Palworld is a sandbox survival game with many options for playing, including difficulty and other custom settings. Here's our recommendation for difficulty settings to choose when you play Palworld.

Which Difficulty Settings to Choose

Default Settings

Palworld features a robust variety of world settings you can edit. Still, there are also default difficulties you can choose from to set up your world quickly.

Normal for the Intended Experience

Normal difficulty is the standard experience that's good for any player who has experience playing survival games.

A significant difference between Normal and Casual difficulties is that you drop all your items and equipment upon dying in Normal difficulty. This can alter how you play the game, as you can travel anywhere without consequences.

Beginner's Guide: Tips and Tricks to Get Started

Casual for Pal Collectors and Base Building Enjoyers

Casual World Settings Compared to Normal Difficulty
30% more EXP received 2X more capture rate 50% more damage from Players 30% less damage to Players 2X more gatherable items 2X more dropped items No hatching time Players do not drop anything on death

The Casual difficulty is best for a stress-free environment as you collect Pals more easily and generate more materials from gathering points.

This difficulty is recommended for players seeking to build vast buildings and those planning to collect and breed a lot of Pals.

How to Breed Pals and Training Guide

Hard Difficulty for Experienced Survival Players

Hard World Settings Compared to Normal Difficulty
20% less EXP received 20% less capture rate Half the damage from Players 4X the damage to Players 50% less gatherable items 50% less dropped items 36X more hatching time Players drop all items, equipment, and Pals on death

Intended to be a grindy experience, the Hard difficulty setting is for hardened survivors who seek a real survival challenge.

Players get fewer items, fewer Pals, and less EXP, and they can die more often, punishing them by dropping all their items AND Pals.

Hardcore Difficulty for Thrill-Seeking Veterans

Hardcore World Settings Compared to Normal Difficulty
20% less EXP received 20% less capture rate Half the damage from Players 2X the damage to Players 36X more hatching time Players lose their Pals for good if the Pals die Players cannot respawn on death

Released with the Feybreak Update comes the Hardcore Difficulty. While it actually grants more mercy than the Hard difficulty in terms of damage to players and items, the real challenge comes from the threat of permanently losing your Pals and even your entire save. This difficulty is meant for risk-taking veterans looking for a thrill to their save, who accept the possibility of losing all their progress.

Most of the Hardcore difficulty is set up similarly to Hard difficulty, with the only difference being players take only twice as much damage in Hardcore compared to four times as much in Hard, and gatherable and dropped item chances are set back to normal. This is most likely to give players a fighting chance to keep their Pals and their saves.

Players who die in Hardore difficulty are forced to Return to Title. You can actually enter back into the Hardcore save you died in, but you will be stuck in the "Defeat" screen, with only the option to Return to Title. You have to manually delete the save in the World Select menu.

Custom Settings Difficulty

For an experience tailored to your liking, select Custom Settings and change the many custom world settings you can tweak.

Best World Settings for Palworld

Hardcore Settings

The two Hardcore settings are also available for players looking for a thrilling challenge in their Custom saves. These two settings are Hardcore Mode: Permanent Loss upon Player Death and Hardcore Mode: Pal Permadeath. You can turn either one or both of these settings on.

Permanent Loss upon Player Death means players cannot respawn upon death, losing their ability to play in that save. On the other hand, Pal Permadeath means a Pal is lost forever if they die. Know what you are getting into if you plan to turn these settings on!

How to Change Difficulty or World Settings

Change World Settings from the World Select Menu

If you do not find the current world settings to be enjoyable, you can still change the difficulty or world settings of your World.

To change difficulties or world settings from an existing world, select the world from the Word Select Menu. Select the Change World Settings button to access the World Settings menu.

Best Custom World Settings for Palworld

Palworld Related Guides

Tips and Tricks

Feybreak Update Tips

Feybreak Island Tips
Feybreak Update Patch Notes	Terraria Crossover Launched
Bounty Tokens Guide	Attack Chopper Guide
How to Start Pal Expeditions	Feybreak Oil Rig Guide
How to Find Feybreak	Messenger of Love Locations
Level 30 Oil Rig Guide	-

Feybreak Update All New Content Guide

Sakurajima Update Tips

Sakurajima Island Tips
PvP Arena Guide	How to Find Meteorite Event
Oil Rig Stronghold Guide	Best Crude Oil Base Locations
How to Farm Dog Coins	Supply Drop Guide and All Items
Sakurajima Location and How to Get There	How to Unlock More Accessory Slots
Sakurajima Early Access Play Review	Junkyard Locations and All Items
Lockpicking Guide	-

