Every Day We Fight Difficulty Settings, Presets, and Combat Modifiers
Every Day We Fight difficulty features multiple selectable presets ranging from standard campaign levels to Nightmare, alongside customizable health sliders and permadeath rules. Players configure these parameters directly when launching a new campaign timeline.
Every Day We Fight difficulty features multiple selectable presets ranging from standard campaign levels to Nightmare, alongside customizable health sliders and permadeath rules. Players configure these parameters directly when launching a new campaign timeline.
Campaign Presets and Selection Setup
Players configure difficulty options when selecting New Game from the main menu. The configuration menu displays immediately prior to starting a campaign run, establishing baseline modifiers across enemy behavior, incoming damage, and resource distributions.
The developer Signal Space Lab established the Hard setting as the original difficulty baseline used during the initial Early Access release. Players seeking the intended baseline experience without secondary modifiers select Very Hard, where encounter parameters function on standard 1.0 multipliers. For veteran tacticians, the 0.8.2.0 update introduced Nightmare difficulty, which increases operational intensity across all combat encounters and unlocks a dedicated Steam achievement upon completing the full campaign.
| Preset or Setting | Target Player Profile | Operational Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Hard | Baseline Early Access players | Matches the original combat tuning present at initial release |
| Very Hard | Standard tactical campaigns | Employs 1.0 stat multipliers across alien encounters |
| Nightmare | High-challenge achievement runs | Scales hostile lethality and grants a Steam completion achievement |
| Iron Man Mode | Strict tactical playstyles | Locks timeline progression without forgiving restart opportunities |
Health Tuning and In-Combat Modifiers
Beyond standard presets, the difficulty interface allows manual adjustments to team durability. The 0.8.0.2 patch added an option to tune Thorn health pools before heading into combat zones. Baseline character survivability sits at 250 HP, an increase from the earlier 200 HP threshold, while innate armor reduces incoming ballistic and energy damage by 15 per hit.
Combat rules also limit hostile action points to balance sudden ambushes. Hostile reinforcement waves operate under a strict 10 AP ceiling on the turn they enter the battlefield, preventing immediate team wipes from newly spawned Rifters. Grenadiers take their turns first in the round order, giving players a clear window to assess incoming explosives and trigger defensive reflex actions such as Scramble.
Heat Multipliers and Sector Scaling
Combat difficulty scales dynamically throughout each city sector based on player actions. Eliminating stray Rifters and lingering in hostile territory increases the city Heat Level, raising both the concentration and potency of enemy units during street patrols.
In the 0.7.1.0 balance update, developers adjusted the heat level multiplier to soften the difficulty spike at high heat levels across open districts. In contrast, fixed encounters like prison incursions retain their standard, unadjusted encounter curves. Players engaging in voluntary skirmishes face heavier hostile formations but earn scrap bundles ranging from 10 to 150 scrap along with objective completion experience.
Real-Time Aiming and Positioning Dynamics
Difficulty in tactical engagements relies heavily on player execution during real-time aiming phases. Direct manual sightline control dictates each hit chance, taking into account physical cover, line of sight, firing angles, and weapon bloom.
Pre-combat setup differs from standard stealth games. Enemy detection radiuses outside active combat remain short, allowing civilian fighters to walk into advantageous shooting perches before triggering an opening strike. Once combat begins, enemy perception widens across the entire engagement zone. Holding breath scales aim dilation rather than reaction dilation, allowing precise targeting against exposed weak spots.
Specialized Campaign Modes and Save Settings
Players seeking extreme structural restrictions can activate Iron Man mode from the campaign configuration screen. This setting eliminates secondary safety nets, forcing squads to adapt to losses across continuous timeloop runs. For end-game combat, clearing the campaign unlocks Forever War mode, a dedicated combat challenge mode that scales upward in difficulty with every consecutive stage.
Campaign pacing is supported by manual and combat save systems. Manual saves are accessible in game settings at any point outside of combat, and players can reload saves directly back into the nearest discovered manhole while automatically placing units behind cover.