A new Mortal Shell 2 update breaks soulslike tradition with an experimental adaptive difficulty

Challenge is fundamental to soulslikes, and Mortal Shell 2 is no different - but that might have just changed. Developer Cold Symmetry is testing out an "experimental" adaptive difficulty setting as a new, optional approach to how brutal its dark fantasy world feels. Crucially, while this promises to offer some leniency to players who might be struggling with the punishing new RPG, it also works in the other direction, ensuring that genre veterans and those who have taken to mastering its systems will be pushed to their limits.

Included in a new Mortal Shell 2 update, the adaptive difficulty setting won't be turned on by default, so as not to give anyone any nasty surprises. Simply head to the game settings menu if you're curious to try it. Cold Symmetry notes that it 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." The adjustments made also "relax over time," causing the experience to gradually settle back towards the standard balance level.

Having a tough time? Enemies' damage, health, and break resist values will be lowered. At a certain breakpoint, an incoming damage cap will be applied "so that no single attack can take more than a set fraction of your health bar, meaning you cannot be killed outright from full health." Currently, there is no indicator for when the feature is actively modifying your experience, although Cold Symmetry says it is working on one.

If you're dominating, things swing in the other direction. Enemies hit harder, take longer to kill, and are tougher to stagger. "This does not stop at the standard difficulty," Cold Symmetry notes. "Keep clearing encounters without dying and enemies will scale well past the toughest the game was originally built to be, and they will keep climbing for as long as you keep winning." Additionally, if you're already using Mortal Shell 2's extra-hard 'Night Mode' toggle, the game "can still be pushed harder but will never be made easier."

It's an interesting twist on the format. Adaptive difficulty will always call to mind Resident Evil 4, which was highlighted back in the day as one of the first notable instances of such a system. It worked fantastically there, keeping you on the edge of tension at all times. There's naturally one caveat with soulslikes: in a genre where working to overcome the challenge is part of the appeal for many, does this take away from that sense of accomplishment? The good news is that if you feel that way, you can simply choose not to use it.

Alongside this, the new patch also makes several balance changes, bug fixes, stability improvements, and story-related tweaks across the game. Notably, consecutive parries using the Infinite seal now have a wider window into the wind-up animation, "allowing a string of incoming hits to be parried instead of only the first one." The Sariel shell gets some buffs to its abilities, while the Genessa shell is nerfed to prevent infinitely gaining resolve or summoning endless Faithful Doubles.

The Mortal Shell 2 adaptive difficulty update is out now. I've yet to get around to a playthrough myself, but Kayleigh praised it as a worthwhile way to scratch the soulslike itch in our Mortal Shell 2 review. I'm certainly curious to see how this experimental adaptive twist feels in practice - even if I end up sticking to the old-fashioned format in the end.