For a new co-op world, choose Default. Keen Games describes it as the baseline and recommends it for first-time players. Move to Relaxed when the group wants less friction, Hard when it wants more aggressive combat, and Survival only when everyone agrees to hunger and severe death penalties. Use Custom to fix one specific annoyance rather than turning every difficulty multiplier up at once.
This guide explains what each preset changes, how to build a balanced Custom profile, and how to safely edit a dedicated server’s enshrouded_server.json file after updates.
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Which Enshrouded preset should a co-op group use?
The presets are play-style choices, not steps on a simple easy-to-hard ladder. Pick the rule set that matches how your group spends its sessions and how much downtime it accepts after a mistake.
| Preset | Best for | Main trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Default | First-time co-op and groups wanting the baseline experience | Least tailored; one frustrating mechanic may require a later Custom change |
| Relaxed | Building-first, casual, or irregularly scheduled groups | Lower enemy pressure and more resources or loot can shorten progression |
| Hard | Experienced groups seeking more aggressive combat | More enemies and greater combat pressure increase the chance of a wipe |
| Survival | Players who specifically want additional survival mechanics | Hunger, harsher combat, and backpack loss on death create the most recovery time |
| Custom | Groups with one or two clearly agreed changes | More tuning responsibility, and remembered values can become stale after patches |
Why Default is the safest starting point
Default preserves the intended progression curve without asking a new group to understand every server variable. It gives you a reference point: if mining feels slow, corpse runs are blocking the schedule, or combat is too mild, you can identify that one problem and adjust it instead of guessing at a complete overhaul. Keen Games’ stated position is that Default remains the baseline recommended for first-time players.
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When Relaxed is the better choice
Choose Relaxed when the group has limited play time, includes builders who do not want repeated combat interruptions, or meets too infrequently to recover from lost equipment. Keen Games describes this preset as reducing enemy presence while increasing resources and loot. Those changes remove friction, but they also make gathering and progression faster, so a group focused on long-term scarcity may find it too generous.
When Hard is appropriate
Hard suits players who already understand combat, exploration routes, and equipment recovery and who want the world to demand more attention. Its higher enemy quantity and aggression raise pressure during travel and encounters. The result is not merely enemies with larger health bars; additional opponents and more active attacks can make positioning, stamina management, and retreat decisions more important.
Why Survival should be an explicit group decision
Survival adds hunger, harsher combat, and backpack loss on death. Those mechanics affect every player, including someone who logs in for a short session and may not have time to retrieve a corpse. Use it only after agreeing on how the group will handle lost equipment, food preparation, and recovery trips. It is a deliberate survival ruleset, not a default recommendation for a first world.
Choose settings by the problem you are trying to solve
Before opening the configuration file, write down the specific complaint and the smallest change that would address it. Enshrouded’s server values fall into several independent axes; changing one axis at a time makes the result understandable and reversible.
Combat pressure
Combat pressure includes enemy amount, enemy health, enemy damage, boss health, boss damage, and the number of simultaneous attacks. Raising all of them together can turn a difficult encounter into a damage-sponging grind. If the group wants busier fights, increase enemy amount or aggression while leaving health near baseline. If fights last too long, do not automatically raise enemy damage; review health and gear progression first. Boss damage should be changed separately from ordinary enemy damage because a value that feels exciting in a camp can make a boss encounter disproportionate.
Progression speed
Combat, mining, and exploration or quest XP are separate progression levers. Keep them near baseline unless your schedule creates a clear reason to accelerate them. Excessively fast XP can unlock levels before the group has explored the zones, found appropriate equipment, or learned the associated crafting systems. If only one activity feels slow, adjust that activity rather than applying a global boost.
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Economy and building
Resource gain, stack size, crafting speed, and production timers are usually the least disruptive Custom changes for a building-focused group. More materials reduce repetitive gathering without making enemies stronger or weaker. Larger stacks reduce inventory management. Faster crafting and production shorten waiting, but can also remove the reason to plan a production queue. Change one of these values, test it for a session, and then decide whether another adjustment is still necessary.
Death and durability
Tombstone or inventory-drop behavior and item durability determine the cost of failure. Discuss them before the first expedition. A group that plays in short weekly sessions may prefer inventory protection or materials-only drops so a single disconnect does not consume the next session. Players seeking tension may keep harsher drops while reducing another source of downtime. Do not silently change death rules after people have committed valuable gear to an expedition.
Survival friction
Hunger, shroud timing, stamina, and weather-related pressure can alter the rhythm of travel and exploration. These mechanics interact: a longer trip, tighter stamina, and a harsher shroud timer may create a failure chain even when enemy damage is unchanged. Adjust one survival value at a time and explain the practical effect to everyone before restarting the server.
