Palworld Performance and Lag Issues
Fix lag and poor performance on your Palworld server. Covers drop item limits, server location, disabling mods to isolate issues, Linux vs Windows platform notes, and when to contact PocketPair directly.
Step 1: Reduce Dropped Item Limits
Palworld's default item drop settings let thousands of item entities pile up in the world — each one is simulated every tick. Cutting these down is the fastest win for a laggy server:
| Setting | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
DropItemMaxNum |
3000 | 500 |
DropItemAliveMaxHours |
1.0 | 0.5 (30 minutes) |
In your AMP or WISP panel, open your server's Configuration settings. Find DropItemMaxNum and DropItemAliveMaxHours, set them to the recommended values, and reboot. The difference is noticeable immediately on active servers.
Step 2: Check Server Location
Every player connects to the same datacenter — pick the one that gives the worst-connection player the best shot. One person routing through a distant datacenter drags the experience down for the whole group.
Change region in your panel's server settings. If only certain players are having issues, check Palworld Common Connection Issues first — it may be their end, not the server location.
Step 3: Client-Side Checks
Before assuming the server is the problem, have lagging players run through these:
- Wired over WiFi — WiFi jitter is a real issue with Palworld's UDP traffic; Ethernet makes a measurable difference
- Kill the VPN — VPNs reroute traffic and frequently add latency to game servers; test without it
- Close bandwidth-hungry apps — streaming, game downloads, video calls all compete for the same pipe
Step 4: Disable Mods
UE4SS mods add overhead to every game tick. If lag started after installing mods:
- Go to Mods & Plugins in the control panel
- Disable RE-UE4SS (and all mods with it)
- Reboot and test
If performance improves, re-enable mods one at a time to identify the culprit.
Note: Mods are not supported on Linux server instances. If you're using mods and experiencing performance issues, switching to a Windows server may help.
Step 5: Check Base Camp Worker Count
Each base worker Pal is simulated every tick. If your server has many large bases, reducing BaseCampWorkerMaxNum can help. See Palworld Base Camp Workers.
Step 6: Contact PocketPair
If you've tried all of the above and the server still lags, the issue may be engine-level — Palworld is still being actively optimised. Report the issue on the Palworld Discord with:
- Server specs and player count
- What was happening when lag occurred
- Whether mods are enabled