One of the very first choices for players in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, after they are ready to finalize their character creation, is deciding which difficulty they want to play. There are five different options to choose from, and while the in-game explanation does a decent job of explaining what the main differences between them are, without knowing how the game plays, it’s hard to make an on-the-spot decision.
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This guide covers everything there is to know about how the difficulty setting affects gameplay and the ramifications this choice has on a playthrough. Here’s the breakdown.
Difficulty Setting Differences in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
There are six difficulty settings in total to choose from in Dragon Age: The Veilguard: five presets with preconfigured settings, and one custom mode.
|
Storyteller |
A plunge into the story with more forgiving combat. |
|---|---|
|
Keeper |
A balanced experience that emphasizes party composition and equipment choices over reaction times. |
|
Adventurer |
A balanced experience that puts equal emphasis on combat, party composition, and equipment choices. |
|
Underdog |
Overcome punishing odds and save the world from unforgiving enemies. |
|
Nightmare |
Overwhelming battles that give no quarter. Requires mastery of combat, equipment, and skills to survive. |
|
Unbound |
Customize options to create your own custom gameplay experience. |
For new players, picking Unbound at the start of their first playthrough is not recommended.
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How Does Unbound Custom Preset Work?
Unbound game mode lets players change specific gameplay elements instead of a comprehensive change. The following settings can be changed.
|
Aim Assist |
Adjusts aim for attacks and abilities to help with targeting |
|---|---|
|
Aim Snap |
Enables snapping to targets while aiming |
|
Prevent Death |
Prevents player from dying in any circumstance |
|
Enemy Damage |
Adjusts enemy attack strength |
|
Enemy Health |
Adjusts enemy health |
|
Enemy Aggression |
Adjusts how frequently enemies attack and how difficult they are to stagger |
|
Enemy Resistances |
Adjusts the effectiveness of resistances for enemies |
|
Enemy Vulnerability |
Adjusts how much damage enemies receive |
|
Combat Timing |
Adjusts the timing window for dodge, parry, and perfect defend |
Each setting listed above can be adjusted individually, allowing players to pick and choose gameplay elements to adjust.
The ‘Prevent Death’ setting is only available in the Storyteller preset. It is always toggled off by default and needs to be manually toggled on to take effect.
How to Change Difficulty in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Dragon Age: The Veilguard gives players complete freedom to change the combat presets, with one exception. The highest difficulty, Nightmare, can only be selected at the start of the run and cannot be changed once selected. If you start the game with any of the other difficulty settings, you will be able to freely swap between them, but selecting Nightmare afterward will no longer be possible.
Other than Nightmare, the initial choice of picking a difficulty is not set in stone and can be revisited mid-game without any issues. In fact, it’s even possible to change it mid-combat. However, do note that if difficulty settings are adjusted while in combat, the changes will not apply to already spawned enemies.
This means that if you entered a combat encounter in Underdog difficulty and a boss monster spawned, its stats and damage will reflect that. Even if you change the difficulty to Storyteller, the boss will remain as powerful as he was when you were playing on Underdog. The only way to reset it is to reload the game and re-engage with the lower difficulty setting or rely on your companions to take him out as he is.
To change the difficulty setting mid-game:
- Open the Pause menu.
- Select Settings -> Gameplay
- Change the Combat Preset to adjust to your liking.
- Released
- October 31, 2024
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
