How do I change world difficulty on my Return to Moria server?

Return to Moria applies difficulty settings when a world is first created. Changing the difficulty preset on your server affects new worlds, existing saves keep their original settings unless you edit them locally with the dedicated server tool.

For fine-grained control over individual difficulty values, see How do I create a Custom World on my Return to Moria server?.

Changing world difficulty on your Return to Moria server

Using Blacksmith’s Portal

1. Open the Blacksmith’s Portal
2. Stop your server
3. Go to Startup
4. Change Difficulty to one of the available presets:
   • story, narrative-focused experience
   • solo, tuned for solo play
   • normal, balanced default
   • hard, increased challenge
   • custom, adjust the custom difficulty Startup variables below
5. If using custom, set these Startup variables to your preference:
   • Custom Combat Difficulty
   • Custom Enemy Aggression
   • Custom Survival Difficulty
   • Custom Mining Drops
   • Custom World Drops
   • Custom Horde Frequency
   • Custom Siege Frequency
   • Custom Patrol Frequency
6. Enter a new World Name so the server generates a fresh world with the updated difficulty
7. Start your server

Changing custom difficulty on a running server

You can also adjust custom difficulty values on a running server with setcustomdifficulty, useful for existing worlds that are already in progress. See Console Commands for the full list of setting names and values.

Self-Hosting/Other Providers

1. Stop your Return to Moria server
2. Open MoriaServerConfig.ini
3. Under [World.Create], set Difficulty.Preset= to story, solo, normal, hard, or custom
4. Under [World], change Name= to a new world name
5. Save the file and restart the server

Changing difficulty on an existing world

Existing worlds lock in their difficulty at creation. To adjust settings on a world that is already in progress:

1. Stop your server and download the Moria/Saved folder from Files
2. Install the Return to Moria Dedicated Server tool from Steam
3. Place the downloaded Saved folder into the dedicated server tool’s Moria directory
4. Launch the dedicated server tool and open the server console
5. Use setdifficulty [Story|Solo|Normal|Hard|Custom] to change the preset
6. For custom values, use setcustomdifficulty [DifficultySetting] [Value]
7. Type exit and press Enter to save changes (closing the window without exit discards edits)
8. Upload the modified Saved folder back to your server and start it