There are a lot of options
As you might imagine, the Wizarding World IP attracts a lot of different people: families included. It should be a priority to introduce the ability to tweak the experience, which is really inline with most modern open world design principles anyway. Here’s a quick overview for the difficulty settings in Hogwarts Legacy, as well as how to change them at pretty much any time.
Story/Easy
The first difficulty option in Hogwarts Legacy is “story.” This is essentially built as the most streamlined experience with the lowest enemy damage output. You’ll be able to defeat enemies multiple levels over you without too much trouble, but you will still need to engage in the combat system. The next rung up is “easy,” which increases the damage enemies do by a bit.
On easier difficulties, prompts for when to counter or dodge have a longer triggering window, amid other alterations like less damage for enemies, more damage for the protagonist, and less aggressive AI.
Normal
Normal mode is what a lot of people will pick outright, and for most folks, it’ll be perfect.
Enemy damage still feels manageable in this setting, though you will need to get used to parrying and dodging. That said, Hogwarts Legacy isn’t a frame-perfect character action game, so the timings are generous, and at this mode, very few enemies (mostly elites) feel like bullet sponges.
Hard
Ratcheting up to hard mode can have its benefits and burdens.
It does offer a greater challenge for those who are looking for it, but it comes at the cost of increasing enemy defense/health. It can make some regular enemies feel like elites, and turn some elites into minibosses. We recommend turning on hard mode at the very start if you’re an action game veteran, as you should see a little more challenge upfront, before the aforementioned issues come into play.
How to change your difficulty in Hogwarts Legacy
To change your difficulty level in Hogwarts Legacy, you’ll want to pause the game and open the settings menu (the gear at the bottom right, or “settings” up top).
Once you’re there, go to the gear icon on the left (gameplay options). The very first toggle is “difficulty,” which will allow you to swap to story, easy, normal, and hard. Note that nothing in Hogwarts Legacy is linked to difficulty, including trophies/achievements. You can even use the options menu to make grinding for max level (40) easier, since you can swap to story mode for repeat battle arena sessions, then swap back whenever you want.
