Final Fantasy 15 – Differences in Difficulty Modes

final-fantasy-15

There are 2 difficulty levels in the options menu: Normal (default) and Easy.

What are the differences between the 2 modes?

To help reduce the scope, I am personally interested in things like:

  • Battle difficulty
  • EXP earned
  • Miss-able trophies (based on difficulty)

Basically, what will I lose out on (other then the challenge) of playing on Easy mode?

Best Answer

For combat differences:

According to the Wikia, Easy Mode will make enemies weaker and have Carbuncle prevent you from dying numerous times before you actually die.

Final Fantasy XV also has a standard difficulty and easy mode. The player can change difficulty at any time. The easy mode is made so that one can generally win by just button mashing. In the easy mode, Carbuncle can appear to heal Noctis if he is in danger of dying.

Note that you can still die on Easy mode. See this thread:

Many will tell you it's impossible to die in easy mode but that simply is not true. It's tougher due to Carbuncle reviving you a ton of times, but i've tested this, and you can still die in easy mode because he will stop reviving you eventually.

I went up against an Iron Giant on easy and still died after only being revived a good 3-5 times. After that, Carbuncle just stopped showing up which led to a game over.

Lastly, it appears that you can extend the amount of time you can spend in Wait Mode if you are playing on the Easy difficulty. See here:

If you want to have a longer wait mode, you can always toggle the difficulty settings. To do this, enter the pause menu, select Difficulty, then switch to easy. With a lower difficulty setting, enemies are weaker and the wait mode is extended, giving you a longer time to rehash your decisions.


As for trophies, there is a single missable trophy if you play on Easy Mode. From this list:

Chosen King: Defeated Ifrit on Normal difficulty.

Though, I've read that you can switch the difficulty to Normal just before the fight and still get the trophy.


Finally, for your question about EXP or items rewarded, I can't find any evidence of the drop rates/amounts being any different across difficulties. From the same thread as earlier:

As far as I know, yes. But I wasn't really counting the EXP when doing my Carbuncle tests on easy.