Wiki / DDS2 / Game Mechanics & Systems

Cartel Settings & Difficulty Presets

When you start a cartel, the Customise & balance tab lets you pick a preset or tune every multiplier yourself. You can save your own preset under a custom name. The multipliers scale the base numbers listed on Balance Flags (Developer Values).

Contents: Built-in presets · Settings and preset values · Day length · Things worth knowing

Built-in presets

PresetDescription
Default DDS2Recommended default balance preset for new players.
EconomicMore focus on the economy and running the drug business. The enemies are easier, and there are fewer threats in general.
GangstaMore dangers and challenging gameplay. There are more enemies, and combat is harder. Raids will hit you much more often.
ChilloutDesigned for pure enjoyment. Progress is much faster, raids are disabled, and enemies are very easy. Chill out on Isla Sombra.

Settings and preset values

SettingWhat it doesDefault DDS2EconomicGangstaChillout
Experience multiplierAffects how fast you gain cartel experience.11.211.4
Demand multiplierAffects the number of drug demand points you gain.10.961.151.5
Reputation multiplierAffects the amount of reputation points you gain.10.91.11.7
Street cred multiplierAffects the amount of street cred you gain for your actions.11.30.851.4
Daytime multiplierLength of day and night. A direct multiplier on real-time hours (24.0 makes a full day last 1 hour of real time).16161616
Sales multiplierAffects the speed at which clients make orders; higher means more orders.11.111.2
Loss multiplierMultiplies maintenance costs (power and water, employee fees, etc.) and fines (arrest fine, prison bailout, etc.). Does not affect shop prices.11.210.75
Earnings multiplierAffects the prices clients pay for drugs.1111.3
Enable raidsEnables militia raids (0 = off). The game warns that this affects access to the prison camp.1110
Raid chance multiplierAffects the chance of a raid happening.10.51.31
Enable enemiesEnables the spawning of enemies.1111
Enemy amountChanges the number of enemies that spawn on the map and their spawn chances.10.51.20.5
Enemy damageChanges the damage enemies deal to you and your allies.10.61.30.3
Player damageChanges the damage you deal to enemies.1111.2
Clothes affect statsEnables clothing affecting player stats. When disabled, every player has average stats affected only by meds and drugs.1111
Stamina drainAffects the stamina drained by sprinting or actions.10.81.150.7
Stamina regainAffects the speed at which stamina regenerates.11.30.951.2
Crafting speed multiplierAffects the speed of crafting.10.91.11.5
Wanted points multiplierAffects the wanted points obtained for criminal actions.10.61.20.2

Day length

Every built-in preset sets the daytime multiplier to 16, so one in-game day lasts 90 minutes of real time (24 hours ÷ 16). A value of 24 would make a day last one hour. See Day-Night Cycle & Time.

Things worth knowing

Source: game DataTables (CartelConfigPresetDatabase, strTable_CartelConfig). Values are as stored in the current Steam build; bolivars are written with a leading B.

by xDqwg

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Created by DDS2 Wiki Batch (xdqwg, reviewed) 2 revisions Published September 21, 2026

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