Palworld 1.0 — Wipe or Keep Your Server's World?
Last verified: July 11, 2026, the day after launch. Saves carry over (one exception: v0.7.3-and-earlier save data does not) and configs need no migration. Pocketpair's community manager put it plainly: “You do not need to wipe your data for Palworld 1.0, but you should.” This guide covers the call either way.
Every Palworld server owner is having the same conversation this launch week: 1.0 landed July 10 with a map that roughly doubles — do we wipe, or do we carry the old world across? The patch notes confirm saves carry over and configs need no migration, so old worlds load and play — but Pocketpair recommends a fresh start for the new regions, so this guide does what a server owner actually needs: lays out the decision under both outcomes, the honest arguments each way, and the middle paths — so the call gets made calmly rather than in a Discord argument on launch night. For everything else in the update, see the full Palworld 1.0 guide.
The compatibility reality (what we know, what we don't)
- Known: 1.0 adds the World Tree region and the Sunreach sky island; together they roughly double the playable landmass. The breeding rework (Mutation and Awakening) is in, dedicated servers gained in-game voice chat, guild roles, and optimized processing, and — crucially for this decision — saves carry over with all 88 pre-1.0 settings intact, so configs need no migration — with one hard boundary from the changelog: save data from v0.7.3 and earlier is no longer carried over, so servers dormant since those old builds must start fresh. Server Clustering is groundwork only: the 1.0 server binary carries cluster fields, but it's absent from the changelog and PalWorldSettings, with no supported config path yet. Details: our Palworld 1.0 feature reference.
- Unknown: whether existing worlds generate the new regions fully, partially, or not at all. Palworld's track record is friendly — previous updates kept old worlds loadable — but doubling a map is a different class of change, and survival-game precedent says big new terrain favors fresh worlds.
- Planning stance: assume old worlds will load and play, and assume the new content will be at its best on a fresh map. Both halves of that have been true for nearly every comparable launch.
The case for wiping
- The content is the map. 1.0's headline is geography. A world that cannot fully generate the second island misses the update's center of mass.
- Launch day is the recruiting event of the year — and the wave showed up. Launch night peaked at 472,769 concurrent players on Steam, fourth on all of Steam that day and roughly 10x the pre-launch count, and those players search for fresh worlds. A "Fresh 1.0 — started July 10" listing fills itself; a year-old world with established empires does not.
- Equal footing keeps newcomers. Veterans with end-game bases and perfect breeding lines are, to a day-one joiner, scenery. Resets are how public servers stay joinable.
The case for keeping
- The history is the product. For a closed friend-group server, the bases, the breeding projects, the shared landmarks are the game. Freshness is worth less than continuity to a community that is not recruiting.
- The friendly precedent. If 1.0 follows Palworld's own update history, old worlds will load fine and some or all new content will be reachable. Wiping preemptively could mean deleting a year for nothing.
- You can always wipe later. A keep decision is reversible in August; a wipe is not. When genuinely torn, the asymmetry favors keeping — if you are willing to give up the launch-wave recruiting window, which does not come back.
The middle paths (often the right answer)
- Run a second server for launch month. Old world keeps running; a fresh 1.0 world opens July 10 and catches the wave. After a month, merge the community's attention wherever it settled. Lowest-risk option for established communities that still want growth.
- Clustering is not an option yet. Server Clustering isn't a usable 1.0 feature: it's absent from the changelog and from PalWorldSettings, and Pocketpair hasn't published how to configure it — though the 1.0 server binary does carry cluster fields (ClusterNode, ClusterGroupIndex, connection settings), so the groundwork exists with no supported config path today. Until that changes, the realistic middle paths are the second server above and the archive below — don't promise cluster transfers to your players.
- Archive with honors. Final backup, a download link for the old world, a screenshot night before the wipe. Communities accept resets that are treated as chapter endings instead of deletions.
The launch-week checklist (both paths)
- Backup, restore-tested, before you apply 1.0 — and again before any launch-week hotfix. Two update events in fifteen days (June 25 Tides of Terraria, July 10 1.0) meant two chances for a bad migration.
- Announce the decision before you act. Whatever you choose, the community accepting it depends on hearing it in advance with reasons.
- Mods: delete, don't disable. Pocketpair's official warning is that disabling old mods "is not enough" — stale Early Access mod files are the top confirmed cause of 1.0 crashes and corrupted saves. Critical-mod servers should run vanilla-ish for launch week rather than delay the update.
- Keeping the world? Check the config too. Configs need no migration, but if you have a heavily tuned pre-1.0
PalWorldSettings.ini, the free 1.0 Config Migration Doctor verifies it against 1.0 and adds the 31 new keys with sane values. - Fresh-world servers: the wave is live now. Launch night peaked at 472,769 concurrent on Steam. Settings dialed, listing written, capacity sized for double your usual peak.
Opening a fresh world for the 1.0 wave — or a second server next to your old one? Rent a Palworld dedicated server with Supercraft and be listed before July 10.
Looking for managed Palworld server hosting? Supercraft runs Palworld dedicated servers with daily backups, instant setup, and 5 region options. Plans from $5.99/mo.