Enshrouded lets you tune how tough, generous or punishing your world feels. You can pick a ready-made difficulty preset in a few clicks, or switch to a custom setup and adjust individual values such as enemy health, day length and what happens when a player dies. This guide covers both options, plus what every custom setting does.

The difficulty presets

• Default: every difficulty value is left at its standard setting.
• Relaxed: fewer enemies and more loot and resources. A good choice for newcomers or casual groups.
• Hard: enemies are more aggressive and combat is tougher.
• Survival: similar to Hard, with extra survival mechanics on top.
• Custom: unlocks the individual gameplay settings so you can build your own difficulty.

Only the Custom preset uses the individual settings. If any other preset is selected, the custom values in the file are ignored.

How to change the difficulty preset

1. Sign in to your game control panel and open your Enshrouded server.
2. Stop the server and wait for it to shut down fully.
3. Open Configuration Files in the panel.
4. Open enshrouded_server.json using the text editor.
5. Set Game Setting Preset to the difficulty you want.
6. Select Save & Exit.
7. Start the server.

The new difficulty applies as soon as the server is back online.

How to use custom difficulty settings

1. Follow the steps above, but set Game Setting Preset to Custom.
2. Find the gameSettings section of enshrouded_server.json.
3. Change the values you want. Numbers go in as plain numbers, true and false go in without quotation marks, and word values such as Normal or Hard go inside double quotation marks.
4. Save the file and start the server.

Here is a small example of a custom setup with tougher enemies, shorter nights and a gentler death penalty:

"gameSettingsPreset": "Custom",
"gameSettings": {
  "enemyDamageFactor": 1.5,
  "enemyHealthFactor": 1.25,
  "nightTimeDuration": 480000000000,
  "tombstoneMode": "Everything",
  "weatherFrequency": "Often"
}

You only need to include the settings you want to change. Anything you leave out keeps its default value.

Time values

Settings that deal with time are measured in nanoseconds, so the numbers look very large. One minute is 60000000000. For example, 10 minutes is 600000000000 and 30 minutes is 1800000000000. Enter these numbers exactly, with no commas or spaces.

Player settings

• playerHealthFactor: multiplies player health. Range 0.25 to 4, default 1.
• playerManaFactor: multiplies player mana. Range 0.25 to 4, default 1.
• playerStaminaFactor: multiplies player stamina. Range 0.25 to 4, default 1.
• playerBodyHeatFactor: changes how quickly players are affected by cold. Accepts 0.5, 1, 1.5 or 2, default 1.
• playerDivingTimeFactor: changes how long players can stay underwater. Range 0.5 to 2, default 1.

Survival settings

• enableDurability: turns gear wear on or off. true or false, default true.
• enableStarvingDebuff: turns the penalty for starving on or off. true or false, default false.
• foodBuffDurationFactor: changes how long food bonuses last. Range 0.5 to 2, default 1.
• fromHungerToStarving: how long it takes for a hungry player to start starving. Between 5 and 20 minutes (300000000000 to 1200000000000), default 10 minutes (600000000000).
• shroudTimeFactor: changes how long players can survive in the Shroud. Range 0.5 to 2, default 1.
• enableGliderTurbulences: turns turbulence while gliding on or off. true or false, default true.
• weatherFrequency: how often the weather changes. Disabled, Rare, Normal or Often, default Normal.
• randomSpawnerAmount: how many random spawns appear in the world. Few, Normal, Many or Extreme, default Normal.
• fishingDifficulty: how hard fishing is. VeryEasy, Easy, Normal, Hard or VeryHard, default Normal.

Resource and progression settings

• miningDamageFactor: how much damage mining does to resource nodes. Range 0.5 to 2, default 1.
• plantGrowthSpeedFactor: how fast plants grow. Range 0.25 to 2, default 1.
• resourceDropStackAmountFactor: how many items resources drop. Range 0.25 to 2, default 1.
• factoryProductionSpeedFactor: how fast factories produce items. Range 0.25 to 2, default 1.
• perkUpgradeRecyclingFactor: how much is returned when perk upgrades are recycled. Range 0 to 1, default 0.5.
• perkCostFactor: how much perks cost. Range 0.25 to 2, default 1.
• experienceCombatFactor: experience gained from combat. Range 0.25 to 2, default 1.
• experienceMiningFactor: experience gained from mining. Range 0 to 2, default 1.
• experienceExplorationQuestsFactor: experience gained from exploration and quests. Range 0.25 to 2, default 1.

Enemy settings

Settings marked "regular enemies only" do not affect bosses.

• aggroPoolAmount: how many enemies can be pulled into a fight at once. Few, Normal, Many or Extreme, default Normal.
• enemyDamageFactor: how hard regular enemies hit. Range 0.25 to 5, default 1.
• enemyHealthFactor: how much health regular enemies have. Range 0.25 to 4, default 1.
• enemyStaminaFactor: how much stamina regular enemies have. Range 0.5 to 2, default 1.
• enemyPerceptionRangeFactor: how far away regular enemies can notice players. Range 0.5 to 2, default 1.
• threatBonus: adjusts the threat bonus applied to regular enemies. Range 0.25 to 4, default 1.
• pacifyAllEnemies: when set to true, enemies will not attack. true or false, default false.
• tamingStartleRepercussion: what happens to taming progress when an animal is startled. KeepProgress, LoseSomeProgress or LoseAllProgress, default LoseSomeProgress.
• curseModifier: how common curses are. Easy turns them off, Normal is standard, and Hard doubles the chance. Default Normal.

Boss settings

• bossDamageFactor: how hard bosses hit. Range 0.2 to 5, default 1.
• bossHealthFactor: how much health bosses have. Range 0.2 to 5, default 1.

Time and death settings

• dayTimeDuration: how long daytime lasts. Between 2 and 60 minutes (120000000000 to 3600000000000), default 30 minutes (1800000000000).
• nightTimeDuration: how long night lasts. Between 2 and 60 minutes (120000000000 to 3600000000000), default 12 minutes (720000000000).
• tombstoneMode: what happens to a player's items when they die. AddBackpackMaterials, Everything or NoTombstone, default AddBackpackMaterials.

Troubleshooting

• Custom settings are not applying: make sure Game Setting Preset is set to Custom. Every other preset ignores the individual values.
• The server will not start after an edit: check for a missing comma, a missing quotation mark or a value outside its allowed range. The last setting in a section must not have a comma after it.
• Changes are not taking effect: confirm the server was fully stopped before you edited the file, and that you saved it before starting the server again.

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