Palworld is at its best in co-op - a shared island, a base full of working Pals, and someone always at the crafting bench. Then the person who started the world stops logging in, and the entire island goes with them.

The question everyone asks next is whether the world can be shared so someone else hosts. It can, but Palworld is fussier about it than most games, and getting it wrong is how groups lose their Pals. Here is what actually needs copying.

Can You Have a Shared World in Palworld?

Not in the way the phrase suggests. There is no jointly-owned world that stays up when you log off.

Palworld’s co-op is host-based: the world lives on one player’s machine, and everyone else is a guest connecting to it. When the host is offline, the island is offline. Your options are:

  • Rent a dedicated server, which keeps the world running independently of anyone’s schedule, for a monthly fee.
  • Move the world save to another player so they can host it instead.

The second is free, and it is what most groups of friends actually want. It just has to be done properly.

Where Is the Palworld Save File Located?

On Windows, for the Steam version:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Pal\Saved\SaveGames\<SteamID64>\<world id>

Two things to notice. The <SteamID64> folder is the host’s Steam ID - which matters when you copy a world to someone else, because it has to end up inside their ID folder, not yours. And <world id> is a long random string, so if a player has started several worlds they will see several of these folders with nothing readable to tell them apart. Sort by date modified and take the most recent.

What Is Inside a Palworld World Folder?

  • Level.sav - the world: terrain changes, bases, buildings, the Pals working in them
  • LevelMeta.sav - metadata about the world
  • WorldOption.sav - the world’s settings
  • LocalData.sav - local data for the save
  • Players/ - one .sav file per player character

The Players folder is the one people skip, and it is the one that costs them everything.

The Character GUID Trap

Palworld identifies each character by a GUID, stored as the filename in Players. That GUID is how the game knows that the level-40 character with 300 Pals is yours.

If the matching file is missing when you join, the game does not error. It quietly decides you are a new player and hands you a brand new character - no Pals, no levels, no inventory. The base is still there, the world is intact, and your character is gone.

This is also why moving a co-op world onto a dedicated server so rarely goes smoothly: co-op and dedicated servers assign GUIDs differently, so the server does not recognise the characters in the file you uploaded. Community conversion tools exist for remapping them, but the cleanest answer for a group of friends is not to make the trip at all - stay in co-op, and pass the hosting duty around instead.

How to Transfer a Palworld World Manually

  1. Close Palworld on the machine you are copying from.
  2. Open %LOCALAPPDATA%\Pal\Saved\SaveGames\<SteamID64>\ and identify the right <world id> folder by its modified date.
  3. Copy the entire folder - Level.sav, LevelMeta.sav, WorldOption.sav, LocalData.sav and Players/ together.
  4. Send it to whoever is hosting next.
  5. They place it inside their own SaveGames\<their SteamID64>\ folder, keeping the world id folder name and everything inside it intact.
  6. They launch Palworld, pick the world, and host.

Back up your own copy before you start. If something goes wrong here, it goes wrong in the direction of missing characters.

How SaveSync Handles It

SaveSync syncs the whole world folder - Players included - across every PC in your group after each session, into the right place on each machine. No hunting for the current world id, no forgetting the character files, no hosting from a copy that is three sessions stale.

Every PC that might host needs SaveSync installed from Steam.

  1. Click Palworld in the list on the left. You’ll see Palworld’s save management page.
  2. Click “+ New Save” in the top right.
  3. Select your world from the dialog.
  4. Click “Create Save”. The save starts syncing.
  5. Wait for the green checkmark.
  6. Click the share icon on your save.
  7. Search for your friend’s Steam username and click Share.
  8. Your friend clicks “Activate” on the shared save, which shows as shared by you. The world is ready, they can host it, and it syncs automatically after that.

SaveSync also keeps a full save history: who uploaded which save and when, with the option to revert to any earlier one.

SaveSync vs. a Dedicated Server

A dedicated server keeps the island up permanently and is the right answer for a big or always-on group. It also costs money every month, needs maintaining, and - as above - moving an existing co-op world onto one is the single most reliable way to lose everybody’s characters.

For four friends playing a couple of evenings a week, syncing the save costs nothing per month and keeps the world exactly as co-op already made it.

Want a Dedicated Server Instead? Try the ServerSync Beta

Some groups would rather nobody had to host at all, without renting a server every month.

ServerSync is our second app, built for exactly that. It runs a Palworld dedicated server on a PC you already own:

  • No port forwarding and no config files. Pick Palworld, name the server, launch it.
  • Start fresh or bring your world. It can convert a local Palworld save you have already played.
  • Free, with optional premium features. It is in beta now - ask for a key in ServerSync’s Discord.

Catch Them All, Whenever

Your base should not go dark because one person picked up a shift. With the world synced across the group, whoever is free tonight opens the island.

New here? Start with Getting Started with SaveSync. Weighing the options? See SaveSync vs. dedicated servers and how to play co-op when the host is offline.