Dungeon Settlers Difficulty Levels Explained: Which Should You Pick?

Dungeon Settlers launched into Early Access on September 4, 2026 with its default difficulty set to Hard — and within ten days, four patches reshaped what each difficulty actually means. This page collects every difficulty-related fact CanOpener has published, so you can pick a difficulty with the current rules instead of launch-day rules.

What are the difficulty levels?

Official patch notes and the launch roadmap name five difficulties:

• Easy
• Normal
• Hard
• Very Hard
• Devastation Management (shortened to “Devastation” in the v0.4.12 patch notes)

Exactly how each tier scales enemies or settlement pressure has not been itemized in official sources yet — to be documented as CanOpener publishes it. What is documented is how the tiers differ in rewards and options, below. One structural fact from v0.4.23: difficulty runs on two axes — Combat Difficulty (v0.4.23 reduces active-skill Energy costs by 25% on Normal and 50% on Easy) and Management Difficulty (research work amounts, drop penalties).

What changed with difficulty in the first patches?

Difficulty-relevant changes shipped through v0.4.23:

Which difficulties let you lock level-up rolls?

The level-up lock option — the v0.4.23 notes name it “Lock Consecration Results” — was available only on Easy and Normal at launch. v0.4.23 (September 12) separated it into its own setting, made it available on all Management Difficulty levels, and let you turn it ON or OFF during an ongoing campaign — the expansion CanOpener’s September 6 “Your Feedback in Action” post had promised “ASAP”.

Related but separate: v0.4.19 also added reroll locking to the Expedition Founding scenario (portraits, ability stats, Major Traits, Sub Traits) — that one applies when creating your expedition, before difficulty comes into play. See the v0.4.19 patch notes.

Which difficulty should you pick?

Based only on what official sources document:

• New to colony sims → Normal (the new default) or Easy — and since v0.4.23, every Management tier has the level-up lock (“Lock Consecration Results”), toggleable mid-campaign
• Want the launch-week challenge the devs originally intended → Hard, which was the default for the first two days of Early Access
• Very Hard / Devastation Management → the drop-quantity penalty is gone (v0.4.19), so the documented remaining cost on Devastation is starting Cog Wheels cut from 2 to 1 in v0.4.12

Where do these facts come from?

All changes above come from CanOpener’s official Steam posts: “[Update] v0.4.12” (September 4), “[Update] v0.4.19” and “Your Feedback in Action” (both September 6), “[Update] v0.4.23” (September 12), and the launch-day roadmap — see Updates for each patch article. Anything not listed there is deliberately left undocumented here rather than guessed.

What to read next

• Dungeon Settlers Update v0.4.23 — the Energy-cost and research-multiplier difficulty changes, plus the all-tier lock
• Dungeon Settlers Update v0.4.19 — the patch that changed the default difficulty and removed drop penalties
• Beginner’s Guide: Your First Days — the Normal-difficulty opening walkthrough
• Starter Party Building Guide — who to bring regardless of difficulty