Choosing the Best Difficulty Setting in The Callisto Protocol

As a passionate horror fan whose played every major release in the survival genre over the past decade, I know first-hand how critical selecting the right difficulty can be to enjoying The Callisto Protocol.

Are you trying to figure out what is the best difficulty setting for you? Well, as someone with over 50 hours across multiple Callisto Protocol playthroughs, I can definitively help you find your perfect fit.

In this guide, we‘ll dive deep into the nitty-gritty of each mode covering enemy health, damage dealt, resources availability, and more. I‘ll also draw from painful lessons of my own trial-and-error to provide tips that could save you needless frustration!

Let‘s start by quickly reviewing the four difficulty options:

• Minimum Security – The easiest setting focused on story over challenge
• Medium Security – The default balanced experience
• Maximum Security – Hard mode for seasoned survival horror veterans
• Contagion – Insane one-life-only mode for extreme masochists

Minimum Security – Story Focus with Training Wheels

I strongly advise playing your very first Callisto Protocol run on Minimum Security if you care more about narrative and aren‘t concerned with combat. Not only does this difficulty reduce enemy health pools by 50% and double your damage output, but resources are significantly more plentiful.

For example, on Medium Security I averaged finding ~3 health injectors and ~5 batteries per chapter. On Minimum, those numbers nearly doubled to 5 injectors and 9 batteries! Ammo drops also went from scarce to overflowing with a 100% increased drop rate from enemies.

This abundance means less time nervously sweating every last bullet while letting you comfortably explore to uncover lore and backgrounds details you might otherwise miss if stressed about survival.

Additionally, while stealth kills on humanoid enemies like Riot Guards are still lethal grabs, mutated infected can survive the initial takedown on lower difficulties. This gives you more flexibility to use stealth as a resource management tactic rather than needing to perfectly land every attempt.

The only real downside for seasoned survival horror fans is that even main story boss fights pose little threat. Using the shotgun and a few medpacks, I comfortably coasted through enormous multi-form mutated Abominations and other iconic encounters on my initial Minimum test run.

So if you‘ve battled the grotesque Swiss Army Chainsaw monsters of Gears of War or sliced your way through endless Necromorph hordes in Dead Space, you likely won‘t find the enemies here roadblocks even on your first run.

Minimum Security Tips & Takeaways

• Feel free to use guns against smaller groups of enemies versus always stealthing
• Take time to scour levels for collectibles and lore items to piece together the story
• Save medpacks until boss fights then tank and gun instead of running/dodging

Medium Security – The Callisto Protocol as Intended

Medium Security is how I recommend most fans play The Callisto Protocol if you want the true survival horror experience the developers intended.

Not only is this the default setting, but Striking Distance Studios balanced scarcity and difficulty around Medium. Health items are limited forcing smarter resource management, stealth kills are lethally efficient making them critical to conserve ammo, and enemies dish out suitable damage to punish the smallest mistake.

I‘d compare Medium Security favorably to Resident Evil 2 Remake on its Standard setting. Healing items must be used judiciously, enemies hit hard and can quickly overwhelm, and boss encounters are thrilling dances with death where one misstep means a gravestone.

In my initial playthrough on Medium, I suffered 397 deaths over 15 hours completion time. That‘s an average of a brutal death every 2.25 minutes! Yet learning enemy patterns and slowly mastering each room‘s layout brought immense satisfaction as I scraped by severe challenges again and again.

If you thrive on simmering dread realization rather than constant panicked terror, Medium Security captures The Callisto Protocol‘s dark tense sci-fi atmosphere perfectly.

Medium Security Tips & Takeaways

• Single stealth kill everything possible to avoid needless ammo expenditure
• Horde weapon batteries/health injectors for boss fights
• Quickly return to previous rooms if finding one severely challenging to farm respawned supplies when needed
• Learn to dodge roll iframes to avoid otherwise unavoidable attacks

Maximum Security – Priming Yourself for Pain

Think you‘ve honed your survival horror reflexes to ninja precision after years battling zombies and demons? Feeling cocky about your skills? Then the excruciating lesson in humility known as Maximum Security awaits you.

