How to Change the Difficulty on Your Astroneer Server

Astroneer gives you control over how challenging the experience feels for your players. Whether you want a relaxed creative session or a tough survival run, you can adjust the difficulty-related settings on your server from the RiverHosting panel without editing any files by hand.

This guide walks you through finding and changing those settings quickly from your server page.

Before you start

• You need an active Astroneer server with RiverHosting. If you do not have one yet, you can order one at riverhosting.com.
• Log in to the RiverHosting panel at panel.riverhosting.com.
• Your server must be running before any changes take effect. If it is stopped, start it first, then stop it again before saving config changes so the new values are not overwritten on next launch.

1. Open the Server Config page

The Server Config page is the built-in settings editor for your Astroneer server. It lets you change common options from the panel instead of editing the underlying configuration file manually.

1. Go to panel.riverhosting.com and select your Astroneer server.
2. In the left-hand menu, click Server Config.
3. The Server Config page will load and display all of the available server options.

2. Change the difficulty settings

Once you are on the Server Config page, look through the available options for difficulty-related settings. These typically control things like resource scarcity, death penalties, and oxygen or power consumption rates.

1. Review the settings listed on the Server Config page.
2. Find the difficulty options you want to adjust. Common settings include whether players keep items on death and how quickly resources are consumed.
3. Update the values to your preferred settings.
4. Click the Save button to apply your changes.

3. Restart your server to apply the changes

After saving, you need to restart your server so the new settings take effect. The changes will not apply to an already-running session.

1. In the left-hand menu, click Console.
2. Use the power controls at the top of the Console page to restart your server.
3. Wait for the server to finish starting up. You will see startup messages appear in the console output.
4. Once it is fully online, join the server and confirm the difficulty feels as expected.

Troubleshooting

• Settings reverted after restart. This usually means the server was running when you saved the config. Stop the server first, make your changes, save, then start the server again.
• Difficulty does not feel different in an existing save. Some difficulty settings only apply fully to new save games. If you are playing on an existing world, you may need to start a fresh save to see all changes take effect. Use the Save Games page in the left-hand menu to manage your saves.
• Server Config page is not loading. Try refreshing the panel in your browser. If the page still does not load, restart your server from the Console page and try again.
• Not sure what a setting does. Leave unfamiliar settings at their default values. Changing unknown options can cause unexpected behaviour.

Need help?

If you run into any problems adjusting your Astroneer server difficulty, the RiverHosting support team is ready to help.