How to host a Project Zomboid server

The requirement grows with explored map area rather than with player count. Zomboid remembers everything that has happened everywhere anyone has been — every moved item, every broken window, every corpse. A server a few months into a save with players who have ranged widely is holding a great deal more than a fresh one.

How to install it

1. Install Steam’s command-line tool, then the Zomboid dedicated server using an anonymous login.
2. Run the start script once. It will ask you to set an admin password, then generate its configuration files and quit.
3. Find the memory setting immediately. It is in the launch script, not in any settings file, and the default is low.
4. Restart and let it generate the world.

steamcmd \
  +force_install_dir /home/pz/server \
  +login anonymous \
  +app_update 380870 validate \
  +quit

# Memory lives in the start script, NOT in any config file.
# The shipped default is low. This is the step people skip.
#   -Xmx8g  ->  8 GB
./start-server.sh

How to configure it

# The name shown in the in-game server browser.
PublicName=Your server name

# The line underneath it. This is your pitch — use it.
PublicDescription=PvE. Mods welcome. Restarts at 5am.

# Show up in the public list at all.
Public=true

# Password to join. Empty means anyone can.
Password=

MaxPlayers=16
PVP=false

# Remote admin.
RCONPort=27015
RCONPassword=change-me

# Mods need BOTH of these lines filled in, semicolon separated.
# Filling in only one is the single most common mistake.
Mods=ModNameOne;ModNameTwo
WorkshopItems=2392709985;2169435993

• Sandbox variables are where the game lives. Zombie population, respawn rate and loot rarity change the experience far more than any mod. Read through this file once properly.
• Mods go in two places in the .ini — a workshop list and a mod list — and both must be filled in. Filling in only one is the single most common Zomboid support question.
• Files are named after your server. If you rename the server you are effectively pointing it at a different, empty configuration.
• Decide your mod list before starting a save you care about.

Worth knowing

• Adding mods to a running save is risky; removing them is worse. If a mod added items to the world, taking it away leaves the save referencing things that no longer exist.
• The map grows on disk forever. It does not shrink when players stop visiting an area.

Written from experience running these servers. If something here no longer matches what you are seeing, tell us and we will recheck it.