Difficulty

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Difficulty selection in Persona 4 Golden

The difficulty is a setting that allows the player to influence the balance of gameplay in video games. It affects how challenging the game is to play, and usually run on a general scale of "easy", "medium", and "hard". Typically, the choice of difficulty affects various gameplay settings, including but not limited to the following: the damage output (from allies and/or enemies), and the Experience and money received from battle.

Overview

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne

There are normally 2 difficulty types, Normal and Hard, however the HD Remaster has a new Merciful difficulty as free DLC.

In the original release, the player could only select a Difficulty when creating a New Save, but the HD Remaster allows them to change it in the Settings menu.

Property	Difficulty
	Merciful*	Normal	Hard
Damage dealt	x2	x1	x1
Damage received	x1	x1	x2
EXP drop amount	x4	x1	x0.5
Macca drop amount	x3	x1	x1
Shop Prices	x1	x1	x3

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux

As opposed to its original release, Strange Journey Redux has three difficulty types that are selected upon creating a Save File, and the player can change the difficulty at any time in the settings. Impossible difficulty is New Game Plus only.

And just like in IV Apocalypse, once the difficulty is changed to Impossible, it cannot be changed back, and when the protagonist gets knocked down, a Game Over occurs instantly.

	Casual	Standard	Expert	Impossible
Damage dealt	1.7x	1x	0.8x	0.7x
Damage received	0.3x	1x	1.3x	1.7x
Weakness multiplier	1x	1x	1x	1.3x
Critical multiplier	1x	1x	1x	1.3x
Co-op multiplier	1x	1x	1x	1.3x
Repelled damage recieved	0.3x	1x	2x	3x
Repelled damage inflicted	3x	1x	0.5x	0.3x
Hit rate	1.5x	1x	1x	1x
Critical rate	High	Standard	Standard	Standard
Escape chance	100%	Standard	0.7x	0%
Ailment hit rate	1.5x	1x	1x	1x
Enemy ailment hit rate	0.3x	1x	1.2x	1.5x
Preemptive attack rate	High	Standard	Standard	Standard
Enemy ambush rate	Low	Standard	Standard	High
Successful negotiation rate	High	Standard	Standard	Standard
Damage tile multiplier	3% max HP	10% max HP	15% max HP	25% max HP
Poison Tile hit rate	0.3x	1x	1.1x	1.3x
Sleep tile hit rate	0.3x	1x	1.1x	1.3x

Shin Megami Tensei IV

There are a total of 3 difficulties: Fellow, Prentice and Master. Prentice being the Default difficulty. The player can change the difficulty setting at any time through the Burroughs Menu as long as they've unlocked the difficulties they want to select.

To unlock Fellow difficulty, Flynn must die, pay Charon revive him once, die a second time, and Charon's jailers will let him revive another time for free and give the player access to the difficulty. Meanwhile, Master Difficulty cannot be selected until New Game Plus.

Property	Difficulty
	Fellow	Prentice	Master
Damage dealt	x1.3	x1	x0.7
Damage received	x0.5	x1	x1.4
Ally hit rate	x1.5	x1	x1
Escape rate	Guaranteed	x1	x0
Ally Smirk rate	x1.5	x1	x0.5
Enemy Smirk rate	x0.5	x1	x1.3
Ailment affliction rate from enemies	x0.5	x1	x1.5
Ailment affliction rate from allies	x1	x1	x0.5
Shop, Equipment and Compendium Prices	x1	x1	x3
Resurrection Price	x0.5	x1	x3

Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse

Unlike its previous entry, Apocalypse allows the player to select between three difficulty options at the start of the game: Skirmish, Conflict and War.

There are also additional difficulties available through free DLC, those being the Paradise and Apocalypse difficulty options

However, once the player changes their game into Apocalypse difficulty, once the protagonist dies in battle, it is an instant game over, and one cannot change the difficulty back.

Property	Difficulty
	Paradise	Skirmish	Conflict	War	Apocalypse
Damage dealt	x2	x1.7	x1.2	x0.7	x0.6
Damage received	x0.25	x0.1	x1	x1.3	x1.5
Ally hit rate	x2	x1.5	x1	x1	x1 (?)
Enemy hit rate	x0.5	x0.8	x1	x1	x1 (?)
Escape rate	x5 (?)	x5	x1	x0.5	x0
Ally Critical rate	x1.5 (?)	x1.3	x1	x1	x1 (?)
Ally Smirk rate	x1.5	x1.5	x1	x1	x1 (?)
Enemy Smirk rate	x0.5 (?)	x0.5	x1	x1.5	x1.5 (?)
Ailment affliction rate from enemies	x0.5 (?)	x0.5	x1	x1.5	x1.5 (?)
Ailment affliction rate from allies	x2 (?)	x2	x1	x1	x1 (?)
Instakill rate from allies	x1 (?)	x1	x1	x0.75	x0.75 (?)
Instakill rate from enemies	x1 (?)	x0.3	x1	x1	x0.75 (?)
Shop and Equiment Prices	x1 (?)	x1	x1	x1	x3
Compendium Prices	x1 (?)	x1	x1	x3	x3

