Which difficulty to pick in Unicorn Overlord – Difficulty differences guide

Unicorn Overlord is a tactical RPG from Atlus and Vanillaware. In it, you can choose between four different difficulty settings: Story, Normal, Tactical, and Expert. But what do each of these mean for your playthrough?

All Unicorn Overlord difficulty settings

Unicorn Overlord is a sweeping, massive TRPG with a whole lot of characters and a huge world to explore. Regardless of your knowledge and skill with tactical RPGs, you can play Unicorn Overlord because of its four difficulty levels. While you can change the difficulty mid-game, it's best to start off with the challenge level you will stick with throughout your playthrough.

Story difficulty

The Story difficulty is an easier difficulty level for those who are new to TRPGs, don't feel like they are very good at these types of games, or are less interested in the tactical aspects and more looking forward to the story itself. The battles have been dumbed down quite a bit, making it easy enough even for younger video game fans.

Related: Should you set Gammel free in Unicorn Overlord?

Normal difficulty

Normal mode is the intended difficulty for Unicorn Overlord. The battles have a little challenge to them, but they are still very doable even for new players. If you are looking for a great balance between story and battles, you can find it here. Normal mode was added in the demo's update v1.01 to give players a bigger challenge that isn't quite as difficult as Tactical but isn't as simple as Story mode.

Tactical difficulty

Tactical raises the difficulty of all battles. While you can survive if you make a mistake, careful consideration of each aspect of taking down your enemies will be required for every fight. You will need to have a good grasp of strategy and tactical games in general to have fun with this one.

Expert difficulty

In Expert difficulty, you will be severely punished for even small mistakes in tactics. You will have a strict limit for items, stamina, and valor. Items are things like healing potions that can be used by the characters during battle; stamina is how far a unit can move and what it can do during battle.

Valor is a bar in the upper left corner of the screen; you use it to deploy units and use special skills. By severely limiting these, you will need to plan ahead and have an intricate understanding of your units and the best Unicorn Overlord unit formations.

Can you change difficulty settings during play in Unicorn Overlord?

You can change the difficulty in the full release of Unicorn Overlord. Head into the settings menu; the difficulty will be the first selection in the settings menu. Scroll over to the difficulty you want to try, then head back into the game to try the new difficulty.

For more Unicorn Overlord, check out How to recruit all characters in Unicorn Overlord on Pro Game Guides.