Enshrouded keeps its whole dedicated-server config in one file — enshrouded_server.json — holding the name and ports, a big block of gameSettings difficulty factors, and the roles that decide who can build, loot chests, and admin the world. Here's every setting that matters in plain English, including the one switch (gameSettingsPreset) that silently throws away all your tuning if you forget it.
enshrouded_server.json — it gates the gameplay factors behind the Custom preset for you, enters day/night and the hunger timer in plain minutes (converting to the game's nanoseconds on the way out), and lays out the roles-and-passwords table. No counting braces, no wrong number of zeros.The browser name, ports, and player cap — the basics that get your server listed and reachable.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| name | The name shown in the in-game server browser. Default is what every unconfigured server is called, so change it or get lost among a hundred identical entries. | Enshrouded Server | your name |
| password | Optional single password for the whole server. Most admins leave it blank and gate access with the per-role passwords below instead. ⚠ verify against your host — it may not appear in a freshly generated file. | (blank) | blank |
| gamePort | UDP port the game traffic runs on. Forward it on your router and open the firewall. Must differ from queryPort or the server won't start. | 15636 | 15636 |
| queryPort | UDP port the Steam server list pings for info (name, player count). Default is one above the game port. Forward it too or the server shows empty / not at all. | 15637 | 15637 |
| slotCount | How many players can be on at once. Hard cap is 16 — the game won't go higher. Each player works the box harder, so set what your hardware can run. | 16 | 16 |
gamePort and queryPort must be different values — setting them equal stops the server booting. Forward and open both UDP ports, not just the game port, or the server runs but never appears in the browser.In-server text and voice chat — both off by default.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| enableVoiceChat | In-game voice chat. Off by default. Turn it on for a casual public server; most organised groups use Discord and leave it off. | false | false |
| voiceChatMode | Proximity (default) = hear only nearby players; Global = everyone hears everyone server-wide. Only matters when voice chat is on. | Proximity | Proximity |
| enableTextChat | In-game text chat. Off by default. Harmless to enable so players without voice can still talk in-game. | false | false |
The single field that decides whether every gameplay factor below does anything at all. Read the tip before you tune one slider.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| gameSettingsPreset | Picks a built-in difficulty (Default, Relaxed, Hard, Survival) or Custom. Every factor in the sections below ONLY applies when this is Custom — on any named preset the server uses Keen's values and ignores your tuning. | Default | Custom |
gameSettingsPreset must be set to Custom or the server silently ignores every gameSettings factor and uses the named preset's built-in values instead. Set it first. A few more things that bite: gamePort and queryPort must differ; the three duration fields (hunger→starving, day length, night length) are entered in minutes but stored as nanoseconds; perkUpgradeRecyclingFactor is the one factor that defaults to 0.5, not 1.0; and set a password on the Admin role or anyone can join as admin.How tough and capable your players are. All default to 1.0 (vanilla). Requires the Custom preset.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| playerHealthFactor | Multiplier on player max health. Higher makes players tankier (forgiving for newcomers); lower bites in deeper biomes. | 1.0 | 1.5 |
| playerManaFactor | Multiplier on player max mana — the resource behind spells and ranged charges. Raise for spammier casting, lower to make it a careful resource. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| playerStaminaFactor | Multiplier on player max stamina (sprint, dodge, melee). Higher means more aggressive uptime and longer sprints. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| playerBodyHeatFactor | How well players hold body heat against cold-biome drain. Higher softens the cold-survival pressure. Steps 0.5 / 1 / 1.5 / 2. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| playerDivingTimeFactor | How long players can stay underwater before drowning. Raise it for maps with a lot of deep-water exploration. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
Durability, hunger, and time in the Shroud — the survival-pressure dials. Requires the Custom preset.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| enableDurability | When on (default), weapons, tools and armour wear out and need repairing. Turn off for a no-maintenance server where gear never degrades. | true | false |
| enableStarvingDebuff | Off by default. When on, letting food run all the way out applies a real health-drain penalty, making eating genuine upkeep. The hunger timer only matters when this is on. | false | false |
| foodBuffDurationFactor | How long the buffs from cooked food last. Higher means cooking less often (convenience); 1.5–2× is a nice quality-of-life bump. | 1.0 | 1.5 |
| fromHungerToStarving | Minutes between "hungry" and "starving". Entered in minutes (the file stores nanoseconds). Only matters when the Starving Debuff is on. | 10 min | 10 min |
| shroudTimeFactor | How long players survive inside the Shroud before the timer kills them. A core difficulty lever specific to this game — higher gives breathing room to explore Shroud zones. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
Day/night length, weather, and the Shroud curse. Day and night are entered in minutes. Requires the Custom preset.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| dayTimeDuration | Real minutes of in-game daytime per cycle. Entered in minutes (stored as nanoseconds). Longer days = more comfortable build/explore time before night. | 30 min | 30 min |
