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God of War Ragnarok has a variety of difficulties to choose from, and it’s not too hard to figure out which one is right for you. Thankfully, in this sequel, the enemies don’t feel like damage sponges on higher difficulties, where they just feel harder to kill.
You also don’t have to worry about more mechanics and attacks. As a newcomer to the franchise, I played most of God of War Ragnarok on “Give Me Balance” difficulty, but you can change it whenever you want. There is only one exception to the flexibility of the difficulty in the game, and I’ll cover that below.
What each of the difficulties means, and what’s best for you in God of War Ragnarok
God of War Ragnarok has five difficulty options, and each one is pretty clearly explained at the very start of the game. Here are the in-game descriptions of each of these difficulties for God of War Ragnarok.
- Give Me Story: For players who want to experience the story with the least focus on combat.
- Give Me Grace: For players who want story-focused gameplay with some focus on combat.
- Give Me Balance: For players who want an adventure that’s equally focused on story and combat.
- Give Me No Mercy: For players who want a more demanding combat experience.
- Give Me God of War: For those who want the game as difficult as possible, requiring god-like reflexes and strategy.
Give Me God of War difficulty can only be selected at the beginning of the game. This means you can’t power through the game and swap at the end. However, you can decide it’s too much for you, and lower the difficulty. If you do so, you cannot restore it.
It’s worth noting that the difficulty of “Give Me God of War” is not overwhelming. However, the difficulty of it will ramp up, so be prepared. The higher the difficulty, the harder enemies get hit, the more aggressive they are, and the faster they are.
Give Me Story isn’t a mode where it plays the game for you, either. You can still very much lose to bosses if you give them too much leeway. I felt pretty invincible on “Give Me Story,” but it was also a great deal of fun. For players who are looking to experience the story, or simply aren’t great at action-adventure games, this might be the best call.
Many players will know right out of the gate that they want the two highest difficulties, and that’s fine. The greatest challenge lies there. I started on “Give Me Balance,” and played through most of the game that way.
I felt like the challenge ramped up at a steady pace, and though I often died, it wasn’t because the game was unfair. It was more because I was unfamiliar with the gameplay, or I wasn’t paying close enough attention to all of the foes around me. Newcomers will probably want to start here.
There are also a ton of accessibility options for combat as well, to make things a bit more manageable. You can adjust Aim Assist, Lock-on Camera, Evade Style, Evade Assist, and can even turn on checkpoints for minibosses, so you don’t have to fight through them every single time.
Even if you’re on a higher level of difficulty in God of War Ragnarok, you can use the accessibility options to help out a bit. Since you can adjust the difficulty, if you decide a fight is too difficult, or if you’re finding things too easy, you can ramp it up - except to “Give Me God of War” difficulty, that is.
No matter your level of experience or comfort with action games, God of War Ragnarok has something for you to sink your teeth into.
