The Thaumaturge combat difficulty level guide – Gameplay differences

The Thaumaturge is an RPG that prides itself on its deep storyline and unique turn-based combat style. If you’re wondering which difficulty level to choose, read on for all the details about each option.

What are the differences in The Thaumaturge combat difficulty settings?

There are three difficulty levels to choose between when playing The Thaumaturge. These are named Story, Balanced, and Challenge. The difficulty level can be changed by entering the options Menu, selecting the Gameplay tab, and finding Difficulty Level in the Combat section.

The most important thing to note is that you can change the difficulty level at any time, except during combat. You're offered the chance to alter the difficulty level when you battle your first Salutor, Bukavak. Otherwise, once combat is initiated, the difficulty level is set. You can of course just load a previous save file. You're also allowed to spend any unspent upgrade points and switch your upgrades before each battle.

Outside of combat, either before you start playing or even during exploration mode once you’ve loaded a game, you can alter the difficulty setting. Note that the difficulty Setting you’re currently on will affect all your save files, not just the one you’re currently playing. 

Related: All controls for The Thaumaturge

How does difficulty affect gameplay in The Thaumaturge?

Difficulty level in The Thaumaturge only affects combat and even then only affects the amount of damage you receive from enemies. It does not affect the health or focus levels of mobs, nor does it affect the amount of enemies or how fast they act. However, the effect on the damage they deal out is significant. To give two examples:

• An enemy with potential physical attack damage of 10 in Balanced mode will do 14 damage in Challenge Mode and just 6 damage in Story Mode, so a 40 percent swing either way.
• This also affects DOTs and focus damage dealt by enemies. A mob that would DOT you for 2-3 damage and 1 focus damage in Balanced mode will do 3-4 physical damage and 2 focus damage in Challenge Mode, but just 1 physical damage and no focus damage in Story mode. 

There is also a small difference in the amount of experience gained from the battle if you win it on a higher difficulty level. However, from what I can tell this is a very small amount (there’s no way to measure it accurately, however, as XP isn’t given anywhere as a stat). So the real decision comes down to how much you want to challenge yourself during combat.

For more on The Thaumaturge check out Should you trust Rasputin in The Thaumaturge right here at Pro Game Guides!