Like many games,Persona 5 Royalcomes with a variety of difficulty levels players can choose from. They include easy modes that let players focus more on the story and hard modes that force players tothink carefully about every action in every combat.
However, a common concern amongPersona 5 Royalplayers is how to change the difficulty after starting the game. After all, the game takes its time getting to the first real Palace exploration, and no one wants to replay a week-long intro just to switch to a harder or an easier experience. Luckily, in most cases it’s much easier than that to reset the difficulty.
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Where to Change the Difficulty During the Game
It’s easy to understand why players may have trouble changing the difficulty of the game, because the setting is buried at the bottom of a menu with a generic name. To find this setting, bring up the main menu and select “System.” After that, choose “Config,” then “System Settings,” and finally scroll down all the way to the bottom. The last option on this list is the game’s Difficulty setting. Use the left and right buttons to choose the difficulty level, then hit the select button to confirm it.
Players can use this to change the difficulty setting at any time, even in the middle of a Palace or Mementos. However, the main menu isn’t available during battles. Players can choose any of the five difficulty levels, but if players choose the Safe level the game will lock it in and refuse to change the difficulty again.Persona 5 Royalwarns players about this during the intro, and it’ll remind players again if they try to choose Safe in the menu. Fortunately, the Safe difficultydoesn’t carry over during a New Game Plus.
What the Difficulty Setting Changes
Most of the gameplay doesn’t change based on the difficulty level. Every Shadow and Persona has the same stats and elemental affinities, every skill shows up at the same level, and every weapon and protector has the same numbers. Here’s what does change:
0.5
1.6
1.5
1
1.2
0.8
0.65
Each difficulty level multiplies the normal stats by the listed number. For instance, players using the Easy and Safe modes take half as much damage as players on Normal mode and about one-third as much as players on the Hard and Merciless modes. However, the chance of dodging is always the same, so players on Hard mode should focus on protectors with a good Evasion rate to avoid the extra damage.
There are also a few other ways that difficulty levels change the gameplay.
Persona 5 Royalis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
