Palworld Xbox Dedicated Server Docker set up guide

Palworld has been released in early access! But how do you start an Xbox Dedicated server to play with your friends on Xbox? This guide will show you how to set up a Palworld Server using Docker and get you on your way to playing Palworld on Xbox!

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:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    container_name: palworld-server
    stop_grace_period: 30s  # Set to however long you are willing to wait for the container to gracefully stop
    ports:
      - 8211:8211/udp
      - 27015:27015/udp  # Required if you want your server to show up in the community servers tab
      # - 8212:8212/tcp  # Port for REST API if REST_API_ENABLED: true
    environment:
      PUID: 1000
      PGID: 1000
      PORT: 8211  # Optional but recommended
      PLAYERS: 16  # Optional but recommended
      SERVER_PASSWORD: "worldofpals"  # Optional but recommended
      MULTITHREADING: true
      RCON_ENABLED: true
      RCON_PORT: 25575
      TZ: "UTC"
      ADMIN_PASSWORD: "adminPasswordHere"
      COMMUNITY: false  # Enable this if you want your server to show up in the community servers tab, USE WITH SERVER_PASSWORD!
      SERVER_NAME: "palworld-server-docker by Thijs van Loef"
      SERVER_DESCRIPTION: "palworld-server-docker by Thijs van Loef"
      ALLOW_CONNECT_PLATFORM: "Xbox"
    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 Xbox 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 -d

Now 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=8211

And 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 an Xbox 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 down