Video Game Difficulty Tropes

All about video game difficulty - how to create it, how to present it, and what happens when you fall afoul of it.

Subcategories:
 * Fake Difficulty
 * The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard

Difficulty levels in general:
A boss fight should normally be tougher than the level, but its difficulty doesn't match what's nearby. A level which is much easier than those surrounding it. A feature that provides assistance to losing players or players near elimination. A character or game is hard to master, but doing it yields great results. The gameplay gradually goes into fast-forward as you progress. Some games are made harder or easier when released in different countries or regions. If at first you don't succeed, try it on Easy mode. One level (or level of difficulty) which is suddenly much harder than the ones that came before it. A game that adjusts its difficulty based on how the player is doing. Game is hardest at the start, rather than the end. Do whatever you want in this mode - dying is all but impossible. When beating a level in a non-standard manner is a lot easier than beating it the expected way. If you pick easy mode, the game will change things to mercilessly mock your ineptitude. The use of cheap tricks to make the game harder. A later level is identical to an earlier level, but harder. You are rewarded for choosing harder difficulties in a gameplay-affecting way. A difficulty level above "Hard". Reaching a checkpoint or save point replenishes your health and/or supplies. In which a game's developer will adamantly refuse to help you. Difficulty levels that are given weird names. An Easy Mode unlocked by repeatedly, utterly failing. When the computer has abilities and better versions of the stuff you could ever receive. Where "hard" mode is easier than "easy" mode. Games that are really fricking hard. Throw-your-controller-and-mutilate-the-console hard. On Easy. A game that looks cutesey or kiddy, but ends up being really fricking hard. Difficulty Levels that merely change some statistics of the player/enemy stats. A Platform Game which is evil and totally out to kill you any way it can. The better you are at a game, the harder the game gets. A game has a difficulty curve that makes no sense. A sequel is much easier than expected compared to the game(s) before it. A sequel is much harder than expected compared to the original game. Fighting Game characters that are a challenge to newcomers, but those with experience will easily mop the floor with them. A level which is much harder than those surrounding it, sometimes by accident.
 * Boss Dissonance
 * Easy Levels Hard Bosses
 * Hard Levels Easy Bosses
 * Breather Level
 * Comeback Mechanic
 * Difficult but Awesome
 * Difficulty by Acceleration
 * Difficulty by Region
 * Difficulty Levels
 * Difficulty Spike
 * Dynamic Difficulty
 * Early Game Hell
 * Easier Than Easy
 * Easy Level Trick
 * Easy Mode Mockery
 * Fake Difficulty
 * Hard Mode Filler
 * Hard Mode Perks
 * Harder Than Hard
 * Healing Checkpoint
 * Hints Are for Losers
 * Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels
 * Mercy Mode
 * My Rules Are Not Your Rules
 * Non Indicative Difficulty
 * Nintendo Hard
 * Surprise Difficulty
 * Numerical Hard
 * Platform Hell
 * Rubber Band AI
 * Schizophrenic Difficulty
 * Sequel Difficulty Drop
 * Sequel Difficulty Spike
 * Skill Gate Characters
 * That One Level

