How to change world size, difficulty and seed on your Terraria server Print

This article explains how to change the world size, difficulty and seed for your Terraria server on PlayNHost.

1. Back up your current world

• Before changing world settings, we strongly recommend creating a backup:
  • Follow the steps in our “How to backup and restore your server” article.
  • Download a copy of your current world in case you ever want to restore it.

2. Log in to the Game Panel and stop the server

1. Go to https://panel.playnhost.com and log in.
2. Select your Terraria server from the list.
3. On the server dashboard, click Stop and wait for the server to fully shut down.

3. Open your Terraria configuration

Depending on your setup, Terraria settings can be changed either on a dedicated configuration page or in a config file.

• Configuration / Startup page:
  • Look for a menu such as Configuration, Startup or Settings.
  • If your panel has a Terraria Settings page, it will usually show fields like world name, size and difficulty.
• Config file (serverconfig):
  • Open the File Manager in the Game Panel.
  • Look for a file with a name similar to serverconfig.txt or terraria-server.config.
  • Click it to open the editor.

4. Change world size

Terraria worlds are usually created as Small, Medium or Large.

• On a settings page, choose the desired World Size from the dropdown (for example, Small / Medium / Large).
• In a config file, you may see a setting such as:
  • worldsize=1 (or similar) where values correspond to Small/Medium/Large, or
  • a parameter telling the server to auto-create a world of a certain size.
• Set the value to the size you want and save the file or page.

Note: Changing world size usually means creating a new world. Your old world remains in the files and can be restored from backup if needed.

5. Change difficulty

Terraria supports several difficulty modes (Classic / Mediumcore / Hardcore and Journey, plus world difficulty such as Normal / Expert / Master in newer versions).

• On a settings page, look for World Difficulty or similar and select the appropriate difficulty.
• In a config file, look for a setting related to difficulty (for example, a numeric value or a difficulty keyword) and change it to the desired mode.
• Save your changes.

Like world size, changing difficulty generally applies to a newly created world. If you want to keep your current world, make sure the difficulty value matches what it was created with.

6. Change world seed (optional)

• Some Terraria server setups allow you to specify a world seed so you can recreate a specific layout.
• On a settings page, look for a field called Seed or World Seed and enter the value you want to use.
• In a config file, look for a line referring to seed and set it to your chosen value.
• Save the file or page.

If you leave the seed blank, Terraria will generate a random world.

7. Generate the new world and start the server

1. Once you have saved your size, difficulty and (optionally) seed, go back to the server dashboard.
2. Click Start to launch the server.
3. The first start after changing these options may take longer while Terraria generates the new world.
4. Watch the console for any error messages. When the server is ready, players can join using your usual IP and port.

8. Restoring your old world

• If you want to switch back to your previous world:
  • Stop the server.
  • Use your backups or original world files and restore them using the steps in “How to backup and restore your server”.
  • Ensure the config points to the correct world file, then start the server again.

If you are unsure which setting controls world size or difficulty for your specific Terraria setup in our panel, please open a ticket from Support → Submit a Ticket and include your server name and what you are trying to change.