Enshrouded Server Settings Guide: Difficulty, Player Slots & Performance

Enshrouded gives you a lot of control over how your dedicated server plays - difficulty, player count, day/night timing, resource rates, and more. All of it lives in one JSON config file. That’s the good news.

The bad news: if you make a typo in that file, Enshrouded won’t warn you. It will silently replace your entire config with defaults on the next startup, and you won’t know until you notice all your settings are gone.

This guide covers every setting worth knowing, how to edit them safely, and ready-made presets for different play styles.

Where to find the config file

The config file is called enshrouded_server.json and sits in the root directory of your server installation. On WinterNode, you can access it through the File Manager in your control panel or via SFTP.

If the file doesn’t exist yet, start the server once and it will be created automatically with default values. From there, stop the server, make your changes, validate the JSON, and restart.

Important: Always stop your server before editing the config. Changes made while the server is running will be overwritten when it shuts down, because the server writes its current state back to the file on exit.

Server identity settings

These are the basics - what your server is called, who can join, and how many players it supports.

A note on slotCount: Enshrouded supports up to 16 players. Each additional player adds load to the server, particularly CPU and RAM. If you’re running a smaller group on a 4-6GB plan, setting this to match your actual player count helps keep things responsive. For servers with 8+ regular players, 8GB of RAM is the recommended minimum.

Difficulty presets

The gameSettingsPreset field controls the overall difficulty. Enshrouded ships with five presets:

If you set the preset to Custom, you can override any individual setting in the gameSettings block. If you use one of the named presets, individual settings are ignored - the preset takes priority.

Gameplay settings

When using the Custom preset, these are the settings you can tune. They’re grouped by what they affect.

Player stats

Combat and enemies

Resources and crafting

Day/night cycle

Yes, these are in nanoseconds. Here’s a conversion table so you don’t have to do the math:

The default is a 30-minute day and 12-minute night, giving a full cycle of 42 minutes. If your group prefers longer exploration sessions with shorter nights, something like 45-minute days and 5-minute nights works well. For a more atmospheric survival feel, try equal 20-minute cycles.

Survival and environment

Tombstone modes:

• AddBackpackMaterials - Drop only backpack items (default)
• Everything - Drop all inventory on death
• NoTombstone - Keep everything on death

Progression

Other settings

Recommended presets by play style

If you’re running a Custom preset, here are starting points for common server styles.

Casual / Building-focused

For groups that want to explore and build without stress:

"gameSettings": {
  "playerHealthFactor": 2,
  "enableDurability": false,
  "enableStarvingDebuff": false,
  "tombstoneMode": "NoTombstone",
  "randomSpawnerAmount": "Few",
  "enemyDamageFactor": 0.5,
  "resourceDropStackAmountFactor": 2,
  "factoryProductionSpeedFactor": 2,
  "dayTimeDuration": 2700000000000,
  "nightTimeDuration": 300000000000
}

Long 45-minute days, short 5-minute nights, fewer and weaker enemies, no equipment durability, doubled resource drops and crafting speed.

Balanced

A middle ground that adds some challenge without being punishing:

"gameSettings": {
  "enableDurability": true,
  "enableStarvingDebuff": false,
  "tombstoneMode": "AddBackpackMaterials",
  "randomSpawnerAmount": "Normal",
  "enemyDamageFactor": 1.25,
  "enemyHealthFactor": 1.25,
  "dayTimeDuration": 1800000000000,
  "nightTimeDuration": 720000000000
}

This is close to Default but with slightly tougher enemies. Good for groups that found Default too easy but don’t want a full Hard mode experience.

Hardcore survival

For groups that want real stakes:

"gameSettings": {
  "enableDurability": true,
  "enableStarvingDebuff": true,
  "fromHungerToStarving": 300000000000,
  "tombstoneMode": "Everything",
  "randomSpawnerAmount": "Many",
  "enemyDamageFactor": 2,
  "enemyHealthFactor": 2,
  "enemyPerceptionRangeFactor": 1.5,
  "shroudTimeFactor": 0.5,
  "dayTimeDuration": 1200000000000,
  "nightTimeDuration": 1200000000000
}

Starvation enabled with a 5-minute grace period, drop everything on death, more and stronger enemies, half the Shroud timer, and equal 20-minute day/night cycles. This setup makes nights genuinely dangerous.

Common config issues

Settings reset after restart

This is almost always a JSON syntax error. Enshrouded’s server doesn’t log a warning - it just regenerates the config from defaults if the JSON doesn’t parse correctly.

Common causes:

• Trailing commas after the last item in a list or object
• Missing quotes around string values
• Stray characters from copy-pasting between editors

Prevention: paste your config into a JSON validator before every restart. It takes ten seconds and saves you from re-entering all your settings.

Changes don’t take effect

If you edited the file while the server was running, your changes are gone. The server writes its current config to the file when it shuts down, overwriting whatever you saved. Always follow this order:

1. Stop the server
2. Edit the config
3. Validate the JSON
4. Start the server

Using the wrong preset

If gameSettingsPreset is set to anything other than Custom, your individual gameSettings values are ignored. If you’ve been tweaking settings and nothing seems to change, check that the preset is set to Custom.

Getting started

Running an Enshrouded server on WinterNode starts at $7.96/month for 4GB. The 8GB plan ($15.92/month) is what we recommend for most groups - it handles 16 players with complex builds without issues. All plans include NVMe storage, automated backups every 12 hours, and full access to your config files through the control panel.

Get your Enshrouded server →

Need help with initial setup? Check the connection guide to get players on your server, or the startup parameters reference for panel-level settings.