A balanced Custom profile for regular co-op
The following is an editorial starting point, not a developer preset. It keeps combat recognizable while reducing the kinds of downtime that most often stop a short weekly session. Compare every available field with the current official enshrouded_server.json documentation after a patch; names, ranges, and available options can change.
| Area | Starting approach | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Enemy health and damage | Leave at baseline | Preserves expected combat timing and avoids turning enemies into damage sponges |
| Boss health and damage | Leave at baseline | Keeps major encounters comparable to the normal progression curve |
| Simultaneous attacks | Leave at baseline | Avoids sudden crowd-control and burst-damage spikes while testing other changes |
| Combat XP | Keep at baseline | Prevents combat leveling from outpacing exploration and equipment |
| Mining and exploration or quest XP | Change only if the group has a specific time constraint | Targets the activity that feels slow without accelerating everything |
| Resource gain or stack size | Increase modestly if sessions are short | Reduces gathering and inventory friction without changing encounter difficulty |
| Crafting speed or production timers | Increase only for a building or crafting-focused group | Shortens waiting while leaving combat and XP intact |
| Death drops | Use inventory protection or materials-only drops when corpse runs block play | Protects limited play time; make the decision collectively |
| Hunger, shroud, stamina, and weather pressure | Leave at baseline initially | These systems interact and are easier to evaluate after the core profile is stable |
Apply the profile in stages. Start with one economy or death adjustment, play a complete session, and ask whether the original problem disappeared. If it did, stop there. If combat still feels wrong, change one combat axis rather than compensating with several unrelated multipliers.
How to change settings on a dedicated server
Keen Games documents individual gameplay values in the server configuration. The file is enshrouded_server.json, and each game world has its own file. Editing a stopped server is safer than changing a live file that may be rewritten during shutdown.
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- Tell players the server will be offline. Finish or abandon active expeditions and wait for everyone to disconnect. A settings change cannot recover items lost during an unsafe shutdown.
- Stop the dedicated-server process through your host’s control panel or service manager. Do not edit while the process is still writing world data.
- Locate the world configuration. Find the
enshrouded_server.jsonbelonging to the world you intend to change. Because there is a file per world, verify the world name or directory before editing. - Create a dated backup. Copy the original file before making any change, for example by adding a date to the backup filename. Keep the backup outside the live configuration folder when your host’s control panel might overwrite unknown files.
- Open the JSON as plain text. Change only documented fields. Preserve braces, commas, quotation marks, capitalization, and the existing data types. A number must remain a number; a Boolean must remain a Boolean.
- Save and validate the structure. Use a JSON validator or your editor’s syntax checker before restarting. A missing comma can prevent the server from loading the file even when the intended value is correct.
- Start the server and watch the startup result. Confirm that the service reaches its normal running state and that the expected world loads. If the host exposes logs, check for a configuration parse error rather than assuming the change was accepted.
- Test one change in game. Join with a character whose equipment and location are safe, verify the affected mechanic, and ask other players whether the change solves the original complaint.
- Record the accepted profile. Keep the working file and a short note describing why each non-default value exists. Recheck it after updates instead of treating an old configuration as permanent.
If the file is missing
Keen Games’ settings documentation says the server creates a fresh configuration file on startup when it is missing. Stop the server, confirm that you are working in the correct world directory, and start it once to allow regeneration. Then stop it again before editing the newly created file.
If an edited file is rejected
Restore the backup and start the server to separate a syntax problem from an unsupported value. If the backup works, compare the edited file for a missing comma, an accidental text value, or a field copied from an older version. Do not paste an entire configuration from an old guide when only one setting is needed.
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If an older file was updated incorrectly and the server will not accept it, Keen Games documents deleting the file so the server can generate a fresh one. Stop the process first, preserve a copy outside the live directory, let the server regenerate, and then reapply only settings confirmed by the current documentation. Regeneration can remove custom values, so treat the backup as your reference.
How to make co-op challenging without damage sponges
Challenge comes from decisions, pressure, and consequences, not only from larger health pools. Use this sequence when Default feels too easy:
- Increase encounter pressure before durability. Consider a higher enemy amount or aggression while leaving enemy health at baseline. More targets demand awareness without making every fight a long attrition test.
- Separate ordinary enemies from bosses. If routine encounters are fine but bosses lack impact, evaluate boss-specific health or damage instead of raising every enemy value.
- Change one value per test session. A group cannot tell whether a wipe came from enemy damage, simultaneous attacks, stamina, or a death-drop rule if all changed together.
