Difficulty changes how hard one plays, generally by debuffing the player while buffing monsters to make the gameplay more challenging. In the Diablo series, there are three main difficulty levels, along with two sub levels. In Diablo III, a fourth difficulty was added. In the harder difficulties, the player will be able to get equipment and items that are much more powerful than on the previous difficulty, allowing the player to overcome some debuffs they may receive. In Nightmare and Hell Diablo II, the player will lose experience when their character dies.
To advance to a higher difficulty, the player must defeat the final boss in the last act within that game's story. Expansions add to the story, therefore requiring you to progress farther before allowing you to enter a harder difficulty.
Main Difficulty Types
Normal is the easiest difficulty and the game's default level when you start a new character. In Normal, the player is not debuffed and the monsters are not buffed, making it the basic difficulty type in Diablo.
- Nightmare Hard
Nightmare is the next difficulty, which is harder to play. In Nightmare, the player is debuffed (generally by making skills and such 2/3's effective, along with decreasing resistances), while the monsters are buffed (generally by giving them more Life and increasing their damage).
- Hell Expert
Hell is the last difficulty setting or third in Diablo III. In Hell, the player is debuffed even more than nightmare with monsters being buffed even more than nightmare. The Hell difficulty allows the player to be able to access Uber Tristram in Diablo II, allowing something else for high-leveled players to do.
- Inferno Master
Inferno is the fourth difficulty introduced in Diablo III. The lowest monster level found here will be 61, which is 1 level higher than the level 60-cap for player characters. Monsters will increase by one additional level for every act.
Reaper of Souls
In Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, Normal, Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno difficulties are updated to Normal, Hard, Expert, Master, and Torment (I-VI).
As of the betas for Diablo III and Reaper of Souls, Normal, Hard, and Expert are unlocked at the start, Master requires the player to either destroy Diablo or reach lv. 60, and Torment requires a hero at lv. 60. The way the game's actual difficulty works depends on that of the host's clvl. That is, to say, as a hero levels up in power, so do his/her enemies.
Sub Types
- Softcore
Softcore is the basic way to play. The player can die any number of times without having to worry about their character being permanently killed. When a player dies, they can either go back to the place they died and retrieve their corpse or be revived by an ally, allowing them to gain back their items. If a player leaves the game but still has a corpse, it can be easily reacquired in the Town of the current Act.
Hardcore is regarded by some players as the most realistic way to play. When the player dies in hardcore, the game ends for that character and cannot be revived. However, if the player has the loot corpse option on, it can be looted by other players. When one allows their corpse to be looted, they may become a target of other players, so it is wise to only use the option when needed. To be able to create Hardcore characters, one must defeat Diablo or Baal in the Normal difficulty. Some items that can be obtained by Ladder characters can't be obtained by Hardcore characters, and vice versa.
Warning!
If a single-player character leaves the game with items equipped but their corpse is still out, they will lose all the items on the corpse. Characters that are played online will receive the corpse which has the highest sale value to a merchant.
| ||||||||||||||