The complete guide · 5 min read
Day of Dragons Server Hosting Explained: A Complete Guide
This guide explains how a hosted Day of Dragons server works in 2026: what the dedicated server does, the Game.ini settings that shape a realm, the four server types, player counts and performance, admin tools, growth and eggs, and how to keep up with Beawesome's patches.
By Matthew Griffin, Owner, Gaming DeluxePublished · Updated
In this guide
- What a Day of Dragons Server Is
- Game.ini: Where Every Rule Lives
- Choosing PvP, PvE, DvE or CvC
- Players, Performance and the 100-Player Advice
- Admins, Friends Lists and Bans
- Growth, Nesting, Eggs and Pearls
- Updates, Restarts and Backups
- What to Compare Before You Rent a Day of Dragons Server
- Day of Dragons Server Glossary
- Day of Dragons Server Help and Next Steps
What a Day of Dragons Server Is
Day of Dragons is an online creature survival game: you hatch as a young dragon, eat, drink and grow towards adulthood, and share the world with other players and AI creatures. Steam's description is clear about where that happens: on a dedicated server that you or someone else is hosting.
Beawesome Games runs official servers, but a community server lets you write the rules: whether players can fight, how fast dragons grow, how big clans get and who may join at all. Beawesome makes the dedicated server available for Windows and Linux, and our panel handles installing, updating and starting it.
Game.ini: Where Every Rule Lives
Beawesome's server config guide puts every setting in Game.ini, inside the server's Dragons/Saved/Config folder, under a single header line. Integer settings start with i, true or false switches with b, and text values with s. These are the ones most owners change first:
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| iServerType | 0 | 0 PvP, 1 PvE, 2 DvE, 3 CvC |
| iMaxPlayers | 100 | The player cap; patch 1.2.17 raised the hard limit to 300 |
| iAutoSaveSeconds | 300 | Seconds between autosaves, 60 to 3600 |
| iCorpseDespawnTime | 300 | How long corpses stay, 60 to 1500 seconds |
| iGrowthRateMultiplier | 1 | 0 half speed, 1 normal, 2 one and a half, 3 double |
| iMaxLatencyMS | 0 (off) | Kicks players above a ping you set, 120 to 800 |
| iDailyRestartHour | 0 (off) | An automatic restart at this hour, in UTC |
| sMap | sv_Forest | The map; the Forgotten Forest in Survival mode |
Choosing PvP, PvE, DvE or CvC
The server type is the biggest decision you make, because it decides what kind of community forms around the server.
- PvP (0): every form of PvP is allowed. On PvP servers, bFlagHatchlingKillers can mark adults and elders who kill hatchlings with red eyes for 20 minutes.
- PvE (1): no PvP at all, and the Elemental faction is disabled. Suits relaxed and roleplay servers.
- DvE (2): only faction PvP is allowed.
- CvC (3): faction and clan PvP only; the clan limit is always 255 on these servers.
Roleplay servers can also set bRoleplay=True, which adds an RP tag in the server browser and turns on some roleplay features such as custom names.
Players, Performance and the 100-Player Advice
Beawesome's guidance has been consistent: about 100 players gives the best playability on most servers. When patch 1.2.17 raised the hard cap from 200 to 300 in January 2026, it added that only high-performance Zen 5 servers should go further, with no more than 125 players per dedicated physical CPU core. Its own Sanctuary PvE server was then said to support up to 200.
That is why our listed plans stop at 100 slots, with memory rising from the free 5GB tier to 16GB as the plans grow. The order form sells slots one at a time up to 250 for owners who want to experiment, and lower corpse despawn times help on busy servers, as Beawesome's own guide suggests.
Admins, Friends Lists and Bans
Access is controlled with Steam64 IDs, the 17-digit numbers Steam gives every account. Each list takes one line per player, so adding three admins means three sServerAdmins lines.
- Collect the Steam64 ID of every admin and trusted player.
- Add them to Game.ini on sServerAdmins, sServerFriends or sServerBanned lines.
- Set bUseFriendsList=True if only friends should be able to join.
- Restart, then open the admin panel in game with /admin, adding the password if sServerPassword is set.
