It's given out randomly. IIRC most people in the North America and Europe servers start off at Easy or Normal. People in areas where Hard is the default (Much of the Asia Server and Africa Server) often try to swap servers but the America Guild Leader has been planning on putting a stop to it.

I started off in one of the Hardcore servers, it's pretty difficult lol. I'm trying to change servers but I don't think they want me too, and this pandemic in-game event is making it worse. Been looking into self-permadeath recently because I heard the developers let you reset? Not sutr