Enable or Disable PVP

Project Zomboid lets you control whether players can attack each other. You can enable full PVP, disable it entirely, or use the Safety System to let individual players choose.

Toggle PVP

Zomboid/Server/[servername].ini

PVP=true

Safety System (Per-Player PVP Toggle)

The Safety System lets individual players opt in or out of PVP. When enabled, players can toggle their PVP status independently.

SafetySystem=true
SafetyToggleTimer=2
SafetyCooldownTimer=3

📝 Note: The Safety System only works when PVP=true. With PVP=false, no player-on-player damage is possible regardless of safety settings.

How Players Use Safety

Players toggle their PVP status from the in-game menu. When a player turns PVP on:

1. A timer counts down (SafetyToggleTimer)
2. After the timer, they can attack and be attacked by other PVP-enabled players
3. They must wait (SafetyCooldownTimer) before they can turn PVP off again

Common Configurations

Full PVP Server

PVP=true
SafetySystem=false

Everyone can attack everyone at all times.

PVE Only (No PVP)

PVP=false

No player-on-player damage at all.

Optional PVP (Recommended for Community Servers)

PVP=true
SafetySystem=true
SafetyToggleTimer=5
SafetyCooldownTimer=10

Players choose whether to participate in PVP. Longer timers prevent people from quickly toggling to ambush others.

PVP and Safehouses

When PVP is enabled, safehouse settings become important:

SafehouseAllowTrepass=true
SafehouseAllowFire=false
SafehouseAllowLoot=false

See Configure Safehouses for detailed safehouse settings.

Related Guides

See also: Safehouses | Ban and Unban Players | Configure Your Server

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