Difficulty

The first time Cogmind starts up, you're presented with a pre-game menu for difficulty selection. Your chosen setting can later be modified in the options menu, although the effect won't kick in until a new run is started.

Cogmind is technically designed for Rogue mode, carefully balanced to provide a fun yet challenging roguelike experience which can be reliably overcome given sufficient experience and skill, but it will put your strategic and tactical analysis skills to the test. It is extremely hard, especially for new players.

Naturally some players simply don't have the time or inclination to strive for mastery, thus alternative modes are available that tweak multiple aspects of the game to make survival easier.

That said, keep in mind that Cogmind relies on a fairly tight design to begin with, and giving you the upper hand via easier settings somewhat destabilizes that design, resulting in a less consistent difficulty curve. Some areas might be significantly easier, almost trivialized, while others remain relatively difficult due to the nature of the world and its mechanics. Also note that even within Rogue mode the world contains places to go and things to do which make the game easier, or even more difficult, if that's your thing!

So that it's more apparent from screenshots which difficulty setting a given player is using, the parts list slot type divider lines in the HUD appear in a different color for each. The stat screen shown at the end of a run also uses different highlight colors.

Important: The same world seed will produce different results in each difficulty setting!

## Rogue

Rogue mode is the original intended way to play Cogmind, but it's definitely not for everyone. Although every run is winnable, it can take many dozens of hours to reach that level of skill due to the numerous local and global factors working against you, as well as time invested in exploring the wide variety of mechanics and systems you can take advantage of.

This mode reflects the difficulty of a typical traditional roguelike, hard to master but very satisfying as you achieve new milestones, and especially once you win.

* Permadeath is enforced (no optional quicksave/load feature)
* There are no adjustments for this mode, as it is the standard against which other modes are gauged

## Adventurer

Adventurer mode is still fairly challenging, with a range of minor buffs and mechanical adjustments taking the edge off the unforgiving Rogue mode. Getting far will still take experience and persistence, but it's not quite as intense. Adventurers are Rogues in training. Adjustments:

* Quicksave/load support
* 20% base resistance to all damage types
* +20% base accuracy (both ranged and melee)
* Enemies alerting nearby allies reveal those allies' positions
* Nearby garrisons responding to call for help are revealed on map
* Effect of allies on alert level halved
* Disabling machines has less of an impact on alert level
* Traveling to a new area/map lowers alert level more than usual
* Alert level decay from passing turns doesn't have diminishing returns
* Each map containing at least one Heavy converts it to a Sentry
* Heavy class Active Sensor Suites are 25% less sensitive
* Cargo convoys have 1 less ARC escort
* Part corruption effect reduced by 25%
* +10% to all direct and indirect hacks at interactive machines
* Minimum of 2 indirect database hacks before potential floorwide lockdown
* No Operators spawn at depth -10
* No Operators spawn within view of starting location below depth -8
* +25% to all Relay Coupler value
* Z-hack mapwide cutoff threshold higher
* [RPGLIKE mode] Start with 1,000 extra XP
* [RPGLIKE mode] Gain XP more quickly if fell behind the level curve
* [RPGLIKE mode] Protomatter has somewhat higher value on later maps
* [Pay2Buy mode] Start with 5,000 extra CogCoins

## Explorer

Explorer mode is primarily for those interested in discovering more of the story and exploring various areas of the world that are otherwise much more difficult to reach in other modes. Or just running around shooting things.

Explorer mode is quite easy for those familiar with Cogmind mechanics, certainly too easy by roguelike standards. Yes you can still lose, and certain parts of the world are still going to be pretty dangerous, though with just a little experience it will be easier to avoid them (if you want to) because you'll automatically know where all exits lead. Adjustments:

* Quicksave/load support
* 35% base resistance to all damage types
* +30% base accuracy (both ranged and melee)
* Enemies alerting nearby allies reveal those allies' positions
* Nearby garrisons responding to call for help are revealed on map
* Effect of allies on alert level cut to one-third
* Disabling machines has a much lower impact on alert level
* Traveling to a new area/map lowers alert level much more than usual
* Alert level decay from passing turns doesn't have diminishing returns
* Alert level decays 50% faster as turns pass
* Each map containing Heavies converts up to 2 of them to Sentries
* Heavy class Active Sensor Suites are 50% less sensitive
* Heavy class sensor-based reinforcements limited to one active squad at a time
* Lower chance of random hostile encounters (most notably in mines/caves)
* Hostile branch encounters (e.g. in caves/mines) cannot appear directly in spawn area
* -1 to all patrol squad sizes (stacks with garrison effect)
* -1 to number of garrisons per floor (cannot reduce to 0, however)
* Fabricators do not automatically trace and investigate BUILD commands hacked without an Authchip
* Cargo convoys have 1 less ARC escort
* Always know active cargo convoy route
* Exit destinations automatically revealed on sight, or when found via Terrain Scanners
* Robot salvage in caves does not self-destruct
* Part corruption effect reduced by 50%
* Evolve 1 extra slot on exiting scrapyard
* Scrapyard contains random useful utilities
* Scrapyard Storage Unit is Med. rather than Sml.
* Items nearby your spawn in main complex maps replaced by random items more likely to be useful given your current state
* No dormant Specialists stationed inside DSFs
* +20% to all direct and indirect hacks at interactive machines
* Unlimited free guaranteed indirect database hacks before potential floorwide lockout
* No central database lockdowns for indirect record hacking
* All direct Record hacks at terminals have an automatic 100% chance to succeed
* No Operators spawn at depth -10
* No Operators spawn within view of starting location below depth -7
* No Alarm Traps below depth -7
* +50% to all Relay Coupler value
* Z-hack mapwide cutoff threshold significantly higher
* [RPGLIKE mode] Start with 3,000 extra XP
* [RPGLIKE mode] Gain XP more quickly if fell behind the level curve
* [RPGLIKE mode] Protomatter has higher value on later maps
* [Pay2Buy mode] Start with 10,000 extra CogCoins

## Saving/Loading

Cogmind normally saves your progress when you exit the game with an unfinished run, then automatically loads back to that point when starting up again. However, both Adventurer and Explorer modes allow you to also create a separate save point of your own, and load it whenever you want. Access this feature via buttons in the game menu, or use Ctrl-F8/F9 from the main game interface.

Note there is only one slot, so setting a new manual save point will overwrite the previous one. Also this system operates outside Cogmind's regular automatic save/load system, so if you save and exit the game while a run is in progress, that latter save will be the one which is automatically loaded when you return, but you can still always access your same earlier manual save point as long as that same run is in progress.

If no manual saves have been made so far during the current run, a save point will automatically be created at the beginning of each new map, so there is always the option to revert to that point on the current map at any time, or on death. Setting a manual save point will deactivate this feature, lest it override your manually designated save point.

Using the manual save slot is entirely optional, and runs during which this feature is used are not included for stat uploading or leaderboard purposes. Those who want to play Adventurer/Explorer while avoiding the temptation to use this feature can disable it by setting noManualSaving in /user/advanced.cfg.

## Other Options

You can also increase or at least modify the difficulty and content of the experience by activating either challenge modes or special modes, which are described in the later Alternative Rules section. Some special modes in particular make drastic changes to the way the game plays, which might be more your thing.