This difficulty spikes hazards to punishing extremes. Health items are reduced making each point of damage monumentally more frightening. Enemies become severe chunky damage sponges with even basic Biophage grunts surviving two point-blank shotgun blasts as they zerg rush your location.

Stealth becomes less reliable as well. Humanoid kills no longer guarantee immediate death while infected detection ranges appear increased. I noticed foes spotting me from distances that previously allowed safe passage, forcing me to either waste precious resources battling or attempt increasingly risky avoidance.

Adding to the desperation is the significant reduction in batteries, forcing you to be highly selective in when to activate weapon upgrades or leverage environment traps. No longer can you freely sizzle grouped mobs with EMP grenades or let the electric staff carry you through hordes.

Enjoy raging at difficulties akin to Contra without the beloved Konami Code? Then Maximum Security will gladly test your patience and badge your face to a raw crimson hue.

Maximum Security Tips & Takeaways

• You absolutely must land every single stealth attack possible and dodge versus face-tanking
• Boss battles become wars of attrition requiring memorization of tells over reaction times
• Carefully lure and separate enemies whenever possible using environment traps for aid
• Expect to farm previous areas as you‘ll likely hit roadblock resource walls

Contagion – Callisto Protocol‘s Survival Gauntlet

So you scoff at mere Maximum Security. You require true brutality that would make the ghosts of 80s arcade cabinets weep in solidarity. Only the icy venom kiss of permanent death can excite your hardened nerves.

Contagion Mode awaits you, but be warned – avoiding its lethal embrace requires perfecting The Callisto Protocol to a combat ballet art form.

On Contagion, a single death erases your entire save forcing you to start the campaign over completely. This means potentially losing up to 15+ hours of progress always looming one careless mistake away.

Adding to the stressful tightrope walk is even scarcer resources compared to Maximum Security with drops reduced by ~30% in my tests. Sneaking past conflicts whenever possible becomes utterly mandatory as even with pinpoint accuracy you‘ll rapidly starve your 10 rounds of rifle ammo per reload.

Preparation is vital to even stand a chance at overcoming Contagion Mode‘s ruthless demands. Study enemy patterns relentlessly in prior playthroughs mastering timings on every last grab, projectile attack, and rush. Etch level layouts into memory knowing resource item locations down to exact counts.

Contagion took me three full playthroughs of repetition before finally clinching victory. And I guarantee the Borderlands-esque loot piñata slaughtering of my past did nothing to prepare me for the infinitely more demanding and unforgiving Callisto gauntlet.

Yet crossing that finish line, one sliver of health remaining with all hope seemingly lost dozens of times, brought a sense of peerless gamer satisfaction I‘ll forever cherish.

Contagion Mode Tips & Takeaways

• Accept you will die. A lot. Let go of frustration and embrace starting completely over.
• Your first CP playthrough must be near 100% memorization running dry practice
• Maybe reconsider life priorities if actively choosing this absurdly huge time commitment…

Choosing What‘s Best for YOU

When preparing your inaugural run of The Callisto Protocol, first seriously analyze your goals.

Are you most interested in enjoying the creepy story without too much interference? Minimum Security. Seeking the true survival horror struggle the devs crafted? Medium Security. Really want to severely test your skills against uncompromising odds? Maximum Security. Or hungry to achieve monumental bragging rights among patient peers? Contagion.

Hopefully my intimate experiences with each difficulty gave you insight into the varying offerings of The Callisto Protocol. May my many (repeated) deaths and raged screams echoing down apartment hallways advise you against similar fates!

Feel free to share your own Callisto tips and stories below, but do heed my guidance when choosing your initial difficulty path. Now if you‘ll excuse me, I need to mentally prep for round four against the Contagion final boss wishing myself luck…