Everytime i get used to the difficulty it gets harder

[Ileth]

Can people explain to me why it's getting harder and harder every playthrough ? I understand the logic in the game but is it because it's my 22nd run ? Or is it linked to the mirror upgrades ? Or maybe because i managed to fight Hades once ( not beat him though )

[Blahness]

I just got this game and I haven't noticed any difficulty rises (I'm 25 hours in). The only thing that seems to have gotten harder are the mino fights since the spear guy teams up with him. Other than that one fight I haven't noticed anything. Pay attention to the rooms, the ones with the skull on them have increased difficulty and harder enemies.

[Gordo Ramsay]

Originally posted by Ileth:

Can people explain to me why it's getting harder and harder every playthrough ? I understand the logic in the game but is it because it's my 22nd run ? Or is it linked to the mirror upgrades ? Or maybe because i managed to fight Hades once ( not beat him though )

The games difficulty stays the same until you beat the actual game. However, there are some rooms that are more difficult then others. For example, some rooms have more/stronger enemies, some have mini bosses, etc. You can tell by the icon of door because it will have a little skull or a little skull with up arrows.

[Cockroach]

It randomly gets harder like that guy said.

[⭕TheSodaman]

Originally posted by Ileth:

Can people explain to me why it's getting harder and harder every playthrough ? I understand the logic in the game but is it because it's my 22nd run ? Or is it linked to the mirror upgrades ? Or maybe because i managed to fight Hades once ( not beat him though )

On Normal, it shouldn't be getting harder unless you explicitly use a Pact of Punishment.

There are some rooms that have skulls next to them and those rooms will be more difficult than non-skull rooms. Also, you may receive variations of existing bosses and those variations may feel harder if you've gotten used to the other boss that could show up in that room.

For Theseus in particular, he may receive a different type of god aiding him when he is weakened, which will change how you would need to avoid that god's attacks.

[UNBREAKABLE]

Some rooms are more difficult than others, which you may or may not run into during any run. If there's a leap in difficulty it's likely because you encountered something you haven't seen yet.

[Casual Player]

Unfortunately, some of the replies here are not true. enemies will in fact develop new abilities over time as you get further and further, even if you do not beat the game. The game steps up the difficulty. You are not wrong to notice this.

Two simple examples, as you progress through the game that you will randomly start meeting the other Furies which are harder than the first one. You do not need to have unlocked any heat for this to happen.

The second can be seen with the hydra, the first time you run into him he will only spew slow moving projectiles, as you fight him over and over, and I'm not sure what triggers this maybe it's unlocking other weapons maybe it's unlocking certain story elements, but he will suddenly get access to several more moves, like machine gun rapid fire, magma spit, etc. The same can be said of his heads which the first time you run into the hydra will not summon the skeleton minions but after a couple of times they will start summoning the skeleton minions even before you have unlocked any heat.

There are other enemies in the game who also develop new abilities and become harder and have slightly different upgraded attack patterns as well again I'm not sure what triggers this.

[KriKitBoNeZ]

Originally posted by Donald J. Trump:

Unfortunately, some of the replies here are not true. enemies will in fact develop new abilities over time as you get further and further, even if you do not beat the game. The game steps up the difficulty. You are not wrong to notice this.

Two simple examples, as you progress through the game that you will randomly start meeting the other Furies which are harder than the first one. You do not need to have unlocked any heat for this to happen.

The second can be seen with the hydra, the first time you run into him he will only spew slow moving projectiles, as you fight him over and over, and I'm not sure what triggers this maybe it's unlocking other weapons maybe it's unlocking certain story elements, but he will suddenly get access to several more moves, like machine gun rapid fire, magma spit, etc. The same can be said of his heads which the first time you run into the hydra will not summon the skeleton minions but after a couple of times they will start summoning the skeleton minions even before you have unlocked any heat.

There are other enemies in the game who also develop new abilities and become harder and have slightly different upgraded attack patterns as well again I'm not sure what triggers this.

