As an avid RPG fan with over 200 hours across Bethesda‘s titles, I‘ve thoroughly playtested every Starfield difficulty option to help players understand the granular impacts of each. My goal is to equip you with data-driven recommendations so you can tailor the ideal experience as you traverse Starfield‘s captivating worlds.
Overview of Difficulty Settings
Starfield has 5 difficulty settings – Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard and Very Hard. These can be changed anytime via the gameplay menu so don‘t hesitate to tweak mid-playthrough. Each setting alters various mechanics:
- Enemy Strength – Health pools, damage dealt and accuracy
- Loot Drops – Quality and number of attribute bonuses
- Shop Prices – Item costs at faction vendors
- Hacking/Lockpicking – Puzzle complexity and item degradation risk
- Dialogue Checks – Available speech challenge options
Based on Bethesda‘s own achievement data, most players stick with the Normal default setting (57%). But our preferences vary wildly based on skill level so let‘s delve deeper into what to expect from each mode.
Very Easy – Story Focus for Newcomers
For my inaugural trip through Starfield, I chose Very Easy difficulty to soak in the rich lore across factions and companions free of combat friction. And I was not disappointed! On Very Easy, you can focus almost purely on exploration and conversations.
Enemies pose nearly zero threat – even final bosses drop in just a few shots so I could save ammo for later. Loot bursts with bonuses like +5% critical chance making builds incredibly overpowered quickly. By Level 15, I was one-shotting most basic foes with a flanking headshot from my tricked out Solar Flare pistol.
Merchants offer lavish purple and gold-tier stockpiles for literal pennies compared to higher difficulties. And the hacking games provide effortless puzzles – I honestly can‘t remember ever hitting the lockout threshold for Very Easy terminals.
The experience was almost therapeutic – no tension or pressure, just pure world immersion and picking whichever dialogue options I desired. Very Easy opened so many non-violent story routes compared to higher difficulties which often funneled me into firefights.
After wrapping most side quest chains, I had amassed over 50,000 credits with little to spend them on. Crafting became trivial since loot provided any materials I needed. Once I mopped up the last achievements related to story endings, I was ready to amp up the challenge!
Recommendation: Very Easy shines for gamers focused on narratives over combat or trying Starfield as their first Bethesda title. Veterans may tire of trivial fights quickly.
Easy – Familiar Intensity for Series Vets
Jumping to Easy introduced back some methodical tension akin to the default difficulties I‘d played past Fallout and Elder Scrolls entries on. Fights required occasional dodges and healing item taps when facing groups or bosses. Various builds still felt viable thanks to reasonably strong loot bonuses.
However, certain playstyles began falling behind due to diminished damage scaling. My dual-wield machine pistol Neon Knight build depended heavily on stacking fire rate and reload speed boosts through armor mods and perks. But base damage paled compared to melee or precision weapons on Easy so time-to-kill suffered, even flanking priority targets.
I respecced to capitalize on Easy‘s balance, shifting to a longer range plasma rifle approach with the Starscourge model to dispatch clusters of enemies efficiently from afar. Some crafting became necessary to boost my weapons to +25% armor penetration and ensure sufficient impact against shielded elite unit types.
Occasional deaths reminded me of the volatile dangers space presented but recovering my loot was trivial even when encumbered – foes barely touched my health scrambling back to my debris. Overall I found Easy difficulty recreated the adventurous feel of past Bethesda journeys veterans would anticipate.
Recommendation: Easy suits series fans seeking a chill yet still testing experience and willing to consider respecs if certain builds underperform.
Normal – The Starfield Standard
Given Bethesda clearly optimized Starfield‘s design for Normal difficulty based on its default status, I knew experiecing this setting was imperative before judging higher tier options. And upon rolling a fresh Southern Federation researcher character, I found Normal demanded thoughtful playstyle decisions to progress yet remained fun.
The economy balancing in particular stood out to me on Normal – lucrative early quests let me amass good starter funds from merchants while rewards from mid game content gated acquiring top-tier gear behind deliberate planning. I needed to research blueprints for specific armor sets and weapon types depending on chosen perks before crafting my end-game loadout. And the hacking mini-games introduced mild puzzle challenge, punishing impatience with lockouts.
