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May 13, 2026

Minecraft Server Properties: Complete Configuration Guide

A complete guide to the Minecraft server.properties file. Learn what each setting does and how to optimise it for your server.


How to Edit server.properties

Open the file manager in your CraftNodes Pterodactyl panel, navigate to the root directory, and click server.properties to edit it in the browser. Save and restart the server for changes to take effect.

Key Settings Explained

  • max-players — Maximum number of players online at once
  • difficulty — peaceful, easy, normal, or hard
  • gamemode — survival, creative, adventure, or spectator
  • pvp — true or false
  • view-distance — Chunks rendered per player (lower = better performance)
  • simulation-distance — Chunks where entities are active (separate from view distance)
  • online-mode — Set to true to require valid Minecraft accounts
  • motd — The message displayed in the server list
  • server-port — Default 25565

Performance Recommendations

Set view-distance to 8-10 for a good balance of performance and player experience. Lower simulation-distance to 6-8 to reduce entity processing. These two changes have the biggest TPS impact.


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