PvP is on, but my friends still can't hurt each other

You flipped the switch labelled PvP on your Palworld server, told everyone to meet somewhere open, and then watched two people swing at each other for ten minutes without a single hit point moving. Nothing is broken and you have not missed a hidden admin command. Palworld spreads open-world PvP across more than one setting, and the one actually named PvP is only the first of them. This guide covers which switches you need, what your server receives from us, and the timing rule that makes people give up one step before it would have worked.

Two switches, not one

All of these live in the "Game rules" group on your server's Settings tab. The master PvP switch is in its first section, "Basics", beside difficulty and death penalty; the other toggles are in the section called "PvP" further down.

The important part is the second row. The master PvP switch is a master switch and nothing more; the toggle that concerns damage between players is a separate one in the PvP section, and it is off on every new server until an owner turns it on. That is why turning on only the master switch changes nothing anybody in the game can feel.

Two things follow from that, and they are worth knowing before you start hunting for other causes:

• A toggle you never touch is never sent. Our settings form only transmits what you changed, so an untouched switch leaves your server on the game's own value rather than forcing it to ours.
• A switch that is showing "off" really is off. The settings page renders each toggle at its default until you set it, and these three all default to off.

Pocketpair's own configuration reference documents the master switch — it lists bIsPvP with the description "Enable PvP". It does not list bEnablePlayerToPlayerDamage or bEnableFriendlyFire at all; those come from the settings file the dedicated server ships with. So the switch most guides tell you about is exactly the one that is not sufficient on its own, which is a good part of why this trips up so many groups.

Saving does not change a server that is running

Read this before you test anything, because it is the difference between "the setting is broken" and "the setting has not loaded yet".

Saving the Game rules group writes your values and re-applies this server's setup immediately — and deliberately leaves a running server alone. Every section of the group says so with an "Applies after a restart" tag, and the server page shows a "Changes pending a restart" notice with a "Restart now" button while there are settings waiting.

So the order is: change the switches, save, restart, then test. Restarting is safe — the world is saved before shutdown, and players who are online reconnect after a short gap.

Turning PvP on, switch by switch

Open the Game rules group on the Settings tab

Go to your server, open the Settings tab, and choose the "Game rules" group. Its first section, "Basics", holds difficulty, death penalty and a switch labelled PvP; below it are the eight sections of in-game knobs, one of them called "PvP". Press PvP in the section menu at the top of the group to jump straight to it.

Turn on the master PvP switch in Basics

The PvP switch in the Basics section is the master switch — the one that sends IS_PVP to your server. Turn it on. On its own this changes nothing a player can feel, so do not stop here, which is exactly what most people do.

Turn on Player-To-Player Damage

In the PvP section, right after its four number fields, is Player-To-Player Damage. This is the toggle everyone is looking for. Turn it on as well. If you only ever remember one thing from this article, make it this pair: the master PvP switch plus this toggle.

Decide whether guild-mates can hurt each other

The next row in the same section is Friendly Fire (same-guild damage), also off by default. Leave it off if your guilds are meant to be safe teams and the fighting happens between guilds. Turn it on if you want everyone able to hit everyone, including the people sharing your base. There is no middle setting.

Save, then restart the server

Once you flip a switch, a save bar appears at the bottom of the group. Press "Save" and wait for the confirmation. Then press "Restart" in the server's header — or, while the server is running, use "Save and restart" to do both at once. When the server is back up, have two players test it — if damage still does not register, come back to the Game rules group and confirm both switches actually stayed on, rather than changing anything else.

The four numbers in the PvP section

The PvP section starts with four numeric fields. Every one of them is optional and every one shows its default as a faint number until you type in it; a field you never touch is never sent, so your server keeps the game's own value. A field you set to something other than the default gets a "Reset to default" button on its row.

The first three are documented by Pocketpair. BlockRespawnTime is the cooldown before you can respawn after death, in seconds. RespawnPenaltyDurationThreshold is a survival-time threshold in seconds: die again before surviving that long and the respawn cooldown gets multiplied. RespawnPenaltyTimeScale is that multiplier. Set the threshold above zero and repeated quick deaths start costing progressively more waiting — which is the usual reason a PvP server wants these at all.

The fourth number belongs to a pair. Bonus Drop On Player Kill (PvP) is a toggle, off by default, and the quantity field at the top of the section sets how many. Which item drops is not something the dashboard exposes.

The other toggles in that section

Six more switches share the PvP section, and all six are off unless you turn them on: Pick Up Other Guilds' Death Drops, Base Pals Defend Against Other Guild Players, Hide Other Guilds' Base Boundary FX, Show PvP Items On Map (Base Camps), Show PvP Items On Map (Players), and Bonus Drop On Player Kill (PvP).

None of these is a prerequisite for player damage — you do not need any of them to make the fighting work. They are shaping tools for a server that already has PvP running, and the safe way to use them is one at a time, with a restart between, so you can tell which change caused what.

Difficulty and what you lose when you die

A PvP reader is usually asking a second question at the same time: what does dying actually cost? That is not in the PvP section. It is the "Death penalty" picker in the Basics section, and it applies to every death, in a fight or not. As long as you have not changed it or the "Difficulty" picker above it, we send nothing and your server keeps the game's own setting.

Worth reading that table twice before a raid night: on All your Pals on team are part of what is lost, and the middle two options differ over equipment. Where our shorter labels and the official descriptions disagree, the official reference is the one describing the game.

The "Difficulty" picker offers None, Normal and Difficult, and sends your choice as DIFFICULTY. Pocketpair's configuration reference does not list a difficulty parameter, so treat that picker as a preset you test rather than a documented behaviour — and change one of the two pickers at a time, since both alter how a death feels.

Who can change these settings

These settings save for the server owner, or for a team member who has been granted the "Settings" permission on this server. Anyone else sees the fields but cannot change them, and the API refuses the request as well. Permissions are handed out from the server's Team tab, which only the owner sees.

Read next

• Palworld server hosting — sizing, ports and how a Palworld server runs here
• Dashboard tour — where the Settings tab and the Restart button live
• /palworld — what a Palworld server on uniz.host includes