The admin panel has grown with each update. Update 1.2 added Grow Elder, Protect and Unprotect, with dangerous commands now needing a two-second hold, and patch 1.2.20 let admins whisper a player by typing @ followed by their Steam ID and a message.
Growth, Nesting, Eggs and Pearls
Growth and breeding are the heart of the game, and the server decides how much they matter. bDisableNesting stops nesting for skins and stat upgrades, while bForceNormalizedEggStats removes the random genetic edge from freshly spawned eggs.
Two newer systems need an owner's attention. Since patch 1.2.20, eggs discarded during Brood Watcher brooding can be saved locally and brought to a private server, if the owner allows it; bDisableEggSaves turns that off. Patch 1.2.31 then added maintenance mode: with bMNTC_RemoveDupes=true the server deletes duplicated items from player inventories and keeps the originals. Beawesome ran the same pearl duplicate removal on its official servers.
Updates, Restarts and Backups
- Updates: run Steam Update after each patch, or schedule it, so your server matches the players' version.
- Restarts: use iDailyRestartHour, which works in UTC, or a Scheduled Task in the panel.
- Backups: take one before maintenance mode or a type change, and rely on our offsite copies of the last 7 days as a safety net.
- Patch notes: read them before updating. New Game.ini options arrive with many updates.
What to Compare Before You Rent a Day of Dragons Server
Hosting offers for Day of Dragons look similar on paper. These details decide how the server runs once it is busy.
- Game.ini accessYou need to edit the full file yourself. Panels that expose only a few settings leave out half the game's options.
- Memory per planAn Unreal Engine 5 server with many players needs more RAM than a small one. Check what each plan includes.
- Honest player countsBeawesome advises about 100 players for most servers. Be wary of huge slot counts with no extra memory.
- Location and pingTest before you buy, especially if you plan to use a latency limit.
- Backups you can restoreMake sure you can back up before maintenance mode and restore without waiting on a ticket.
- Update controlPatches arrive often, so check you can update the server yourself or on a schedule.
Day of Dragons Server Glossary
- Game.ini
- The server's configuration file, holding every rule and list.
- iServerType
- The setting that picks PvP, PvE, DvE or CvC.
- DvE
- A server type where only faction PvP is allowed.
- CvC
- A server type allowing faction and clan PvP only.
- Elemental faction
- A playable faction that PvE servers disable.
- Steam64 ID
- A 17-digit account number used in the admin, friends and ban lists.
- Nesting
- Laying and hatching eggs, used for skins and stat upgrades.
- Dragon Pearls
- Items that add cosmetic or stat bonuses; maintenance mode can remove duplicates.
- Maintenance mode
- A start-up mode, added in patch 1.2.31, that runs clean-up jobs on the server.
- Brood Watcher
- The class 6 heavy tank dragon added in Update 1.2.
Day of Dragons Server Help and Next Steps
The official config guide and our own pages.
- How To - Customize Day of Dragons Server ConfigBeawesome Games' own guide to every Game.ini setting.
- Day of Dragons news on SteamPatch notes, including new server settings.
- How to set up automatic restartsScheduled restarts from our panel.
- Gaming Deluxe control panelHow to log in and what each tool does.
- Our server locations
- Contact support24/7 help with Game.ini, updates and backups.
How this guide was made: researched from the Steam store page, Beawesome Games' patch notes and dev blogs on Steam, and the developer's own server config guide, drafted with AI assistance, checked against our live order form for every plan, price and location, and reviewed by Matthew Griffin before publishing. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
Sources, checked 22 October 2026:
- Day of Dragons on Steam (Beawesome Games, Early Access since 4 December 2019, dedicated server play, Windows)
- How To - Customize Day of Dragons Server Config, SuperRhino [developer] on Steam (last edited 21 February 2024)
- Day of Dragons news on Steam, Beawesome Games (Update 1.0.0, 1.1, 1.2, patches 1.2.17, 1.2.20, 1.2.30, 1.2.31, 1.2.32, Dev Blogs 23 and 29)
- Day of Dragons official site, Beawesome Games
- Gaming Deluxe order form, Day of Dragons Game Server
