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Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters is a lot of things, one of those being a really long title. Another, arguably more important thing it manages to be, is a turn-based strategy RPG. What this means is, that you will have to use your noggin more than your reflexes to win, and boy, does the game want you to use it constantly.
Chaos Gate (since it’s much easier to read, write, and say) is no pushover. In fact, Chaos Gate is downright brutal at times, and if you don’t have the cognitive chops (or patience) to face endless hordes of demons with less than a handful of soldiers, you might be in for a rough time. Thankfully, Chaos Gate has a bunch of difficulty modes and options to help you tailor your experience.
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters Difficulty Modes
Chaos Gate comes with four difficulty modes, and they all fall into the “mostly tricky" category of games - at the very least. They are:
- Merciful
- Standard
- Ruthless
- Legendary
Merciful
- +2 Starting Knights
- +6 Knight HP
- -33% Wound recovery time
- -25% Enemy HP
- -25% Enemy Stun
- Bloom Explosions are less aggressive
Merciful is the “easy” mode for Chaos Gate, and it provides a bunch of nice bonuses to ease you into the game - specifically the combat aspect. There is very little tweaking to the grander strategic elements on the galaxy screen. This is entirely focused on keeping the moment-to-moment gameplay as accessible as possible.
Despite being an easy mode, Merciful is no pushover. Enemy count, especially on the unique story missions, is not changed. Nor has the enemy's ability to actually kill you. This is not a “fire and forget” mode, and you will be punished if you go in thinking it's going to be a cakewalk. The +6HP will only get you so far.
Standard
Standard is “normal” mode, and it is how Chaos Gate was meant to be played. Every other difficulty uses Standard as its template and then shifts numbers around to mess with the balance.
This is the intended play experience, but it can be incredibly difficult when it wants to be. Going in guns blazing will get you killed, and carefully planning your turns is vital if you want to see the end. Once you reach the first “boss” of the game, you will know just how brutal Chaos Gate is if you haven’t been learning the ins and outs of the game's systems.
Ruthless
- +25% Enemy HP
The de facto “hard” mode. Ruthless is everything Standard Mode is, but enemies are harder to kill. That 25% bump in HP might not seem like much, but put it this way - enemies that would normally die in one hit, now die in two. It’s just enough to push everything to a new level of threat.
The blessed Stormbolter is mighty, but it will struggle to keep up with hordes in Ruthless. Planning is key if you want to come out on top.
Legendary
- +50% Enemy HP
- +50% Wound recovery time
- Knights start at 1 Resilience
- +50% Research cost and time
- +50% Construction cost and time
This mode is “very hard”. No mode pulls punches in Chaos Gate, but Legendary is wearing knuckle dusters to make those punches really land. This is not a mode for the faint of heart, and it will test you every step of the way. Every mission could be your last, and every bullet could spell doom for your troops.
Enemies are much tougher than before, every hit you take takes longer to recover from, and if you guys go down early, they are dead. Mistakes are immediately punished, and that punishment is so severe it can make you wince.
Unlike every other difficulty, Legendary also messes with the Galactic elements of Chaos Gate, making your long-term planning harder to manage too. It’s much harder to develop anything on Legendary, and planning your Research and Construction ahead of time is almost mandatory.
What Is Grand Master Mode
Grand Master Mode is Chaos Gates's version of Iron Man Mode. This mode is for players who wake up in the morning and eat a bowl of nails for breakfast. This toggleable mode can be applied to any difficulty, and it will make it harder. Grand Master Mode does the following:
- Disables manual saving
- The campaign will be limited to a single autosave slot
In short, Grand Master Mode makes every decision you make permanent. Defeat is not only possible - likely. This is especially true on harder difficulties, but rest assured, Iron Man on Standard or Merciful will kick your butt too.
What Difficulty Should You Play On
It depends on experience. If you play this kind of game constantly then bump it to Ruthless. If you are new to the genre or haven’t played in a while, Merciless or Standard is likely to be your best bet. Legendary and any variation of Grand Master should probably be left until a second playthrough.