Days Gone difficulty levels: What is Survival Mode?

As an open-world survival-horror title, Days Gone might be a bit challenging to the average player even on normal difficulty, especially if you run into a Freaker horde. Some players out there just love a challenge, pushing themselves to the limit, while others just want to experience the story and have a great time in post-apocalyptic Oregon as Deacon St. John. In this guide, we make choosing one of the Days Gone difficulty levels easy, explaining what each one is all about, including the Survival Mode and how you can unlock New Game+.

Days Gone Difficulty levels explained

There are a total of four standard difficulty levels in Days Gone, namely:

• Easy
• Normal
• Hard
• Hard II

Let's take a closer look at what these difficulty levels mean in Days Gone, starting with the most obvious one.

Easy difficulty

Most enemies including Freakers ignore you unless you get super close. You can find an abundance of ammo and scrap parts (to repair your bike) and enemies have low health plus they do very little damage. This is the difficulty level you want to choose if you just want to experience the story.

(Picture: Bend Studio)

Normal difficulty

As the name suggests, the Normal difficulty level gives you the run-of-the-mill survival experience. Enemies do average damage and take an average amount of time to kill. You will need to scavenge for resources a bit and might die a few times. This is the Days Gone difficulty recommended for most first-time players.

Hard difficulty

The biggest aspect of Hard difficulty players should know before choosing it is that you can't change back to a lower difficulty in-game, so you will have to start a new game if Hard is too much to handle. Enemies also do a lot more damage and have additional health compared to Normal difficulty. Resources are also more scarce, and more fuel is required to refuel your bike, while more scrap is required to fix it.

Hard II difficulty

If the Hard difficulty wasn't enough for you, there's Hard II. This difficulty level further increases the damage enemies do, and their overall health. Resources are even more scarce, and you can't lower the difficulty.

(Picture: Bend Studio)

If Hard or Hard II difficulty levels seem like a breeze to you, then there are the Survival Mode difficulties.

What is Survival Mode in Days Gone?

Survival Mode and Survival Mode II offer the most challenge in Days Gone. These difficulty levels are truly for the masochists out there and come with some unique features.

So what is Survival Mode in Days Gone? Well, the better question is, what does it take away from the player.

(Picture: Bend Studio)

In the Days Gone Survival Mode has the following features:

• No Survival Vision feature which normally helps you locate enemies and items on other difficulty levels.
• No fast travelling (so you don't need our Fast Travel Guide, right?)
• No HUD.
• Map waypoints are removed.
• Extremely scarce resources.
• Enemies have an incredible amount of health.
• Many enemies can kill you in one or two hits.
• Freakers can smell you from a mile away.
• Can't lower difficulty.

If you love playing Soulsborne games with no armour on, or something of that nature, you can also try Survival II, which further increases enemy health and damage, while decreasing the number of resources you will find.

To even attempt Days Gone on Survival Mode, you should probably make sure your gaming rig is up to the task. Check our guide to the best PC settings and how to increase FPS in Days Gone if you play on PC.

Days Gone New Game+ Mode

While the Days Gone New Game+ mode isn't technically a difficulty level, as it only unlocks once you've completed the game on any difficulty, it can offer a daunting experience.

First up, New Game+ allows you to keep your skill points, bike upgrades, crafting recipes and more from your previous playthrough. 

(Picture: Bend Studio)

The New Game+ Mode also allows you to choose your difficulty, from Easy all the way up to Survival II.

However, choosing what some refer to as Survival+ is a death sentence, as the most difficult way to play Days Gone, including all the aspects of Survival, alongside enemies dealing even more damage. It is a mode that some players are still trying to complete on PlayStation.

So there you have it, all the difficulty levels in Days Gone explained, as well as details about the Survival Mode and New Game+ Mode.

• Read more: Days Gone cross-platform (PC/PS4) support: Progression, save files, achievements

For more about the open-world survival-horror title, check out our dedicated Days Gone section, featuring guides, PC settings, requirements and more.