Difficulty (XC2)

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Torna ~ The Golden Country have several difficulty settings which affect .
==Options==
The difficulty can be changed in the System -> Options -> Game Settings menu. There are four different options:
* Easy, which reduces the difficulty of combat;
* Normal, the default;
* Bringer of Chaos, which increases the difficulty of combat;
* Custom, which allows various difficulty parameters to be modified at will.
Of these, Easy and Normal are available in the base game, whereas Bringer of Chaos and Custom are only available after acquiring New Difficulty Levels via the . In Torna ~ The Golden Country, Easy and Normal are available ordinarily, and Bringer of Chaos and Custom are unlocked in .
In , one can choose which difficulty to engage in a challenge battle without entering the options menu. In this case, if Custom difficulty is selected, it will use the current Custom settings as customised in the options menu. 
==Affected parameters==
There are 10 modifiable parameters available in custom difficulty, which each have a specific set value in the other three difficulties.
===Enemy Attack Power===
Enemy Attack Power is 75% in Easy, 100% in Normal, and 125% in Bringer of Chaos. In Custom, it can be set to any value between 25% and 250%, in intervals of 25%.
Enemy Attack Power primarily affects the enemy characters deal by multiplying their and stats.
However, it does much more than its name suggests. If Enemy Attack Power is greater than or equal to 100%, as it is in Normal and Bringer of Chaos but not Easy, it has the following effects:
* Some enemies receive an additional passive resistance of 2% * enemyAttackPower * SturdinessBonus, where SturdinessBonus (internally called ChrSize, although it is not always based on enemy size) is an enemy-dependent value from 0 to 3. (In Normal, this corresponds to a 2% to 6% Break resistance increase; in Bringer of Chaos, this corresponds to a 2.5% to 7.5% increase.)
* For each Driver or character: Each consecutive adds one to a counter, which is 0 at the start of each battle. The counter multiplies this character's critical rate by (0.962 * enemyAttackPower ^ (-0.03)) ^ n (0.962 ^ n in Normal, 0.955 ^ n in Bringer of Chaos), where n is the current value of the counter. If n is less than or equal to 10, failing to crit resets n to 0; if it is greater than 10, failing to crit halves n instead. This does not apply if the character's crit rate is over 100% to begin with.
If Enemy Attack Power is greater than (not equal to) 100%, as it is on Bringer of Chaos difficulty, it also has the following effects:
* Enemy is multiplied by (1 + enemyAttackPower / 10) (1.125 on Bringer of Chaos). 
* Enemies in an Art animation receive a multiplier of 1 - 2 * enemyAttackPower/10 on the base chance to inflict a upon them (0.75 on Bringer of Chaos).
* After a has been performed in combat by any party member, the damage multiplier is set to start at 100%. This overrides effects which ordinarily increase this value, such as that of the Burst Symbol. This behaviour (the Chain Attack bug) was likely unintentional.
* reduction over time is increased by a factor of enemyAttackPower, capped at 2x. (On Bringer of Chaos, this corresponds to a 1.25x increase in the reduction over time.)
* Volatile aggro and generated when a non-targeted character applies an element orb is increased in a nontrivial way. Specifically, in this situation, the character who applied the elemental orb receives whichever of the following values is greatest, added on to both their volatile and normal aggro:
** 200 * enemyAttackPower ^ 3 (equal to 391 on Bringer of Chaos), to a maximum of 1500.
** (TargetAggro - AttackerAggro) * 0.3 * enemyAttackPower ^ 2, where TargetAggro is the aggro of the enemy's current target and AttackerAggro is the aggro of the character who added the element orb. This is equal to 0.47 times the aggro difference on Bringer of Chaos, and scales to a maximum of 0.72 times the aggro difference.
** 0.1 times AttackerAggro.
===Enemy Attack Frequency===
Enemy Attack Frequency is 75% in Easy, 100% in Normal, and 150% in Bringer of Chaos. In Custom, it can be set to any value between 25% and 250%, in intervals of 25%.
It determines the frequency with which enemies can attack.
===Enemy Maximum HP===
Enemy Maximum HP is 50% in Easy, 100% in Normal, and 250% in Bringer of Chaos. In Custom, it can be set to any value between 25% and 250%, in intervals of 25%.
It determines the maximum enemies have.
===Enemy Debuff Duration===
Enemy Debuff Duration is 50% in Easy, 100% in Normal, and 200% in Bringer of Chaos. In Custom, it can be set to any value between 25% and 250%, in intervals of 25%.
It determines the duration of s inflicted on player-controlled characters.
===Player Blade Combo Buffer Time===
Player Blade Combo Buffer Time is 150% in Easy, 100% in Normal, and 50% in Bringer of Chaos. In Custom, it can be set to any value between 25% and 250%, in intervals of 25%.
It determines the initial duration of party-initiated Blade Combos (the default is 30 seconds).
===Party Gauge Gains===
Party Gauge Gains is 100% in Easy and Normal, and 25% in Bringer of Chaos. In Custom, it can be set to any value between 25% and 250%, in intervals of 25%.
It determines the magnitude of increases (and decreases) to the .
===Player Special Recharge Rate===
Player Special Recharge Rate is 100% in Easy and Normal, and 50% in Bringer of Chaos. In Custom, it can be set to any value between 25% and 250%, in intervals of 25%.
It affects the rate at which the Special gauge recharges with attacks and over time.
===Player Health Restoration===
Player Health Restoration is 100% in Easy and Normal, and 50% in Bringer of Chaos. In Custom, it can be set to any value between 25% and 250%, in intervals of 25%.
It affects all sources of received by the party, including from HP Potions and revivals.
===Chain Attack Damage Multiplier===
Chain Attack Damage Multiplier is 100% in Easy and Normal, and 25% in Bringer of Chaos. In Custom, it can be set to any value between 25% and 250%, in intervals of 25%.
It affects all increases to the damage multiplier during and outside of s. It also affects the base multiplier, which is calculated as baseMultiplier = (ChainAttackDamageMultiplier * 200%) + 100% (300% in Easy and Normal, 150% in Bringer of Chaos). This is overridden by the Chain Attack bug.
===Ascended State Party Gauge Use===
Ascended State Party Gauge Use is 0 in Easy and Normal, and 300 in Bringer of Chaos. In Custom, it can be set to any value between 0 and 300, in intervals of 100.
It affects the amount of which is consumed when is activated. (300 corresponds to a full Party Gauge.)
This option is, for obvious reasons, unavailable in Torna ~ The Golden Country.
===Bringer of Chaos-specific effects===
Bringer of Chaos adds several effects which are not present in any setting of Custom difficulty:
* Upon enraging, an enemy's following art is a Rage Strike, dealing significantly more damage and consuming part of the .
* When enraged, enemies gain an extra 50% resistance, which is added on to their base resistance before other modifiers.
==In other languages==
=== Easy ===
=== Normal ===
=== Bringer of Chaos ===
=== Custom ===
==Gallery==
Custom difficulty Customize window (XC2).jpg|The menu for custom difficulty.
Challenge Battle (XC2) list (Easy difficulty).jpg|The blue easy-difficulty Challenge Battle Mode list.
Challenge Battle (XC2) list (BoC difficulty).jpg|The red Bringer-of-Chaos-difficulty Challenge Battle Mode list.
Challenge Battle (XC2) list (Custom difficulty).jpg|The black custom-difficulty Challenge Battle Mode list.
Category:Battle mechanics (XC2)Category:Battle mechanics (TTGC)