to figure it out! 🙂
Executing usermod...
usermod: no changes
*****STARTING INSTALL/UPDATE*****tid(23) burning pthread_key_t == 0 so we never use it
Redirecting stderr to '/home/steam/Steam/logs/stderr.txt'
Logging directory: '/home/steam/Steam/logs'
src/tier0/threadtools.cpp (4213) : Probably deadlock or failure waiting for thread to initialize.
Thread failed to initialize
[ 0%] Checking for available updates...
src/tier0/threadtools.cpp (4213) : Probably deadlock or failure waiting for thread to initialize.
Thread failed to initialize
failed to init when start docker server
is there any solution?
Please open a bug report on my github repository: https://github.com/thijsvanloef/palworld-server-docker/issues/new?assignees=&labels=&projects=&template=bug_report.md&title=
Thx! worked well) if i have 32gb of ram - how much should i set for docker?
Depends on what OS you are running docker, however 32GB should be plenty.
i have installed the server in my nas and i'm not sure if i need to configure the fire-wall form my nas
beacause i can connecte to the server but not my friends(sorry if it's a stupid question i'm a beginner)
Hi Dylseat, that probably means that the port forward has not been successful. You can check out my port forwarding guide for that: https://tice.tips/gaming/palworld-port-forward/
Hello!
A new patch came out and now I'm unable to access my server. Says im trying to join a match which is on a wrong version. How do you proceed to update the server to make it work again?
You would just need to restart the container: docker restart palworld-server
On step 4, it shows as "no configuration file provided: not found" when typing docker-compose up -d
How may I fix this?
Please make sure you are in the same folder as the docker-compose.yml when you run "docker compose up -d"
You should have specified to remove the : Colon in the C:\Users\ paste for the docker config YML. I overlooked this and it took 2 hours of failing to realize lol
I;ve added it, thank you.