This topic mainly describes how to manually set up a Palworld server on Windows-based and Linux-based instances, respectively.

What is Palworld?

Palworld is an open-world game developed by Pocketpair. It combines survival and construction, exploration and combat, creature catching, training, and business manufacturing. This game supports multiplayer online play. Players need to collect mysterious "Pals" in a vast world, use "Pals" for combat, construction, farming, and other tasks, and build their dream bases.

Applicable scenario

Palworld is an open-world game that allows you to set up a dedicated server using an ECS instance. You and your friends can log in for better playing experience. The dedicated server can offer better privacy and help avoid issues like game crashes caused by overcrowding on official servers.

Video guidance

To manually set up the Palworld server, you can follow the guidance in the official video Set up Palworld server within 4 minutes.

Prerequisites

You have created an ECS instance.

We recommend that you use Ubuntu 22.04 or Windows Server 2022 Data Center Edition as the operating system for the target instance.

The target instance must be associated with an EIP. For information about how to associate an EIP with an ECS instance, see Associating EIPs.

Procedure

Step 1: Configure a security group

Since the Palworld server uses UDP port 8211 for data transmission, you need to allow inbound traffic on UDP port 8211 in the security group.

Log in to the ECS console.

In the left-side navigation pane, select "Instances & Images > Instances".

In the top menu bar, select the region and project where the target instance resides.

On the Instances page, find the target instance, and click the instance name to go to the instance details page.

Select the "Security Group" tab, and click the "Edit rule" button.

On the security group details page, select "Access rules > Inbound rules" tab. Then, on the "Inbound rules" tab, complete the following configurations.

Click the "Add rule" button.

On the "Add Inbound rule" page, perform the following operations in sequence: specify "Protocol type" as UDP, copy 8211 into the "Port range" field, and copy 0.0.0.0/0 into the "Source" field. Then, click the "Confirm" button to complete the configuration.

Step 2: Set up a Palworld server

Set up the Palworld server in a Linux-based instance

Log in to the target instance. For more information, refer to Logging in to Linux instances.

Execute the following command in the instance to create a user named steam, which will be used to install and run SteamCMD.

sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash steam

Install SteamCMD.

Execute the following command to install the command-line version of Steam.

sudo add-apt-repository multiverse -y; sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386; sudo apt update -y;apt-get remove needrestart -y
sudo apt install steamcmd -y

Press Tab, select <ok>, and press Enter to complete reading the agreement.

Press the ↓ key to select I AGREE, and then press Enter to agree to the agreement.

Execute the following commands to create a directory and download the SDK.

sudo -u steam mkdir -p ~steam/.steam/sdk64/
sudo -u steam $(which steamcmd) +login anonymous +app_update 1007 +quit
sudo cp ~steam/Steam/steamapps/common/Steamworks\ SDK\ Redist/linux64/steamclient.so ~steam/.steam/sdk64/

If the following output is displayed, SDK is downloaded. If the download fails, execute the commands again.

Execute the following command to download the Palworld server.

sudo -u steam $(which steamcmd) +login anonymous +app_update 2394010 validate +quit

If the following output is displayed, the Palworld server is downloaded.

Create the Palworld server process as a custom service.

Execute the following command to create and open the Palworld service file.

vim /etc/systemd/system/pal-world-server.service

Press i key to enter the edit mode, and then copy and paste the following content into the file.

[Unit]
Description=Customize Palworld Service

[Service]
Type=simple
User=steam
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=30s
ExecStart=/home/steam/Steam/steamapps/common/PalServer/PalServer.sh -useperfthreads -NoAsyncLoadingThread -UseMultithreadForDS

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Press Esc, enter :wq, and then press Enter to save and exit the file.

Execute the following command to specify that the Palworld server automatically starts upon instance startup.

sudo systemctl enable pal-world-server.service

Execute the following command to restart the Palworld server and apply the configuration.

sudo systemctl restart pal-world-server.service

Execute the following command to view the running status of the Palworld server.

sudo systemctl status pal-world-server.service

At this point, the Palworld server has been set up.

