Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart -What is the Best Difficulty Setting?

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart isn’t a very long game, but how long it takes you to beat the game is going to depend on which difficulty setting you choose.

Rift Apart offers five wildly different difficulty settings that drastically change how you play the game. While it’s possible to change the game’s difficulty at any time, most players will probably want to pick an option and stick with it unless they absolutely need to swap.

Which difficulty setting should you choose, though? Well, that’s really up to you, but to help you make that decision, here’s what you need to know about Rift Apart‘s various difficulty options.

Rookie Explorer – A Pure Story Mode Where You (Almost) Can’t Die

If you just want to beat Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart as quickly as possible, then choose the Rookie Explorer difficulty. After all, this option makes it impossible to lose health or die (unless you fall off the map), so it’s theoretically possible to beat the game on this setting in just a handful of hours.

Of course, the ease of this setting means that it’s not ideal if you’re looking to do anything more than experience the story in record time. Still, it’s a nice option to have for those who really need or want it.

Rookie Recruit – The “Real” Easy Mode

Rift Apart‘s Rookie Recruit setting is fairly similar to the game’s Rookie Explorer mode with the notable difference that you’re actually able to take damage and lose health.

However, you probably won’t be losing much health along the way. So far as I can tell, enemies are about as tough on this setting as they are in Rookie Explorer, so unless you’re actively running into projectiles or jumping off cliffs, you should be fine.

Rebel Agent – A “Normal” Mode That’s Still Pretty Easy

Here’s where things get weird. On paper, Rebel Agent is Rift Apart’s normal difficulty mode. That is to say that it promises to pit you against enemies with standard aggressiveness, standard health pools, and standard damage output.

In practice, though, Rebel Agent is still quite easy. Everything is definitely tougher than it is on the previous difficulty settings, but you don’t really feel difficulty spikes in areas that you would expect to feel them based on the situation and narrative. That’s where the next difficulty setting comes into play.

Resistance Leader – The Ideal Way to Play the Game?

The in-game description for this setting mentions that it “requires faster reflexes against tougher foes,” but it doesn’t really explain what that means. In practice, it essentially makes boss battles tougher but makes most other enemies about as tough as they are on Rebel Agent.

Honestly, it’s probably the best overall difficulty setting and maybe the ideal way to play the game. Unless you’re really having trouble with a particular boss, this is the setting that’s going to throw a few hurdles in your way without going too crazy.

Renegade Legend – A Surprisingly Tough Difficulty Setting

Whereas Resistance Leader mostly makes Rift Apart‘s bosses tougher than usual, Renegade Legend puts its foot on the gas and makes many of the game’s “normal” enemies as tough as some bosses.

It’s actually surprisingly hard to beat the game at this difficulty level. The biggest problem is that enemies require an absurd amount of ammunition to defeat (relative to other difficulty settings), which means that you’re constantly having to swap between weapons and manage your resources all while dodging a nearly endless wave of projectiles.