7 Days to Die Server Settings and the Sandbox Code
Your settings live in guavahost.xml, editable on the Server settings page. Difficulty, loot and blood moons are not in it any more: they come from a Sandbox code you make in the game.
4 min read · Updated Oct 25, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team
Open the Server settings page in your server's menu, change what you want, click Save, then restart. The server reads its settings once at startup, so nothing takes effect until it has restarted.
Two things about this game's settings surprise people, and both are worth knowing before you start clicking.
Your settings are in guavahost.xml, not serverconfig.xml
Every guide on the internet tells you to edit serverconfig.xml. On your server, that file is there and the server does not read it.
The reason is simple. serverconfig.xml ships inside the game, so Steam owns it, and every time the game updates it is put back the way the developers shipped it. On a server that updates itself, that means a patch day quietly wipes your server name, your password and your world settings, with nothing in the log to say why. So your server starts with -configfile=guavahost.xml and keeps your settings in a copy Steam has never heard of.
The panel's Server settings page points at the right one. It also lists serverconfig.xml underneath, labelled as the game's own copy, because that file is where the comments explaining every setting live. Edits there change nothing.
Difficulty, loot and blood moons are a code now
The V3.0 update took thirty gameplay settings out of the server file and replaced them with one string called Sandbox code. Difficulty, XP multiplier, loot abundance, loot respawn days, day length, zombie speeds, blood moon frequency and count, air drops, what you drop on death: all of it. A current server does not read those settings at all, and if you add them back by hand it ignores them without an error.
To change any of them:
- Start 7 Days to Die on your own machine and begin creating a new game.
- Open Sandbox Options and set everything the way you want it.
- Copy the code the screen gives you.
- In the panel, open Server settings, paste it into Sandbox code, click Save and restart the server.
The code is the whole set at once, so build it in one sitting rather than trying to change one dial at a time.
What you can still change in the panel
Plenty, and all of it with real controls rather than raw XML.
- The basics. Server name, description, website, password, the message players see when they join, whether the server is public, which region it is listed under.
- World. Which world, the seed, the map size, the save name, how long unvisited land is kept, a save size limit.
- Players and PvP. Who may kill whom, the starting safe zone, bedrolls, how players spawn near friends, whether they are locked to one character.
- Anti-cheat and crossplay. EasyAntiCheat, console crossplay, reserved and admin slots.
- Land claims. Claim count and size, the gap between players' claims, expiry, decay mode and how tough blocks are inside a claim when the owner is on and off.
- Performance. View distance, zombies and animals alive at once, world download speed, dynamic mesh.
- Admin. The permissions file, whether commands are logged, the web dashboard, Twitch integration.
Settings the panel owns
A few rows on that page are locked, with a note saying where they really come from. Your server is started with those values on the command line, and a command line value beats whatever the file says, so letting you edit them would be a control that appears to work and is undone at every restart.
- Game port and Remote console port are your allocation. They live on Ports and network.
- Maximum players is in Startup settings on the Settings tab.
- Remote console and its password are how the panel's own console reaches the game. Changing them would break the Console and Players tabs.
Changing the world name starts a new save
Save name is the one setting to think twice about. It decides which save folder the server uses, so changing it does not rename your world: it starts a different one. Your old world is still on disk and switching the name back returns to it, but your group will log in to an empty map in the meantime.
The same is true of World and Seed, which is covered in choosing a world, a seed and a map size.
Common questions
Why does my change not do anything?
Either the server has not restarted, or the setting is one of the thirty that moved into the Sandbox code. The server reads its file once at startup and never looks at it again, so save, then press Restart. If it is a difficulty, loot, XP or blood moon setting, it is in the Sandbox code and editing the file cannot reach it.
Can I edit the file directly instead?
Yes. Open the Files tab and edit guavahost.xml. It is the same file the Server settings page writes, so either way works. Use the Files tab if you want to paste in a whole configuration from somewhere else, and remember that a setting the panel owns is overridden on the command line whatever the file says.
What happens to my settings when the game updates?
Nothing, which is the entire reason your settings are in guavahost.xml. The update replaces the game's own copy of the configuration and leaves yours alone. If you want to see what a new version added, compare the two files in the Files tab.
Is there a way to back up my settings?
Take a backup from the Backups tab before a big change, which snapshots the whole server including the file. Backups and game updates covers what to do before a major version lands.
- 7 days to die
- settings
- serverconfig
- sandbox code
- difficulty
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