On a dedicated Vintage Story server, playstyle is a world-generation setting. Edit WorldConfig.PlayStyle in data/serverconfig.json, back up the existing save, remove the data/Saves/ folder, and restart the server to generate a world with the new preset. Editing the value without creating a new world does not change an existing map.
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The five valid values are surviveandbuild (the default), exploration, homosapiens, wildernesssurvival and creativebuilding. Choose the preset before resetting the world, because the reset is the part that makes the setting take effect.
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What the PlayStyle setting controls
Vintage Story stores playstyle in the server’s world-generation configuration. On a dedicated server, the setting is nested in the WorldConfig object in data/serverconfig.json. A common hosted-server path is /home/container/data/serverconfig.json, although the panel may display a different root directory.
The value is read when the world is generated. It is not a live difficulty switch for an existing save. If you change the JSON while keeping the current world in place, that world continues using the settings with which it was created. The practical, supported workflow is therefore:
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- Stop the server before changing files.
- Back up the current save.
- Change
WorldConfig.PlayStyle. - Remove or move the existing
data/Saves/directory so the server has no world to load. - Start the server and let it generate a new world.
Some brief hosting summaries have suggested that the value can be swapped on an existing world. More detailed setup guides and the documented generation behavior point to a new-world requirement, so treat a fresh world as necessary. Keep the old save as a backup rather than deleting it permanently.
Valid playstyle values
The configuration accepts five preset strings. Use the lowercase spelling exactly; changing capitalization or inserting spaces can make the value invalid.
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| Config value | Purpose and pressure | Distinctive behavior | Evidence and caveats |
|---|---|---|---|
surviveandbuild |
General-purpose balance of survival, exploration and building. | This is the default preset. The wiki labels the corresponding default experience “Standard”; that name-to-value match is inferred from the wiki description and the configuration default. | Default value listed in the configuration and playstyle documentation. |
exploration |
Less combat and survival pressure for players who want to explore. | Recommended by the Getting Started guidance for absolute beginners, because the default difficulty can be unforgiving. | Beginner recommendation comes from the official Getting Started guidance. |
homosapiens |
A non-mystical survival experience. | Removes mystical lore features, including traders and ancient ruins. | Preset behavior is described by the playstyle documentation. |
wildernesssurvival |
Harder combat and survival pressure. | New players respawn randomly within 5,000 blocks after death. | The respawn detail is from a community-written draft page, not an official specification. |
creativebuilding |
Construction without the normal survival progression. | Generates a flat building world and enables Creative Mode from the start. | Preset behavior is listed in the playstyle documentation. |
Official material does not provide a complete, authoritative table of every underlying value—such as starting health or each temporal mechanic—for all five presets. Avoid treating detailed numbers from community drafts as official settings.
Choose a preset before resetting the world
Use surviveandbuild for a mixed server
This is the default and the closest fit when one server must support ordinary survival, exploration and construction. It is the sensible choice for a new group that has not agreed on a specialist ruleset. Because it is the default, a server that has never had its playstyle changed will normally use this value.
Use exploration for beginners or low-pressure discovery
Exploration is intended for players who want less combat and survival pressure. The Getting Started guidance recommends this template for absolute beginners. It is also a useful choice when the server’s main activity is visiting new terrain and learning the systems rather than defending a demanding base.
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Use homosapiens for a non-mystical setting
Homo Sapiens removes the mystical lore features: traders and ancient ruins do not appear. Select it when the group wants a grounded survival environment and is deliberately giving up those lore elements. It is a world-generation decision, so switching later means creating another world.
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Wilderness Survival is aimed at harder combat and survival. The community draft describing this preset says that a new player is placed randomly within 5,000 blocks on death. Treat that respawn behavior as community-sourced rather than a guaranteed official contract, and tell players about the uncertainty before they commit to the server.
Use creativebuilding for a flat construction server
Creative Building generates a flat world and starts players in Creative Mode. It is appropriate for architectural projects, testing layouts and collaborative building rather than a survival campaign. If you want a normal terrain map with survival progression, use one of the other presets instead.
Prepare the server safely
A playstyle change is also a world reset. Complete these checks before touching the configuration:
- Tell players that the map will be replaced. A new generation does not preserve progress in the old world unless you keep and restore that save separately.
- Confirm administrative access. You need permission to stop the server, edit files and manage the
data/Saves/directory. - Stop the process cleanly. Do not edit the JSON while the server is running; a shutdown can overwrite or lock files.
- Identify the correct instance. If your host runs several servers, verify that the path and server name belong to the intended instance.
- Make a restorable backup. Download the complete
data/Saves/folder or copy it to a clearly named location outside the active save directory. - Record the current configuration. Keep a copy of
serverconfig.jsonas well as the save, so you can restore the previous setup.
Change PlayStyle in a hosting panel
- Stop the server. Use the panel’s Stop control and wait until the status shows that the process has exited.
- Open the configuration file. In the file manager, navigate to
data/serverconfig.json. Some panels expose the same file at/home/container/data/serverconfig.json. - Find the WorldConfig object. Search the file for
"WorldConfig", then locate the"PlayStyle"property inside that object. Do not edit an unrelated setting with a similar name. - Replace only the value. Set the value to one of the five supported strings, preserving the quotation marks and comma placement. For example, to use Exploration, the relevant entry should read
"PlayStyle": "exploration". - Save the file. If the panel has a built-in JSON editor, use its save function. If it offers validation, correct any syntax error before continuing.