I haven't experienced any of this at all. The game gets EASIER as you unlock bits in the mirror and weapons, plus their aspects. It only ramps up the difficulty with the pacts. The runs can be easier or more difficult based on boons and probably unimaginable variables like, maybe the player didn't eat a proper breakfast or something.

[Blahness]

Originally posted by Donald J. Trump:

Unfortunately, some of the replies here are not true. enemies will in fact develop new abilities over time as you get further and further, even if you do not beat the game. The game steps up the difficulty. You are not wrong to notice this.

Two simple examples, as you progress through the game that you will randomly start meeting the other Furies which are harder than the first one. You do not need to have unlocked any heat for this to happen.

The second can be seen with the hydra, the first time you run into him he will only spew slow moving projectiles, as you fight him over and over, and I'm not sure what triggers this maybe it's unlocking other weapons maybe it's unlocking certain story elements, but he will suddenly get access to several more moves, like machine gun rapid fire, magma spit, etc. The same can be said of his heads which the first time you run into the hydra will not summon the skeleton minions but after a couple of times they will start summoning the skeleton minions even before you have unlocked any heat.

There are other enemies in the game who also develop new abilities and become harder and have slightly different upgraded attack patterns as well again I'm not sure what triggers this.

There are different versions of the hydra after some time, but other than the summon skeleton version, they are not any more difficult. The hydra also does not start shooting faster after completing the game for some time, he has multiple phases, the first phase he fires slowly. I have yet to see any enemies gain additional movesets or abilities of anykind. I have been watching youtube videos of this game since buying it, and nothing other than the heat modifiers change how the enemies can behave. So what you believe is true is not actually the case. Other than unlocking the challenge rooms and raising the heat gauge, nothing changes. Everything only gets easier as you progress and unlock more.

[KriKitBoNeZ]

Originally posted by Blahness:

Originally posted by Donald J. Trump:

Unfortunately, some of the replies here are not true. enemies will in fact develop new abilities over time as you get further and further, even if you do not beat the game. The game steps up the difficulty. You are not wrong to notice this.

Two simple examples, as you progress through the game that you will randomly start meeting the other Furies which are harder than the first one. You do not need to have unlocked any heat for this to happen.

The second can be seen with the hydra, the first time you run into him he will only spew slow moving projectiles, as you fight him over and over, and I'm not sure what triggers this maybe it's unlocking other weapons maybe it's unlocking certain story elements, but he will suddenly get access to several more moves, like machine gun rapid fire, magma spit, etc. The same can be said of his heads which the first time you run into the hydra will not summon the skeleton minions but after a couple of times they will start summoning the skeleton minions even before you have unlocked any heat.

There are other enemies in the game who also develop new abilities and become harder and have slightly different upgraded attack patterns as well again I'm not sure what triggers this.

There are different versions of the hydra after some time, but other than the summon skeleton version, they are not any more difficult. The hydra also does not start shooting faster after completing the game for some time, he has multiple phases, the first phase he fires slowly. I have yet to see any enemies gain additional movesets or abilities of anykind. I have been watching youtube videos of this game since buying it, and nothing other than the heat modifiers change how the enemies can behave. So what you believe is true is not actually the case. Other than unlocking the challenge rooms and raising the heat gauge, nothing changes. Everything only gets easier as you progress and unlock more.

All these different versions of the bosses and mobs are literally unlocked through the pacts.

[Casual Player]

I have a new save on which I literally never beat hades and have fought all three Furies. I have restarted the game multiple times and the hydra will literally never summon mini skeleton minions the first time you meet him.

Unless I just happen to experience this on all three of my clean restarts which would be pretty long odds. Although I was not watching as closely I am also nearly 100% certain you can't find the hardest mini bosses in any area the first few times you play them, example the super witch who can teleport and has an interaction point in her room in tartarus.

There are several more examples, but I am tired atm.

