You can set the most important game rules of your 7 Days to Die server – blood moon, loot, day length – conveniently in a form. Player count and difficulty are startup variables, and rarer special values live directly in the serverconfig.xml file.
In the “Settings” tab
- Open your server and choose the Settings tab.
- Change the values you want. Each field explains what it does.
- Click Save and restart – or Save only if you'd rather restart later yourself.
If the file doesn't exist yet, start the server once – the game will create it.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Blood moon every … days | How often a blood moon horde arrives. 0 turns the blood moon off. |
| Zombies per player during blood moon | How many zombies are active per player at the same time during the blood moon (1–64). More zombies = harder and more load on the server. |
| Loot abundance (%) | How much is found in crates, cabinets etc. 100 is normal, 200 is double. |
| Loot respawns after … days | After how many in-game days looted containers are refilled. |
| Day length (minutes) | Real minutes for a full in-game day (day + night). |
| Of which daylight (hours) | How many of the 24 in-game hours are light. Less = longer, more dangerous nights. |
| Experience (%) | How fast players level up. |
| Airdrop every … hours (game time) | How often a supply drop appears. |
| PvP, drop on death, land claim size | Further game rules. |
The same tab also has the server name, join password, visibility, anti-cheat and the map.
Difficulty and player count: “Startup variables” tab
The server passes these two values at startup – that's why they aren't in the form:
- Difficulty (
GAME_DIFFICULTY) – from0(Scavenger, easiest) to5(Insane, hardest).2is “Nomad”. Change it, click Save, restart the server. - Max players (
MAX_PLAYERS) – fixed; you can see the value in the Startup variables tab. Need more slots? Just open a ticket.
The startup values always win – changing ServerMaxPlayerCount or GameDifficulty in serverconfig.xml has no effect. More: Changing settings via “Startup variables”.
Fine-tuning zombies: the serverconfig.xml file
Values that aren't in the form are changed directly in the file:
- Stop the server.
- Files tab → file
serverconfig.xml(in the top folder) → Edit. - Find the line, e.g.
<property name="ZombieMove" value="0" />, and only change the number between the quotes. - Save and start the server.
| Entry | Meaning |
|---|---|
ZombieMove | Zombie speed during the day: 0 walk, 1 jog, 2 run, 3 sprint, 4 nightmare |
ZombieMoveNight | Speed at night (same values) |
ZombieFeralMove | Speed of feral zombies |
ZombieBMMove | Speed during the blood moon |
MaxSpawnedZombies | Maximum number of zombies alive at once on the whole server |
BlockDamageAI / BlockDamageAIBM | How much damage zombies do to blocks (in %), normally and during the blood moon |
Only change lines that are already in the file – a typo in the quotes or angle brackets will stop the server from starting.
Good to know
- Back up first: Create a backup before bigger changes.
- Changing the map, seed, size or save name starts a new world. The old one is kept and comes back when you enter the old value again.
- More zombies need more power. High values for
MaxSpawnedZombiesand blood moon zombies can cause lag – memory guidelines. - Admin rights and commands: 7 Days to Die: Becoming admin.
No server yet? You can test the 7 Days to Die server free for 24 hours – how it works. To order: Rent a 7 Days to Die server.