How to Set Building Decay on Your Conan Exiles Server

Building decay automatically removes structures whose owners have not refreshed them within a set time period. This prevents the world from filling up with abandoned bases on public servers.

Decay settings live in ServerSettings.ini alongside other server behavior settings like game rates.

Steps

1. Log into the Game Control Panel and navigate to your Conan Exiles service.
2. Stop the server.
3. Click Configuration Files, then open ServerSettings.ini in the Text Editor.
4. Under [ServerSettings], set the decay values you want (see reference below).
5. Click Save and start the server.

Decay Configuration Reference

EnableStructureDecay=True
StructureDecayLifetime_T1=259200
StructureDecayLifetime_T2=864000
StructureDecayLifetime_T3=1728000
StructureDecayMaxFoundationsPerHour=200

Default Decay Lifetimes

Common Presets

Casual or private server (longer decay):

StructureDecayLifetime_T1=1209600   ; 14 days
StructureDecayLifetime_T2=2419200   ; 28 days
StructureDecayLifetime_T3=4838400   ; 56 days

Hardcore PvP (shorter, encourages active defense):

StructureDecayLifetime_T1=86400     ; 1 day
StructureDecayLifetime_T2=259200    ; 3 days
StructureDecayLifetime_T3=604800    ; 7 days

Disabled (private worlds):

EnableStructureDecay=False

How Decay Works

• Each placed building piece has its own decay timer.
• The timer resets when a clan member (or someone with build permissions) walks near the piece.
• When the timer expires, the piece enters a decayed state and can be demolished by any player.
• After an additional timeout, the game engine removes decayed structures automatically.

Note

Vanilla Conan Exiles does not support per-player decay exemptions. To preserve specific players' bases, increase global timers, have an admin walk past the base to refresh it, or use a mod such as Pippi that adds protected zones.