Alpha Respawn Scheduler

Know when the next field Alpha is due—without waiting for Palworld's next day change.

Alpha Respawn Scheduler gives newly defeated or captured field Alpha bosses a real-time cooldown controlled by the world host. The default is 1,800 seconds, or 30 minutes. Change that value for the whole world, or give individual boss spawners their own schedules.

This is an original UE4SS Lua implementation. It uses Palworld's authoritative spawner and saved boss-disable state rather than replacing game assets with a .pak.

Features

• Real seconds, not game days: Field Alphas return after the configured number of seconds.
• Two offline behaviors: Pause the countdown while the host is stopped, or keep counting wall-clock time.
• Per-boss schedules: Give an exact spawner name a shorter or longer cooldown.
• Authoritative multiplayer: The server or co-op host owns the timer and respawn decision.
• Restart persistence: Active cooldowns are saved in a small per-world sidecar file.
• Crash-aware checkpoints: Remaining time is written every 15 seconds by default, limiting ordinary rollback after a forced stop.
• World-partition retries: An expired timer remains pending if its spawner is unloaded and retries when the object is available.
• Failure rollback: If Palworld rejects a respawn request, the boss stays safely disabled for a later retry.
• Code only: No cooked Blueprint, asset-replacement .pak, or client widget is included.

What it affects

The mod schedules field Alpha bosses defeated or captured after it is installed. It does not change dungeon bosses, tower bosses, raid bosses, cave bosses, or field Alphas that were already unavailable before the mod began tracking them.

An existing timer is not restarted when Palworld fires more than one completion callback for the same boss.

Multiplayer installation

Install the mod on the machine that owns the world:

• Windows dedicated server: Install it on PalServer. The design does not require a client copy.
• Listen-server co-op: The host installs it. Guests can remain unmodded.
• Single-player: Install it in the local Palworld client.

The package contains client-host and Windows-server rules because the authoritative world can live in either process. A joining client fails the authority check and leaves the respawn system untouched.

Server-only behavior with unmodded clients still needs a recorded live test for this beta. Back up your world and review the release notes before using it on a long-running server.

Automatic installation

Choose Install on PalMods and select the authoritative target. PalMods uses the included Info.json rules to place the Lua payload in its isolated UE4SS mod folder.

Do not install a second copy on clients that only join a modded dedicated server. It is unnecessary for the intended server-authoritative behavior.

Manual installation

Automatic installation is recommended. For a manual Steam client or Windows dedicated-server installation:

1. Install a Palworld-compatible UE4SS build.
2. Create Pal/Binaries/Win64/ue4ss/Mods/AlphaRespawnScheduler/ in the authoritative game or server installation.
3. Copy the archive's Scripts folder into that directory.
4. Confirm these files exist:

• Pal/Binaries/Win64/ue4ss/Mods/AlphaRespawnScheduler/Scripts/main.lua
• Pal/Binaries/Win64/ue4ss/Mods/AlphaRespawnScheduler/Scripts/config.lua

1. Add AlphaRespawnScheduler : 1 to UE4SS's Mods/mods.txt, or place an empty enabled.txt in the mod folder.
2. Fully restart the game or server.

Configuration

Stop the game or server before editing AlphaRespawnScheduler/Scripts/config.lua.

• default_cooldown_seconds = 1800 sets the normal field Alpha cooldown.
• clock_mode = "active" pauses timers while Palworld or PalServer is stopped.
• clock_mode = "wall" includes time spent offline.
• checkpoint_seconds = 15 controls periodic state snapshots while timers run.
• expired_scan_seconds = 5 controls how often a due timer searches for an unloaded spawner.
• boss_overrides assigns a custom cooldown to an exact stable spawner name.
• verbose_logging = true adds discovery and checkpoint details to UE4SS.log.

Supported cooldown values range from 1 second through 2,592,000 seconds (30 days). Invalid configuration falls back or clamps to safe bounds.

When a cooldown begins, the log prints its stable spawner name. Copy that exact name into boss_overrides:

lua
boss_overrides = {
    ["EXACT_NAME_FROM_UE4SS_LOG"] = 900,
},

Restart the authoritative game or server after changing the file. A timer that is already running keeps its saved remaining time; new defeats and captures use the new duration.

Active time or wall-clock time?

Use active when players should receive the full configured wait during actual game/server runtime. A 30-minute timer still has 30 minutes left if the server shuts down immediately and returns tomorrow.

Use wall when the real-world deadline should continue during maintenance and offline periods. If a 30-minute timer is saved and the server returns an hour later, it loads as expired and requests the boss respawn when its spawner is available.

State files

The mod creates files named alpha_respawn_<world>.state beside its Lua scripts. Each world gets an isolated list of stable spawner names and remaining seconds. State is written atomically through a temporary file and is not a replacement for Palworld's Level.sav.

New timers, completed timers, clean world changes, and clean mod reloads save immediately. Active timers also checkpoint at the configured interval.

Make regular world backups. This is a beta that coordinates with live boss spawner and save-state flags.

No map countdown overlay

Version 1.0.0-beta.1 intentionally does not add a map widget. A server-only Lua mod cannot draw UI for an unmodded remote player, and map-widget hooks are more sensitive to Palworld updates than the authoritative respawn core.

Timer starts and completions are available in UE4SS.log; enable verbose logging for checkpoint and hook diagnostics.

Compatibility

Do not combine Alpha Respawn Scheduler with another mod that changes field-boss respawn timing, RespawnDisableFlag, spawner RespawnTime, temporary spawn disable flags, or external respawn requests. Competing code can make the final result depend on hook order.

Dungeon-only timer mods use a different system, but test every combination on a backed-up world before relying on it.

Uninstallation

For the cleanest removal, let every managed field Alpha cooldown finish, stop the game or server, and uninstall the mod through PalMods. For a manual install, remove:

Pal/Binaries/Win64/ue4ss/Mods/AlphaRespawnScheduler/

If enabled through mods.txt, remove its entry and restart.

Do not delete sidecar files while they contain active timers. Removing the mod mid-cooldown also removes the code responsible for clearing its temporary spawn block, so confirm every affected boss is available before cleanup.