There are four difficulty settings in God of War: Give Me a Story, Give Me a Balanced Experience, Give Me a Challenge, and Give Me God of War. While the in-game descriptions of these difficulty levels do provide some information about how the experiences differ from one another, some players may want more specifics before they make their selection. Providing those specifics is the precise purpose of this guide, and fans will find full details on God of War’s difficulty levels in what follows.
God of War: Difficulty Differences
Give Me a Story
This is the easiest of the difficulty settings, and, as its name suggests, it is intended for players that want to focus on God of War’s story without facing any major challenges. Fans that select “Give Me a Story” will encounter enemies that deal decreased damage and act with minimal aggression. Additionally, these enemies will take increased damage and be stunned more easily, while Kratos will have increased resistance to status effects.
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Give Me a Balanced Experience
This setting essentially serves as God of War’s “normal” difficulty, and the modifiers mentioned in the other sections in this guide are all relative to the experience it offers. As such, players may want to select “Give Me a Balanced Experience” first and then adjust the difficulty up or down as needed.
Give Me a Challenge
Unsurprisingly, “Give Me a Challenge” is a more difficult experience, with enemies receiving numerous buffs to their overall stats. On the offensive side of things, adversaries have increased aggression and deal more damage and status effect damage. And with respect to their defenses, many of the enemies gain an additional 50 health, receive a bonus of eight Defense, become more difficult to stun, and have increased resilience to ranged attacks from the Leviathan Axe and the Talon Bow’s summons. Additionally, it takes longer to apply Permafrost and Immolation on this setting.
Give Me God of War
Everything from “Give Me a Challenge” carries over to “Give Me God of War,” but that is just the beginning of what makes this setting the game’s most difficult offering. Indeed, the status damage that enemies deal against God of War players increases even further at this level, and the effects that they apply have longer durations and come with additional penalties. For example, the Poison status effect decreases Kratos’s overall power level, while Frost reduces the length of his invincibility when evading.
Additionally, adversaries take less damage, are harder to apply status effects to, and have more Defense. They can also only be wall-pinned in the air, and they can counterattack God of War's protagonist very quickly. All of these buffs to enemies are capped off by the fact that most of them will turn into Elites when they take damage, increasing their strength and aggression and making it absolutely critical that players dispatch them as quickly as possible.
With respect to how Kratos is affected by “Give Me God of War,” his parries are less potent, and he gains his Spartan Rage ability, which deals significantly decreased damage, more slowly. That said, Kratos deals slightly increased damage when in the air, and he is able to reduce status damage and clear effects with healthstones. These are meager buffs when compared to the penalties, though, and players should think carefully before picking this God of War difficulty setting, as it cannot be changed mid-game.
God of War is now available on PC and PS4.
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