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When starting a new single-player or multiplayer game, Sons of the Forest will offer players four different difficulty levels. With Normal mode at the bottom and Custom at the top. While it’s you should always start a playthrough on Normal, you might wonder how much harder or easier the other levels are. Especially since we are talking about an open-world survival game here. Will the game only change the resources and enemy amounts? Is there a damage multiplier or other modifiers?
The Difference of All Difficulty Levels in Sons of the Forest
Peaceful Game Mode
Survival games are known to be a rather stressful genre. All thanks to staple features like collecting rare materials, crafting equipment, dangerous enemies, hunger and/or sickness meter, you know the drill. But sometimes, maybe you just want to take a long walk and craft stuff in the digital woods without being jumped by creepy creatures. If so, then simply pick the Peaceful difficulty when starting a new game.
As you can expect, this difficulty level will remove all Cannibals and Mutants from your Sons of the Forest run. However, aggressive wildlife like Sharks and special enemies in Bunkers and specific locations are exempt from this. Just make sure you don’t venture too deep into caves and dark places and you should be fine.
Normal Difficulty Level Differences in Sons of The Forest
The difficulty that’s recommended for your first playthrough while you learn the basics of the game. As the standard difficulty level, this mode will dish out the normal amount of enemies and an abundance of resources. A Cannibal patrol will only consist of smaller groups and Bunkers contain the least amount of enemies. Mutants won’t conduct raids as often and animals don’t bite harder.
But do note that enemies’ health is still dictated by the amount of active players if you’re playing multiplayer. Your progress in the game will also still affect the number and enemy types you’ll encounter, both in Bunkers and Cannibal Villages. The longer you spend the days on the island, the harder the Cannibals and Mutants will become.
Hard Game Mode
The Hard difficulty level is for Sons of the Forest players who crave challenges and the thrill of the hunt. Enemies hit harder, have thicker skins, and come in larger groups. For example, in Entertainment Bunker you can find more than four Creepies and 12 Babies spawn at once.
Materials are also much harder to find and that includes wild animals that can be hunted for meat. Your stats will decrease at a faster rate, especially in cold weather, while your consumables heal less than in Normal mode. Still, even in both Normal and Hard game modes, you won’t die from hunger, thirst, or lack of sleep. Worst of all, though, reloading saves will not respawn loot in Crates.
Custom Difficulty Level in Sons of the Forest
Now if you’re done with your regular first or 20th playthrough, it’s time to play out of the box. By selecting the Custom game mode, you can personalize and tweak a bunch of the game’s settings. You can easily make Normal much easier or Hard much more hardcore.
Want to always start the game in Winter? You can. Is it better if Cannibals die from just a few arrow shots? Tweak it to your liking. Do you think that not dying from not eating and staying awake for 36 hours is unrealistic? Turn the option on! The settings are separated into three different categories:
- Enemies: Tweak the enemy’s stats, including damage, aggression, health, and spawn rates.
- Environment: Settings for day and night cycles and seasons.
- Survival: Modify the game’s survival features, such as loot spawns, stat penalties, consumable effects, and more.
Is There a Creative Mode Difficulty Level in Sons of the Forest?
Yes, Sons of the Forest has Creative Mode for those who enjoy the crafting and environment but hate the Mutants. The full 1.0 release introduces the mode, with a Creative Mode-exclusive inventory system and the ability to skip animations when building. Just like in the first game, The Forest, you have to beat the story first in any difficulty to unlock the Creative Mode.
[…] Added creative mode, with a new alternate creative inventory, and ability to skip build animations (unlocks when players complete the game story).
Sons of the Forest, 2024 February 23th v1.0 Patch Notes
Sons of The Forest is available on PC via Steam.
