What difficulty settings should you choose for Horizon: Zero Dawn

As it is the norm among games in general, Horizon: Zero Dawn has several difficulty settings you can choose from. The difficulty can be changed later in the game, if your initial choice proves too easy – or too hard. As always, it is up to your personal affinity, some people like a little more challenge and some prefer a lighter escapist experience.

There are four levels of difficulty, ranging from Easy to Very Hard. As far as we’ve seen, different difficulties only affect your and enemy damage output, as well as how much herbs add to your pouch. Everything else seems to remain the same. Here are the levels and how they change the game:

• Easy: Accessible, for those who would like to explore the story and the world at their leisure, no pressure.
• Normal: Balancing the journey and the combat experience into a more challenging package. The Everyman’s choice.
• Hard: Combat difficulty is more demanding, making the journey more difficult, and the success more enjoyable. You’ll do about 50% less damage, while enemies do about 50% more than on normal difficulty. Herbs add about five or so less percent to your medicine pouch. We had an average of about 15 or so percent, depending on the herb.
• Very Hard: The toughest option, for those yearning for a real challenge, and for those who have already beaten the game on easier levels. Expect to do another 50% less damage (so, almost 75% less than on normal). Enemies will also do another 50% more than they do on hard mode. Herbs also scale down like they do between normal and hard, to an average of about 10%.

Changing the difficulty is as easy as pressing Options button and looking for Difficulty option under the General tab in the Settings. You can simply switch between the levels of difficulty by pressing left or right.

If you are aiming for a Very Hard run, feel free to check our guides, as you will need any advantage that you can get, whether you are looking for best armor or best weapons to help in your fight.