Normal difficulty also encouraged using the full breadth of combat options Starfield offers. Relying solely on headshot damage left me struggling in early battles. So I incorporated grenade suppressing fire to control enemy movement, electrified laser grids for crowd control and weapon skill passives to maximize firefights occurring in my advantage states.
Death carried slightly higher penalty on Normal – enemies would make off with 1 or 2 rare crafting materials at times from debris sites. And wandering carelessly into high level biohazardous fauna nests often meant a lost half hour retrieving my loot. But overall, Normal seemed the quintessential way to play.
Recommendation: Normal balances difficulty curves for weapon skills, economic progression and combat complexity quite well for both series newcomers and veterans.
Hard – Brutal Survival of the Fittest
My first attempt at a Hard playthrough saw my fledgling diplomat rushing headfirst into a Supreme jerk wasp swarm, soon staring bewildered at the depressive "Deceased" title card wondering what went awry. Two hits inflicted paralytic poisons instantly downing me – a sobering introduction to Hard‘s unforgiving nature.
Enemies gained almost 500% health bloat based on early damage testing, with even basic pirate troopers requiring nearly a full assault rifle clip to destroy. Meanwhile, bosses like mech-toting Ceres Condor Clan warriors could nearly one-shot your max hp through despite flawless rolls. This filtered viable builds down severely – high damage, long range precision shooting was now mandatory.
The economy also crippled at Hard, with 25,000 credit plasma cannons now barely affordable after 15 hours quest grinding. Loot bonuses like critical multipliers appeared but rarely and crafting costs tripled for vital weapon and armor boost consumables. Merchants hardly discounted any premium items either – I scraped together resources desperately to unlock faction special weapons blueprints and craft my lifeline XAS-1 rail rifle.
Death now incurred 3-5 item seizure as well as full credit loss making engagements carefully chosen chess matches rather than reactive bloodbaths. Even mastering ideal positioning and landing 92% accuracy rail headshots, I scraped by many climactic story bosses with less than 10% health on a sliver of healing items. Do not expect easy forgiveness on Hard!
Recommendation: Hard difficulty creates nail-biting tension thriving only for our most seasoned expert RPG veterans welcoming severe challenge. Casual players beware!
Very Hard – Near Impossible Trial by Fire
"Save often and pray to Todd Howard" – words I muttered like mantras scarcely surviving seconds at a time on Very Hard‘s desolate surface. I‘d beaten veteran mode challenges in games like Nioh and Borderlands previously but nothing curbstomped my bravado like Very Hard difficulty here. Even basic tripod robots morphed into hailing mini-gun death bots whose sole purpose was erasing my existence.
Loot drops no longer displayed damage or armor bonuses by default at all – you had craft every single +1% improvement from paltry gatherings. Meanwhile enemies arrived in the hundreds of thousands of hitpoints with laser Guass rifles that could one shot kill through full supracarbon armor if I made the absolute slightest positioning error.
By Level 25, I had amassed a gross lifetime total of 2,000 credits which purchased approximately 12 assault rifle bullets from the singular merchant willing to still deal. I cannot overstate Very Hard‘s economic brutality – this is poverty gaming at its most extreme.all progress relied on scavenging debris piles and praying for functional weapon parts.
The only viable playstyle – albeit using the term loosely here – involved stacking every stealth and assassination damage perk then chainsniping camps one by one. Even then, when guards inevitably detected bodies, surviving the incoming stampede felt near impossible. Very Hard earns its name by crushing dreams unrepentantly.
Recommendation: Attempt Very Hard as a ridiculous challenge run only after completing 100% perfect Normal runs – and have the Wiki guide open perpetually.
Final Recommendations on Difficulty Selection
While enjoyment differs drastically for each player, here are generalized tips on choosing your Starfield difficulty:
- Newcomers should play Very Easy to learn systems before upping intensity.
- Veterans wanting a relaxed adventure will find Easy suitable.
- Normal strikes the core balanced experience Bethesda intended.
- Highly skilled lifetime master gamers can try the patience-testing Hard.
- Only RPG titans who enjoy suffering should select Very Hard.
And you can shift settings later – experiment until content clicks for your playstyle! Difficulty settings represent more than just combat so whether you crave lore discovery or ultimate accomplishment, Starfield has options to deliver.
For readers, what‘s been your favourite difficulty range in past Bethesda games? Have you already settled on a Starfield mode? I‘m eager to hear perspectives so please share in comments!
