StarCrawlers features 4 distinct Difficulties (and an optional mode, see below) that modify numerous aspects of gameplay. The difficulty is chosen upon starting a new game.
Story
"Relax and enjoy the story!" - in-game description
Story equates to "easy" mode in that:
- Enemy Strength is reduced
- Mission Danger is reduced
Standard
"The default StarCrawlers experience." - in-game description
Standard equates to "medium" mode in that:
- Enemy Strength is normal
- Mission Danger is normal
Challenge
"For professional crawlers and vets." - in-game description
Challenge equates to "hard" mode in that:
- Enemy Strength is boosted.
- Trap Strength is boosted.
- Boss Fights scale to the player's level.
- The party is no longer automatically healed upon mission completion.
- Downed crawlers suffer injuries and debuffs.
Hardcore
"For Crawlers who relish the old days." - in-game description
Hardcore equates to "very hard" mode in that:
- Enemy Strength is deadly.
- Trap Strength is deadly.
- Story Missions scale to the player's level.
- Boss Fights scale to the player's level.
- The party is no longer automatically healed, whatsoever.
- Downed crawlers suffer injuries and debuffs, which are permanent.
IronMode
"Not for the faint of heart." - in-game description
IronMode is an additional set of features that can be toggled on each difficulty.
- Limit of 1 IronMode save that automatically updates.
- Death is permanent, items and equipment is permanently lost.
- Auto-save updates whenever a character dies.