Difficulty level

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**Difficulty level** is a mechanism in *Ghost of Tsushima*. It affects the degree of challenge in the game. It is freely adjustable throughout the game, and there are no Trophies bound to a certain game difficulty. With the introduction of NG+ in patch 1.1, each of the difficulty levels are increased to provide a new challenge.; these difficulties are noted with a "+" at the end.

## Difficulty levels

The difficulty is focused on the player's skill. The health of enemies is never increased. This maintains the lethal feeling of the katana. There are four difficulty levels.

### Easy or Easy+

For players who want to experience Jin's story and explore the island of Tsushima with minimal challenge.

### Medium or Medium+

For players who want a well-rounded gameplay experience with a moderate challenge.

### Hard or Hard+

For players unafraid of death who are brave enough to face the ultimate challenge.

### Lethal or Lethal+

Patch 1.05 added the Lethal difficulty mode with these features:

* Enemy weapons are more deadly, but Jin's katana is also more deadly
* Enemies are more aggressive in combat
* Enemies detect you faster
* Tighter Parry and Dodge windows

## Lower Intensity mode

Patch 1.05 also added a "Lower Intensity" option, which can be found within Options → Accessibility. This option forces Easy difficulty and relaxes several timing-specific elements. Combat is less intense, giving the player more time to react. Stealth settings are also more forgiving, and enemies take longer to detect you.

* Most enemy attacks which are normally unblockable become blockable when Lower Intensity is enabled. Blocking with  will keep you safe from more attacks than standard combat, though some attacks must still be dodged.
* Enemies break off their attack combos after damaging you, giving you a chance to recover before the next wave of attacks. In addition, your heavy attacks will interrupt attacks from Brutes, giving you another way to stop their combos.
* Enemies will not attack you while you're using Resolve to heal.
* Enemy awareness builds more slowly, giving you more time to recover after being spotted.

## Explanation

According to Sucker Punch co-founder Chris Zimmerman, *Ghost of Tsushima* will accommodate all levels of players, from the casual "tourists" to action players, stating

> There are difficulty levels and that's actually kind of more important for us than it is for a lot of games, because it's an open world game and lots of different people play those games for different reasons. There are people who are going to say it's beautiful and they just want to see what it's like, and yeah, their experience has to be different than somebody who looks at it like they've always wanted to play a really grounded katana fighting game, and the fantasy for them is about challenge, discipline, practice and precision--that's what they expect of samurai and that's what the game should demand from them as the player.
>
> ― Chris Zimmerman
>
>

## References

1. ↑ Ghost of Tsushima: Legends and New Game+ out October 16
2. ↑ Ghost of Tsushima: Your Questions Answered
3. ↑ https://www.suckerpunch.com/ghost-of-tsushima-patch-1-05-details/
4. ↑ Ghost of Tsushima: Patch 1.05 Details on Sucker Punch Productions
5. ↑ Ghost Of Tsushima: Gameplay Footage, Film Filter, Release Date, Combat, And Everything Else We Know # Difficulty