How to Change the Difficulty on Your Sons Of The Forest Server

Sons Of The Forest lets you choose how tough your survival experience is. Whether you want a relaxed exploration session or a brutal fight for survival, you can adjust the difficulty setting directly from the RiverHosting panel without editing any files by hand.

This guide walks you through finding and changing the difficulty on your Sons Of The Forest server in just a few steps.

Before you start

• You need an active Sons Of The Forest server with RiverHosting.
• Log in to the RiverHosting panel at panel.riverhosting.com.
• Your server should be stopped before making changes to avoid any conflicts. You can stop it by clicking the Stop button at the top of your server page.

1. Open your Server Config page

1. Log in to the RiverHosting panel.
2. Click on your Sons Of The Forest server from the server list.
3. In the left-hand menu, click Server Config.

The Server Config page is the built-in editor for your server's main settings. You do not need to open any files manually.

2. Change the difficulty setting

1. On the Server Config page, look for the difficulty option. It is usually labelled something like Game Difficulty or similar.
2. Click on the setting and choose the difficulty level you want. Common options include:
   • Peaceful for a relaxed experience with fewer threats
   • Normal for the standard survival challenge
   • Hard for tougher enemies and harsher conditions
   • Hard Survival for the most punishing experience, with realistic hunger, thirst, and sleep requirements
3. Once you have selected the difficulty you want, click Save or the equivalent save button on the page.

3. Restart your server to apply the change

1. After saving, go back to the main server page.
2. Click Start to start your server again.
3. Wait for the server to fully start. You can watch the Console tab to see when it is ready.
4. Log in to your server in-game and confirm the difficulty has changed.

Troubleshooting

• The difficulty did not change after restarting. Make sure you clicked Save on the Server Config page before restarting. If you navigated away without saving, the change would not have been applied.
• The setting is not visible on the Server Config page. Try refreshing the page. If it still does not appear, the option may be stored in a save file rather than the server config. In that case, starting a new save slot with the correct difficulty set beforehand is the most reliable approach.
• Players are still experiencing the old difficulty. Ask all players to fully disconnect and reconnect after the server restarts. Sometimes a full reconnect is needed for the new setting to take effect on the client side.
• The server is not starting after the change. Go to the Console tab and look for any error messages. If something looks wrong, you can go back to Server Config and revert the setting to its previous value, then save and restart again.

Need help?

If you run into any issues changing your Sons Of The Forest server difficulty or anything else is not working as expected, the RiverHosting support team is ready to help.