XCOM Chimera Squad is finally here and surely, XCOM lovers out there won’t want to miss out on this latest addition to the XCOM series. However, before you give it a try, you need to have an insight into all the XCOM Chimera Squad Difficulty Settings and how they impact gameplay.
XCOM Chimera Squad Difficulty Settings
There are 4 main difficulty levels to choose from in XCOM Chimera Squad, depending on how proficient you are with the franchise.
Difficulty Settings
Story
In this difficulty level, the foes don’t present much threat. So, it’s best for those who are either experiencing the XCOM series for the first time or just interested in the game’s storyline.
Normal
This difficulty level is recommended for players who are familiar with tactical gameplay for their first playthrough. It’s a challenging but fair difficulty mode that allows you to grasp the game’s mechanics.
Expert
Fights with enemies become much more competitive and there is an increased chance of failing and repeating a mission.
Impossible
This difficulty level is the most demanding one and requires you to take your skillset to the next level. This difficulty level is definitely not recommended if you haven’t completed the campaign before on lower difficulty levels.
Modifiers
In addition to the main difficulty levels, XCOM Chimera Squad has some difficulty modifiers to further tweak the gameplay and combat.
Ironman
With this turned on, once you fail a mission, you’ll have to replay the entire mission from the very start given your game was not autosaved. There are no manual saves and players have to rely on a single autosave.
Hardcore
Turning it on takes the game to the level of extreme difficulty. If you suffer a defeat during a mission, the whole campaign ends and you have no choice but to play the game from the beginning.
Extended City Anarchy
Resulting in an increase in anarchy in City31, this difficulty modifier gives players 5 extra points to the anarchy bar and the city can survive much longer before the anarchy takes over. However, the game is over once you fail a mission.
Tutorial
This difficulty modifier allows you to enable or disable the tutorials while playing XCOM Chimera Squad. For your first playthrough, it is recommended to leave the tutorials enabled.
Heal between Encounters
This difficulty modifier provides you with three alternatives after you have an encounter with an enemy during a mission; to fully heal your squad, to partially heal your squad, to not heal them at all.
If you choose the third option, a longer mission would be much more difficult than it would have been because you will have limited health points and medkits.
The main difficulty level can be changed at any time from the Change Difficulty option in the pause menu during a playthrough. Everything except Hardcore and Ironman difficulty modifiers can be changed from here.
