Project Zomboid: How to Raise XP on Your Server, Globally or per Skill

Where the XP multiplier is

It's in the world settings, the server's <name>_SandboxVars.lua file (servertest_SandboxVars.lua if nobody renamed it), inside the MultiplierConfig block. It isn't in the .ini: that one holds the server options (password, players, PvP).

If you play from “Host” on your PC, these are the same sandbox settings you pick when you create that server, and they're saved in that same file, in your user's Zomboid/Server folder.

On NapNodes you don't need to open the file: the panel's “Settings” has an “Experience (multipliers)” block with all of them. Type “multiplier” in the search box at the top and they show up.

Global or skill by skill

Global (“Global Multiplier”): how fast every skill levels up at once. It only counts if GlobalToggle (“Use Global Multiplier”) is turned on.

With GlobalToggle on, every skill uses the global multiplier and the per-skill ones do nothing. Turn it off to give each skill its own: Fitness, Strength, Woodwork (Carpentry), Cooking, Farming, Doctor (First Aid), Electricity (Electrical), MetalWelding (Metalworking), Mechanics, Tailoring, Aiming, the weapon skills, and the new Build 42 ones such as Masonry, Pottery, Blacksmith, Husbandry (Animal Care), Tracking or Butchering.

It's the most common mistake: raising Carpentry with the global multiplier on and seeing nothing change.

What number to use

1 is the game's normal XP; 2, double; 0.5, half. In the file it's written with a decimal point (2.0); in the panel you type the number and it saves automatically.

For a group that plays a few hours a week, between 2 and 3 lets you watch characters progress without skipping the game. Above 5, within a few days everyone is a carpenter and a mechanic, and the fun of hunting for books and splitting up the trades is gone.

Per skill makes more sense: raise the ones that take forever on a server (Fitness, Strength, Mechanics, Electrical, Metalworking) and leave the rest at 1. Everyone still has to specialise, but nobody spends a month doing push-ups.

Changing it step by step

1. Open the settings

   On NapNodes, the server's “Settings”, “Experience (multipliers)” block. On another server, stop it and open <name>_SandboxVars.lua (on NapNodes it's there too, in “Files” → .cache/Server/napnodes_SandboxVars.lua).

2. Choose global or per skill

   To raise everything equally, leave “Use Global Multiplier” on (GlobalToggle = true) and change “Global Multiplier” (Global). To go skill by skill, turn it off and change the ones you want.

3. Save

   In the panel it saves automatically when you change the value. In the file, mind the comma at the end of each line: without it, the server won't start.

4. Restart

   Press “Restart” (or start the server). World settings are read on start; from then on, the XP each player earns uses the new multiplier.

Other settings that change how fast you learn

In the same “Settings”, searching by name:

“Skill Books” (SkillBookLoot): how many skill books spawn. Reading them multiplies that skill's XP, so a server with few books levels up more slowly even with a high multiplier.

“Maximum Media XP Level” (LevelForMediaXPCutoff): the level from which TV, VHS tapes and other media stop giving XP for that skill. “Maximum Dismantling XP Level” (LevelForDismantleXPCutoff), the same for scrapping furniture (except Electrical).

“Literature Cooldown Days” (LiteratureCooldown): how many days you have to wait before you can benefit again from something you've already read.

“Free Trait Points” (CharacterFreePoints) and “Negative Traits Penalty” (NegativeTraitsPenalty): they don't touch XP, but they change what each character starts with. They only count when creating a new one.

Giving XP to a specific player

To make it up to someone (a character lost to a bug, an event prize), an admin can give it by hand with /addxp "name" Skill=amount. It's with the rest in the Project Zomboid admin commands.

To keep track, PerkLogs (in the .ini) records every player level change in the server log, PerkLog.txt. And the server has an XP anti-cheat, AntiCheatXP: if with very high multipliers it kicks someone for levelling too fast, that's the setting (on NapNodes, in the “Anti-cheat and logs” block). Read its help text before touching it.

Build 42 vs Build 41

Build 41 had a single multiplier for every skill; the per-skill one (MultiplierConfig) is from Build 42, like the new trade skills. If you're coming from a Build 41 server, the old number doesn't carry over: you have to set it again. Everything else that changes is in Build 42 vs Build 41.

Frequently asked questions