How to Change Difficulty and Loot on Your 7 Days to Die Server

Published June 9, 2026 · By Host Havoc Technical Support Team

You can tune the survival challenge on your 7 Days to Die server by editing gameplay properties in serverconfigfull.xml. Changes take effect on the next server start and do not erase existing player progress: only future loot drops and XP gains use the new values. If you plan to enable crossplay, check our guide on enabling crossplay for the config ranges that crossplay certification requires.

Before you start: Stop your server before editing configuration files.

Config Editor method

  1. Log into the Game Control Panel and navigate to your 7 Days to Die service.
  2. Stop your server.
  3. Click Configuration Files, then open serverconfigfull.xml in the Config Editor.
  4. Adjust the properties listed in the table below.
  5. Click Save and start the service.

Text Editor method

  1. Follow steps 1 to 3 above, but open serverconfigfull.xml in the Text Editor instead.
  2. Edit the XML properties directly using the values in the table below.
  3. Click Save and start the service.

Gameplay properties reference

Config Editor labelXML propertyDefaultRange
Game DifficultyGameDifficulty20 (Scavenger) to 5 (Insane)
Loot AbundanceLootAbundance1000 to 300 (percentage)
Loot Respawn DaysLootRespawnDays30In-game days before containers respawn
XP MultiplierXPMultiplier1000 to 1000 (percentage)
Block Damage PlayerBlockDamagePlayer100Percentage, player vs block
Block Damage AIBlockDamageAI100Percentage, AI vs block
Block Damage AI Blood MoonBlockDamageAIBM100Percentage, AI vs block during Blood Moon
Player Safe Zone LevelPlayerSafeZoneLevel5Player level at which starting safety expires
Player Safe Zone HoursPlayerSafeZoneHours5Hours the safety zone lasts
Blood Moon FrequencyBloodMoonFrequency7Every N days; 0 to disable
Blood Moon RangeBloodMoonRange0Random variance of plus or minus N days
Blood Moon Enemy CountBloodMoonEnemyCount8Max enemies per player during Blood Moon
Day Night LengthDayNightLength60Real minutes per in-game day
Day Light LengthDayLightLength18In-game hours of daylight out of 24

Examples

Easy mode, fast progression:

<property name="GameDifficulty" value="1"/>
<property name="LootAbundance" value="200"/>
<property name="XPMultiplier" value="200"/>
<property name="BlockDamageAIBM" value="50"/>
<property name="BloodMoonEnemyCount" value="4"/>

Hardcore server:

<property name="GameDifficulty" value="4"/>
<property name="LootAbundance" value="50"/>
<property name="LootRespawnDays" value="60"/>
<property name="BlockDamageAIBM" value="150"/>
<property name="BloodMoonEnemyCount" value="16"/>