Game Settings

Difficulty

Game difficulty roughly emulates that of the original game. There are five to select from:

• I'm Too Young to Die (ITYTD): The easiest difficulty, in many ways. Ammo is doubled, enemy spawns are at their lowest, healing and powerup durations are doubled. A good way to start playing the game, although you won't have access to every special level available nor play any challenges.
• Hey, Not Too Rough (HNTR): The "standard" difficulty for many players. Given that all multipliers are set to one, challenges are allowed, and all special levels are now available, this is an appropriate moniker.
• Hurt Me Plenty (HMP): The first "difficult" difficulty. More numerous and accurate enemies appear at earlier floors, giving you less time to prepare for the late stages of the game.
• Ultra-violence (UV): The difficulty of DoomRL veterans. This is the point where even the first few floors of the game can kill you reliably if you don't know the inns and outs of the game. It is unlocked at the Lance Corporal skill rank.
• Nightmare! (N!): The exclamation point does not lie, this difficulty is for hardcore players only. In addition to Ultra-violence changes, enemies can respawn at any time, are faster (relative to you), and attack more often. You can't save, either! At least several of the ITYTD benefits are back to help. It is unlocked at the Sergeant skill rank.

The differences in game difficulty may seem subtle, but switching to a harder difficulty is easily the most frustrating part of playing DoomRL, Diamond badges aside. Difficulty information has been tabulated: the columns are identified as follows:

• Shorthand: How the difficulty is expressed on the score page (and in mortem tags on the forums)
• Score Multiplier: How much your score is increased by, just by playing on that difficulty level
• Ammo Multiplier: For randomly generated ammo, how much extra is added to each one
• Enemy Accuracy: How much the enemies' accuracy is changed on this difficulty
• Enemy Spawns: How many enemies spawn on randomly generated levels, and how much their depth level is modified
• Healing/Powerups: The duration/strength of powerups, and the health gain of small healing items
• XP Multipler: How much increased experience is gained for killing enemies
• Special: Any extra features regarding the difficulty level