The difficulty is a setting that influences battle.
Overview[edit | edit source]
Persona 4 / Golden[edit | edit source]
Steam Version[edit | edit source]
In the Steam version of Persona 4 Golden, it is possible to change the difficulty setting at any time. Customization options are expanded as well, allowing to either choose from presets, or modify each parameter individually.
- Damage Taken - Great, Normal, Small
- Damage Given - Great, Normal, Small
- EXP Won - More, Normal, Less
- Money Won - More, Normal, Less
- Retries in Dungeons - Use, Don't Use
- Retries in Battles - Use, Don't Use
Persona 5 / Royal[edit | edit source]
In Persona 5, the difficulty setting can be selected at the start of a new playthrough, and changed in the middle of one. Via modifiers, the difficulty setting affects the damage output (which differs between whether it's from allies and enemies) and the Experience and money received from battle. The modifiers vary between Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal.
Initially, for Persona 5, Merciless mode was a DLC difficulty setting. However, in Persona 5 Royal, the setting appears inside the game by default, and does not need to be downloaded separately.
| Difficulty | Damage received | Damage dealt | EXP | Money |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Safety | x0.5 | x2.0 | x3.0 | x5.0 |
| Easy | x0.5 | x1.0 | x1.0 | x1.0 |
| Normal | x1.0 | x1.0 | x1.0 | x1.0 |
| Hard | x1.6 | x0.8 | x1.0 | x1.0 |
| Merciless | x1.6 | x0.8 | x0.4 | x1.0 |
| Difficulty | Damage received | Damage dealt | EXP | Money |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Safe | x0.5 | x1.6 | x1.5 | x1.5 |
| Easy | x0.5 | x1.0 | x1.2 | x1.2 |
| Normal | x1.0 | x1.0 | x1.0 | x1.0 |
| Hard | x1.6 | x0.8 | x1.0 | x1.0 |
| Merciless | x1.6 | x0.65 | x1.2 | x1.2 |
Additionally, in Safety mode, if the protagonist dies and triggers a Game Over, the game will grant the option to revive the entire party with full HP and SP. However, the difficulty cannot be changed if set up for the rest of the playthrough, and can only be changed in New Game Plus.
If the game is set to Merciless, in Game Over, there will be no option to retry from the previous Safe Room. Additionally, in battle, damage from elemental weaknesses, Critical and Technical damage from any source will be tripled in comparison to other difficulties.
The difficulty setting also affects infiltration and exploration: it can determine how much the Security Meter raises and lowers. Also, enemies are slowed down in Easy and Safety.
In fusion, if the difficulty is Merciless, the experience gain from hanging is cut to 1/3.