- Back up the current world again if needed. Do this before deleting the active save, particularly if other administrators may have changed it since your first backup.
- Remove the active save directory. In the file manager, move or delete
data/Saves/. Moving it to a backup location is safer than permanent deletion and still leaves the server free to generate a new world. - Start the server. The first startup after the removal creates a fresh world using the selected playstyle.
- Join and check the result. Confirm that the new map has the expected character: a flat Creative Building world, a lower-pressure Exploration experience, a non-mystical Homo Sapiens world, or the selected survival preset.
Do not upload the old save back into data/Saves/ after starting if you want the new playstyle to remain active. Restoring that directory makes the server load the previous world again.
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Edit the JSON without breaking it
The file is JSON, so punctuation matters. A minimal excerpt might look like this:
{
"WorldConfig": {
"PlayStyle": "exploration"
}
}Your real file contains many additional properties. Keep them intact and change only the string after "PlayStyle". The following rules prevent the most common editing mistakes:
- Keep double quotes around both the property name and value.
- Keep the comma after the
PlayStyleline when another property follows it. - Do not add comments; standard JSON does not support them.
- Use one of the exact lowercase values:
surviveandbuild,exploration,homosapiens,wildernesssurvivalorcreativebuilding. - Do not replace the entire file with the short excerpt above; it is only an illustration of the nested property.
If you edit locally and upload the file, preserve the .json extension and plain-text encoding. A rich-text editor can insert characters that make the file unreadable.
Optional command-line workflow
Administrators with shell access can perform the same operation manually. Run these commands only after stopping the server and verifying that the working directory is the server instance:
cp -a data/Saves data/Saves.backup
# edit data/serverconfig.json and set WorldConfig.PlayStyle
mv data/Saves data/Saves.oldThe copy and move preserve the old world under a different name. Start the server after the move so it sees no active data/Saves/ directory and generates a new one. If your installation uses a different working directory, use the full path shown by your server host. Never run a recursive delete until you have confirmed that the backup opens and belongs to the correct server.
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How to verify that the change took effect
Verification has two parts: configuration and world generation.
Check the configuration
Stop the server and reopen data/serverconfig.json if necessary. Confirm that WorldConfig.PlayStyle contains the value you intended. This catches edits made to the wrong file or to a different server instance.
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Check that a new save was created
After startup, inspect the server’s data/Saves/ directory. A newly generated save should appear after the old directory was moved or removed. If the old world is still present under the active Saves path, the server may simply have loaded it again.
Check the in-game characteristics
Join with a test account before inviting the full player group. A flat world with Creative Mode indicates Creative Building; the absence of traders and ancient ruins is consistent with Homo Sapiens; and the overall combat and survival pressure should match the selected Exploration, Standard or Wilderness Survival goal. These observations confirm the practical result without relying on undocumented per-setting numbers.
Troubleshooting
The server will not start after editing
The usual cause is invalid JSON: a missing comma, mismatched quotation mark or an accidental comment. Stop the process, restore the last known-good serverconfig.json, and reapply only the value change with a JSON-aware editor. If the panel reports a line number, inspect that line and the line immediately before it; punctuation errors often occur at the end of the preceding property.
The server starts, but the old playstyle remains
Check whether the old world is still in data/Saves/. Changing PlayStyle alone does not retrofit an existing map. Stop the server, back up the save, move the active Saves directory out of the data path, and start again.
The setting appears unchanged after a reset
Verify that you edited the server’s own data/serverconfig.json, not a similarly named local or backup file. Recheck the spelling and lowercase value, then confirm that the old save was actually moved or deleted before startup. A second server instance or a panel’s separate configuration area can otherwise make a correct edit appear ineffective.
Players want to keep the existing map
Keep the old save as a separate backup and continue running it on the original configuration, or create a separate server instance for the new preset. There is no documented in-place conversion that applies a new playstyle to an already generated world. Switching the active instance to the new preset requires a new world.
You deleted the wrong save
Stop the server immediately. Remove the newly generated active save, restore the backed-up directory to data/Saves/, and restore the matching configuration file. Do not overwrite the backup with the new world while investigating which directory was removed.
Decision guide for server administrators
| If your group wants… | Set PlayStyle to… |
Before launch, explain… |
|---|---|---|
| A balanced first server | surviveandbuild |
This is the default balance of survival, exploration and building. |
| A gentler introduction and more exploration | exploration |
Combat and survival pressure are reduced compared with the standard experience. |
| A world without mystical lore elements | homosapiens |
Traders and ancient ruins are removed. |
| A demanding survival challenge | wildernesssurvival |
Combat and survival are harder; the 5,000-block random-respawn detail is community-sourced. |
| A flat creative construction space | creativebuilding |
The world is flat and Creative Mode is enabled from the start. |
Make the choice collectively before the reset. Because the preset is part of world generation, changing it after players build a settlement means asking them to start over or maintaining another world for the alternate ruleset.
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Key limitations to keep in mind
- Playstyle is not an on-the-fly server toggle; it is consumed during world generation.
- A configuration edit without a new world has no practical effect on the current save.
- The five preset names are known, but an official source does not establish every low-level value for each preset.
- Detailed claims about Wilderness Survival’s random 5,000-block respawn come from a user-written draft and should be presented as community information.
- Keep independent backups before every reset so you can return to the previous map and configuration.
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