Evil Within 2 Difficulty Settings - Casual, Survival, Nightmare, Classic

The Evil Within 2 has four difficulty settings. Three of them are available at the start. For the most difficult one, you’ll have to complete the game once, just like in the previous title. For the first two difficulties, there is also an aim assist mode and much more. Our guide will explain Casual, Survival, Nightmare, and Classic difficulty settings in Evil Within 2.

Important note: In the Evil Within 2, you can change difficulty during gameplay. The bad side is that you can only lower its difficulty level, not raise it. This change will influence the most recent save, and it will reload it. To make it less painful, be sure to have two save slots of the same period, in case you ever decide to return to the previous setting. Once you change the difficulty, the game will load the recent save, so be sure not to have hours spent after the latest save.

Note #2: The difficulty setting from the previous game has been toned down. For example, the Evil Within 2 Nightmare mode is more like Survival from the first game.

All Difficulty Modes in The Evil Within 2

Casual difficulty setting is your easy mode. You shouldn’t start the game with this mode if you want any decent combat challenge. Upon choosing this setting, you can also pick if you want to have aim assist on. Aim assist will automatically lock your targeting reticle onto enemies. On Casual difficulty, you have more health, gain more items, defeat enemies faster, and so on.

Survival difficulty setting is your normal mode. This is a setting that most of the player base always chooses. Just like in the causal setting, it has an option where you can choose to have aim assist. Resource management becomes important here, and you’ll need to be careful. Don’t go full guns blazing all the time. The enemies become a lot harder to defeat, with increased damage and more health.

Nightmare difficulty is the hardest mode at the start. As the game describes it: “Resources are limited, and enemies hit much harder. Careful item management and strategic play are an absolute must to survive.”

Classic mode is the hardest difficulty setting in the game. In the previous title, it was called Akumu Mode. The new Classic mode will share some of the difficulty settings from the Akumu Mode. Some of the new things includes a limited amount of saves, and more.

What is the best difficulty to start The Evil Within 2?

The Survival difficulty setting is probably your best choice for the first run through the game. In the previous title, there were some points in the game that made this mode a bit frustrating. However, that has been toned down for the sequel. At any point of your run, if you find it too hard, you can just lower the difficulty and complete the story. You can’t increase it, if you start on Casual.