Shin Megami Tensei V / Vengeance

There are 3 difficulty options at the start of the game: Casual, Normal and Hard. Although it's possible to switch to or between Casual and Normal, Hard mode can only be selected during the beginning of the game.

Additionally, a Safety difficulty DLC can be downloaded for free.

The instances that differentiate the difficulty levels are the damage dealt, the accuracy of allies' attacks, the damage received, the odds of escaping battle, as well as allies' Critical, ailment-infliction and instant-kill rate, and instant-death evasion rate.

Property	Difficulty
	Safety	Casual	Normal	Hard
Damage dealt	x10	x1.2	x1	x0.7
Damage received	x0.1	x0.8	x1	x1.3
Ally hit rate	x1.5	x1.1	x1	x0.95
Enemy hit rate	x0.8	x0.9	x1	x1.1
Escape rate	x5	x1.5	x1	x0.5
Ally Critical rate	x1.5	x1.2	x1	x1
Ailment affliction rate from enemies	x0.05	x0.7	x1	x1.3
Ailment affliction rate from allies	x2	x1.3	x1	x0.7
Instakill rate from allies	x2	x1.3	x1	x0.7
Instakill rate from enemies	x0.01	x0.7	x1	x1.3
Ambush rate	x2	x1.2	x1	x0.7
Bargain demand value (Macca, HP, MP)	x0.3	x0.8	x1	x1.2
Bargain demand value (Items)	Rank -1	Rank -1	-	Rank +1
Obtained Macca in conversation	x2	x1.2	x1	x0.7

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

In the PlayStation Portable remake of Persona, the difficulty of the game can be chosen at the start of the game but it cannot be changed once selected. There are three difficulty choices (Easy, Normal and Hard), which affect how much damage the enemies deal to the player's party. Easy and Hard difficulties deal 80% and 120% of damage in Normal difficulty.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin

As with the PSP remake of Persona, there are three difficulty choices (Easy, Normal and Hard).

Persona 3 / FES / Portable / Reload

In Persona 3, the difficulty of the game can be chosen at the start of the game but it cannot be changed once selected until New Game Plus. The player can choose from Easy and Normal. In Persona 3 FES, a Hard difficulty option is added for the original story (The Journey) but in The Answer, there are no difficulty options and Hard is the preset difficulty. In Persona 3 Portable, two additional diffculty options, Beginner and Maniac, have been added. In the 2023 port of Portable, the difficulty can be changed at any point of the game outside of combat.

• Beginner: Enemy damage is significantly toned down compared to Normal. In the PSP version, the protagonist is given 30 Plumes of Dusk to continue in case of a game over. In the 2023 port, the party can revive themselves an unlimited number of times instead.
• Easy: Enemy damage is toned down compared to Normal. In all versions except the 2023 port of Portable, the protagonist is given 10 Plumes Of Dusk to continue in case of a game over. In the 2023 port, the party can revive themselves an unlimited number of times instead.
• Normal: Standard difficulty. Enemies deal average damage.
• Hard: Enemies deal 1.5 times more damage than Normal and can gain a higher chance of Enemy Advantage when not ambushed.
• Maniac: Enemies deal 2 times more damage than Normal, can gain a higher chance of Enemy Advantage when not ambushed, and certain weapon fusions cannot be performed (Ultimate Weapons are still available). Moreover, when starting a New Cycle from any difficulty level to Maniac, no data from the prior playthrough carries over to the new one apart from total play time (ie. character level and Social Stats start at 1, the Persona Compendium will reset, and the doors for Vision Quest and Monad Depths will not be present early in the game).

When starting a new playthrough of the main story in Persona 3 Reload, five difficulty settings are available (from lowest to highest): Peaceful, Easy, Normal, Hard and Merciless. The difficulty can be changed anytime outside of combat. If the player receives a game over due to being defeated in boss battles while in Easy or higher, they also have the option to lower the difficulty by one level (then choosing one of the other game over options).

