How to Change the Difficulty on Your Terraria Server

Terraria offers four distinct challenge levels for your server: Journey, Classic, Expert, and Master. It’s important to understand that world difficulty is separate from the difficulty setting on your character.

Keep in mind it’s way easier to change it to a new world directly, as changing to an existing world will require some extra steps.

---

Quick Overview of Difficulty Modes

• Classic (0): The standard mode and default setting. This serves as the foundation for harder difficulties.
• Expert (1): A tougher experience—enemies hit harder, have more health, and players face increased penalties on death. Unique loot is available, and one extra accessory slot is unlocked.
• Master (2): The ultimate challenge. Enemies are extremely strong, death is harsher, and players gain two extra accessory slots. Includes all Expert items plus Master-exclusive rewards.
• Journey (3): The most relaxed and creative mode. Players begin with helpful tools and wings, can alter environmental settings, and manipulate in-game mechanics. Only characters made in Journey mode can access these worlds.

---

Changing the Difficulty for a New World

If you’re starting fresh with a new map, follow these steps to set the difficulty before creating the world:

1. Log in to your server’s control panel and STOP the server.
2. Click on the “Files” section in the left-hand side menu of your panel.
3. Open the “serverconfig.txt” file and find the setting labeled “difficulty”.
4. Change it to the one you need (0, 1, 2, or 3).
5. Click Save.
6. Go back and head to the Files section and open the /Saves/Worlds/ folder.
7. Inside the folder, RENAME the file named (worldnamehere).wld.
8. Start your server to apply the difficulty, and a fresh world will be created automatically.

Once your server is up again, generate a new world to reflect the selected difficulty.

---

Changing the Difficulty of an Existing World

To modify the challenge level of a world you’ve already created, you’ll need to use a third-party world editor called TEdit.

1. Access your Control Panel and Stop the server.
2. Create a backup of your existing world file via the “Backups” tab.
3. Download the backup file to your computer.
4. Go to TEdit on GitHub and download the latest release (.zip file under Assets).
5. Extract the contents of the .zip file.
6. Launch the program by opening the TEdit folder and running TEdit.exe.
7. In TEdit, click File > Open and select your .wld world file.
8. On the right-hand panel, go to World Properties.
9. Locate the Game Mode setting and change it to your desired difficulty.
10. Click File > Save. Wait for “World Save Complete” to appear before closing the program.
11. Re-upload your edited world to your server and overwrite the existing file (if you’ve backed it up).

---

Your server is now running at your chosen level of challenge. Whether you’re aiming for creative exploration or a brutal test of skill, Terraria has a mode that suits your style.