Mortal Shell 2 adds optional adaptive difficulty

Cold Symmetry added an optional adaptive difficulty setting to Mortal Shell 2 in a recent update. The studio describes the feature as experimental. It is off by default and can be enabled from the game’s settings menu.

The system automatically adjusts enemy damage, health and break resist based on player performance. Cold Symmetry wrote that the system ‘responds to what you defeat and where you die – if you are winning, the game pushes back; if you are struggling the game gives ground.’ Adjustments relax over time so the game gradually returns to its standard balance.

When the system eases difficulty, enemies deal less damage, have lower health and reduced break resist. An incoming damage cap can be applied so ‘no single attack can take more than a set fraction of your health bar,’ preventing one-hit kills from full health. When difficulty increases, enemies hit harder, require more hits to kill and resist stagger for longer. The developer noted that enemies can scale beyond the toughest settings the game was originally built to support.

The update clarifies interaction with existing modifiers. If the extra-hard Night Mode toggle is active, the adaptive system can still increase challenge but will not lower it. Cold Symmetry is working on an on-screen indicator to show when the adaptive system is actively modifying gameplay.

The patch also delivers balance changes, bug fixes, stability improvements and story-related tweaks. Notable gameplay adjustments include a wider parry window for consecutive parries using the Infinite seal, buffs to the Sariel shell’s abilities, and nerfs to the Genessa shell to prevent infinite resolve gains and endless Faithful Double summons. The update is available now.

Adaptive difficulty has appeared in earlier games and forms of dynamic world state have existed before. Cold Symmetry presents the feature as an optional experiment for players who want to try it or keep the game’s fixed-difficulty experience.