- Keep progression aligned. Leave XP near baseline while tuning combat. Otherwise, faster levels may hide whether the encounter setting itself is appropriate.
- Set a recovery policy. Decide whether the group accepts a difficult corpse run, uses materials-only drops, or protects inventory. Consequences should create meaningful choices, not end a weekly session before it starts.
If the result is still too easy, raise the next combat axis in a small step and test again. If fights become tedious, reduce health first rather than compensating with more damage.
Settings for different co-op schedules
Short weekly sessions
Start with Default and consider a modest resource or stack increase, normal combat XP, and a less punishing death-drop rule. The goal is to spend the available session exploring and fighting rather than repeating a long recovery trip. Keep hunger and other survival pressures at baseline until the group has enough time to learn their interaction.
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Building-heavy groups
Relaxed is the quickest preset to evaluate because it reduces enemy presence and increases resources and loot. If the group wants normal combat but faster construction, stay on Default and adjust resource gain, stack size, crafting speed, or production timers in Custom. This preserves the danger of expeditions while removing repetitive material work.
Combat-focused groups
Try Hard before creating a complex Custom profile. It supplies a coherent increase in enemy quantity and aggression. Move to Custom only when the group can name the part of Hard it dislikes, such as excessive crowd pressure or a particular boss feeling overtuned.
Hardcore survival groups
Survival is appropriate when hunger, backpack loss, and harsher combat are the attraction. Establish shared storage, food preparation, expedition rules, and a recovery plan before launch. Players who do not want those mechanics should not be pressured into the preset merely because the group wants harder fights; Custom can target combat while leaving survival friction unchanged.
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Keen Games’ 2025 FAQ says a dedicated server should use no more than 6 GB of physical RAM. Treat that as the published planning figure, not as a complete capacity formula. Player count, world activity, the operating system, and other services still affect whether a machine is suitable, so the number does not guarantee a particular concurrency level.
Gameplay settings and hosting are separate decisions. A server can use Default, Relaxed, Hard, Survival, or Custom whether it runs on a machine your group manages or through a managed host. Before paying for hosting, verify the provider’s current backup policy, region, player limit, restart controls, file access, and pricing. Those service terms are not established by the preset descriptions and should be checked on the provider’s own current plan page.
Version-control habits that prevent post-patch surprises
- Keep the original file and each accepted revision with a date.
- Record the game version and the reason for every non-default value.
- After an update, compare the official setting list with your file before changing numbers.
- Test on a safe character location before inviting the entire group back.
- Do not assume a field, range, or spelling from an older guide still exists.
- When a patch changes behavior, return questionable fields to the regenerated defaults and reintroduce only documented changes.
Common mistakes and their fixes
Changing every multiplier at once
Symptom: The group cannot identify why combat or progression feels wrong. Fix: Restore the backup or baseline, then alter one axis per session.
Using Survival to solve a combat complaint
Symptom: The group wants tougher fights but dislikes hunger and backpack loss. Fix: Use Hard or a Custom combat adjustment while leaving survival and death settings at the agreed level.
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Raising XP to compensate for slow materials
Symptom: Characters level faster but still lack the resources or exploration needed for the next area. Fix: Adjust resource gain, stack size, or production timers instead of combat, mining, and exploration XP together.
Editing the wrong world file
Symptom: The server starts normally but nothing changes. Fix: Stop the service, verify the world-specific directory, and confirm the edited file is the one loaded by that instance.
Forgetting the restart
Symptom: Players see the old behavior after saving the file. Fix: Stop and restart the dedicated server, then check startup logs and test with a safe character.
A decision checklist before launch
- Have we agreed whether this is a first-time, casual, combat-focused, or survival-focused world?
- Are we starting on Default unless a specific group preference points to another preset?
- If we use Custom, can we name the single problem each changed value solves?
- Are enemy health, enemy damage, boss values, and simultaneous attacks still at baseline while we test economy changes?
- Have we agreed how tombstones, inventory drops, and durability should work before the first expedition?
- Did we back up
enshrouded_server.jsonand stop the server before editing? - Have we checked the current official setting documentation after the latest patch?
- If self-hosting, have we planned around the published 6 GB physical-RAM guidance without treating it as a player-capacity guarantee?
Bottom line for most groups
Launch a new co-op world on Default. Move to Relaxed for less friction, Hard for more aggressive encounters, and Survival only for a group that genuinely wants hunger and severe death consequences. When one mechanic is the problem, Custom is the precise tool: change economy or death friction first, keep XP and combat near baseline, test one axis at a time, and maintain a versioned backup of the server JSON.
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