Difficulty

**Difficulty** in the *Hearts of Iron IV* mod *Old World Blues* is a modifier that can provide either more or less of a challenge to the player by modifying certain values for the player or the AI. Easier difficulties apply bonuses to the player, while higher difficulties will apply penalties to the player as well as bonuses to the AI.

## Setting a difficulty

Difficulty is set when creating a new game, shown in a menu in the bottom-right along with "Historical AI Focuses" and "Ironman Mode". There are five settings available.

### Presets

By default, the following settings are available, with the mentioned modifiers. The table is listed from easiest to hardest setting.

* Political Power Gain: **+50%**
* Production Efficiency Cap : **+30.00%**
* Lack of Resources Penalty: **-80.00%**
* Research Speed: **+15.0%**
* Army Energy Cell Consumption: **-50.00%**
* Navy Energy Cell Consumption: **-50.00%**
* Air Energy Cell Consumption: **-50.00%**
* Occupation Appeal: **+10.00%**
* Refugee Assimilation Factor: **-5.00%**
* Political Power Gain: **+25%**
* Production Efficiency Cap: **+20.00%**
* Lack of Resources Penalty: **-30.00%**
* Research Speed: **+7.0%**
* Army Energy Cell Consumption: **-25.00%**
* Navy Energy Cell Consumption: **-25.00%**
* Air Energy Cell Consumption: **-25.00%**
* Occupation Appeal: **+5.00%**
* Refugee Assimilation Factor: **-2.50%**
* Political Power Gain: **-10%**
* Production Efficiency Cap: **-20.00%**
* Research Speed: **-15.00%**
* Occupation Appeal: **-5.00%**
* Army Energy Cell Consumption: **-25.00%**
* Navy Energy Cell Consumption: **-25.00%**
* Air Energy Cell Consumption: **-25.00%**
* Refugee Assimilation Factor: **+5.00%**
* Political Power Gain: **-15%**
* Production Efficiency Cap: **-30.00%**
* Research Speed: **-30.00%**
* Occupation Appeal: **-10.00%**
* Army Energy Cell Consumption: **-50.00%**
* Navy Energy Cell Consumption: **-50.00%**
* Air Energy Cell Consumption: **-50.00%**
* Refugee Assimilation Factor: **+10.00%**

### Custom settings

Custom difficulty settings are accessed with the gear icon reading "Custom Game Rules" on the difficulty panel. There is a slider bar for each of the 29 major nations within the mod, each with the option to strengthen that country by approximately 12.5%, 25%, 37.5% or 50% of the bonuses provided for that country. As of now, all these countries share one generic bonus profile, but this can be modded by the player to add, remove, or change the specific bonuses.

Below are the full generic modifiers at 50% strength:

* Political Power Gain: **+50%**
* Army Experience Gain: **+50.0%**
* Division Experience Gain: **+20.0%**
* Naval Experience Gain: **+50.0%**
* Ship Experience Gain: **+20.0%**
* Air Experience Gain: **+50.0%**
* Division Attrition: **-15.0%**
* Supply Consumption: **–50.0%**
* Division Recovery Rate: **+30.0%**
* Entrenchment speed: **+50.0%**
* Production Efficiency Cap: **+30.00%**
* Production Efficiency growth: **+50.00%**
* Lack of Resources Penalty: **-60.00%**
* Division Attack on core territory: **+30.0%**
* Division Defense on core territory: **+30.0%**
* Research Speed: **+20.00%**
* Dockyard Output: **+40.00%**
* Reinforce Rate: **+4.0%**
* Planning Speed: **+50.0%**
* Army Energy Cell Consumption: **-80.00%**
* Navy Energy Cell Consumption: **-80.00%**
* Air Energy Cell Consumption: **-80.00%**
* Air Wing Mission Experience Gain: **+50%**
* Occupation Appeal: **+20.00%**

## Achievement compatibility

Only the difficulty level "Average Joe" and higher are eligible for achievements.