Start from the right preset
Enshrouded ships a Graphics Quality preset (Low → Ultra). Pick the preset closest to your hardware first, then fine-tune the two settings below — hand-tuning beats leaving the preset alone.
Performance settings (low-end / steady 60 FPS)
If you are dropping frames in the Shroud, change these in order:
- Foliage Quality → Low. Trees and grass are the heaviest objects in the world. This single setting often recovers 20+ FPS.
- View Distance → Medium. You lose a little scenery but keep responsive fights.
- Shadows → Low and Shadow Quality → Low. Shadows are surprisingly expensive in dense bases.
- Effects Quality → Medium. Particle bursts from gems and elites are the main cost here.
- Motion Blur → Off and V-Sync → Off (cap with your driver or a frame limiter instead to avoid input lag).
Leave Resolution at native if you can — dropping it hurts readability more than it helps on most modern GPUs.
Quality settings (high-end / screenshots)
If your machine is comfortable, push View Distance and Foliage Quality back up, set Shadows → High, and enable Post-processing. Keep Motion Blur off even here; it still only hides detail.
XP and difficulty (world settings)
These live in the host’s world configuration, not the graphics menu:
- Experience Points multiplier — the lever for “best XP settings.” Turn it up to level faster, down to make the climb last.
- Resource multiplier — more drops per node, less back-and-forth farming.
- Enemy Health / Enemy Damage multipliers — the real difficulty dials. Pair lower XP with higher enemy damage only if you want a longer, harder run.
For a first playthrough, leave damage at default and nudge XP to 1.25–1.5x so the long middle game does not drag.
Co-op settings
If you host, set max players to your group size and decide PvP and friendly fire up front — both are easier to agree on before anyone builds anything. Friendly fire off is the default for a reason; melee swings clip allies constantly.
The beginner guide covers what to do once these are set, and the best gems page shows where to spend your early mats.
Related guides
- Difficulty Guide — the sliders that change more than enemy health
- Steam Deck and Consoles — what actually runs at what frame rate
- How to Invite Friends — the co-op setup these settings are tuned for
- Beginner Guide — what to do once the settings are settled
- Tips and Tricks — the quality-of-life changes that beat any graphics option