To manage the Palworld server, you can execute the following commands in your instance.

# Start the Palworld server
sudo systemctl start pal-world-server.service

# Restart the Palworld server
sudo systemctl restart pal-world-server.service

# Stop the Palworld server
sudo systemctl stop pal-world-server.service

# Check the Palworld server status
sudo systemctl status pal-world-server.service

Set up the Palworld server in a Windows-based instance

Log in to the target instance. For more information, refer to Logging in to Windows instances.

Log in to the instance, right-click the "Start" button, and select "Windows PowerShell (Admin)" to open PowerShell.

In PowerShell, execute the following command to allow users to access your purchased instance through port 8211.

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow Port 8211" -Protocol UDP -LocalPort 8211 -Action Allow

In PowerShell, execute the following command to download and install the C++ Runtime Library.

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe' -OutFile 'C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\vc_redist.x64.exe'
Start-Process 'C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\vc_redist.x64.exe'

Follow the installation prompts to complete the installation.

In PowerShell, execute the following command to download and install the DirectX support library.

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/7/1/1718CCC4-6315-4D8E-9543-8E28A4E18C4C/dxwebsetup.exe' -OutFile 'C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\dxwebsetup.exe'
Start-Process 'C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\dxwebsetup.exe'

Follow the installation prompts to complete the installation.

In PowerShell, execute the following commands to download and update SteamCMD.

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steamcmd.zip' -OutFile 'C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\steamcmd.zip'
cd .\Downloads\
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Name Steam
Expand-Archive -LiteralPath 'C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\steamcmd.zip' -DestinationPath 'C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\Steam'
Start-Process 'C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\Steam\steamcmd.exe'

In PowerShell, execute the following command to download and install Palworld.

C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\Steam\steamcmd.exe +login anonymous +app_update 2394010 validate +quit

In PowerShell, execute the following commands to start the Palworld server and specify that the server automatically starts upon instance startup.

Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "AutoStartPalServer" -Action $(New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\Steam\steamapps\common\PalServer\PalServer.exe") -Trigger $(New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -AtStartup) -Principal $(New-ScheduledTaskPrincipal -UserID "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" -LogonType ServiceAccount -RunLevel Highest) -Force
Start-ScheduledTask "AutoStartPalServer"

After you execute the commands, if the following dialog box is displayed, the Palworld server has been started.

Execute the following command to check whether the Palworld server has started.

Get-Process | Where-Object{$_.ProcessName -eq "PalServer-Win64-Test-Cmd"}

If the following output is displayed, the Palworld server is started.

Step 3: Start the game

Start Palworld in Steam.

On the game home page, click the "Join multiplayer game (dedicated server)" button.

On the start page, select "Community server", and at the bottom of the page, input the ECS instance EIP:8211. Click the "Contact" button to enter the dedicated server and start the game.

Update the game

Update the game in a Linux-based instance

Execute the following commands on the instance to update the game.

sudo systemctl stop pal-world-server.service
sudo -u steam $(which steamcmd) +login anonymous +app_update 2394010 validate +quit

If the following output is displayed, the game server is updated.

Execute the following commands on the instance to start the game server and view its running status.

sudo systemctl start pal-world-server.service
sudo systemctl status pal-world-server.service

If the following output is displayed, the game server is started.

Update the game in a Windows-based instance

In the PowerShell dialog box of the instance, execute the following command to update the Palworld server.

Stop-Process -Name PalServer-Win64-Test-Cmd
C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\Steam\steamcmd.exe +login anonymous +app_update 2394010 validate +quit

In the PowerShell dialog box, execute the following commands to start the server and view its running status.

Start-ScheduledTask "AutoStartPalServer"
Get-Process | Where-Object{$_.ProcessName -eq "PalServer-Win64-Test-Cmd"}

If the following output is displayed, the Palworld server is started.

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