Crimson Desert received a massive update this week, introducing new difficulty settings to Pearl Abyss's single-player open-world action-adventure game. Players can now choose from Easy, Normal, or Hard difficulties.
On Hard mode, food effects don't apply instantly; they only take effect after the consumption animation finishes, preventing health recovery through food spamming, a common tactic especially during boss fights. Hard mode also increases damage taken, boosts enemy max health, aggression, and speed, reduces parry and dodge timing windows, shortens roll invincibility, and makes bosses more likely to counterattack or escape when hit.
Easy mode, conversely, reduces damage taken, lowers enemy max health, aggression, and speed, and extends parry and dodge windows. Normal mode remains the default experience from before the patch.
After the update, players expressed joy at being able to lower the difficulty. "Honestly, easy mode is great!" said one player. "As someone who doesn't have hours to play and wants to breeze through seamlessly, I just beat a boss without needing any food. Some might not like the 'less of a challenge,' but I think it's great for us who want to get through bosses and explore more."
Another player, primemn, noted that easy mode "finally feels good for lesser abled folks like me." Primemn suffers from carpal tunnel, trigger finger, and elbow and shoulder injuries that impact gaming. "Easy mode is perfect for someone like myself," he said. "The parry timing is much more forgiving, which is huge for me as my reflexes aren't what they were. While still challenging, the reduced damage greatly helped me heal with food, which requires quick reactions while dodging and attacking. That's not always easy for someone whose hands don't work as well as they'd like."
Primemn added, "One of the many reasons I struggled to keep going was the feeling that as I progressed, I'd never have the reflexes or skill to fight escalating bosses and enemies. I don't feel that way anymore. For the first time, I feel relaxed about moving forward because the game can be more forgiving. This is fantastic, and I'm grateful for this change, making the game more accessible while also offering higher challenges for those who enjoy that."
Unfortunately, some in the Crimson Desert community take issue with easy mode players, leading to a community backlash. "It's 2026 and we're still doing the superiority complex bulls**t about what other players want to do with their single-player games?" asked one player. "Really? People playing on easy has no bearing on your gameplay. They even added hard mode for y'all, go play that and let people play on easy if they want. So many of y'all treating single-player games like a pissing contest. Why do you care what difficulty someone else plays on when it has zero effect on you? Trying to gatekeep people like 'No! You must play your game how I want you to play.' Asinine nonsense by childish people. Y'all must have sad lives if you need to gatekeep game difficulty to lord it over people to feed your ego and false sense of superiority."
"It's utterly pathetic. Some of y'all treat games like they're your entire existence or something. Grow up. Get some help. Touch some grass. Worry about your damn self. This is not a fromsoft game/soulslike."
Another player shared, "I saw an older woman talking about how she really enjoyed just exploring and farming and was avoiding fighting, and people were ragging on her hard. I love a challenging experience, but she paid the same $70 we all did and can enjoy the game however she wants. Luckily for her, the devs are giving her the mode she needs to enjoy the game how she wants, and that should be celebrated."
"The only people who talk s**t about playing easy mode are people who have nothing else to do than play video games," another fan added. "If you have limited time to game and just want to relax and have fun, easy mode is so much better. Personally, I'm playing hard, but I have a lot of free time at the moment and I'm practically done everything in the game. Everyone deserves to play in a way that's fun."
This isn't the first time a gaming community has rallied against gatekeeping. The communities for FromSoftware's notoriously hard action games often deal with gatekeeping around how Dark Souls and Elden Ring are "meant to be played." Even Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 saw its community rally against gatekeepers over a virtual helmet.
We've got plenty more on Crimson Desert, including praise from The Witcher 3's director, a hidden food consequence system restored by a modder, and an impressive character creator mod. Check out our guide to Things to Do First in Crimson Desert, plus Things Crimson Desert Doesn't Tell You (we've got 28 and counting!). We also have a guide to the Best Early Weapons, Best Skills to Get First (with a handy skills system explainer), and 34 Essential Tips and Tricks to help you succeed in Pywel.
