Beta Difficulty Levels (Destiny)

by RC , UK, Monday, July 21, 2014, 13:13 (3778 days ago) @ scarab

For example: when I pick a strike mission the UI says that the difficulty is normal. When I went to change it to hard I saw that my options were level 6 Normal and level 8 normal.

Which normal do I have by default?

When the UI says normal is that 6 normal or 8 normal?

To make sure that I get the harder difficulty I always specifically select 8.

It is possible that the default is 8 and I'm wasting my time, every time?

The lower difficulty is always the default.

The higher difficulty for each mission has the 'heroic' modifier enabled:
"Enemies appear in greater numbers and are more aggressive."
If you've selected the higher difficulty, a little icon for this 'heroic' modifier will appear above the difficulty selection in space. You'll also see it in the bottom right when you press the trackpad to bring up your Ghost in-game.

'Normal' indicates the relative damage scaling. 1 level above and up to 3 levels below your level is 'normal.' You do much less damage per shot to 'hard' level enemies.

Here is my information:

• Easy - "The enemy cowers before you. If your armour and weapons are good enough, victory will be easy." - 4 or more levels below yours.
  
• Normal - "You and your opponents are fairly matched. With determination you will emerge victorious." - 1 level above or 3 levels below.
  
• Hard - "Survival is not guaranteed. Only by demonstrating great skill you triumph against a relentless foe." - 2 or 3 levels above your own.
  
• Very Hard - "The enemy is hungry for battle and ready to bathe in your tears. Only a fool would endure this punishment." - 4 or more levels above your own.

Hard is - perhaps unsurprisingly - really difficult. Enemies take a lot of headshots to kill. I just about managed to scrape through the 4 story missions with a new Hunter character selecting Hard every time. With plenty of deaths and very conservative strategies. As both a Warlock and Titan I got thrashed so gave up on those.

Very Hard only appears if you're a level 4 vs. The Last Array level 8. Depending on how you play, you might already be a level 5+ by the time you get here.

Any point in it?

Apart from the extra challenge, you also seem to get more bonus XP when you complete it the first time. Depending on the level, you'll get between 550 and 1100 extra XP compared to doing it on the lower difficulty. Plus since there are more enemies along the way, you can get a bit more from killing those as you go and not have to 'grind out' as much in other modes.