V Rising GameDifficulty in ServerGameSettings.json: 0, 1, 2 and What Each Changes

V Rising: Configuring Server Difficulty

Difficulty on a V Rising dedicated server is one integer: GameDifficulty in ServerGameSettings.json. It takes 0, 1 or 2. There is no "Hard" value, and the numbers are not just a damage slider: each one is a named preset that applies a specific set of multipliers, and the biggest difference between them is what happens to V Blood bosses.

The three values, and exactly what they change

Each preset multiplies a handful of things. A value of 1.0 means unchanged, so only the numbers that differ from 1.0 actually do anything.

What it multiplies	0 (Easy / Relaxed)	1 (Normal)	2 (Brutal)
Enemy power (all units)	0.7	1.0	1.4
Enemy max health (all units)	1.0	1.0	1.0
V Blood boss power	0.6	1.0	1.7
V Blood boss health	0.8	1.0	1.25
V Blood boss level	+0	+0	+3
Blood drain rate	0.75	1.0	1.0
Sun damage	0.75	1.0	1.0
Durability drain	1.0	1.0	0.5
General drop rate	1.0	1.0	1.25

Three things are worth pulling out of that table, because they are the ones that decide whether a group enjoys the server:

• Brutal is a boss difficulty, not a world difficulty. Ordinary enemies hit 40% harder, but V Blood bosses hit 70% harder, carry 25% more health, and are three levels higher than on Normal. That level gap is what actually kills people: it raises the gear level you need before a fight is winnable at all.
• Brutal is not purely a penalty. It halves durability loss and raises general drops by 25%, so gear lasts longer and farms pay better. It is harder and more generous at the same time.
• Easy softens the vampire, not the world. Enemy health is untouched at every difficulty. What 0 changes is how hard things hit you (0.7, and 0.6 for bosses) plus the two survival pressures, blood drain and sun damage, both down to 0.75. If your group's complaint is upkeep rather than combat, that is the value that addresses it.

How to change it

Through the panel:

1. Open Game Settings in your server panel.
2. Find GameDifficulty and set 0, 1 or 2.
3. Save, then restart the server so it reloads the file.

Editing the file directly:

• Path: /save-data/Settings/ServerGameSettings.json
• Find "GameDifficulty": 1, and change the number.
• The shipped default for that key is the string "Normal"; both the name and the integer are accepted, and the integer is what the preset files use. Pick one form and keep it.

GameDifficultyPreset is a different key, in a different file

People searching for ServerHostSettings.json and Difficulty_Brutal are looking at the other half of this. ServerHostSettings.json carries "GameDifficultyPreset": "", which names a whole preset file to load rather than setting one value. Leave it empty and your ServerGameSettings.json is used as written. Name a preset there and it applies that file's multipliers. The three that ship are Difficulty_Easy, Difficulty_Normal and Difficulty_Brutal.

The same file also holds GameSettingsPreset, which does the equivalent job for the full settings template. If a change you made to ServerGameSettings.json appears to do nothing, check both of those are empty before looking anywhere else, because a named preset overrides what you edited. That trap has its own page: server settings not applying.

Changing difficulty mid-game

You can change it on a running world, and the new multipliers apply after the restart. Whether you should is a different question. Moving from Normal to Brutal puts every V Blood boss three levels above where your players last measured them, so a group sitting exactly at the gear level for their next fight will find it out of reach until they farm. The reverse, Brutal to Normal, is harmless. Decide at the start of a wipe where you can.

On Brutal the gear-level gap is what stings most. If you are gearing servants to close it, the servant gear cost calculator shows the full crafting and farming cost to reach level 91.

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