7 Days to Die Server Hosting: Choosing RAM, Map Size and Settings

7 Days to Die is a game about the seventh night: every week the blood moon rises and a horde comes for your base. On a home PC that is exactly when the host's frame rate drops, a friend disconnects and the night ends early. 7 Days to Die server hosting keeps the world online around the clock and gives the server enough headroom for the moments that matter — horde nights, long expeditions and a base that keeps growing.

Below we cover how much memory a server really needs depending on the map, what loads it hardest, which settings in serverconfig.xml to change first, how mods and EasyAntiCheat fit together and how to protect a world you have spent weeks on.

Why a dedicated server instead of hosting from your PC

When one player hosts, the world only exists while their game is running. Nobody can scavenge, build or farm while the host is offline, and the host's PC carries the game and the server at the same time. On blood moon nights that is usually where the lag comes from.

A dedicated server separates the two. The world keeps running when the host logs off, crops grow and forges smelt, and everyone connects with equal ping instead of through someone's home upload. You also stop dealing with port forwarding and a changing home IP: the server has a fixed address and its own resources.

The same logic applies to other survival games with persistent worlds — we cover it for Valheim and Project Zomboid too. 7 Days to Die just makes the difference more obvious because of its weekly peak.

How much RAM a 7 Days to Die server needs

Map type matters more than player count. Navezgane is the hand-made map shipped with the game; random worlds (RWG) are generated from a seed in sizes like 6K, 8K and 10K. We measured the peak at first launch, when the server generates the world, under a hard memory limit:

• Navezgane starts on 2 GB, but only just — 3 GB is a realistic minimum.
• Random world 6K or 8K needs about 4 GB at first launch.
• Random world 10K did not start on 4 GB and needs around 6 GB.

Those are starting points without mods. Memory grows with players spread across the map, large bases, many active zombies and long-running saves. Mods and overhauls add the most. That is why our plans are described by map and mod load:

Every plan runs on NVMe with DDoS protection; the full range up to 24 GB is on the 7 Days to Die page.

What loads the server: blood moons, exploration and bases

Memory decides whether the server starts; the CPU decides how it feels during play. A 7 Days to Die server simulates every zombie, physics on blocks, structural integrity and AI pathfinding. A lot of that work sits on a few busy threads, which is why fast cores matter more than many slow ones — the same rule as for Minecraft.

The heaviest moments are predictable:

• Blood moon. The horde spawns for every player at once. BloodMoonEnemyCount sets how many zombies each player gets; doubling it roughly doubles the load during the most important night of the week.
• Players spread across the map. Two people looting in opposite corners of a 10K world keep far more chunks active than four players sitting in one base.
• Huge bases. Thousands of blocks with structural integrity checks, many workstations and electrical traps all add up.

The first settings to change in serverconfig.xml

Almost everything about a 7 Days to Die server lives in serverconfig.xml. Open it in the Files tab of the panel, edit it and restart the server. The values worth checking on day one:

• ServerName and ServerPassword — the name in the server list and the password to join. Set a password straight away if the server is for friends only.
• GameWorld — Navezgane or RWG for a random world; with RWG also set WorldGenSeed and WorldGenSize.
• GameName — the name of the save. A new name means a new save, so change it consciously.
• DayNightLength, BloodMoonFrequency, LootAbundance and GameDifficulty — the pace and difficulty of the run.

Decide on the world before your group invests time in it. Switching the map or the seed on a running save starts a new world; the old save stays on disk, but progress does not move over.

The server listens on three consecutive ports — the game port and two above it. On Elysium all three are allocated automatically, so the address and port from your client area are all you need to connect.

Mods, overhauls and EasyAntiCheat

7 Days to Die mods come in two kinds. Small XML modlets that change recipes, loot or zombie stats can often run on the server alone. Mods with their own code — including big overhauls such as Darkness Falls or Undead Legacy — have to be installed on the server and by every player, in the same version.

Those mods also require EasyAntiCheat to be off: set EACEnabled to false in serverconfig.xml and tell players to launch the game without EAC. Put the mods into the server's Mods folder through the file manager or SFTP and restart.

Overhauls are heavy. They add new zombies, items and systems and often recommend a fresh world. Budget memory accordingly — 12 GB for a moderate mod list, 16 GB or more for full overhauls — and update mods only together with a backup.

Backups and game updates

A 7 Days to Die world is easy to lose: a failed mod update, a corrupted save after a crash or a misclick that wipes a land claim. Backups are the only reliable undo. Elysium makes a nightly automatic backup of every server, and you can create manual copies on the Backups tab — do that before every game update, mod change or world setting change.

How often to back up depends on how much progress your group can afford to lose; the logic is the same as in our article on whether daily backups are enough. For a weekly-horde game a copy right before the blood moon is a good habit.

The server updates the game automatically on start. When a new version is out, restart the server so that players with the updated client can connect; if you run mods, check that they support the new version first.

Location and ping

7 Days to Die is forgiving about ping, but combat and blocking a doorway during a horde still feel better at low latency. Pick the location closest to most of your players — our guide on choosing a server location applies to any game, and the available cities are on the locations page.