All Stellar Blade difficulty options explored

Stellar Blade is the latest Sony PlayStation 5 exclusive. The game is an action-adventure that faced a lot of controversy during its release. Many have criticized its artistic choices, but despite everything, the developers have said that they will not be implementing any censorship in Stellar Blade. Similar to other PlayStation exclusives, Stellar Blade is a narrative-heavy single-player title. While it can offer quite a challenge to those who are looking for it, Stellar Blade can also be enjoyed only for its story. It all depends on the difficulty that you choose at the start of the game.

In this article, we explore the difficulty settings in Stellar Blade.

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What are the difficulty options in Stellar Blade?

Learn more about the difficulty settings in Stellar Blade (Image via PlayStation)

Stellar Blade has two difficulty settings: Normal and Story mode. The Story mode is for those who only want to experience the story and don’t care about the combat much. On the other hand, the Normal Mode is for those who are looking to enjoy the story as well as the combat to its fullest.

In the Story mode, the enemies become far easier to kill and deal negligible damage. To make things more accessible, the game also has a special slow-mo ability for Eve in this mode. Because of this, when the enemies prepare to unleash a devastating yellow, blue, or purple attack, everything slows down, giving the player a wider time window to dodge it or counter it.

Story or combat? What do you choose? (Image via PlayStation)

Countering in the Story mode is also very easy. Each time the game slows down, a special input prompt shows up on the screen. The player can press the button and Eve will automatically parry or counter the attack with a swirl of moves and combos. Performing combos has been simplified in Story mode. You can simply press a single input to chain a multi-hit combo.

On the other hand, the Normal mode is for players who enjoy the thrill of combat and are somewhat familiar with action games. In Normal mode, automatic counter and slow-mo features are turned off, and you have to chain combos manually with well-timed moves and exploit the openings of the enemies.

But this is not it. There is also another mode in Stellar Blade. After completing the game in either Normal or Story mode, the Hard mode gets unlocked. In Hard mode, enemies have increased HP and deal more damage. So you'll want to wait until you've mastered the combat of Stellar Blade before you tackle this mode.

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• Stellar Blade Revenging Agent Trophy guide: Tachy Mode explained
• How to unlock New Game Plus in Stellar Blade