Difference between normal and hard difficulty?

[Tomasz Bielski]

What is the differnce between normal and hard difficulty?

[kababowie]

hard is more difficult than normal maybe?

[The Renderer]

Choose the setting (other than the lowest) and you will get a popup telling you what it does (don't remember the text). You can then go back and chose a different one.

[silent88]

No popups that I can see. It is a no brainer that somehow hard is more difficult than normal, but that answer is unnecessarily antagonistic and mean. *How* is hard harder? Are drops more scarce? Do enemies have more hit points or strike harder? Is there any upside to choosing Hard rather than normal or easy? Do loot chests have enhanced loot or do mobs return more XP?

[Horrorscope CC97]

Originally posted by silent88:

No popups that I can see. It is a no brainer that somehow hard is more difficult than normal, but that answer is unnecessarily antagonistic and mean. *How* is hard harder? Are drops more scarce? Do enemies have more hit points or strike harder? Is there any upside to choosing Hard rather than normal or easy? Do loot chests have enhanced loot or do mobs return more XP?

Yep all good questions.

[76561198827550289]

I checked with the design team, and they stated that currently, all the enemy stats are increased (that includes health, power, armor, etc.). Currently, loot and XP is not affected.

[Maxine]

Originally posted by ;1733214357977491591:

I checked with the design team, and they stated that all the enemy stats are increased (that includes health, power, armor, etc.).

That's what I figured, but it's a tad disappointing. Would be cool if playing on harder difficulties were more rewarding. Then again, Supreme Jerk in Wasteland 2 was pretty much the same as in you do less damage and enemies do more, but playing through Supreme Jerk was rewarding as hell for the challenge alone.

[silent88]

Were the only reward greater difficulty I'd choose 'easy', since I don't elect problems for the sake of having them. Masochism looks counterproductive from here.

[magickmynd]

Originally posted by silent88:

Were the only reward greater difficulty I'd choose 'easy', since I don't elect problems for the sake of having them. Masochism looks counterproductive from here.

It depends on what part of the game you like more and how much time you have/want to spend playing. I played on normal difficulty and battles were so easy by the time I got out of Skara Brae that they were a snooze fest.

At that point battles were just downtime from exploring and solving puzzles. So, the question is what do you want to do more in the game? Explore? Solve puzzles? Listen to story? If you just want the game for the story and puzzles, by all means put it on easy and breeze through the combat.

But I actually kind of liked the combat in the game because it was kind of like solving a puzzle all it's own. Each fight in new areas had their own enemy types with various abilities and weaknesses and you have to figure out the best way to use your party to exploit those weaknesses. And since my primary damage dealers were AoE spell casters I had to find ways to move enemies around the field to optimize the area damage I was dealing.

I'm seriously considering playing again on hard mode and restricting what abilities I can take to make the combat more difficult simply because I enjoy the challenge and it makes me think about what I am doing rather than just mashing buttons over and over. If I wanted to do that I would play a standard hack and slash.

[Horrorscope CC97]

Originally posted by silent88:

Were the only reward greater difficulty I'd choose 'easy', since I don't elect problems for the sake of having them. Masochism looks counterproductive from here.

So you play on easy?

Thanks for getting back to us.

[bambaladam]

Originally posted by Eric_inXile:

I checked with the design team, and they stated that currently, all the enemy stats are increased (that includes health, power, armor, etc.). Currently, loot and XP is not affected.

You wrote 'currently' because it will change?