| nightTimeDuration | Real minutes of in-game night per cycle (nights are shorter than days by default). Entered in minutes; drop it if dark stretches feel like a slog. | 12 min | 12 min |
| weatherFrequency | How often harsh weather rolls in. Normal default; Disabled turns events off, Rare calms them, Often cranks them. Mostly atmosphere/visibility. | Normal | Normal |
| curseModifier | Chance of a Shroud curse when you go down in the Shroud. Normal default; Easy effectively off; Hard roughly doubles it. ⚠ verify — in-game labels (Off/Default/High) differ from these file values. | Normal | Normal |
| enableGliderTurbulences | On by default — wind gusts buffet the glider so long flights take handling. Turn off for smooth, predictable gliding (a lot of players prefer this on big maps). | true | false |
Spawn density, enemy and boss strength, and how aggro works — the core combat difficulty. All default to 1.0 / Normal. Requires the Custom preset.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| randomSpawnerAmount | How many enemies populate the world. Normal default; Few thins them for building, Many/Extreme crowd the map. ⚠ verify the exact enum casing against your build. | Normal | Normal |
| aggroPoolAmount | How many enemies can attack you at once. Few makes them queue up and take turns (much easier); Many/Extreme let a whole pack pile on. One of the biggest real difficulty levers. | Normal | Normal |
| enemyDamageFactor | Multiplier on normal-enemy damage. The most direct "how deadly is the world" dial. 0.5–0.75 for forgiving, past 1.0 for punishing. | 1.0 | 0.75 |
| enemyHealthFactor | Multiplier on normal-enemy health — how long they take to kill. Higher = longer, attritional fights; lower lets you carve through trash mobs. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| enemyStaminaFactor | How long enemies keep attacking before recovering. Higher = relentless pressure with fewer openings; a subtler dial than damage/health. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| enemyPerceptionRangeFactor | How far enemies notice you. Higher makes stealth near-impossible; lower lets you sneak past or pick engagements. Drop it for an exploration-friendly server. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| bossDamageFactor | Multiplier on boss damage, separate from normal enemies. Tune independently to keep the open world casual but bosses demanding. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| bossHealthFactor | Multiplier on boss health — how long boss fights last. Raise for a group-oriented fight; lower if duos/solos find bosses a slog. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| threatBonus | How readily enemies lock onto and stick to a target. Higher = more reactive, tenacious world; a flavour dial most leave at default. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| pacifyAllEnemies | Off by default. When on, enemies stop attacking entirely — a fully peaceful world for building or screenshotting. Overrides the combat factors above. | false | false |
| tamingStartleRepercussion | What happens to taming progress when an animal is startled mid-tame. LoseSomeProgress default; KeepProgress forgiving; LoseAllProgress punishing. | LoseSomeProgress | KeepProgress |
What you drop when you die. Requires the Custom preset.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| tombstoneMode | AddBackpackMaterials (default) drops a recoverable tombstone with backpack materials; Everything is full-loot (drop the lot, run back); NoTombstone keeps your inventory on death (softest). | AddBackpackMaterials | AddBackpackMaterials |
Mining, farming, crafting, perks and experience — the progression-pace dials. Where boosted servers do most of their tuning. Requires the Custom preset.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| miningDamageFactor | How fast you chew through terrain and ore. A near-universal comfort tweak since voxel mining is slow at vanilla rates. | 1.0 | 1.5 |
| plantGrowthSpeedFactor | How fast farm crops grow. Raise so the farm keeps up without babysitting; pairs well with longer food-buff duration. | 1.0 | 1.5 |
| resourceDropStackAmountFactor | How much you get per gathered resource — the headline "boosted server" dial. 2× roughly halves grind time without trivializing it. | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| factoryProductionSpeedFactor | How fast production stations (kilns, smelters) churn through queues. Higher means less waiting on the furnace — much-appreciated on busy servers. | 1.0 | 1.5 |
| perkCostFactor | Multiplier on materials to craft and apply gear perks. Lower is cheaper. Drop it so experimenting isn't a heavy resource sink. | 1.0 | 0.5 |
| perkUpgradeRecyclingFactor | Fraction of materials returned when recycling a perk. The one factor that defaults to 0.5, not 1.0. Raise toward 1.0 so swapping perks costs almost nothing. | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| experienceCombatFactor | Multiplier on XP from fighting. Raise for faster levelling; the three XP factors are independent so you can favour one source. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| experienceMiningFactor | Multiplier on XP from mining. Can go to 0 to make mining purely about materials — handy to stop XP farming on a boosted gather rate. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| experienceExplorationQuestsFactor | Multiplier on XP from exploring and quests. Raise to reward map-clearing over grinding — a fit for an exploration server. | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| fishingDifficulty | How hard the fishing mini-game is. Normal default, scaling VeryEasy to VeryHard. A side-activity dial. | Normal | Normal |
Enshrouded gates access through roles, not one server password. Each role has its own join password; whoever connects with it gets that role's rights.
