How to Change the Difficulty of a Minecraft Server

Balancing the challenge of your Minecraft server is essential for tailoring the experience for your players. The difficulty setting controls the spawning of hostile mobs, the damage they inflict, and even player starvation, making it a key factor in shaping the overall gameplay experience. 

Whether you want to create a peaceful world without threats or a challenging environment filled with adventure, this guide will show you how to adjust the difficulty of your Minecraft server from Peaceful, to Easy, to Normal and Hard. 

Minecraft Server Difficulty Levels

• Peaceful: In this difficulty, hostile mobs do not spawn naturally, and the player's health regenerates over time. This is the easiest difficulty setting for players who want to focus primarily on building or exploring without dealing with mobs. 
• Easy: On Easy difficulty, hostile mobs spawn, but they cause less damage than on higher difficulty levels. Mobs are much less aggressive as well. For example, Zombies will not break down the doors if a player is inside. 
• Normal: Hostile mobs spawn regularly and deal standard damage. The hunger bar can reduce the player's health to half a heart. 
• Hard: On Hard difficulty, mobs spawn more often and deal greater damage to the player and environment. The player can also starve if the hunger bar is depleted, reducing health to zero and leading to player death. 

Changing The Server Difficulty (No Restart Required)

There are a few ways to change your Minecraft server’s difficulty, but in this guide, we’ll show you the simplest method—changing it in-game, without needing to restart the server. It’s quick, easy, and perfect for adjusting the challenge level on the fly.

Minecraft Difficulty Command

Changing your Minecraft server's difficulty while you're in-game is quick and simple. As long as you have OP (operator) permissions, you can switch the difficulty at any time without needing to restart the server.

To get started, open the in-game chat. You can usually do this by pressing the T key on your keyboard, unless you’ve changed your controls in the settings.

Then, type the following command:

 /difficulty hard

• You can replace peaceful with peaceful, normal, or hard, depending on the experience you want. 

📒Note: No need to include the angle bracketsjust the command and the difficulty level.

Once entered, the server will update immediately, and you’ll be playing with the new difficulty right away. You can change it again whenever you like.

👋Tip: You can also run this command using the SimpleGameHosting panel. Just head to the Console tab and type the command directly (without the /). For example:

difficulty hard

Other Ways to Change Difficulty (Requires Restart)

There are two other ways to change the server’s difficulty, but both require a quick restart.

1. Using the Settings Tab

• Head to your server’s Settings tab. Look for the Difficulty dropdown, select the difficulty you want, and click Save Changes at the bottom right. After that, restart your server for the changes to apply.

2. From the Console Page

• On the Console page, right next to the Start, Restart, and Stop buttons, you’ll see a small Quick Settings menu. Open it, choose your preferred difficulty from the dropdown, and then click Save. This will restart your server to apply the changes.

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