How to Move Your Palworld Co-op Save to a Dedicated Server

Your Palworld co-op world does not have to stay trapped on the host's PC. You can copy the save files to a dedicated Palworld server, keep every base, Pal and character, and let your group play whenever they want instead of waiting for one person to come online. This guide covers the whole move: which files to copy, exactly where they go on the server, and how to fix the one thing that breaks along the way, the host's character.

What transfers, and what you need

Everything that matters lives in the save folder: the world itself (terrain changes, bases, chests, every Pal in a box or on a base), plus one character file per player. All of it moves over. You need:

• The PC that hosted the co-op world (the save only exists there)
• Access to your server's Files tab in the DoomHosting panel, or an SFTP client for faster uploads
• About 15 minutes, plus a few more if you want to keep the host's character (see the GUID section below)

One thing to know before you start: co-op caps at 4 players, a dedicated server goes up to 32. Moving the world is how groups outgrow the living room.

Back up first. Copy your local save folder somewhere safe before touching anything. As long as the original folder exists, nothing in this guide can cost you the world.

Find your co-op save on your PC

On the host's PC, paste this into the File Explorer address bar:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Pal\Saved\SaveGames

Inside is a folder named after your Steam ID (a long number), and inside that, one folder per world with a random 32-character name. If you have several worlds, sort by date modified, or open each one and check when it was last played. Inside the world folder you will find:

• Level.sav: the world itself. Bases, structures, chests, wild and captured Pals, guild data. This is the big one, often hundreds of MB.
• LevelMeta.sav: the world name and metadata shown in the menu.
• Players/: one .sav file per character that has ever joined. Miss one and that player starts from scratch.
• WorldOption.sav: the co-op world settings. Do not copy this one. On a dedicated server it silently overrides PalWorldSettings.ini, and your server settings stop working.
• LocalData.sav: local client data. Not needed on the server.

Find the world folder on your server

1. In the panel, go to the Console tab and Stop the server. Wait until it is fully stopped, Palworld writes its save on shutdown.
2. Open the Files tab and navigate to:

Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/

Inside is one folder with the same kind of 32-character name. That is the server's world. It is created on first boot, so if the folder is empty, start the server once, let it load, then stop it again.

The folder name matters: it must match DedicatedServerName in Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/GameUserSettings.ini. Keep the server's existing folder and replace its contents, then you never have to touch that setting.

Upload the save

With the server stopped:

1. Open the server's world folder under Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/.
2. Upload your local Level.sav and LevelMeta.sav, replacing the server's copies.
3. Open the Players/ folder and upload every .sav from your local Players/ folder.
4. Do not upload WorldOption.sav. If the server's world folder already contains one, delete it, then set your rates and rules through PalWorldSettings.ini instead.
5. Level.sav can be large, and browsers are slow with big uploads. For anything over ~100 MB, connect via SFTP and drag the files across.
6. Start the server and join. Your world loads exactly where co-op left off.

Everyone who played in the co-op world logs in to their existing character. Everyone except one person: the host.

Fix the host character (the GUID problem)

In co-op, Palworld saves the host's character under a fixed placeholder ID: 00000000000000000000000000000001.sav. A dedicated server assigns every player a real, unique ID instead, so when the old host joins, the server does not recognize them and asks them to create a new character. Guests are unaffected, only the host hits this.

You have two options.

Option A: start fresh. The world, bases and all shared Pals are intact, so on smaller worlds it can be quicker for the host to just level a new character.

Option B: transfer the character with a save tool. The community fix works by copying the old host data onto the new server identity:

1. Join the server with the old host's account and create a new character. Level it to at least 2, then wait about 4 minutes so the server autosaves.
2. Stop the server.
3. From the server's world folder, download Level.sav and the entire Players/ folder to your PC.
4. Run a host-save-fix tool on copies of those files. PalworldSaveTools has a graphical "Fix Host Save" option: pick 00000000000000000000000000000001.sav as the source and your freshly created character's file as the target, then migrate. If you prefer a command line, palworld-host-save-fix does the same job in Python.
5. Upload the modified Level.sav and Players/ files back to the server, replacing the existing ones.
6. Start the server and join. The host is back on their original character, with their inventory, levels and Pals.

These are community tools that patch save files directly, so they can lag behind after a game update. Check the tool's release date against the latest Palworld patch, always work on copies, and keep your backup until everything checks out in game.

Verify before you invite everyone back

• The world loads with your bases, chests and Pals where you left them.
• Each player (including the host, if you ran the fix) logs in to their own character.
• Your server settings apply. If rates feel like defaults, a leftover WorldOption.sav is the usual culprit.
• Take a fresh backup of the server's world folder now that it is the live copy.

Common issues

The server loads a brand new, empty world. The files went into the wrong folder, or the world folder's name no longer matches DedicatedServerName in GameUserSettings.ini. Stop the server and check both.

A friend is asked to create a new character. Their .sav is missing from the server's Players/ folder. Stop the server and upload it from your local backup.

Server settings are ignored. A WorldOption.sav from the co-op world is overriding the ini. Stop the server, delete it from the world folder, and configure everything in PalWorldSettings.ini.

The world seems corrupted or rolled back after upload. The server was still running (or shutting down) during the upload, so it overwrote your files with its own save. Stop it fully, confirm on the Console tab, and upload again from your backup.

FAQ

Do Pals, bases and inventories transfer? Yes. The world and everything shared lives in Level.sav; each player's inventory, level and position live in their file under Players/. Copy both and nothing is lost.

Can I move a Game Pass or Xbox world? No. The Microsoft Store and Xbox versions use a different save format that a Steam dedicated server cannot read. Only Steam co-op saves can be migrated this way.

Can I move back from the server to co-op later? Yes, the same process in reverse: download the server's world folder into your local SaveGames\<steam-id>\ path. The character ID problem applies in reverse too, so expect to run the fix tool again.

Does uploading a save wipe anything? Uploading replaces the server's current world entirely. If the server already had progress you care about, back up its world folder before overwriting it.