• Peaceful: Enemy damage is significantly toned down compared to Normal, while the player's damage is increased. If the protagonist is defeated, the party can revive themselves and fully restore all HP and SP an unlimited number of times, similar to Beginner from Portable. Items are worth 50% more money when sold compared to Normal/Hard/Merciless.
• Easy: Enemy damage is lowered compared to Normal. Items are worth 20% more money when sold compared to Normal/Hard/Merciless.
• Normal: Standard difficulty. Both the player's party members and enemies deal average damage.
• Hard: Enemies deal more damage compared to Normal, while the player's damage is reduced.
• Merciless: Enemies deal significantly more damage compared to Normal while the player's party damage is further reduced. However, the Merciless difficulty option is only available when starting a new game; the player cannot change the difficulty from the other four difficulties to Merciless. If the player's party is defeated in non-boss battles, there is no option to retry at Tartarus' entrance or the beginning of a full moon operation; the player will be sent back to the title screen. When starting a New Game+ playthrough of the main story on Merciless (from any difficulty), most data (except for certain items including non-SEES Uniform costumes and play time) are not carried over. When the player completes a Merciless playthrough for the first time (by attaining the game's true ending), Elizabeth gives the protagonist a Blue Envelope before the credits roll. The Blue Envelope can only be checked by starting another New Game+.

When starting a new playthrough of Episode Aigis - The Answer in Reload, five difficulty settings are available (from lowest to highest): Peaceful, Easy, Normal, Hard and Heartless (which is essentially identical to Merciless in the game's main story). As with the main story, the difficulty can be changed at any time outside of combat, or it can be lowered if the player receives a game over during combat in a boss battle.

Similar to the main story, player damage, enemy damage and money earned from selling items is scaled according to the chosen difficulty. The Heartless difficulty is only available at the start of the game; the player cannot change the difficulty from the other four difficulties to Heartless. Also in Heartless difficulty, the player is unable to inherit the main story's Persona Compendium to Episode Aigis, nor can they retry from the Desert of Doors of the Abyss of Time if the party is defeated in a non-boss battle.

Persona 4 / Golden

In Persona 4, the difficulty of the game can be chosen at the start of the game but it cannot be changed once selected until New Game Plus. The player can choose from Beginner, Normal or Expert.

In Persona 4 Golden, the player can also choose from five difficulty options instead of three; the two new difficulties added are Very Easy and Very Hard (referred to as Safety and Risky respectively in outside of the North American PlayStation Vita version). Beginner and Expert were renamed Easy and Hard respectively. During New Game Plus, customization options are expanded as well, allowing the player to either choose from the five difficulty presets, or modify each setting 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

The five difficulty presets use the following combination of choices for each setting:

Difficulty	Damage taken	Damage given	EXP won	Money won	Retries in dungeons	Retries in battles
Very Easy	Small	Great	More	More	Use	Use
Easy	Small	Great	Normal	Normal	Use	Don't use
Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal	Use	Don't use
Hard	Great	Small	Normal	Normal	Use	Don't use
Very Hard	Great	Small	Less	Less	Don't use	Don't use

In the Steam and 2023 versions of Persona 4 Golden, it is possible to change the difficulty setting even during a first playthrough.

Persona 4 Arena / Ultimax

In Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, the player can adjust the difficulty of the computer-controlled opponents in all offline modes other than Score Attack Mode. The available difficulties are Beginner, Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard and Hell in the former while the latter game has Safety, Easy, Normal, Hard and Risky.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night / 3: Dancing in Moonlight / 5: Dancing in Starlight

In the Persona Dancing games, the player can choose to play song charts from four difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard and All-Night. Higher difficulties tend to feature a greater number of notes as well as the type of notes shown, with All-Night in particular featuring more combinations of Unison Notes not seen in the other three difficulties. In all of the games, All-Night charts of each song are unlocked once the player fulfills certain conditions.

Persona 5 / Royal

In Persona 5, the difficulty setting can be selected at the start of a new playthrough, and changed in the middle of one (with the exception of Safety/Safe mode). Via multiplier 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.

In Persona 5, the Merciless difficulty setting (also known as "Challenge" in Asian releases) is offered as a DLC. In Persona 5 Royal however, the setting is available in the game by default, and it does not need to be downloaded separately.

• Persona 5
• Persona 5 Royal

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	x0.4

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/Safe 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 Gallows is cut to 1/3.

