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For a first story run in The Forest, start a new game on Normal. It preserves the survival, crafting and combat systems without imposing the harsher modifiers of the top difficulties. In co-op, the host should choose Normal and the optional world rules before inviting anyone. Use Peaceful for building and exploration, Hard after the group understands the systems, and Hard Survival only when everyone wants a deliberately punishing game.
For graphics, select your monitor’s native resolution and fullscreen first. If performance fluctuates, reduce shadows, far shadows, draw distance, grass distance and grass density before lowering texture quality. The game exposes these controls, but there is no universal “best” preset or published FPS benchmark that applies to every PC.
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Choose the difficulty before you create the world
Difficulty is selected while creating a new game and is not normally changeable afterward through the standard interface. Treat the choice as a world-level decision rather than a temporary setting. If you later want a different difficulty, the documented route is to start another world; changing an existing save generally requires unofficial mods or commands, which can introduce compatibility and save-integrity risks.
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| Difficulty | Enemy pressure | Survival pressure | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peaceful | Main enemy threat is removed from the normal game loop. | Resources and survival systems remain available without the usual enemy pressure. | Exploration, construction, sightseeing and players who do not want regular combat. |
| Normal | Standard cannibal and mutant encounters. | Balanced food, water, shelter and resource demands. | Most first solo or co-op story runs. |
| Hard | More demanding combat and encounters than Normal. | Less room for mistakes in a long-running survival save. | Players who already understand combat, food, water and shelter. |
| Hard Survival | Strongest documented enemy challenge among the listed modes. | Most punishing documented survival modifiers. | Experienced players deliberately seeking a high-pressure run. |
These labels describe the role of each mode, not a measured difficulty score. The settings documentation does not publish a universal enemy-damage, spawn-rate or resource multiplier for every mode, so avoid treating the table as a precise numerical scale.
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Normal: the reliable first-run setting
Normal is the safest recommendation when you are learning the survival loop. You still need to gather materials, find food and water, build shelter, manage the night and decide when combat is worth the risk. New players can learn those systems without the additional pressure associated with Hard or Hard Survival.
Peaceful: a construction and exploration world
Peaceful is appropriate when the objective is a base, a scenic exploration trip or a low-stress introduction to crafting. It removes the normal enemy threat that drives much of the game’s tension. Select it knowingly: a Peaceful save will not teach you how to handle the regular combat and pursuit patterns that you will face in a Normal or Hard story.
Hard and Hard Survival: reserve them for prepared groups
Hard becomes reasonable after you can consistently secure food and water, establish a safe shelter and make informed combat decisions. Hard Survival is for players who already know the map and survival routine and want the strongest documented challenge. In a mixed-experience group, the least prepared player often determines the pace, so agree on the mode before anyone joins.
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Difficulty is not the only decision that can become part of a long-running save. The game also exposes optional rules for tree regrowth and building destruction. Set them before starting and explain the choice to everyone in a shared world.
Tree regrowth
Enable tree regrowth when you want a renewable supply of building material over a long campaign. Disable it if your group prefers a visibly changing landscape and wants every felled tree to be a more permanent environmental decision. Neither option is universally correct; the important point is that the rule shapes how a base expands and how much travel later construction requires.
Building destruction
Building destruction determines whether structures can be damaged or lost through the world’s destructive systems. Leave it enabled when accidents and environmental risk are part of the challenge. Turn it off when the group is treating the save primarily as a cooperative construction project and does not want an accidental hit to erase work. Discuss the setting before building large structures, because changing expectations after a major loss causes more friction than either choice.
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Recommended singleplayer configurations
Use the following profiles as starting points rather than mandatory presets. They combine the documented difficulty and world-rule choices with a clear reason for each.
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Learn the story and survival loop | Normal | On or off, according to how permanent you want the landscape to feel | On for the intended challenge; off if you are protecting an experimental first base | Retains the core systems without the extra pressure of Hard. |
| Build and explore peacefully | Peaceful | On for an easier long-term material supply | Off when construction is the priority | Removes normal enemy pressure while keeping crafting and exploration. |
| Challenge after learning the game | Hard | Choose based on whether you want the forest to recover | On if structural risk is part of the challenge | Raises the consequences of weak preparation without going straight to the harshest mode. |
| Maximum documented survival pressure | Hard Survival | Choose deliberately before creating the save | Usually on for a full-risk run | Designed for experienced players who want the strongest listed modifiers. |
How to start a singleplayer world
- From the main menu, choose the option to start a new game.
- Select the difficulty: Peaceful, Normal, Hard or Hard Survival.
- Review the optional tree-regrowth and building-destruction rules.
- Confirm the world and create the save only after those choices match your intended play style.
