Mojang’s new Minecraft Dungeons action-RPG (opens in a new tab) tasks players with hacking and smashing their way through crowd-filled levels and freeing villagers from the evil Arch Illager. It’s a world away from its sandbox counterpart, so if you’re new to action RPGs, it might be hard to guess just how difficult Minecraft Dungeons will be.
One of Mojang’s goals with Minecraft Dungeons is that anyone can play at any skill level, giving it a grip-and-play feel. single and multiplayer modes. For starters, there are three basic difficulty levels: Default, Adventure, and Apocalypse. The higher the difficulty, the more likely you are to collect rare artifacts and gear.
When you start the game, Adventure and Apocalypse will be locked and to access them you will need to have completed the game on the difficulty setting one notch lower. In other words, you’re stuck starting with Default. Mojang won’t let you run wild in Apocalypse Mode without some training first. But there are also more granular choices beyond that preset difficulty with a threat slider.
threat slider
Each difficulty level has a threat slider that can be activated when you first select a mission. The slider will be set to a recommended threat level, but you are free to move the slider up and down. The slider will also sit on a recommended threat level when you’re in multiplayer, taking into account the number of players in your party as well as your character level.
Here is a more detailed breakdown of the three difficulty modes:
Default
- Enemies are balanced for a first game
- Very few enchanted items
- Rewards are average
Adventure
- Enemies are hard to defeat and hit hard
- New enemy enchantments
- The rewards are better
- New gear and artifacts available
apocalypse
- Enemies are ultra tough and ultra punishing
- Lots of enemy enchantments
- The rewards are better
- New gear and artifacts available
Combat in Minecraft Dungeons is relatively straightforward and is a mix of explosive hack-and-slash and ranged action. It’s definitely more simplistic than other action RPGs like Path of Exile because it’s designed to be playable by a wide range of people, so don’t expect too many complex systems. However, for those who want to dive deeper into class-like builds and create OP characters (opens in a new tab)there is an enchantment system and artifacts to customize your playstyle.
If you want to see the game in action and get an idea of the difficulty, check out our Minecraft Dungeons preview (opens in a new tab) and watch Minecraft Dungeons gameplay footage (opens in a new tab) to get a closer look at the action-RPG.