Aliens Dark Descent: All difficulty levels Aliens Dark Descent guide, walkthrough

In Aliens Dark Descent you can adjust the difficulty level to your preference. In the tutorial we described all the difficulty settings. You will also find out if you can change the selected level later.

Last update: 16 June 2023

Aliens Dark Descent allows you to adjust the difficulty to your abilities and preferences. On this guide page are a list of all difficulty levels and a recommendation of the best one. We also explain whether the game allows you to change the difficulty level during the campaign.

• List of difficulty level settings
• Can you change the difficulty level?
• Best settings for the first playthrough

List of difficulty level settings

In the game there are 5 difficulty level settings:

1. story - this is the lowest level of challenge designed to enjoy the story;
2. medium;
3. high;
4. nightmare;
5. custom - you can adjust the game to your needs and, for example, increase the level of challenge for selected gameplay features and lower it for those you are struggling with.

The difficulty level of the game is affected by the following factors:

1. Health Points of opponents - enemies with longer health bars are harder to kill, and there is a greater risk that they will get to your marines before they are killed. It will also be more difficult to defeat the resistant bosses.
2. Detection time by enemies - on lower settings, it's easier stealth to avoid confrontation or set up ambushes more efficiently.
3. Delay in the increase of aggression level - increasing aggression level means that more and more opponents will appear in the area, and you may be forced to withdraw from the battlefield.
4. Number of days to the defeat of the campaign - this is an important factor that determines how much time you have to complete the main story. At higher settings, you have to hurry so as not to fail the game.
5. Saving - choosing a more difficult level will restrict you to save during the mission. The game will allow you to save progress in bases and during landing before the mission.

Can you change the difficulty level?

In Aliens Dark Descent, you can't change the difficulty level after starting the campaign, and you have to complete the game with the initial settings. For the same reason, we do not recommend choosing a hard or nightmare level at the beginning because you will have trouble learning the basics of the game, and some missions may become very challenging.

Best settings for the first playthrough

The recommended settings for the first playthrough are:

1. normal difficulty - after you complete the tutorials, it should offer an adequate level of challenge most of the time;
2. permissive save system - it allows you to create saves regularly and load them in case of the sudden death of marines or after a serious mistake.