- Once the world loads, establish an initial shelter and basic supplies before committing to a large permanent base. This gives you a safe place to recover if an early plan fails.
Best multiplayer settings: the host sets the world
In a standard multiplayer session, the host controls the world-level choices. Host-enabled optional modes take effect for the session, so joining players should not expect to override the host’s difficulty or world rules from their own options menu. Agree on those choices in chat or voice before the invitation is sent.
A dependable first co-op setup
For a first shared story, use Normal with tree regrowth enabled. Normal keeps combat and resource pressure meaningful, while regrowth reduces the chance that a long campaign exhausts the nearby building supply. Decide building destruction separately: enable it when the group accepts accidental damage as part of survival, or disable it for a more forgiving construction-focused run.
When Peaceful is better for a group
Choose Peaceful when the session’s purpose is cooperative construction, map exploration or showing a new player the crafting systems without regular enemy attacks. Tell everyone that this mode removes the normal enemy threat; otherwise a player expecting the standard story tension may consider the session unexpectedly quiet.
When a group should move to Hard
Use Hard only when all regular participants understand food, water, shelter and combat fundamentals. A single inexperienced player can turn a high-pressure world into repeated rescue trips, so make the choice a group decision rather than the preference of the most advanced player. Hard Survival should be reserved for a team that specifically wants severe consequences and is comfortable abandoning a failed run.
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How to host a new co-op world
- Choose multiplayer hosting and select the option to create a new game.
- Set Peaceful, Normal, Hard or Hard Survival before the lobby is opened.
- Set tree regrowth and building destruction while creating the world.
- Invite players only after the settings are visible and agreed upon.
- Keep the host’s save and connection available for the session; the world settings belong to that hosted world rather than to each individual client.
If a joining player reports different expectations, do not try to solve the disagreement by changing local graphics or client settings. Revisit the host’s world choice or create a separate save with the rules that the entire group wants.
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Graphics settings that usually improve FPS
Start with a clean baseline: set the display to its native resolution, select fullscreen and apply the change. Native resolution preserves the intended image geometry; fullscreen provides a consistent starting point for diagnosing performance. If your computer can sustain a higher refresh rate, you can test it, but a stable frame rate is more useful than a fluctuating peak.
Use a frame-rate cap when delivery is uneven
Set a 60-FPS cap when the system cannot hold a higher rate consistently. A cap prevents the game from repeatedly chasing an unattainable target and can make camera movement feel steadier. It is a practical stability choice, not a claim that every computer will reach 60 FPS in every scene.
Antialiasing and TAA
The options menu includes antialiasing controls, including TAA. Enable TAA when its reduction of jagged edges is worth the performance cost and the softer image is acceptable. If frame delivery is unstable, disable or lower the antialiasing option before sacrificing large amounts of world detail. TAA’s visual and performance impact depends on resolution, GPU and the scene, so judge it in a repeatable location rather than from a single loading screen.
The settings to lower first
When FPS falls below your target, reduce these settings in order and test after each change:
- Shadows: Lower the main shadow quality first; shadows can be expensive in scenes with many light sources and objects.
- Far shadows: Reduce the distance at which detailed shadows remain visible if you need another performance step.
- Draw distance: Lower distant-object visibility when the game spends too much time rendering the far environment.
- Grass distance: Reduce how far grass is drawn to cut the amount of vegetation processed beyond the immediate play area.
- Grass density: Lower the number of grass elements when vegetation remains a major cost after reducing its distance.
These controls are the practical first targets because they change how much geometry, lighting and vegetation the engine must draw. Change one setting at a time, load the same area and compare movement, combat and night scenes. That method tells you which option matters on your hardware instead of assuming a preset designed for another PC.
Why textures are usually a later compromise
Texture quality primarily changes surface detail and memory use. Lower it only after the distance, shadow and grass options have failed to stabilize performance, or when you are dealing with limited graphics memory. Reducing textures can make the world look noticeably blurrier while delivering less improvement than reducing shadows or draw distance on some systems.
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A practical graphics tuning sequence
- Return every graphics option to a known baseline and confirm native resolution plus fullscreen.
- Choose a target: 60 FPS is a sensible cap when higher rates are not sustainable.
- Test TAA on and off in the same area to decide whether its image improvement justifies its cost.
- Lower shadows, then far shadows, draw distance, grass distance and grass density, testing after every adjustment.
- Only then reduce texture quality or resolution, because those changes are more visible to image quality.
- Save the profile that remains stable during exploration, combat and night-time scenes rather than the profile that looks best in an empty area.
The options reference lists these controls but does not publish a universal benchmark or guaranteed FPS for a particular combination. Your monitor resolution, processor, graphics card, memory and background applications all affect the result.
