No More Heroes 3: Difficulty Settings Explained

Difficulty settings in No More Heroes 3 significantly change how the game is played. While you will only start off with three to choose from at the beginning, you’ll unlock an additional after you clear the game and meet certain criteria. The difficulty setting cannot be changed after selecting one so you should pick the difficulty you’re comfortable with. If you happen to hit a roadblock you can’t beat, you’ll either have to restart on the correct difficulty or get ready for some significant grinding. Here’s everything we know about difficulty settings in No More Heroes 3.

Difficulty Settings in No More Heroes 3

The No More Heroes 3 difficulty settings range from Berry Sweet (easy mode) to Carolina Reaper (ultimate/very hard mode). Each difficulty setting affects how hard enemies hit, how much HP they have, and on the easiest setting, even if autoguard is a thing or not. See below for a full breakdown of all currently known difficulties and what they entail.

The Spicier the Better

You may have noticed in the time machine that there is one additional difficulty setting, Death. It’s unclear at the time of this writing if this is able to be unlocked as a main game difficulty setting so it is absent from the below list.

• Berry Sweet – Easy Mode. Autoguard, a blue shield, effectively renders you invincible from all enemy attacks. Slash away like crazy and you’ll win whatever battle is up against you. Recommended for those who want to just see the story.
• Bitter – Normal mode. Enemies hit at normal damage and have regular HP amounts. The retry wheel (when you reach a game over) has beneficial slices that can do things such as replenish health allowing you to continue right from where you died.
• Spicy – Hard mode. Enemies hit at higher damage and have higher HP pools. The retry wheel only has neutral or negative modifiers. The negative is always losing full-beam katana charge at the beginning of the battle. Enemies also appear to attack faster and use additional attacks on this difficulty and higher.
• Carolina Reaper – “The ultimate difficulty level”. Unlocked by clearing the game on Spicy difficulty. Enemies hit super hard and have a huge amount of HP.  Retry wheel has no beneficial buffs just like Spicy mode.

No More Heroes 3 is available now on the Nintendo Switch. Be sure to check the rest of our No More Heroes 3 Guides while you’re here!