All Sakurajima Update Features

General Palworld Tips

General Palworld Tips
Best Starter Pal	How to Level Up Fast
Best Base Locations and How to Move Bases	Best Stats to Upgrade
Best Ancient Technology	Statue of Power Guide
How to Get a Gun Fast and Early in Palworld	Day/Night Cycle
How to Get Ancient Technology Points Fast	Pal Distillation Pod: How to Rank Up Pal
Base Building Guide	Raid Guide
How to Remove Wanted Status	List of Palworld Achievements
Best Palworld Team	How to Destroy and Move Structures
When Do Items and Resources Respawn?	Transferring Characters
Base Level Rewards and Requirements	How to Attack Enemies on Water
Best Structures for Your Base	How to Trade Pals
Best Type Combinations	What to Do in Palworld
Can Pals Evolve in Palworld	How to Mount and Ride Pals
How to Get More Base Storage	When Do Bosses Respawn?
Benefits to Killing Syndicate Thugs	All Black Marketeer Pals
How to Move Bases	How to Create and Join a Guild
Story Walkthrough Guide	Post Game Guide
Pal Buy and Sell Values Explained	Post Game Raid Boss
Choices, Missables, and One-Time Events	How to Fly
How to Handle Pals Not Working and Assign Pals to Jobs	How to Get a Level 5 Work Suitability Pal
List of the Best Palworld Mods	Rare Drops List and Best Rare Drops to Farm
How to Change Player and Pal Names	Stats and IVs Explained
How to Change Your Character's Appearance	How to Keep Items on Death
How Many Pals Are in Palworld	How to Refresh Vendor Stock
Feed Box Optimal Positioning	Pals That Don't Sleep
Level Cap	All Pal Skins and How to Change
Palworld Halloween Skins	-

Pal Catching Tips

Pal Catching Tips
How to Catch Pals	How to Catch and Sell Humans
How to Get Lucky Pals	Pal Sphere Farming Guide
How to Reroll Dungeon Bosses

Survival and Exploration Tips

Survival and Exploration Tips
How to Cook Pals	How to Farm Paldium Fragments
How to Heal Pals and Player HP	How to Keep Pals Happy and Sane
How to Increase Carrying Capacity	How to Increase Stamina
How to Upgrade Palbox	How to Repair Tools
How to Fix Pal Injuries	How to Revive Pals
How to Cancel Arrows	How to Eat Food
How to Put Out and Avoid Fires	How to Increase Movement Speed
How to Cure Depressed Pals	How to Cure Weakened Pals
How to Cure Pals of Overfull	How to Get Keys
Night Guide: How to Survive the Night	How to Manage Food Expiration

Best Base Locations
Coal Base	Paldium Fragment Base
Ore Base	Sulfur Base
Skill Fruit Base	-

Settings and Multiplayer Tips

Settings and Multiplayer Tips
How to Play Palworld on Mobile Devices	Best World Settings for Palworld
How to Change World Settings	Multiplayer Guide
Does Palworld Have Crossplay?	Is There PvP in Palworld?
How to Save the Game	How to Set Up Dedicated Server
Which Difficulty Settings to Choose	How to Backup Save Data
All Controls and How to Change	How to Drop Items and Pals
All Console Commands and Cheats	Palworld PC System Requirements
How to Migrate Server Data	How to Change Death Penalty Settings
Is There Splitscreen Local Co-Op in Palworld	-

Glitches and Exploits

All Glitches and Exploits
Infinite Pal Sphere Exploit	Guild Save File Deletion Bug
Pal Pathfinding Bug Fix	How to Catch Tower Bosses
Refresh Food Expiration Glitch	Infinite Sweepa Boost Glitch
Carry Weight Glitch	Pal Sphere Gliding Glitch
Egg Duplication Glitch	Instant Pal Revive and Heal Glitch
Infinite Syndicate Thug Glitch	Black Marketeer Gold Glitch
Item Duplication Glitch	2 Combat Pals at A Time Glitch
Unraidable Base Glitch	Clipping Glitch
How to Fix World Save Bug	Infinite Loot Glitch
Infinite XP Glitch	Freeze and Rocket Launcher Glitch
Pal Skill Cooldown Reset Trick	Fierce Fang Glitch