Every Difficulty Setting In Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is here at last, bringing one of the best in the series to the current generation with stunning visuals and enhanced tactical espionage action. Skulking around the jungle as Naked Snake has never felt better or more immersive, making it the perfect way to experience it if you’re a newcomer or have been itching to revisit Kojima’s masterpiece.

However, before diving headfirst into your Virtuous Mission, understanding what each difficulty option impacts, what you get for completing them, and more will help you hone in on the ideal experience, no matter if you’re brand new to the series or a seasoned veteran who has played every installment in the series dozens upon dozens of times!

Difficulty Overview

As implied, the difficulty selection in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will dictate how challenging specific aspects of the game are, allowing you to select one that fits your personal skill level or general preferences, making it much more manageable for newcomers in the series to get a general grasp on the game’s systems and mechanics without feeling too overwhelmed by everything else.

Changing the difficulty can make Snake’s health bar bigger or smaller, increase the damage output from enemies, and even make some gadgets inactive, depending on how hardcore you want to go. But, before we cover each difficulty and what they do, we need to go over a few things first, as it’s crucial information that will drastically impact what you choose first!

You Cannot Change Difficulty Later

Yup, once you select your preferred difficulty, you are locked in to that specific difficulty until you roll credits. This means if you find it too challenging or easy, you will either have to grit your teeth and deal with it or start an entirely new game to choose the one that better suits you.

While this does seem a bit rough, as pretty much every game offers this feature, it makes sense for this game, as the difficulty impacts many aspects of the game, so being able to change it on the fly wouldn’t make too much sense. Still, it does suck, so ensure you’re selecting the one for you before you begin your Virtuous Mission through Tselinoyarsk!

New Game Plus Allows You To Select A New Difficulty

If you decide to grind through the difficulty you selected, even if it’s not for you, you will get a chance to change your difficulty once more when beginning New Game Plus. This even applies to difficulties you have yet to complete the game on, which is a new and much-welcomed addition to the game.

New Game Plus will make the harder and more demanding difficulties far more manageable, so it may be better to save those for later, which may or may not sway your opinion on which difficulty setting you start with. Nonetheless, there are pros and cons to all of them, so let’s get to it!

Very Easy Difficulty

Very Easy is the most straightforward, you’re just in it for the story, difficulty options for you in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. However, there are no unique unlocks for this difficulty, so you may want to go a notch above it if you’re a complete beginner or newcomer to the series.

Enemies deal almost no damage and will struggle to detect you. You will also receive a substantial boost to your base health, while also having access to a unique weapon and powerful Sensor Items that will help you out tremendously!

Very Easy Overview

Easy Difficulty

Easy difficulty is a slight step above Very Easy, making things a bit more challenging but nothing too grueling. If you are entirely new to the series, this may be the best option for you, as it doesn’t feel too overtuned in your favor like Very Easy and also doesn’t feel too challenging.

Though if you’ve played these games in the past, or similar games in general, you may want to pass on this mode and go for Normal, as it would be more your pace. Overall, this mode is excellent if you’re a newcomer or just want to breeze through the game!

Easy Overview

Normal Difficulty

Normal difficulty is, as it suggests, the base default option of the bunch, meaning nothing is altered, offering the ‘intended’ experience of the Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Here, the Snake or the enemies have no changes, and you get access to the Sensor Items.

Completing your playthrough on Normal will also grant you the ‘DOBERMAN’ Title if you clear the game in 5.5 hours or less without using LIFE Medicine or Special Items. There are no Achievements/Trophies tied to this difficulty, so you don’t have to sweat going for it if you don’t want to!

Normal Overview

Hard Difficulty

Hard difficulty is where things begin to get a tad more challenging than usual, as Snake receives no changes, but the enemies do, with their damage output and detection abilities increased overall. You will also lose access to some of your Sensor Items, which can make things much trickier.

Clearing the game on Hard will reward you with the ‘FOX’ Title if you complete it in under five hours or less, lose the equivalent of five LIFE Bars or less, and never use LIFE Medicine or Special Items. Like on Normal, there are also no Achievements/Trophies for clearing the game on this setting!

Hard Overview

Extreme Difficulty

Extreme difficulty is where things get really tough, and we recommend only diving into it if you’re extremely familiar with the series or on your New Game Plus playthrough, as it will test your skills and patience. Snake’s LIFE Gauge is smaller, and the enemies have increased damage output and detection skills, making it very difficult to traverse the jungle.

Rolling credits on Extreme will grant you the ‘FOXHOUND’ Title, but you must clear your playthrough in five hours or less, can’t take more than five LIFE Bars’ worth of damage, and cannot use LIFE Medicine or Special Items. However, you also cannot be Alerted, use Continues, or kill any Human enemies. Oh, and this is the only Title tied to a difficulty that has an Achievement/Trophy. Joy!

Extreme Overview

European Extreme Difficulty

Lastly, we have the European Extreme difficulty setting, which becomes available only after completing the game on Extreme difficulty at least once. All the changes to Snake and the enemies are the exact same as the Extreme difficulty, except there is one massive caveat: If you get detected by the enemy, you get a Game Over. It’s brutal.

You can also earn the ‘FOXHOUND’ Title, Achievement/Trophy, on this difficulty too, but we recommend going for it on regular Extreme if you’re going for it at all. Other than that one change, it is identical to Extreme, so please refer to the table above for a more detailed look at what is impacted in this setting!