It is time to go out to fight against the dreaded Xenomorph again. Indeed, Dark Descent is exciting for fans of the series all around the world, if they're curious to know about the 5 classes in the game or the best weapons. But what about the challenges? Let's look at the Aliens Dark Descent difficulty settings.
It can indeed be a difficult game, so it is important to also know how to manage stress (in real life and in Dark Descent), along with knowing all the collectible locations.
But if you're curious to know all about the challenges that will await, we are here to explain everything you need to know about the Aliens Dark Descent difficulty settings.
Aliens: Dark Descent difficulty settings explained
There are mainly 4 difficulty options in Aliens: Dark Descent. Players can choose between Story, Medium, Hard, and Nightmare.
Let's take a look at each difficulty settings in Aliens: Dark Descent in detail.
Story
- Low enemy health.
- Enemies take a long time to detect the squad.
- Slow Xenomorph aggression.
- Death clock is relaxed.
Medium
- Overall enemy health is set to medium.
- Enemy detection is set to medium.
- Xenomorph aggression gain is set to medium.
- The campaign death clock provides some challenges.
Hard
- Overall enemy health is set to high.
- Enemy detection is set to fast.
- Xenomorph aggression gain is set to fast.
- The campaign death clock is more restrictive.
Nightmare
- Overall enemy health is set to very high.
- Enemy detection is set to very fast.
- Xenomorph aggression gain is set to very fast.
- The campaign death clock is highly restrictive.
Alternatively, players can select the custom difficulty setting to completely customize the game's challenge by altering the parameters mentioned above to their liking.
Aliens: Dark Descent custom difficulty setting explained
Along with the four difficulty settings we looked at, players in Aliens: Dark Descent will also find "Custom" difficulty settings. It can be used to tailor each aspect of the game's challenges to the player's tastes.
It is important to remember that the difficulty cannot be changed once you're in the game, so better to choose wisely before diving in. But what does the difficulty setting influence?
The factors that can be changed are the ones we saw earlier, for example, the amount of enemies' health, the time you have before you're detected, how much the aliens will assault your squad and the number of days one is penalized for losing marines in missions.
Furthermore, players can also custom edit the save system itself, allowing them to reload as many times they want a recent auto-save in order to go back and save some more marines.
Now that you know about all the difficulty settings in the game, take a look at the performance of Aliens: Dark Descent on Steam Deck.