| Setting | What it does | Default | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| Admin role | Full control — kick/ban, all building and world editing, every chest. Set a password (blank by default): anyone who connects with it becomes an admin. This is you and your staff. | name Admin, password blank, all can* On | strong password |
| Friend role | Trusted regulars — can edit/extend base, edit world, and access chests, but no kick/ban. Set a password and hand it to your regulars. | name Friend, password blank, all but kick/ban On | shared password |
| Guest role | Drop-ins — play and explore, but can't touch bases, chests, or the world (every can* is Off). A blank Guest password is what lets anyone in harmlessly; the safe public default. | name Guest, password blank, all can* Off | blank password |
| password (per role) | The join password that grants a role. Blank by default for all three — a role with no password is open to anyone, so at minimum set the Admin one. | (blank) | set Admin+Friend |
| canKickBan / canAccessInventories / canEditBase / canExtendBase / canEditWorld | The five per-role permission toggles: moderation, shared chests, building inside bases, extending the build boundary, and terraforming the open world. canEditWorld is the newer key some old configs lack. | Admin all On · Guest all Off | keep defaults |
| reservedSlots | Slots held open for a role so staff/regulars can always get in when the server is full. Default 0; they count against your total Player Slots. | 0 | 0 |
No single "best" — but this is a comfortable group baseline. Set gameSettingsPreset to Custom FIRST (or none of the rest applies), keep gamePort and queryPort different, and set a strong password on the Admin role.
| Setting | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| gameSettingsPreset | Custom | Set this first — on any named preset the server ignores every factor below. |
| resourceDropStackAmountFactor | 2.0 | Roughly halves grind time without trivializing gathering — the headline boosted dial. |
| miningDamageFactor | 1.5 | Voxel mining is slow at vanilla rates; this takes the edge off. |
| factoryProductionSpeedFactor | 1.5 | Less waiting on kilns and smelters on a busy co-op server. |
| enemyDamageFactor | 0.75 | A forgiving world for a mixed-skill group without going full peaceful. |
| enableDurability | false | No gear maintenance — a popular comfort setting for casual servers. |
| tombstoneMode | AddBackpackMaterials | Recoverable death drop — keeps stakes without the full-loot run-back. |
| Admin role password | (set one) | Blank by default means anyone can join as admin — lock it down. |
enshrouded_server.json, in your server's install folder next to enshrouded_server.exe (or under "Configuration Files" on a managed host like Nitrado or GPORTAL). It holds the name and ports, a gameSettings block of difficulty factors, and a userGroups array of roles. Stop the server, edit or replace the file, then restart — Enshrouded reads it on boot and can overwrite live edits on shutdown. Easiest path: build it with the generator and paste it in.gameSettings block — every health, enemy, boss, gathering and XP factor — is only read when gameSettingsPreset is set to Custom. Left on Default, Relaxed, Hard or Survival, the server uses Keen's built-in preset values and silently ignores everything you tuned. Set the preset to Custom first, then your factors take effect. The generator warns you the moment a factor is changed without Custom selected.gameSettingsPreset to Custom (required), then a gentle boost: resourceDropStackAmountFactor 2×, miningDamageFactor and factoryProductionSpeedFactor ~1.5×, enemyDamageFactor ~0.75, and enableDurability off if you want zero gear upkeep. Keep tombstoneMode on AddBackpackMaterials so death still stings a little. Tune day/night length to taste — both are entered in minutes.userGroups). Each role (Admin, Friend, Guest by default) has its own join password and a set of permissions, and whichever password a player connects with decides their role and rights. Passwords are blank by default, so a role with no password is open to anyone — at minimum set a strong Admin password. The five permissions are kick/ban, chest access, edit base, extend base, and edit world (the newer canEditWorld covers terraforming outside bases).gamePort (default 15636) for game traffic and queryPort (default 15637) for the Steam server-list ping. Forward and open both on your router and firewall. Critically, they must be different values — setting queryPort equal to gamePort stops the server starting. Forget to forward the query port and the server runs but shows up empty or not at all in the browser.fromHungerToStarving, dayTimeDuration and nightTimeDuration — are stored in enshrouded_server.json in nanoseconds, which is why hand-edited configs so often have the wrong number of zeros (1 minute = 60,000,000,000 ns). The default cycle is 30-minute days and 12-minute nights. The generator lets you enter all three in plain minutes and does the conversion for you.