Ways of increasing difficulty:
Random AI actions can result in extremely stupid moves by the computer or the contrary. AI that's really good at what it does. A level in a Platform Game where the screen continually scrolls and you must keep up with it. A level where you must constantly outrun a threat, or even the left side of the screen! Falling a thousand feet is fine, but falling ten feet into a bottomless pit? Instant death. An obstacle that requires a particular skill or item to pass, and rather than being fun it becomes unnecessary or annoying. Severe lack of Check Points or Save Points. It looks like a treasure chest, but you don't want to open it. Trust me. Common elements among many games designed to get your guy killed. Just barely survived that Random Encounter? Sorry, your White Mage can't use healing spells outside of battle! When it comes to reacting quickly or "mashing" buttons, it's easy to make a computer better than any player. Where continuing or losing a life results in an even harder challenge. Here's a hint: Don't get hit by it. You are killed instantly whenever you touch a wall. A gauntlet filled with enemies and/or booby traps that the hero character has to pass through. Games that only let you shoot horizontally, and often without being able to crouch, meaning short enemies are incredibly difficult to hit. You get no rewards unless you jump all these hoops! Within ten seconds! Five hundred times! You nancy wimp! You thought that room had nothing in it? A level where you have to constantly run away from a particular enemy. A mission where you have to keep another character alive while beating enemies or getting to the exit. It looks like a platform, but try stepping on WHOOAAAA! A point in the game where the difficulty is high enough to force you to Level Grind to continue. In multiplayer games with several AIs but only one human, they'll all go after the human. Enemies that might not be so hard, but they just won't freakin' leave you alone. A boss that's not very dangerous, but very annoying or frustrating to fight. Enemies that frustrate you by killing you in unfair ways, which make them innately more dangerous than other normal enemies. A storyline character joins you on the battlefield as a "unit" and you must make sure that he/she doesn't die until the end of the mission. A mission where you have to prevent the enemy completing their objective before time runs out. In Light Gun games, accidentally shooting innocent people will damage you. The character you're controlling can't, or won't, reach or use a perfectly accessible object. A conveyor belt-like surface put in random places just so you can be pushed forwards or backwards. The player enters an area which is suddenly enclosed in a barrier, and the player can't leave until he defeats all enemies. A boss has a strong attack which hits a large melee area and which prevents you from getting anywhere near him. Trivial obstacles that can't be passed even with brute force. It's there! You can't see it, but it's there! A Death Trap claims you when you thought you could put the controller down, such as at the Level Goal after the Boss Fight. Where it's impossible to make money because everything always costs the same, so you can never sell at a profit. Are you sure there is even a platform to jump on? In RPGs, you gain statistics and abilities by killing monsters over and over again. Everything is designed to make life as difficult for you as possible, even in actual structures that should have a logical layout. A puzzle where a room with a set of doors leads to another room with a set of doors, and you have to find the right path. Games that are really designed for single-player mode, and become painful with more than one player. Enemies hiding in areas that shouldn't even exist and appear not to with no way for them to have got in there to begin with. A device or enemy whose main purpose is to constantly spit out enemies for the player to fight. The case where picking up one weapon or powerup results in losing another. A measure built into a video game to make sure the player doesn't use cheats or auto-fire control pads. AI players in Real Time Strategy games are able to acquire resources faster than the player or don't need any resources at all. A skill or attack that instantly kills whatever it hits. A game in which the protagonist instantly dies whenever he's hit by anything. A hole in the ground that's hidden so as to blend into the surrounding terrain, often found in Platform Hell games. In Adventure Games, you have to move the mouse across every single pixel on the screen to find the one object you're really looking for. The player is given the option to perform an action that can only ever result in failure or otherwise hinder progress. A mission where you have to protect a stationary object or character from incoming enemies. In strategy games, you need to purchase "upgrades" to capabilities in each campaign, even if your forces already had it in the last one. After you beat a room full of enemies, if you come back to the room, the enemies will be back. You didn't expect the developers to be nice enough to make that mook stay down just because you defeated it, did you? Limitations on when, where and how often a players can save the game. Finishing second at the Daytona 500 is no different from finishing last in Video Game Land. Computer-controlled opponents use techniques inaccessible to mere mortals. Booby Trap in which two big stone blocks or spiked walls repeatedly ram into each other in a narrow hallway. A Nintendo Hard boss in a Fighting Game. Known side effects include thrown controllers and frothing at the mouth. You touch one, you DIE HORRIBLY. Like spikes, only more mobile. AI characters don't seem to care if they win so long as you lose. A mission where the player must sneak through an area infested with enemies. A gameplay segment in which the player is tasked with following an NPC to a designated area without being spotted. Steam vents as obstacles. That bush wasn't doing anything before, now it's attacking you. Whenever you take something important, a slough of new enemies suddenly rushes in. When you land on it, it starts crumbling away. The one lousy achievement or trophy that keeps you from Hundred-Percent Completion. A particular attack in an enemy's arsenal which is significantly more dangerous than the rest of its skills. Urge to eat controller...rising... You have a handful of alien bones, a shell, and no hints. Have fun! The game gives you hints and advice that are flat out wrong. You can only rest the night at a genuine inn; you can't just set up camp somewhere. The player has a finite amount of time to complete a goal, otherwise it's Game Over. Run out of time and an in-universe threat will start to harass/hunt/attack you. Can you still complete the level? When the clock keeps going, even during cutscenes, battles, and even the pause menu. When you can only figure out the correct path by trying the incorrect ones and dying, until you get to the right one. When a boss's HP gets lower, he suddenly gains power, speed, and/or uses different attacks. When a tutorial either misleads or gives outright false information to the player. Where a game suddenly changes from one gameplay genre to another for a level or area. A gameplay design element that cripples the player so he can't win - but won't tell him about it for hours. A game that presents you with a goal, but as a joke of the programmer this joke is completely unreachable. The practice of using a food resource as a time limit. Strategy games make you gather resources.
 * AI Roulette
 * Artificial Brilliance
 * Auto Scrolling Level
 * Advancing Wall of Doom
 * Bottomless Pits
 * Cardboard Obstacle
 * Check Point Starvation
 * Chest Monster
 * Classic Video Game Screw Yous
 * Combat Exclusive Healing
 * Computers Are Fast
 * Continuing Is Painful
 * Deadly Gas
 * Deadly Walls
 * Death Course
 * Denial of Diagonal Attack
 * Earn Your Fun
 * Empty Room Until the Trap
 * Escape Sequence
 * Escort Mission
 * Fake Platform
 * Forced Level Grinding
 * Gang Up on the Human
 * Goddamned Bats
 * Goddamned Boss
 * Demonic Spiders
 * Hero Must Survive
 * Hold the Line
 * Hostage Spirit Link
 * I Can't Reach It
 * Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt
 * Inescapable Ambush
 * Instant Death Radius
 * Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence
 * Invisible Block
 * Kaizo Trap
 * Karl Marx Hates Your Guts
 * Leap of Faith
 * Level Grinding
 * Malevolent Architecture
 * Magical Mystery Doors
 * Misbegotten Multiplayer Mode
 * Monster Closet
 * Mook Maker
 * Mutually Exclusive Powerups
 * No Fair Cheating
 * Not Playing Fair with Resources
 * One-Hit Kill
 * One-Hit-Point Wonder
 * Pit Trap
 * Pixel Hunt
 * Press X to Die
 * Protection Mission
 * Reinventing the Wheel
 * Respawning Enemies
 * Reviving Enemy
 * Save Game Limits
 * Second Place Is for Losers
 * Secret AI Moves
 * Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom
 * SNK Boss
 * Spikes of Doom
 * Spike Balls of Doom
 * Spiteful AI
 * Stealth Based Mission
 * Stalking Mission
 * Steam Vent Obstacle
 * Suddenly Harmful Harmless Object
 * Teleporting Keycard Squad
 * Temporary Platform
 * That One Achievement
 * That One Attack
 * That One Boss
 * That One Puzzle
 * The Computer Is a Lying Bastard
 * There Are No Tents
 * Timed Mission
 * Stalked by the Bell
 * Time Keeps on Ticking
 * Trial and Error Gameplay
 * Turns Red
 * Tutorial Failure
 * Unexpected Gameplay Change
 * Unwinnable by Design
 * Unwinnable Joke Game
 * Wizard Needs Food Badly
 * You Require More Vespene Gas