Persona 5 Strikers

In Persona 5 Strikers, there are 3 standard difficulties available upon starting a new game: Easy, Normal and Hard. The difficulty can be changed at any time outside of a battle or during an in-game cutscene. After the option to start a New Game+ is unlocked, the player will have the option to start New Game+ on Merciless difficulty (known as Risky in Asian releases). This option is only available when starting New Game+, and if chosen, the difficulty cannot be changed during gameplay. Within the standard difficulties, the difficulty choice mainly affects the damage dealt from both the player and the enemies, with the multipliers favoring the enemies at higher difficulty choices (higher enemy damage, less player damage).

In Hard and Merciless, the player must run against the blue KEEP OUT barrier for a longer period of time if they wish to escape from battle compared to Easy and Normal. In Hard, the party cannot escape from regular enemy battles if the Security Level is at 70% or higher.

The Merciless difficulty also imposes the following vast changes to gameplay, making the game significantly harder:

• Enemies will have their levels and stats scaled to match the player's expected level upon unlocking New Game+.
  • As a consequence, enemies defeated in Merciless will also drop Persona masks of a much higher level (e.g. a Pixie mask in Merciless grants a Level 72 Pixie as opposed to a Level 2 Pixie in non-Merciless difficulties) and grant more Persona Points. This makes fusing Personas in Merciless significantly easier as this allows the player to earn high level Personas needed for certain Fusions without spending Persona Points to level up the materials.
  • Enemies deal much more damage, have more health, and their Down Gauges are harder to break. Some enemies will even possess new attacks.
  • Most enemies have different, more challenging resistances in their elemental affinity tables.
• If the player's party is defeated, the Retry Battle option will not be available so the player must resume from either the last accessed checkpoint or the start of the current infiltration.
• Being detected by an enemy will automatically raise the Security Level by 5% even if the enemy does not immediately initiate combat.
• While the Security Level is at 30% or higher, the party cannot escape from regular enemy battles.
• Party EXP, BOND EXP and money awarded by combat are greatly increased.
• Normal encounters drop much more valuable items, such as powerful Accessories formerly exclusive to Dire Shadows, high-tier Skill Cards and various Incenses. Dire Shadows themselves drop a character's ultimate weapon upon their first defeat; afterwards, they will drop 2 of a rare healing item and have a rare chance of dropping an Accessory that nullifies a specific elemental affinity for the wearer.
• Dire Shadows can be refought infinitely after their initial defeat rather than disappearing for the rest of the playthrough; they will respawn by exiting and re-entering the Jail or when the player defeats other groups of enemies while the Security Level is at 30% or higher.
• In the battle against the Reaper, four Dire Shadows will gradually spawn to attack the player's party once the Reaper's health drops below half, but once they're defeated, none of them will come back.

Resources

• https://hyperts.net/smt5-guidebook/#i3

References

Shin Megami Tensei V
Shin Megami Tensei V - Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
Characters
Main Characters	Nahobino - Aogami - Tao Isonokami - Yuzuru Atsuta - Ichiro Dazai - Yoko Hiromine
Supporting Characters	Sophia - Gustave - Goko - Amanozako - Fionn mac Cumhaill - Miyazu Atsuta - Hayao Koshimizu - Sahori Itsukishima - Shohei Yakumo - Nuwa - Mastema - Demi-fiend - Artemis - Cleopatra - Mephisto
Antagonists	Bethel: Abdiel - Khonsu - Vasuki - Zeus - Odin - Shiva Qadištu: Lilith - Naamah - Eisheth - Agrat Others: Lahmu - Tiamat - Mastema - Tehom - Lucifer
Locations
Tokyo	Jouin High School - Shinagawa Station - Takanawa Tunnel - Jozoji
Da'at	Minato - Shinagawa - Chiyoda - Taito - Demon King's Castle - Temple of Eternity - Empyrean - Tree of Knowledge
Music
Albums	Original Soundtrack - Premium Edition Soundtrack
Songs	N/A
Archives
Terminology	Nahobino - Bethel - Knowledge - Magatsuhi - Qadištu - Shekinah Glory - Demon Summoning Program - Conception - Armageddon
Mechanics	Demon - Press Turn - Moon Phase System - Alignment‎ - Negotiation (Dialogue) - Encounters - Fusion - Race and species - Difficulty Skill Potential - Magatsuhi Skills - Essence - Glory - Miracles - Menorah World of Shadows - Cadaver's Hollow - Miman - Treasure Boxes - Vending Machines - Demon Statues - Abscess - Magatsuhi Crystals - Leyline Fount - Terminal - Gifts - Search Points
Lists	Bosses - Skills - Items - Status Changes - Quests - Demons (Vengeance)
Other	Script - Updates - Trophies - Steam Profile Items
Other Media
Promotion	Daily Demon (Vengeance) - News TGS 2021
Other	Demon Colosseum - Merchandise