Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a surprise hit for gamers looking into a unique, fun twist on Marvel superhero games with its tactical turn-based card battle system. The experience is a layered amalgam of different contributions by strategy franchises over the years to create something unexpected, engaging, and occasionally challenging. While fans of Firaxis Games are at this point no strangers to the developer’s high number of difficulty settings, Midnight Suns has a different arrangement in mind for the players. Choosing the right setting, however, can color how you experience the game.
What Are the Best Difficulty Settings in Midnight Suns?
The general recommendation would be to enjoy Midnight Suns on ‘Normal’ difficulty settings, although ‘Story’ won’t take too much away from your experience of the gameplay. The main reason ‘Normal’ is recommended is that, of the two, this option gives you bonuses for completing missions, while ‘Story’ does not. When you start the game, as well as at any point from the pause menu, you may choose the difficulty for Midnight Suns, but are restricted only to ‘Story’ (easy) or ‘Normal’ at first.
You will be able to unlock more settings as you progress in the game and amass star ratings for completing missions efficiently with low casualties. It also helps ease you into the gameplay and the differences between its characters.
How Many Difficulties Are in Midnight Suns?
Counting Story, Normal, Heroic I-III, and Ultimate I-III, there are 8 settings options for difficulty in Midnight Suns. As you raise the bar difficulty-wise, you’ll find enemies become tougher, hit harder, and your ability to revive teammates will decrease from unlimited, to 2 in Normal, to 1 for the rest save for Ultimate III which has 0 revives. On the flip side, choosing higher difficulties gets increasingly more rewarding as you complete missions, with higher percentage bonuses on Hero XP and Mission Gloss Bonus, which can be spent on the many cosmetic options found in the game.
The difficulty options and their details are listed below:
Story
- Enemy Health: -25%
- Enemy Offense: -33%
- Infinite Revives Per Mission
- Hero Combat Injuries Disabled
- Hero XP: +0%
- Mission Gloss Bonus: +0%
Normal
- Enemy Health: +0%
- Enemy Offense: +0%
- 2 Revives Per Mission
- Hero XP: +0%
- Mission Gloss Bonus: +25%
Heroic I
- Enemy Health: +25%
- Enemy Offense: +12.5%
- 1 Revive Per Mission
- Hero XP: +10%
- Mission Gloss Bonus: +50%
Heroic II
- Enemy Health: +50%
- Enemy Offense: +25%
- 1 Revive Per Mission
- Hero XP: +20%
- Mission Gloss Bonus: +75%
Heroic III
- Enemy Health: +75%
- Enemy Offense: +50%
- 1 Revive Per Mission
- Hero XP: +25%
- Mission Gloss Bonus: +100%
Ultimate I
- Enemy Health: +87.5%
- Enemy Offense: +67%
- 1 Revive Per Mission
- Additional Enemy Reinforcements
- Hero XP: +30%
- Mission Gloss Bonus: +125%
Ultimate II
- Enemy Health: +100%
- Enemy Offense: 83%
- 1 Revive Per Mission
- Additional Enemy Reinforcements
- Hero XP: +35%
- Mission Gloss Bonus: 150%
Ultimate III
- Enemy Health: +125%
- Enemy Offense: +100%
- No Revives
- Additional Enemy Reinforcements
- Hero XP: +60%
- Mission Gloss Bonus: +175%
As you can see, while the difficulty means sturdier, more aggressive opponents and even potentially greater strength in numbers, you’ll get huge, tangible rewards. But you’ll not want to power through the story missions in the higher difficulties, instead making sure to take advantage of all the growth opportunities the game gives you this way. Ultimately, however, it’s your choice, and enjoy the game more for its story and characters than its mechanics is justified. The character interactions are built in as part of the gameplay and are highly enjoyable, so there’s no harm in taking it easy your first time around.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns released on December 2, 2022, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. A port for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One will be released at a later date.
