What The Heck Does FF7 Rebirth’s Dynamic Difficulty Do?

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth features a lot of fighting. And while the game’s flexible materia system lets you customize your fighting style, you can also adjust the difficulty with three different options at the beginning, plus a fourth once you finish the game.

Read More: How To Make The Most Of New Game Plus In FF7 Rebirth

Dynamic Difficulty is one of the three initial options, and it can be a little hard to understand at first. But while it may not feel like it makes a difference early on, Dynamic is a valuable setting if you’re planning to spend a lot of time grinding.

Dynamic Difficulty demystified

Dynamic Difficulty may be new to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but conceptually it’s not too different from how difficulty works in many other roleplaying games. When selected, this option will scale lower-powered enemies up to your level. This makes it an excellent way to keep combat feeling lively if you’re out there grinding open-world stuff.

Unlike Hard mode, you can choose Dynamic Difficulty from the beginning. So if you’re planning to do a ton of grinding and open-world questing, this is a worthwhile setting to turn on. You can change the difficulty at any time anyway. Also unlike Hard mode, Dynamic Difficulty also leaves core abilities like item use in play.

What about Hard Mode?

Hard mode will unlock after you finish the main story in Rebirth. You’ll have to select it from the difficulty selection screen in the main menu. This option substantially raises the difficulty of the game across the board. There are also a number of Chadley Combat Simulation fights that are exclusive to Hard mode.

Like in FF7 Remake, Hard mode restricts you from using items at all. You’ll need to rely on magic to heal and buff your party. Also, you cannot restore MP by resting at a blue bench. Instead, you’ll have to rest at chocobo stops which require a Cushion to use.

If you’re looking to 100-percent Rebirth, you’re almost certainly going to have to contend with Hard mode. Not only are certain battle simulations only available in Hard mode, but there are a number of character Folio manuscripts that are exclusive to the increased difficulty setting.

If you’re just gunning for the main story, Normal or Easy mode should do you fine. But if you’re out grinding open-world activities, you may find yourself too OP for the story’s main fights. If you want to keep those feeling challenging, give Dynamic Difficulty a try.