The Witcher 3: Here’s How To Change Difficulty

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt might not be the most challenging game in the world, but still, there are moments when you can feel overwhelmed with monsters, and you want to avoid dying at any cost. In that case, you might wonder whether the game’s difficulty is set a bit too high. There are opposite cases, likewise, when you feel like the game needs to be more challenging. In any case, sometimes it’s necessary to adjust the difficulty mid-play, and Witcher 3 allows you to do just that. Let’s see how to change the difficulty in the Witcher 3.

Does The Witcher 3 have difficulty setting?

The Witcher 3 has four difficulty settings from easiest to hardest they are as follows: Just the Story (easy), Story and Sword (normal), Blood and Broken Bones (hard), and Death March (very hard). Each difficulty mostly adjusts how much damage you will receive and be able to deal to the enemy NPCs and monsters. The two highest difficulties decrease the experience you gain from doing tasks, slowing down your leveling. In the rest of this post, we’re going to analyze all difficulties in a bit more detail.

Just the Story

This is the easiest difficulty you can choose if you want to focus on the story and nothing else. This difficulty is recommended for players new to the world and combat in general. If you’re just starting out with the RPG genre and you’re playing Witcher 3 due to recommendation. You might find yourself enjoying this difficulty the most.
While playing on Just the Story, enemies will have 50% of their default health, you will get 100 % of the experience from the tasks you do, and guards will take only 25 % of your gold while they knock you out.

On this difficulty, treading through the Continent will be an easy task, and you will be able to appreciate the beauty of the scenery, not worrying about drowners ganging up on you.

Story and Sword

This is the default difficulty, and it’s meant for casual gamers who can appreciate a good action without worrying too much. It isn’t as challenging as other difficulties, but it’s still possible to get absolutely destroyed if you decide to barge in head first without preparation and pull too many enemies.

While playing on normal difficulties, enemies have 10 % more health, their damage bonus is +40 %, and the guards will take 50% of your gold when they knock you out. However, you will receive the default amount of experience upon finishing tasks.
This is the perfect setting for the majority of players, and it allows for some action while you’re just enjoying the view.

Blood and Broken Bones

This difficulty right here is where the game starts punishing you for your mistakes. This difficulty is perfect for players who demand more challenge (and more sweating) than usual. It’s not the hardest difficulty, but sometimes it will feel like it is. At this point, you need to start thinking about all those weaknesses the monsters have, and you will spend a bit more time trying to craft all those pesky alchemical formulas that you’ve been hoarding.

While playing on Blood and Broken Bones, you will feel every monster’s hit since their damage bonus is +130 %. The health of the enemies is also increased by 20 %, and when you get knocked out by guards, you will lose 75 % of your gold. It sounds scary because it is.
But still, players that require more challenge to be entertained will appreciate this difficulty. Oh, and you will level up slower since you gain only 90 % of the default experience.

Death March

This insane difficulty is created for the true Witcher experience, and I’m talking about the books. I’ll use this opportunity to brag a bit since yours truly completed the game on Death March difficulty once. Once you start playing on Death March, you’re going to analyze every single weakness that the monster has. You will truly need to employ everything in your arsenal to take down enemies.

Oils, elixirs, potions, bombs, signs, everything. The game will also start punishing you if you invest your points in the wrong skills. The wrong build can cost you plenty of time. But you know what? Even though I’ve hated every single minute of Death March, I’ve realized that this is the most realistic Witcher experience you can get. You will go out of your way to avoid conflict when it’s not necessary, you will need to study the monsters you will face, and you need to calculate how, when, and with what to engage them.

While playing on Death March, enemies have 80% more health, their damage bonus is 230 %, and you only gain 80% of the default experience for every completed task. Meditation will not regenerate vitality, and the guards will take 100 % of your gold when they knock you out. All in all, it’s not a walk in the park, but it’s manageable if you employ every strategy at your disposal (and read your journal).

How do you change the difficulty in Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?

You can choose difficulty when you’re starting a new game or starting a new game+. It’s one of the first choices you will have to make. Besides that, you can additionally change the difficulty at any given moment by pausing the game, going to the options menu, and choosing gameplay. Once there, scroll until you reach “Difficulty Level” and adjust it to the difficulty that best suits you.

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