Starfield: All May update difficulty tweaks explained

Coming out of the blue, Starfield‘s latest content update has already proved that it’s positively loaded with some much-needed improvements and changes, even pre-release. Its biggest draw, specifically, are the various difficulty tweaks that allow players to fine-tune the game’s challenge curve however they see fit, and it’s a hoot.

Sure, it’s not a drivable rover (which is coming in later on!), nor is it a full-fledged Survival Mode like the one we had in Fallout 4, but Starfield‘s new difficulty options show immense promise all on their own. Featuring 18 total difficulty tweaks ranging from item weight to affliction management, Starfield‘s all-new gameplay options allow you to tailor how challenging the game is in a way we didn’t have before.

Starfield difficulty options explained

The most impressive feature of Starfield‘s May difficulty update is just how granular it all is. Players can, for example, separately tweak how much damage they are doing to the enemies, and how much damage the enemies are doing to them. Down below, we’ve summarized and explained all of Starfield‘s new difficulty options, which should paint a pretty clear picture of what’s what and how it all works.

• Enemy Combat Damage: governs how much damage you take from enemy combatants.
• Player Combat Damage: governs how much damage you deal to enemy combatants.
• Enemy Ship Damage: governs how much damage you take in space combat.
• Player Ship Damage: governs how much damage you deal in space combat.
• Ammo Weight: toggles whether your ammunition has weight.
• Carry Capacity: changes how punishing the carry capacity system is.
• Cargo Access Distance: changes how far out you can access your ship’s inventory.
• Vendor Credits: governs how much credits each vendor has while trading.
• Medical Item Healing: changes how much your healing items heal you.
• Food Healing: toggles whether the food heals you or not.
• Sleep Healing: toggles whether sleeping heals you or not.
• Sustenance: governs how food bonuses work, switching between none, positive, and positive + negative options.
• Combat Affliction Gain: changes how easy it is to become afflicted in combat.
• Affliction Treatment: changes how easy it is to deal with afflictions.
• Affliction Prognosis: affects the odds of your afflictions improving or worsening over time.
• Environmental Damage & Afflictions: governs how easy or hard it is to get an affliction during planetary expeditions.
• Environmental Damage Restoration: ranges from passive healing to healing only while waiting or sleeping in a safe location.
• Aim Assistance (Controller Only): tweaks how powerful the aim correction is while using a controller.

Depending on how far you push your difficulty tweaks, you’re also going to change up your XP influx, as each option comes with a slight modifier to your grand income total. Something to consider while you’re moving those sliders about.

Starfield‘s difficulty tweak update is due to launch around May 15, but note that you can check it out via the Steam beta option, if you are so inclined. For the most part, the beta build is fairly stable and solid to play, though you obviously lose the option to play with mods, which is a significant caveat. On the other hand, May 15 isn’t that far out at all, and the wait will be worth it for sure.