Character Transfer
Character transfer is usually the hardest part of a Palworld move because player identity data is tightly tied to save state. The safe approach is to treat it as a recovery job: back up everything, test on copies, and only promote the result once it has been validated in-game.
For identity rebinds specifically - co-op to dedicated (or back), and now also moving any player's character to a new identity - the free Palworld Save Converter automates it entirely in your browser: pick any character in the save (not just the host) and send it to a Steam-derived ID, the co-op host slot, or a pasted ID. It carries the character, pals, guild, structures, locks, tech unlocks and map data, with the exact steps in a README it generates. That covers the common platform-switch case, such as a Game Pass player who bought the game on Steam and wants to keep their character.
Not sure whether your save needs a host rebind, a Game Pass conversion, or a backup restore first? The free Palworld Save Rescue tool inspects the whole save folder in your browser, inventories every world and rolling backup, and tells you the one operation it actually needs - then hands you to the right fix. Nothing is uploaded, and it never edits a byte during the check.
What A Palworld Save Is Made Of
Almost every failed transfer comes from misunderstanding this split, so it is worth thirty seconds. Inside Pal/Saved/SaveGames/ each world is its own folder, and that folder holds two different kinds of thing:
Level.sav | The world itself: terrain state, bases, structures, guilds, chests, and the Pals living in them. Shared by everyone who plays there. |
|---|---|
Players/<id>.sav | One file per player. Level, tech points, unlocked recipes, map and fast-travel unlocks, Paldeck, effigies, quests, inventory, party Pals and palbox. The filename is the identity. |
The parent folder differs by where the world lives. A dedicated server keeps its worlds under a 0 folder, while a local co-op or single-player world sits under a number derived from your own account. That difference is harmless by itself. The problem is the player file names underneath it.
What Actually Goes Wrong
| The identity changes | A co-op world stores your progress against an ID the co-op host handed out. A dedicated server issues a different one. Copy the world across and the server looks for your character, does not find that ID, and makes you a new level 1 character. The old file is still sitting there, just unclaimed. |
|---|---|
| Only half the save moves | Copying Level.sav without the matching player file gives you your bases with a stranger's character. Copying a player file into a world that does not contain their guild or structures gives you the opposite. The two have to travel together. |
| The destination already claimed you | If you joined the target server once before doing the transfer, it already created a player file for your ID. Your rebound file then has to compete with it, and the server keeps the one it made. |
| The fix is applied to the only copy | The recoverable version of every problem above starts with an untouched original. The unrecoverable version does not. |
Safer Transfer Workflow
- Copy the whole
SaveGamesfolder somewhere outside the game directory. Not the world folder, the whole thing, so rolling backups come with it. - Start the destination server once and let it finish. It only creates its runtime folders on first start, so a folder layout you build by hand beforehand is a guess.
- Write down which player ID belongs to which person before you touch anything. Once several
.savfiles are in play, filenames are the only thing telling them apart. - Do the rebind or copy on the duplicate, never on the live world.
- Join with the converted character and check it in-game before anyone else reconnects.
Verify Before You Reopen The World
Load in and confirm all five, because a partial transfer usually looks fine on the character screen and fails somewhere deeper:
- Level and stat points are what they were.
- Technology is still unlocked, not re-locked back to the start.
- Palbox contents and party Pals are present, and the Pals answer to you rather than showing as someone else's.
- Your bases are yours: you can open your own chests and the guild still lists you.
- Fast travel points and the uncovered map are intact.
When To Stop And Roll Back
- The character loads with missing progress or obvious ownership problems.
- The destination server starts producing new errors after the transfer attempt.
- You can no longer explain which file is the known-good backup. This one is the real stop condition. If you have lost track of which copy is clean, do not make another change, go back to the folder you copied out in step one.
For what to do once the character is on the server, including RCON, the REST API and access control, see Palworld server admin tools.
Need a stable place to test changes before you touch a live world? Launch your Palworld server with Supercraft.