Ways of making games easier:
Just got beaten to within an inch of your life in that Random Encounter? Don't worry, you're back to full health! Same thing, but only happens after boss battles. AI that's really bad at what it does. Once you fight your way to the end of an area, there will be a convenient door that leads you right back to the entrance. No no not the spikes Hey, they're not sharp! Any point in a game where you can't actually lose, even if it looks like you can. When you have an NPC with you, he/she will be impervious to damage or at least death. The game gives you hints if you can't solve a puzzle on your own. Whenever you are hit, you have a small period of invincibility before being vulnerable again. You expect instant death, but instead you just go back to the start of the area. Someone or something saves the character from falling all the way down. Games will make an important item more visible (e.g. twinkles, color scheme, etc.) If you fail, the game hints to you what to do. Important words and phrases are highlighted for your convenience in different colors. A Sidequest that seems like it will be difficult or frustrating, but ends up being simple or easy. The game will have an easily broken wall which conceals some sort of treat Modern games that allow you to use the environment as cover for bullets. An in-game tutorial that explains the various gameplay systems. A tutorial that the player has no control over and must simply watch. A tutorial that the player has no choice but to go through. A tutorial given by actual in-game characters, Breaking the Fourth Wall. A tutorial that makes sense in context. Where the villain is still at the same level he was at ten hours ago, but the heroes are ten levels higher and therefore beat him handily. A turret gun that can be easily knocked out or over.
 * After Combat Recovery
 * After Boss Recovery
 * Artificial Stupidity
 * Door to Before
 * Fake Trap
 * Foregone Victory
 * Gameplay Ally Immortality
 * Hint System
 * Mercy Invincibility
 * Non Lethal Bottomless Pits
 * Bottomless Pit Rescue Service
 * Notice This
 * Player Nudge
 * Rainbow Speak
 * Surprisingly Easy Mini Quest
 * Suspiciously Cracked Wall
 * Take Cover
 * Video Game Tutorial
 * Auto Pilot Tutorial
 * Forced Tutorial
 * He Knows About Timed Hits
 * Justified Tutorial
 * Villain Forgot to Level Grind
 * Weak Turret Gun

Video game deaths:
You're caught in a Death Trap and have to watch your Hit Points slowly go down to zero. The penalty for death is so minor that there may as well not be one at all. HAHA U R DEAD! When a character appears on the game over screen, sometimes to mock you. When the game gives you a One-Liner after finishing you off. An ending that only plays when you get a Game Over. A Game Over screen that appears not after the usual Hit Point-loss, but when you've messed up something more serious or plot-worthy. Games that offer all sorts of ways for you to kick the bucket, rather than just losing Hit Points or falling down pits. Duhh. You died because you were dumb. Game Over before it really begins. When HP goes to zero, you don't "die", you just get "knocked out". Games where, when a character dies, that character is D-E-D Dead and is just plain not coming back. When you die, you come back to life instantly on the same location you died, or very close to it, without losing any progress. How many tries a player has before a Game Over. You get a Game Over when the main character is killed, regardless of how many of his companions are still alive.
 * Cycle of Hurting
 * Death Is a Slap on The Wrist
 * Game Over
 * Game Over Man
 * Have a Nice Death
 * It's a Wonderful Failure
 * Nonstandard Game Over
 * The Many Deaths of You
 * Yet Another Stupid Death
 * Press Start to Game Over
 * Non-Lethal KO
 * Final Death
 * Respawn on the Spot
 * Video Game Lives
 * We Cannot Go on Without You