Openworld: difficulty levels, Easy to Terrible, what changes

Yes, at any time: in solo from Options, on a server with /difficulty.

On this page

What are the six levels?

Level	What it is	Monsters	Damage taken	Hunger	Hunger leaves you (HP)
Easy	No monsters. Hunger is slow and never kills.	—	×0.5	×0.5	50
Moderate	Few monsters, slow and gentle. Hunger never kills.	✓	×0.6	×0.75	30
Normal default	Monsters hunt you at night and in caves. Hunger leaves you a little health.	✓	×1	×1	5
Hard	More monsters, faster, harder hitting. Hunger can kill.	✓	×1.5	×1.3	0
Very hard	Monsters keep up with a walking player. Food goes fast.	✓	×2	×1.6	0
Terrible	Hordes that outrun you unless you sprint. Every meal counts.	✓	×2.5	×2	0

Here are the numbers behind them. The zombie runs at 2.8 m/s; the difficulty multiplies that when it chases you, and you walk at 4.25 m/s.

Level	Monsters around you, at most	They notice you at	A zombie chases at	Blows	Hunger at 0 stops at	A meal holds
Easy	0 (none)	-	-	×0.5	50 health	×1.5
Moderate	7	16 m	2.4 m/s	×0.6	30 health	×1.25
Normal	12	28 m	3.1 m/s	×1	5 health	×1
Hard	15	32 m	3.6 m/s	×1.5	kills	×0.8
Very hard	19	36 m	4.2 m/s	×2	kills	×0.65
Terrible	26	44 m	4.8 m/s	×2.5	kills	×0.5

Easy: no monster at all. Those already there vanish, and animals stay.
More levels = more monsters and more attempts to bring them in, and they notice you from farther and give up farther away.
They chase faster and hit harder, with shorter pauses between blows.
A neutral animal you hit stays angry longer (10 s on Easy, 20 s on Normal, 60 s on Terrible), and its fellows join the fight more often.

Sprinting, swimming, jumping and heavy armor cost more food on the high levels (half on Easy, double on Terrible).
The bar drops by itself, even standing still: 18 points per day on Easy, 60 on Normal, 180 on Terrible (a day is 25 minutes, a bar 100 points).
Meals hold the bar longer on the low levels and shorter on the high ones.
Healing comes sooner on Easy (a quarter less waiting) and takes twice as long on Terrible.

First world, or to build in peace: Easy. No monster, hunger never kills.
Learning the game: Moderate, or Normal if you do not mind dying a few times.
The intended experience: Normal. Monsters hunt you at night and in caves, and hunger leaves you a little health.
You know the game: Hard and above. Hunger kills, monsters keep up with a walking player from Very hard, and at Terrible you have to sprint.

Solo: pause menu, Options, Game tab: one click on one of the six levels.
On a server: the /difficulty command, the server console, the world.difficulty setting in server.json, or the web dashboard (Creatures page). A new world starts on Normal.

/difficulty hard

Is there a peaceful mode?

Yes, Easy: no monsters at all, and hunger never kills. Animals stay.

Can I change the difficulty after starting?

Yes, at any time: in solo from Options, on a server with /difficulty.

Does hunger kill me?

On Hard, Very hard and Terrible, yes. On the three lower levels it stops at 50, 30 or 5 health.

Updated 2026-10-22