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How to Enable PvP and Time-Based Events on a V Rising Server

A practical guide to enabling PvP windows and castle raid schedules on a V Rising server, including JSON fields, time zones, preset overrides, backups, testing, and troubleshooting.
Length7 min Posted Quest giverVGSources Team
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To enable scheduled PvP in V Rising, stop the dedicated server, back up its settings, set GameModeType to PvP, change PlayerDamageMode to TimeRestricted, and define weekday and weekend windows under PlayerInteractionSettings. Castle siege hours use separate fields, so you can allow player combat without allowing castle damage—or give both activities different schedules.

The exact folder and filename can vary by server build and hosting panel. Verify the generated default JSON on your machine before editing, and leave any preset override disabled when you want custom times to take effect.

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What scheduled PvP controls

V Rising separates ordinary player damage from damage to castles. A server can therefore have a PvP ruleset with combat available only during specified hours, while castle raiding follows its own windows. This is useful for communities that want meaningful fights but still need predictable periods in which players can build, craft, or sleep without attack.

The schedule is evaluated using the server’s configured time zone. A window such as 16:00–21:30 is a 24-hour clock interval, not a duration. Weekday and weekend values are separate, and the castle schedule does not automatically follow the player-combat schedule.

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Before editing: identify the live settings file

Stop the server first

Use the host control panel’s Stop action, or stop the dedicated-server process on a self-hosted machine. Do not edit while the process is running: the server can overwrite your changes during shutdown or leave a partially written file.

Find the generated JSON

Common installations expose settings in one of two locations:

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  • VRisingServer_Data/StreamingAssets/Settings/
  • the persistent save-data/Settings/ directory

Persistent save-data settings are generally preferable because game updates can replace files in the installation’s StreamingAssets directory. The definitive answer is the folder that already contains the server’s generated settings for the world you run.

Most current guides call the file ServerGameSettings.json. Some community documentation calls it ServerSettings.json. Do not rename files based on a guide alone; use the name present in your server’s own Settings folder. Presets in StreamingAssets/GameSettingPresets, including examples such as StandardPvE.json and StandardPvP.json, can be copied into the persistent Settings folder and saved as ServerGameSettings.json when you need a clean starting point.

Make a backup

Copy the JSON to a separate file before changing anything, for example ServerGameSettings.before-pvp.json. Keep a second copy outside the server directory. A malformed JSON file may become unreadable to the game, and restoring the backup is usually faster than reconstructing every setting.

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Enable unrestricted or scheduled player PvP

Choose the game mode

In the game-settings file, set:

"GameModeType": "PvP"

PvP enables player combat. PvE disables player-versus-player combat. One dedicated-server reference also lists a Duo PvP mode; use it only if that mode appears in the values generated by your installed build or hosting panel, because available options can change between versions.

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Choose how player damage is applied

For a schedule, set:

"PlayerDamageMode": "TimeRestricted"

This makes player damage active only inside the weekday or weekend windows. A mode other than TimeRestricted may allow combat continuously or disable it, depending on the value supported by your build. Preserve the exact capitalization and spelling used in the generated file.

Define the weekday and weekend windows

The two player-window objects are VSPlayerWeekdayTime and VSPlayerWeekendTime, under PlayerInteractionSettings. Each object has four fields:

Field Meaning Example
StartHour Opening hour, 0–23 16
StartMinute Opening minute, 0–59 0
EndHour Closing hour, 0–23 21
EndMinute Closing minute, 0–59 30

A community dedicated-server reference shows this illustrative arrangement:

"PlayerInteractionSettings": {
  "VSPlayerWeekdayTime": {
    "StartHour": 16,
    "StartMinute": 0,
    "EndHour": 21,
    "EndMinute": 30
  },
  "VSPlayerWeekendTime": {
    "StartHour": 17,
    "StartMinute": 0,
    "EndHour": 23,
    "EndMinute": 0
  }
}

Those values mean 16:00–21:30 on weekdays and 17:00–23:00 on weekends in the server’s configured time zone. The reference page is marked work-in-progress, so treat the numbers as an example, not a recommended universal schedule. Your file may contain additional properties inside the same object; retain them unless you intentionally change them.

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Set the server time zone before announcing hours

The TimeZone setting accepts Local, CET, PST, EST, CST, or UTC. Select the value that matches the clock you will publish to players. One community guide describes Local as UTC+0, but behavior can depend on the server build and host environment, so verify it rather than assuming that “local” means the physical location of your machine.

For an international community, UTC is the least ambiguous choice: publish “PvP 16:00–21:30 UTC” and let players convert it. If you choose a regional abbreviation, document that abbreviation in the server’s rules and Discord message. Do not change the time zone after players have planned events without warning; changing it shifts every window at once.

Configure castle raid windows separately

Castle attacks use different keys from player combat. The weekday and weekend castle windows are VSCastleWeekdayTime and VSCastleWeekendTime. Castle damage behavior is controlled by CastleDamageMode, which accepts:

  • Always — castle damage is available continuously.
  • Never — castle damage is disabled.
  • TimeRestricted — castle damage is available only during the castle windows.

