What is the Best Difficulty for Your First Days Gone Playthrough?

The best difficulty for your first playthrough of Days Gone is undoubtedly Normal. This setting offers a balanced experience, allowing you to immerse yourself in the compelling story, explore the open world, and learn the game’s mechanics without being overly frustrated by the challenges. Normal provides a solid introduction to the Freaker hordes, resource management, and combat scenarios, ensuring you enjoy the journey without constant, punishing setbacks.

Why Normal Difficulty is Ideal for Beginners

Days Gone can be a daunting game, especially if you’re unfamiliar with open-world survival titles. Normal difficulty strikes a good balance, allowing you to experience the intended gameplay loop of scavenging, crafting, and completing missions without excessive pressure.

Learning the Ropes

Starting on Normal gives you ample opportunity to learn the game’s various systems. You’ll get accustomed to:

• Combat mechanics: Mastering melee combat, gunplay, and using throwables effectively.
• Stealth: Understanding enemy behavior and utilizing stealth to your advantage.
• Resource management: Learning what resources are crucial and how to efficiently find and conserve them.
• Bike maintenance: Keeping your bike fueled, repaired, and upgraded.
• Horde tactics: Developing strategies for dealing with large groups of Freakers.

Story Immersion

Days Gone features a rich and emotional story. Playing on Normal allows you to focus on the narrative and character development without the constant stress of survival hindering your enjoyment. This is especially important in a game where the story is a key element. It enables full absorption and appreciation of Deacon St. John’s journey.

Progressive Challenge

As you progress through the game on Normal, you will naturally become more skilled. You’ll unlock new abilities, upgrade your weapons, and gain a better understanding of enemy weaknesses. This gradual increase in your capabilities creates a sense of accomplishment and makes the game more engaging.

Considering Hard Difficulty

While Normal is recommended for a first playthrough, some players with experience in survival games may be tempted to start on Hard. While not insurmountable, Hard mode significantly increases the challenge by reducing resource availability and making enemies tougher. If you’re confident in your abilities and enjoy a more demanding experience, Hard can be a viable option.

Potential Drawbacks of Hard

• Increased frustration: Dying frequently can disrupt the flow of the game and lead to frustration, especially when learning new mechanics.
• Resource scarcity: Limited resources can force you to spend excessive time scavenging, detracting from the story and exploration.
• Steeper learning curve: The higher difficulty can make it harder to experiment and learn different strategies.

The Appeal of Hard

• Enhanced immersion: The increased challenge can create a more intense and immersive survival experience.
• Strategic gameplay: Hard mode forces you to be more strategic in your approach to combat and resource management.
• Greater satisfaction: Overcoming difficult challenges can be incredibly rewarding.

Survival Difficulty: Not for Beginners

Survival difficulty (and its even harsher variant, Survival II) is best reserved for subsequent playthroughs. These modes remove fast travel, limit the HUD, and further reduce resources, creating a truly hardcore survival experience. Jumping straight into Survival mode without prior experience is likely to be overwhelming and unenjoyable for most players.

Final Verdict

For a first playthrough of Days Gone, Normal difficulty is the most enjoyable and balanced option. It allows you to learn the game’s mechanics, immerse yourself in the story, and experience the thrill of surviving in a post-apocalyptic world without excessive frustration. Consider Hard for subsequent playthroughs if you desire a more challenging experience.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What does Hard difficulty do in Days Gone?

Days Gone’s Hard difficulty reduces the frequency of resources, increases the combat difficulty of enemies, and makes them take more damage. It encourages more exploration and careful resource management, making it more of a survival game experience.

2. What is the default difficulty in Days Gone?

The default difficulty setting in Days Gone is Normal. When you start a new game, it’s pre-selected for you.

3. What is the difference between Hard and Survival in Days Gone?

Hard adjusts enemy difficulty and resource availability. Survival builds upon Hard by removing fast travel, limiting the HUD, and sometimes removing certain skills, thus further enhancing the survival aspects of the game.

4. Should I avoid hordes in Days Gone early on?

It’s recommended to hold off on fighting hordes until you have better weapons and throwables. There are story missions that require you to fight hordes, and plenty of optional hordes to take down as you progress. Building up to these encounters is key.

5. What is the best skill to get early in Days Gone?

The Field Repairs skill, which allows you to repair melee weapons with scrap, is an excellent early-game skill. It significantly extends the lifespan of your early melee weapons and saves valuable resources. Other skills include the Head Rush and Eagle-Eyed.

6. Can I change the difficulty setting during my playthrough?

Yes, you can typically lower the difficulty level, but only from higher difficulties to easier ones like Easy or Normal. Once you switch to Hard, you usually cannot go back to a lower setting, so choose wisely!

7. How do you turn into a Freaker in Days Gone?

You can’t turn into a Freaker. The Freaker Virus mutates humans into Freakers. Deacon St. John, the protagonist, is immune to this transformation.

8. How many hours does it take to 100% Days Gone?

Completing the main story of Days Gone takes about 36 hours. Achieving 100% completion, including all side quests and collectibles, will likely take around 65 hours.

9. What should I avoid doing in Days Gone?

Don’t cower in bushes all day, use throwables on single Freakers, or worry too much about dying early on. Embrace experimentation and learn from your mistakes.

10. What is the hardest enemy in Days Gone?

Breakers are among the most challenging Freaker types in Days Gone. These hulking monstrosities are incredibly strong and require significant effort to eliminate.

11. Is it possible to get all skills in Days Gone?

Yes, it’s definitely possible to unlock all skills in Days Gone. Completing hordes and replaying camp jobs after finishing the main storyline provides ample XP to achieve this.

12. What should I focus on doing early in Days Gone?

Focus on upgrading skills, particularly Field Repairs, and completing early missions to unlock better weapons and gear. Establishing a good relationship with the early encampments is also beneficial.

13. Is Days Gone a slow game?

Days Gone can have a slow start, with the initial hours being less engaging. However, the game’s middle and late stages offer a much more compelling experience as the story and gameplay deepen.

14. What happens when you complete everything in Days Gone?

When you complete the main story, the entire map unlocks, and you are free to explore and complete any unfinished business. You can also reset jobs and continue playing in the open world.

15. What are Freaker Ears used for in Days Gone?

Freaker Ears are turned into Encampment Bounty Collectors to earn Camp Trust and Credits. This is essential for upgrading your guns, bike, and gear at the various encampments.

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