Which difficulty should I play on?

Wondering what the several different difficulty levels mean? Here's a guide that will allow you to pick the most suitable one.

Introduction

Hi all, This guide will help you choose a difficulty that is suitable for you whether you have never played this game yet, started playing or is even a proficient player at the game. This is to ensure that you have the best possible experience, not making it overly easy to bore you or overly difficult to make the game unenjoyable.

Here are the different difficulties in game:




Thanks to the Serious Sam wiki to help find the exact statistics for the different difficulties. All the stats can be found here[serioussam.wikia.com].

Visualisation

Here, this table is an overview of all the statistics provided!
(Thanks for the suggestion - [URP] Atlas Sarnosian)



Health: Maximum default health given to a player

Armour: Maximum default armour given to a player

Max Health: Maximum health achived by picking up health

Health regeneration: Yes means health regen, (Yes) means health de-gen.

Score multiplier: What your final game score will be multiplied by

Number of enemies: Number of enemies that spawn and number of spawn points. (Fewer enemies also mean fewer spawn points)

Enemy Health: How buff the enemy is. Relative enemy health to the normal (1)

Enemy damage: How hard they hit. Relative enemy damage compared to the normal (1)

Enemy speed: How fast they run (or fly). Relative enemy speed compared to the normal (1)

Enemy reaction: How quickly enemies start shooting you after they see you. The higher the number, the quicker they respond.

Enemy detection: How easily enemies discover your location. Relative enemy reaction compared to the normal (1)

Autoaim: The distance from which the crosshair snaps to the enemy. Relative to the normal (1)

Tourist difficulty (level 1)

"The tourist difficulty is reccommended for players who have less experience or no experience with First person shooter games"

This game mode is also appropriate for players who would like to speedrun, find secrets and exploration without worrying about dying. This difficulty is very easy, as enemies have low health, low damage and low intelligence. The player is put at a distinct advantage, with health regeneration, high health and high armour. However, certain achievements cannot be unlocked on this difficulty. The score is very low as it is only multiplied by x11.

Default Health: 200

Default Armour: 200

Max Health: 300

Health regeneration: yes (1HP per second if health is below 200)

Score multiplier: x11

Number of enemies: low

Enemy Health: 0.5

Enemy Damage: 0.25

Enemy Speed: 1

Enemy Reaction: 1

Enemy Detection: 1.5

Autoaim: Highest (1.2)

Easy difficulty (level 2)

"The easy difficulty is reccommended for players that are comfortable with first person shooters, but not familiar with Serious Sam games."

This game mode is also appropriate for players who would like to speedrun, find secrets and exploration without worrying about dying. This difficulty is relatively easy, as enemies have low health, low damage and low intelligence. The player is put at an advantage, high health and high armor. The score is low as it is multiplied by x21.

This is different to tourist difficulty as there is no health regeneration and enemies have slightly more health

Default Health: 200

Default Armour: 200

Max Health: 300

Health regeneration: no

Score multiplier: x21

Number of enemies: low

Enemy Health: 0.75 (increased from 0.5)

Enemy Damage: 0.5 (increased from 0.25)

Enemy Speed: 1

Enemy Reaction: 1

Enemy Detection: 1.25 (decreased from 1.5)

Autoaim: High (1.1) (decreased from 1.2)

Normal difficulty (Level 3)

"The normal difficulty is for players proficient in FPS games"

This game is appropriate for the FPS lover, and a fairly new player to the Serious Sam games. This is the middle level, where neither the player or the enemy has an advantage. A level playing field will challenge the player with several changes from the previous two difficulties.

This is different to easy difficulty as there is less health, less armour, health degradation, higher enemy health and damage, higher enemy intelligence.

Default Health: 100 (decreased from 200)

Default Armour: 100 (decreased from 200)

Max Health: 200 (decreased from 100)

Health degeneration: yes - if health is more than 100 (decreased from no regeneration or degeneration)

Score multiplier: x31 (increased from x21)

Number of enemies: Normal (increased from low)

Enemy Health: 1 (increased from 0.75)

Enemy Damage: 1 (increased from 0.5)

Enemy Speed: 1

Enemy Reaction: 1

Enemy Detection: 1 (decreased from 1.25)

Autoaim: Normal (1.0) (decreased from 1.1)

Hard difficulty (Level 4)

"The hard difficulty is appropriate for experienced Serious Sam players, or for FPS players who would like a real challenge"

Expect to die a lot if you are not experienced with serious sam games. This difficulty really tests you, as the enemies have a slight advantage over you. There are a few noticable changes from the previous difficulty that sets it apart from normal.

This is different to normal difficulty as the enemies are much stronger, faster and more intelligent.