[Ǵ̶͓̂͑lí̴̤̀̄́tcĥ̸]

Throughout my current (first) playthrough, the bosses specifically seem to "upgrade" over time, without doing any pacts or anything of that nature. Enemies were always somewhat varied for me, especially the Bloodless bomb thrower types which seem to differ per run or occasionally mix up - and more shielded enemies started to appear on later runs as well maybe? Either way enemies seemed mostly consistent in terms of variance for me so far - but the bosses have entirely different movesets or even, in the case of the Furies - different "sisters" entirely.

For my first few runs, initially I was just fighting Meg, but then after about 10 or so runs (I'd made it to Hades by then but still have only gotten to his second phase - took me about 7 runs to get there though) Alecto showed up and the following run it was Tisiphone - each with their own unique (though similar, aside from Tisiphone's phase change effect) movesets. The hydra also changed its moveset both times Meg changed to one of her sisters. He went from throwing those shard-shaped purple bullets (standard fight) which increased in speed and quantity each phase to a version where he only used his head slam, but with each slam small AoE circles were spammed all over the arena followed shortly by a small explosions (similar to a few of Theseus' second form boons like Zeus') - and then a third form showed up the following run as well, this one spamming those purple sweeping wave attacks that some of the bigger Bloodless use (which pass through the barriers) in higher quantities with each phase (with 3 waves during the third phase). When Zag first meets them he will comment on them looking different, with entirely different intros for the Furies. Haven't yet noticed a difference with Theseus and his pal.

Anyway looking at the wiki, it seems the bosses reveal new forms after having killed the originals at least 3 times.

[KriKitBoNeZ]

Originally posted by ⊂卄⫯ㅥ⫯∩':

Throughout my current (first) playthrough, the bosses specifically seem to "upgrade" over time, without doing any pacts or anything of that nature. Enemies were always somewhat varied for me, especially the Bloodless bomb thrower types which seem to differ per run or occasionally mix up - and more shielded enemies started to appear on later runs as well maybe? Either way enemies seemed mostly consistent in terms of variance for me so far - but the bosses have entirely different movesets or even, in the case of the Furies - different "sisters" entirely.

For my first few runs, initially I was just fighting Meg, but then after about 10 or so runs (I'd made it to Hades by then but still have only gotten to his second phase - took me about 7 runs to get there though) Alecto showed up and the following run it was Tisiphone. The hydra also changed its moveset both times Meg changed to one of her sisters. He went from throwing those shard-shaped purple bullets (standard fight) which increased in speed and quantity each phase to a version where he only used his head slam, but with each slam small AoE circles were spammed all over the arena followed shortly by a small explosions (similar to a few of Theseus' second form boons like Zeus') - and then a third form showed up the following run as well, this one spamming those purple sweeping wave attacks that some of the bigger Bloodless use (which pass through the barriers) in higher quantities with each phase (with 3 waves during the third phase).

Anyway looking at the wiki, it seems the bosses reveal new forms after having killed the originals at least 3 times.

Maybe this is something I never experienced because I have been using the same save file since before 1.0. Dunno. Didn't realize it was a thing, if it is.

[Ǵ̶͓̂͑lí̴̤̀̄́tcĥ̸]

Yeah I guess now they randomly change between their "pact" forms after you kill their original forms enough, to add variance to the runs?

[Sifer2]

It's true that as you play more it unlocks more enemy types, and boss variants for the first two areas. Though a lot of it is just luck based on what boons/hammers you get. And you overall get stronger from the mirror, and weapon upgrades. Most of the real difficulty increase will come from the heat pacts.

[Ileth]

I noticed it especially on several things, first i got more and more different ennemies during the playthrough, which is great, but then my first boss was Aleco, but she had gotten a Rage bar that made the fight twice as hard, and then the Hydra had the Summon skeleton perk all of the sudden and i wipe for the first time on her, so i was wondering, thanks for all the answers