Difficulty

There are four difficulties available once you start the game. These can be changed anytime in the Settings except for the highest difficulty, “Give Me God of War”. This toughest mode must be selected from the start of the game and cannot be lowered unless you start a new game from scratch.

Give Me a Story

The easiest difficulty and for players who want to experience the story more.

• Kratos receives lesser damage from enemies
• Kratos is more resistant against status effects
• Enemies take more damage
• Enemies have less aggro
• Enemies have lesser resistance against hit reactions and stuns
• Enemies are weaker to Leviathan’s ranged attacks

Give Me a Balanced Experience

The normal difficulty, Kratos and enemy parameters are set to default values. Reasonably challenging even for new players.

Give Me a Challenge

Mode for more combat-focused players where enemies get a considerable amount of buffs and some debuffs applied to Kratos.

• Enemies become more aggressive
• Enemies gain many stat boosts and 50 more HP
• Enemies can deal more damage from attacks and status effects
• Enemies are harder to stun, with slight resistance against Kratos’ axe and melee attacks. They can even absorb impacts from basic attacks.
• Enemies has resistance against Leviathan’s Range attacks and Atreus’ Runic Summons
• Enemies gain +8 points to Defense. To deliver bonus damage and mitigate this permanent enemy bonus, Kratos needs to get +8 Strength
• Permafrost and Immolation takes more time to build up

Give Me God of War

The toughest difficulty which further increases the chasm between enemy advantages and Kratos’ disadvantages. Requires precise, calculated reflexes, tons of patience, Skill, and masochistic tendencies. As mentioned above, this must be selected from the start of the game and cannot be lowered unless you start a new game from scratch.

Enemy boosts

• All adjustments in the preceding difficulty (Give Me a Challenge) are still active in this mode.
• Enemies gets a defense buff, additional damage resistance, and resistance against status effects.
• Enemies counterattack quickly after blocking an attack or receiving hit reactions.
• Most enemies will turn Elite after taking damage. They are powered-up and become more aggressive. You have to Kill normal enemies quickly before they even turn to Elites to avoid getting overwhelmed.
• Elite enemies are not affected by ledge reactions and massively reduced reactions to Spartan Rage.
• Increased damage to enemies when hit in mid-air. However, they can only be wall-pinned while in the air.

Status effects now last longer, more potent, and deal more damage as listed below:

• Poison will reduce Kratos’ power level
• Burn will deal more damage
• Frost status lowers Kratos’ invincibility frames when evading (he’s more prone to get hit)

Other effects:

• Kratos’ attack motion will be more precise.
• Lesser advantage when having a higher power level than the enemy
• Spartan Rage fills up a lot slower
• Reduced effectiveness of parry attacks
• Health pickups lowers status damage and clears active status effects.