There are five difficulty levels in The Last of Us 2. They affect things like the amount of damage you do, enemy accuracy and perceptive powers, aggressiveness of allies and the amount of ammo you’ll find while scavenging. Choosing the right one when you first start playing can be a daunting task – how are you supposed to know how skilled you are at a game you’ve never played? That’s why we’ve written this guide, to help you out by offering a difficulty levels comparison in The Last of Us 2.
Grounded difficulty returns, plus new Permadeath mode For veteran The Last of Us fans, Grounded difficulty represents the ultimate test of skill. This difficulty raises the stakes by not only making enemies deadlier and ammo, upgrade, and crafting materials incredibly scarce, but also removing invaluable tools for survival, such as disabling.
Which difficulty should I start on?
Here’s how the game describes the available options:
- Very Light – Explore and experience the story with a lighter combat challenge. Camera and aim assistance settings are enabled by default.
- Light – Less challenging than Moderate. Resources are more common and enemies are less dangerous.
- Moderate – Provides a balanced experience. Resources are limited.
- Hard – For those looking for a greater challenge. Resources are very limited and enemies are more dangerous.
- Survivor – An intense, demanding challenge. Resources are extremely scarce and enemies are deadly.
It’s a pretty broad description, and it doesn’t show how much harder is moderate than light, for instance. The good news is that you can change the difficulty settings even after you’ve begun playing. So if you find it too easy or to hard, just pause the game and change the setting.
After you’ve completed the game, you unlock a custom difficulty level, which allows you to tweak certain parameters independently of others. That’s of no help when you’re starting out, but it does give a glimpse into what exactly changes between difficulty levels. The list includes:
- The amount of damage you take
- Frequency of checkpoints during encounters
- Enemies’ rate of fire, accuracy, aggression, movement speed, and complexity of melee combos
- Allies’ aggressivenes and how often they score kills
- Enemies’ perception, the amount of time they wait before alerting others and the conditions for grabbing them from stealth
- Quantity of ammo and supplies, durability of weapons and the yield of crafting recipes
Last of Us 2 New Game Plus
Another thing that unlocks after you complete your first playthrough is the New Game Plus mode. The difference between levels is the same – moderate is more difficult than light, hard is more difficult than moderate, etc. But you get to keep all your upgrades, equipment and crafting recipes from the first playthrough, and all your weapons become available as soon as your reach Seattle.
For those who missed out on The Last of Us - whether it was on its initial release on PS3 or remaster on PS4 a year later - the PlayStation-exclusive post-apocalyptic yarn was lauded as much for its characters and depth of writing as it was its undeniable technical achievements. Now it's available to play on PC via PlayStation Now and at 4K on PS4 Pro, it gives the game a whole new audience a way to play Naughty Dog's masterpiece.
We've put together a The Last of Us guide for the game, one that will take you all the way through the vanilla story with our The Last of Us walkthrough, and then through the Left Behind DLC (which for PS4 players, is automatically included with the Remastered edition). Should you find yourself breezing through the story, you still might find it useful to refer to our guide to all the collectables that are spread throughout the extended game, too.
The Last of Us walkthrough
The Last of Us - Prologue, car scene, Tommy, army
A quick guide to surviving the explosive first chapter of the game. Cheat gold dragon city tori info game.
The Last of Us - The Quarantine Zone, 20 Years Later, Outside, The Slums, The Cargo
A walkthrough for the second chapter, set 20 years after the events of the first.
The Last of Us - The Outskirts, Outside, Downtown, Museum, The Capitol Building
How to sneak Ellie to safety without inviting unwelcome attention.
The Last of Us - Bill's Town, The Woods, Safehouse, Graveyard, High School Escape
How to make it to Bill's place in one piece, and deal with all of this chapter's creatures.
The Last of Us - Pittsburgh, Alone and Forsaken, Hotel Lobby, Financial District
Our guide to helping Ellie navigate the water, and dealing with a tricky pack of Hunters.
The Last of Us - The Suburbs, Sewers, Suburbs
Stuck in the sewers? We'll show you how to make it all the way through this tricky chapter.
The Last of Us - Tommy's Dam, Hydroelectric Dam, Ranch House
How to activate the bridge, find Joel's brother, and quickly catch up with Ellie.
The Last of Us - The University, Go Big Horns, Science Building
Our guide to surviving the university campus, and avoiding the Bloater fight altogether.
The Last Of Us New Game Plus Difficulty Cheating
The Last of Us - Lakeside Resort, The Hunt, Cabin Resort
Struggling with the Bandit ambush? Here's how to survive the fight.
The Last of Us - Bus Depot, Highway Exit, Underground Tunnel
Everything you need to know to survive the penultimate part of the game.
Piano city game cheats. The Last of Us - The Firefly Lab, The Hospital, Jackson, Epilogue
How to rescue Ellie and wrap up your first playthrough.
The Last of Us Left Behind walkthrough
The Last of Us - Back in a Flash, Riley, Combination Note, Clickers
Our guide to the first chapter of the DLC, with a few handy tips for the Clicker encounter.
The Last of Us - Mallrats, Winston, masks, Halloween shop
How to sneak inside the mall, enter the Halloween shop, and get the electricity back on.
The Last of Us - So Close, locked door, generator
Our guide to getting the power back on, and dealing with this area's infected enemies.
The Last of Us - Fun and Games, arcade, water fight, Listen mode
How to get the most out of the arcade content, and bag an extra trophy.
The Last of Us - The Enemy of My Enemy, Joel, ambush
We've got some tips to help you handle some of the fiddlier fights.
The Last of Us - Escape from Liberty Gardens
The final chapter of the Left Behind DLC.
Other The Last of Us guides
The Last of Us - New Game Plus, Everything We've Been Through, For Emergencies Only
Ready for more? Here's everything you need to know about the New Game Plus mode.
The Last of Us - Artifacts, It Was All Just Lying There
How to find every Artifact and unlock It Was All Just Lying There for your trophy collection.
The Last of Us - Firefly Pendants, Look for the Light
Find every Firefly Pendant and unlock the Look for the Light trophy.
The Last of Us - Training Manuals, combat upgrades, combat bonuses
All the combat-boosting Training Manuals you can find.
The Last of Us - Comics
Where to find all 15 Comics, and unlock the Endure and Survive trophy.
The Last of Us - Left Behind collectables, Optional Conversations, notes
All of Left Behind's secret conversations and hidden items.
The Last of Us - Shiv Doors, rewards, locations
How to track down and bust open every Shiv Door in The Last of Us.
The Last of Us - safes and combinations
Every safe you'll find in the game, along with each one's counterpart combination.
The Last Of Us New Game Plus Difficulty Cheats
The Last of Us - toolbox locations, tool levels, upgrade weapons
The five toolboxes you need to maximise your weapon upgrades.
Last Of Us New Game Plus Difficulty
Phew. All done? If you have a PS4, then you can get started with the sequel thanks to our The Last of Us Part 2 walkthrough.