PvP and world settings on a Dragonwilds server
Dragonwilds keeps its server settings in one short file, there is no PvP switch among them, and the choices that shape your world are mostly made when the world is first created.
6 min read · Updated Oct 21, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team
The honest state of play
Dragonwilds is in early access, and its dedicated server is deliberately simple. Jagex's dedicated server guide documents five settings, all of them in DedicatedServer.ini:
| Setting | What it decides |
|---|---|
OwnerId | Which Player ID owns the server. |
ServerName | What the server calls itself. |
DefaultWorldName | Which world is created or loaded, and what players search for. |
AdminPassword | Who can open Server Management in game. |
WorldPassword | Who can join at all. |
That is the list. There is no difficulty multiplier, no resource rate, no day length and no PvP toggle. Dragonwilds is built as a co-operative game against the world rather than against each other, so a dedicated server has no PvP mode to switch on. If a future update adds server-side rules, they will appear in the same file and in the same section, and the DedicatedServer.ini guide is where we will cover them.
Being clear about that saves you an evening. If you have found a guide promising a PvP line or a loot multiplier to paste into your config, it is describing a different game or a mod, not a setting the server reads.
What you can change, and how
All five settings have a field in Startup settings on your server's Settings tab, and that is where you change them.
- Sign in at customer.guavahost.com, open My servers and click Manage on your Dragonwilds server.
- Go to the Settings tab and find Startup settings.
- Edit the value you want and click Save next to it.
- Press Restart at the top of the server page.
Every setting here is read when the server starts, so every change needs a restart. Nothing takes effect live.
The panel writes these five values from Startup settings into the file on every start, which is the bit people trip over: an edit made directly in DedicatedServer.ini is replaced by the startup value the next time the server boots. Edit the file only for lines that are not in the list above, and expect your own additions to stay as you wrote them.
The one setting that can change your world
World Name looks like a label and behaves like a switch. The panel writes it as DefaultWorldName, which names the world the server creates on first start, and it is also the text your friends type on the Public tab to find you.
Point it at a name that does not exist and the server generates a brand new world under that name. Your old world is still on disk, it is simply not the one being loaded. That is genuinely useful when you want a second world and genuinely alarming when you only wanted a rename.
So before you touch that field, take a backup from the Backups page. World names and save files explains the mechanics and what happens to the old save.
Search is case sensitive, which catches people out when a friend swears the world is not there.
What is fixed once the world exists
Some things are decided when a world is first generated and cannot be changed afterwards by editing a config:
- The world itself. Its terrain, its layout and where everything sits were generated on the first start. There is no server setting that regenerates or reshapes an existing world.
- Which world you are in. You switch worlds by loading a different one, not by converting the one you have.
If you want a genuinely different world, the move is to set World Name to a new name and restart, which generates one, leaving the old save in place to go back to.
Moderation is in game, not in the config
Because there are no gameplay rules to set, the day to day control of how your server plays happens in game, through Server Management in the pause menu, unlocked with the admin password.
- The owner, named by Owner ID, can ban and unban anyone whether they are online or not.
- Admins, anyone who enters the admin password, can ban players who are online at that moment. They cannot ban somebody who is offline and cannot unban anybody.
Becoming admin on your Dragonwilds server has the steps for both, including where to find your Player ID. Keeping the admin password separate from the server password is the whole of the permission system here, so use two different values.
Keeping the world private
Server Password is the setting that decides who can play, and on our servers it always has a value. Players still find your world by name on the Public tab and are asked for the password when they connect, which is the friendliest kind of private: easy to join, impossible to wander into. Setting a password on your Dragonwilds server covers it, including the fact that the panel's value overrides whatever password is stored inside an uploaded world.
A new server starts with CHANGEME in both password fields, so change both before you share the world name anywhere.
Mods, if you want rules the server does not have
Everything the base game does not offer, harvest rates, difficulty changes, quality of life, is mod territory. Mods on a Dragonwilds server bring their own settings files, which live alongside the game's own and are not managed by Startup settings, so your edits there stay put.
Two cautions worth repeating. A mod is tied to the game build it was made for, so an early access update can break it, and a mod that changes the world can leave gaps if you remove it later. Take a backup before adding or removing one. Installing mods on a Dragonwilds server covers the mechanics.
A sensible order to set a server up
- Set Owner ID to your Player ID, so somebody actually owns the server.
- Change Admin Password and Server Password away from
CHANGEME, to two different values. - Set Server Name and World Name, remembering that the world name is also the search term.
- Restart, join, and check you can open Server Management.
- Take a backup and set up a nightly one on the Scheduled tasks page.
That is a fully configured Dragonwilds server, which says as much about the game's current server feature set as any list could.
Common questions
Can you turn on PvP on a Dragonwilds server?
Not with a server setting. Jagex documents five settings for a dedicated server and none of them controls PvP, because Dragonwilds is built as a co-operative game. Anything claiming to be a PvP config line is describing a mod or a different game.
Do Dragonwilds settings need a restart?
Yes, all of them. The server reads its config when it starts, so change the value in Startup settings, click save, then press restart. Nothing you change applies to a session already in progress.
Can I change the world seed on an existing world?
No. The terrain was generated when the world was first created and there is no setting that regenerates it. Set World Name to a new name and restart to generate a fresh world, which leaves the old save on disk.
Why did my settings go back after a restart?
Because the panel writes the five managed settings from Startup settings into DedicatedServer.ini on every start. If you edited one of those lines in the file, the startup value replaces it, so make the change in Startup settings instead.
Still stuck? Jump into our Discord at discord.gg/GuavaHost and the team will help you out.
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- ini
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