Default Health: 100

Default Armour: 100

Max Health: 200

Health degeneration: yes - if health is more than 100

Score multiplier: x41 (increased from x31)

Number of enemies: Normal

Enemy Health: 1

Enemy Damage: 1.5 (increased from 1)

Enemy Speed: 1.125 (increased from 1)

Enemy Reaction: 1.125 (increased from 1)

Enemy Detection: 1

Autoaim: Normal (1.0)

Serious difficulty (level 5)

"Serious difficulty is only reccommended with those very experienced with Serious Sam games, and would like the toughest challenge out there. This is not reccommended for players who have no experience with exactly how the game works"

This difficulty is brutal, expect to die a lot of times. You must be able to predict spawn locations of enemies and health and armour spots if you wish to survive. The secrets can greatly aid you as they ease the difficulty slightly. The enemies have a distinctive advantage over you and the sheer amount of enemies make the rounds long and gruelling and is very frustrating if you die.

This is different to hard difficulty as the enemies are far stronger, faster and spawn in massive numbers.

Default Health: 100

Default Armour: 100

Max Health: 200

Health degeneration: yes - if health is more than 100

Score multiplier: x51 (increased from x41)

Number of enemies: Very high (increased from normal)

Enemy Health: 1

Enemy Damage: 2.5 (increased from 1.5)

Enemy Speed: 1.25 (increased from 1.125)

Enemy Reaction: 1.25 (increased from 1.125)

Enemy Detection: 1

Autoaim: Normal (1.0)

Mental difficulty (level 6)

"The mental difficulty is reccomended for experienced Serious Sam players, and players who would like a different kind of challenge"

Why do I say that? Mental difficulty is the exact same as hard difficulty except that enemies flash invisible every 2 or 3 seconds. It is not as overwhelming as serious, but can be disorientating for several players not experienced with the game.

This is the same as hard difficulty as the enemies turn invisible for a short duration and then turm back visible again.

Default Health: 100

Default Armour: 100

Max Health: 200

Health degeneration: yes - if health is more than 100

Score multiplier: x61 (increased from x41)

Number of enemies: Normal

Enemy Health: 1

Enemy Damage: 1.5 (decreased from 2.5)

Enemy Speed: 1.125 (decreased from from 1.25)

Enemy Reaction: 1.125 (decreased from 1.25)

Enemy Detection: 1

Autoaim: Normal (1.0)

Fin

Thank you very much for reading and I hope this was useful. If you have anything to improve in this guide, please give your opinion in the comments section. If you would like to see my other guide for Call of duty 4: Modern warfare, I have attatched it here!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=590756248

Also, thanks to [URP] Atlas sarnosian for suggesting the table! His guides are great too! Go check them out. I've attatched my favourite.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=231547960

Have a Seriously great day!

[TheDeeGee]

Last level is best played on Tourist Mode or with cheats, what a stupid gauntlet of non-stop bullshit. I couldn't beat it on Normal, just cheat my way through and called it a day. Never playing this again with it's 50 shades of sand.

Serious Sam 2 is the best out of the series.

[Kamul]

Is there any ammo cap difference between each difficulty levels? I remember running out of ammo pretty quickly on Normal while playing First Encounter at times.

[Daddy Sparky420]

I was just curious to see if mental was actually harder than serious or not now i know thanks !

[rora]

Fixed :D

[Fahrräder]

Interesting that I found SSTSE(HD) on Serious difficulty much more satisfying and, because of that somewhat easier than TFE on Hard. Also, I'd really like to see your guide with capital 'S's in Serious Sam.

[Triple AAA]

Just some details I feel like pointing out:
- Health degeneration is exclusive to Serious Sam: Xbox and Serious Sam: Next Encounter. It does not appear in any other game in the series.
- Tourist and Easy difficulties remove self-inflicted explosion damage.
- Unlike other games in the series, SS3 does not add very many extra enemies in Serious difficulty, which appears to be the reasoning why Serious doesn't give the player double ammo.

But you're on the right track so far. :)

[rora]

Health regeneration: Yes means health regen, (Yes) means health de-gen.

[Atlas]

Looks absolutely wonderful!
(Though, one mistake: all of the non-Tourist difficulties [besides Easy] are showing they do have Health Regen when they don't at all)
Other than that, I thank you for hearing my word and appreciate the creditentials.

[rora]

Done! Thanks

[Atlas]

One such like this
http://becauseitsgood.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/comparison-chart-template-1zv4fdkf.png
Have the y-axis boxes be the difficulty names and the x-axis all of the features of them (Health, Armor, Points, Enemies, etc.)
Steam supplies this type of features as their own HTML as [] (minus spacing)
https://steamcommunity.com/app/440/discussions/0/617328415060395666/
^Should help get an idea how it works