Palworld Dedicated Server¶

Overview¶

Palworld is a multiplayer dedicated game server running on Kubernetes, providing a persistent world for players to capture and battle with Pals.

Architecture¶

graph LR
    subgraph External
        Players[Players]
        Internet[Internet]
    end

    subgraph Firewall
        Ubiquiti[Ubiquiti Router]
        pfSense[pfSense]
    end

    subgraph Kubernetes
        subgraph palworld namespace
            Server[Palworld Server]
            PVC[(Game Data)]
        end
    end

    Players --> Internet
    Internet -->|UDP 8211| Ubiquiti
    Ubiquiti --> pfSense
    pfSense -->|NodePort 30821| Server
    Server --> PVC

Components¶

Game Server¶

Property	Value
Image	`thijsvanloef/palworld-server-docker:latest`
Game Port	8211 (UDP)
Query Port	27015 (UDP)
RCON Port	25575 (TCP)
External URL	`palworld.ajandrews.pro:8211`

Deployment¶

Kubernetes Resources¶

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: palworld
  namespace: palworld
spec:
  replicas: 1
  strategy:
    type: Recreate  # Required for game servers
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: palworld
        image: thijsvanloef/palworld-server-docker:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8211
          protocol: UDP
          name: game
        - containerPort: 27015
          protocol: UDP
          name: query
        - containerPort: 25575
          protocol: TCP
          name: rcon
        resources:
          requests:
            memory: "8Gi"
            cpu: "2"
          limits:
            memory: "16Gi"
            cpu: "4"

Service Configuration¶

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: palworld
  namespace: palworld
spec:
  type: NodePort
  ports:
    - port: 8211
      targetPort: 8211
      nodePort: 30821
      protocol: UDP
      name: game
    - port: 27015
      targetPort: 27015
      nodePort: 30270
      protocol: UDP
      name: query
    - port: 25575
      targetPort: 25575
      nodePort: 30255
      protocol: TCP
      name: rcon

Game Settings¶

Server Configuration¶

Setting	Value	Description
Max Players	32	Maximum concurrent players
Experience Rate	2.75x	XP multiplier
Pal Capture Rate	1.25x	Easier capture
Pal Spawn Rate	2x	More Pals in world

Combat Settings¶

Setting	Player	Pal
Damage Attack	2.25x	1x
Damage Defense	0.9x	2.2x
HP Regen Rate	2.9x	2.5x
HP Regen (Sleep)	5x	4.5x

World Settings¶

Setting	Value
Day Speed	0.1x (slower days)
Night Speed	3x (faster nights)
Auto Save	Every 30 seconds
Egg Hatching	Near instant
Death Penalty	Items only
Global Pal Import	Enabled

Network Configuration¶

Port Forwarding Chain¶

Internet:8211 (UDP)
    ↓
Ubiquiti Router → 192.168.5.2:8211
    ↓
pfSense NAT → 10.0.0.101:30821
    ↓
K8s NodePort → Pod:8211

DNS Configuration¶

Record	Type	Value
palworld.ajandrews.pro	A	Public IP

DNS Only Mode

DNS record must be set to "DNS Only" (grey cloud) in Cloudflare since game traffic is UDP and cannot go through the tunnel.

Administration¶

RCON Commands¶

Connect via RCON or use kubectl:

# Show connected players
kubectl exec -n palworld deployment/palworld -- rcon-cli ShowPlayers

# Broadcast message
kubectl exec -n palworld deployment/palworld -- rcon-cli "Broadcast Server_maintenance_in_5_minutes"

# Save game
kubectl exec -n palworld deployment/palworld -- rcon-cli Save

# Kick player
kubectl exec -n palworld deployment/palworld -- rcon-cli "KickPlayer <SteamID>"

In-Game Admin¶

Open chat (Enter key)
Type: /AdminPassword <admin-password>
Use admin commands with / prefix

Command	Description
`/Broadcast <message>`	Server-wide message
`/KickPlayer <SteamID>`	Kick player
`/BanPlayer <SteamID>`	Ban player
`/Save`	Force save
`/Shutdown <seconds>`	Scheduled shutdown

Storage¶

Persistent Volume¶

Property	Value
Size	50Gi
Storage Class	longhorn-single
Mount Path	/palworld

Data Contents¶

World save files
Player data
Server configuration
Backup files

Monitoring¶

Health Checks¶

livenessProbe:
  exec:
    command:
      - /bin/sh
      - -c
      - pgrep -x "PalServer-Linux" > /dev/null
  initialDelaySeconds: 120
  periodSeconds: 30

Logs¶

# View server logs
kubectl logs -n palworld deployment/palworld -f

# Check server status
kubectl exec -n palworld deployment/palworld -- rcon-cli Info

Troubleshooting¶

Common Issues¶

Issue	Cause	Resolution
Connection timeout	Port forwarding	Check Ubiquiti + pfSense NAT rules
Server not starting	Resource limits	Increase memory/CPU limits
World not loading	Corrupted save	Restore from backup
RCON not responding	Service not ready	Wait for full startup (~2 min)

Startup Time¶

The server takes approximately 2-3 minutes to fully start:

Download/verify game files
Load world data
Start game server
Enable RCON/REST API