Video Game Difficulty Tropes

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

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Subcategories:

• Fake Difficulty
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard

Difficulty levels in general:

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

Ways of increasing difficulty:

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

Ways of making games easier:

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

Video game deaths:

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