Dedicated-server configuration
The dedicated-server documentation names several configuration fields that determine how a server creates, loads and maintains its world. Set them deliberately before inviting players.
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| Setting | Accepted or documented choice | What it controls | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|---|
difficulty |
Peaceful, Normal, Hard or HardSurvival |
The server’s gameplay difficulty. | Using a spelling or spacing that does not match the documented value. |
initType |
New or Continue |
Whether the server creates a new world or loads an existing save. | Leaving New enabled, which prevents normal continuation of the established world. |
slot |
Select the intended save slot explicitly. | Which saved world the server opens. | Starting the wrong slot and assuming the original save was overwritten. |
serverAutoSaveInterval |
30 minutes is listed as the default; 15 minutes is listed as the minimum. | How often the server autosaves. | Choosing an interval below the documented minimum or assuming autosave replaces manual backup planning. |
showLogs |
Keep enabled while diagnosing startup or connection problems. | Whether server events are displayed for troubleshooting. | Disabling logs before identifying the failure. |
serverPlayers |
The linked Steam dedicated-server guide documents a maximum of 8 players. | The player capacity setting. | Planning for more than the documented maximum. |
New world versus continuing a save
Use initType=New only when you intentionally want a fresh world. Use initType=Continue and select the correct slot when the server should reopen an existing campaign. The dedicated-server guide specifically warns that leaving the server on New prevents normal continuation, making this the first value to check when a familiar world appears to have vanished.
Autosave and diagnostics
The documentation lists 30 minutes as the default autosave interval and 15 minutes as the minimum. Choose an interval that matches how much progress the group can afford to lose, and keep separate backups if the world is important. While diagnosing startup or connection failures, leave showLogs enabled so you can see server events instead of guessing whether the problem is configuration, loading or networking.
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The linked Steam guide documents a maximum of eight players for the dedicated server. Treat eight as the documented ceiling, not a promise that every machine or connection will deliver identical performance at that population. If the server becomes unstable below the ceiling, reduce simultaneous activity and inspect the logs before increasing capacity.
Dedicated-server setup checklist
- Decide whether the server needs a new world or an existing save.
- Set
difficultyto exactly one documented value:Peaceful,Normal,HardorHardSurvival. - Set
initTypetoNewfor a fresh world orContinuefor an established one. - Choose the intended
slotexplicitly. - Set
serverAutoSaveIntervalto at least 15 minutes; retain the documented 30-minute default if it suits the group. - Set
serverPlayersno higher than the documented eight-player maximum. - Enable
showLogsduring initial startup and whenever players cannot connect. - Start the server and confirm from the logs that it loaded the expected slot and world type before distributing connection details.
Troubleshooting common setting problems
The game feels too difficult after starting
First confirm which difficulty was selected when the world was created. Difficulty is normally fixed for that save, so lowering graphics settings or changing a client option will not reduce enemy or survival pressure. If the mode is wrong, create a new world on the intended difficulty rather than risking unsupported save edits.
Co-op players report different rules
Check the host’s world creation choices. The host’s difficulty and enabled optional modes apply to the multiplayer world; a joining player’s local settings do not override them. If the group wants different rules, the host must create or load a world configured for those rules.
FPS drops near vegetation or distant scenery
Lower grass distance and grass density, then draw distance. If the problem persists, reduce shadows and far shadows. Test each change in the same location and at the same time of day so you can identify the setting responsible instead of lowering every option at once.
Textures look blurry after optimization
Restore texture quality one step if possible and target shadows, far shadows, draw distance and grass options instead. Texture reduction is a later compromise because it can be highly visible while providing less relief on some systems.
A dedicated server starts the wrong world
Verify initType and slot. New creates a new world; Continue loads an existing save. Selecting the wrong slot can look like data loss even when the original save remains elsewhere.
Players cannot connect during diagnosis
Keep showLogs enabled and inspect the startup and connection events. Confirm the server is using the expected difficulty, initialization type, slot and player limit before changing unrelated settings. The documented dedicated-server capacity is eight players.
Quick Recap
A decision framework you can reuse
- Want the intended first experience? Choose Normal.
- Want construction and sightseeing with no normal enemy pressure? Choose Peaceful.
- Already comfortable with survival fundamentals? Choose Hard.
- Want the strongest listed challenge and accept repeated failure? Choose Hard Survival.
- Running a long co-op story? Start with Normal and tree regrowth on, then decide building destruction with the group.
- Chasing steadier performance? Keep native resolution, use fullscreen, cap at 60 FPS if necessary, and lower shadows, far shadows, draw distance and grass settings before textures.
- Hosting a persistent server? Set the exact difficulty value, choose New or Continue deliberately, select the save slot, configure autosave, enable logs for diagnosis and stay within eight players.
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