To create a protected-build period with scheduled sieges, set CastleDamageMode to TimeRestricted and fill both castle time objects with the same four-part structure used by player windows:

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"VSCastleWeekdayTime": {
  "StartHour": 18,
  "StartMinute": 0,
  "EndHour": 21,
  "EndMinute": 0
},
"VSCastleWeekendTime": {
  "StartHour": 18,
  "StartMinute": 0,
  "EndHour": 23,
  "EndMinute": 0
}

The numbers above are examples only. You might deliberately make castle hours shorter than player-PvP hours, or leave castle damage at Never while testing ordinary combat. A player window does not open a castle window and a castle window does not enable player damage.

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Prevent a preset from undoing your custom schedule

Check ServerHostSettings.json for GameSettingsPreset. If it contains a preset name, that preset can override values in ServerGameSettings.json when the server boots. Leave GameSettingsPreset empty when custom PvP or raid windows must be authoritative. If your host exposes a preset dropdown instead of the JSON field, disable the dropdown selection or choose the host’s equivalent of “custom.”

Presets are still useful for recovery: copy an appropriate preset from StreamingAssets/GameSettingPresets into the persistent Settings directory, name it according to the server’s expected filename, then reapply only the custom fields. Always inspect the resulting file after a preset operation; a preset can reset unrelated gameplay values as well as PvP settings.

Apply the change safely

  1. Stop the server and wait until the control panel reports that the process has exited.
  2. Back up the current game-settings and host-settings JSON files.
  3. Open the active game-settings file with a text editor that preserves UTF-8 and ordinary JSON punctuation.
  4. Set GameModeType to PvP (or the supported Duo PvP value if that is explicitly available in your build).
  5. Set PlayerDamageMode to TimeRestricted.
  6. Under PlayerInteractionSettings, enter VSPlayerWeekdayTime and VSPlayerWeekendTime with 24-hour values.
  7. Set TimeZone and record the chosen zone in your server rules.
  8. If sieges are required, set CastleDamageMode and enter VSCastleWeekdayTime and VSCastleWeekendTime.
  9. Open ServerHostSettings.json and clear GameSettingsPreset if it would override custom values.
  10. Validate the JSON syntax, save the files, and start the server.
  11. Reconnect and test both an in-window and an out-of-window period with consenting players. Test a castle separately; successful player damage does not prove that castle damage is scheduled.

Use the server log or host console to confirm that the world loaded. If the process fails to start, stop it, restore the backup, and then reapply one change at a time.

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Common failures and fixes

The server starts, but PvP is always off

  • Confirm that GameModeType is PvP, not PvE.
  • Check that you edited the file the running world actually uses; a stale copy in StreamingAssets may not be the persistent file.
  • Inspect GameSettingsPreset in ServerHostSettings.json. A non-empty preset can replace your custom values during startup.
  • Verify that the current time falls inside the correct weekday or weekend window and that the configured time zone is understood.

PvP works, but only at some hours

That is the expected result of TimeRestricted. Check the weekday boundary, the weekend boundary, and minutes as well as hours. A window ending at 21:30 does not continue until 22:00.

Players can fight, but castles cannot be damaged

Player combat and castle damage use separate settings. Set CastleDamageMode to TimeRestricted and populate both VSCastleWeekdayTime and VSCastleWeekendTime. If it is Never, no schedule can open sieges.

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Castle attacks occur outside the advertised hours

Check that the castle fields, not only the player fields, were edited. Then verify TimeZone and ensure a host preset is not restoring different values. Restart after each corrected edit.

The file is rejected or the server will not boot

Restore the last known-good backup. JSON requires double quotes around keys and string values, commas between properties, and no trailing comma after the final property in an object. Do not paste comments into the file. Once the server is running again, make one small change, validate it, and restart before making the next change.

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The setting has no effect after a restart

Some server settings cannot be updated after a world has been created. If a documented field remains unchanged after a clean restart, compare it with the generated defaults for the installed version and check whether the setting is creation-time only. Do not delete the world to test this unless you have a verified backup and intend to create a new world.

Recommended schedule design

Small private group

Use PvP with a short evening player window and a still shorter castle window. This concentrates activity without exposing a newly built castle during every hour of the day.

Competitive community

Publish one time zone, use identical weekday values for all players, and make weekend hours explicit rather than assuming that players know which days the server treats as weekends. Keep player combat and castle siege windows visibly separate in the rules.

Testing or event server

Start with CastleDamageMode set to Never while validating player combat. After the player schedule works, add a narrow castle window and test a siege with consenting participants. This isolates two independent systems and reduces the chance of accidentally exposing castles.

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Configuration checklist

  • Server stopped before editing.
  • Original JSON copied outside the live Settings directory.
  • Correct active filename and folder confirmed.
  • GameModeType set to the intended combat mode.
  • PlayerDamageMode set to TimeRestricted for scheduled player combat.
  • Weekday and weekend player windows entered with four valid numeric fields each.
  • TimeZone selected and published to players.
  • Castle mode and castle windows configured independently, if sieges are wanted.
  • GameSettingsPreset cleared when custom values must persist.
  • JSON syntax validated and the server restarted.
  • Both inside-window and outside-window behavior tested for players and castles.

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