Persona 5 Strikers difficulty guide – how hard is each setting?

If you are planning a playthrough of Persona 5 Strikers and wonder what difficulty you should play at, then this guide is designed to help you out. The first thing you should know is that difficulty in Persona 5 Strikers is noncommittal, and can be changed at any time.

To change the difficulty, open the options menu and select Config, then difficulty. You can then set it to whatever you want. The game technically has four difficulty settings, although the last one will only be available after you clear the game at least once on normal or hard difficulty.

• Easy – designed for players that are new to action games, or those who wish to focus on the story. Enemies will do very little damage, and your attacks will do far more damage than they usually would.
• Normal – the standard level that the game is designed around, for players looking for a challenge, but without extremely punishing spikes. Damage given and taken is balanced to provide a solid challenge.
• Hard – advantages skew in the favor of your enemies to provide a difficult challenge for experienced players of action games.
• Merciless – unlockable by finishing the game on Normal or Hard, Merciless is just what it claims to be. Damage taken is brutal, difficulty spikes incredibly high, and this is a true test of your combat abilities as a Phantom Thief. Must be started from a Mastered Save File.

The difficulty that you are playing at does not impact the story at all, you will not be missing out on anything if you play at a lower difficulty than a friend. The only time you cannot change the difficulty is when playing on Merciless. If you commit to a Merciless run, then you are stuck with that choice until the end, you cannot drop down the difficulty to dodge a particular challenge fight, or encounter.

You can get the No Looking Back Trophy for starting the game on Merciless difficulty.