Right near the start of the game, you'll be asked to select Persona 5 Royal's difficulty level. There are five difficulty options to choose from: Safety, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Merciless. Keep in mind that if you choose anything other than Safety, you'll be free to change the difficulty at any time outside of combat and cutscenes — so if you're finding the game overly challenging, for example, you can always jump into the options menu and switch to an easier difficulty level.
What Do the Difficulty Settings in Persona 5 Royal Change?
Here's how each difficulty setting changes gameplay in Persona 5 Royal:
Safety Difficulty
Safety Difficulty is the easiest difficulty setting. If you select Safety, keep in mind that you will not be able to change the difficulty setting at all. You'll be stuck with Safety for the entirety of your playthrough once you select it — even if you switch to it at some point during the game.
Here's what Safety Difficulty changes in Persona 5:
- Defeat in battle does not result in a game over. Even if you die, you will be given the option of retrying
- You deal more damage in combat
- Enemies deal much less damage in combat
- Enemies take longer to spot you outside of combat
- The alert meter increases at a much reduced rate if you're spotted by enemies outside of battle
- Experience points gained from battle increase dramatically
- Money gained from battle increases dramatically
Safety Difficulty is recommended for players who are completely new to role-playing games, or for players who simply want to enjoy the story of Persona 5 Royal without having to worry about combat. No grinding for experience points is required.
Easy Difficulty
Here's what Easy Difficulty changes in Persona 5 Royal:
- You deal normal damage in combat
- Enemies deal much less damage in combat
- Enemies take slightly longer to spot you outside of combat
- The alert meter increases at a reduced rate if you're spotted by enemies outside of battle
- Gain more experience points from battle
- Gain more money from battle
Easy Difficulty is recommended for players who may be unfamiliar with role-playing games or the Persona series. Bosses and tougher enemies may still pose a threat, but as long as you understand the combat system, you should be able to overcome them. Grinding for experience points is very rarely required.
Normal Difficulty
Normal Difficulty in Persona 5 Royal doesn't change anything as it provides the baseline experience.
Normal Difficulty is recommended for players who are confident in their abilities. You won't get any bonus experience points or money, and tougher enemies are capable of dealing big damage if you're not careful. You'll need to be prepared before going up against bosses, and you'll need to have a firm grasp of the game's combat system to succeed. Some grinding for experience points may be required.
Hard Difficulty
Here's what Hard Difficulty changes in Persona 5 Royal:
- You deal less damage in combat
- Enemies deal much more damage in combat
- Enemies will spot you quicker outside of combat
- The alert meter increases at a higher rate if you're spotted by enemies outside of battle
- You gain normal experience points from battle
- You gain normal money from battle
Hard Difficulty is recommended for players who seek a real challenge. Combat can be deadly if you're caught unprepared, and you'll be forced to use every tool at your disposal in order to defeat tougher enemies or bosses. Expert use of the game's combat system is required to succeed. Grinding for experience points may be required at times.
Merciless Difficulty
Here's what Merciless Difficulty changes in Persona 5 Royal:
- Attacks that hit a weakness do far more damage — this applies to both enemies and party members
- You deal much less damage in combat (not counting weaknesses)
- Enemies deal much more damage in combat (not counting weaknesses)
- The alert meter increases at a higher rate if you're spotted by enemies outside of battle
- You gain more experience points from battle
- You gain more money from battle
Merciless Difficulty is something of an alternative to Hard. It rewards you for hitting enemy weaknesses, and actually gives bonuses to experience and money gains. In some cases — mainly against tough opponents or bosses that don't have weaknesses — Merciless is more difficult than Hard. In other cases — mainly against typical enemies — Merciless can be a lot easier than hard because of the much increased weakness damage.
In any case, expert use of the game's combat system is a requirement here, and grinding for experience points may be required at times.
Do difficulty levels stop you from getting Trophies in Persona 5 Royal?
No, there are no difficulty-related Trophies in Persona 5 Royal. Every Trophy can be obtained while playing on any difficulty level.
This article is part of our Persona 5 Royal Guide, which contains All Differences Between Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal along with Crossword Answers, Exam Answers, Romance Options, How To Get The Best Ending, New Game + details for Persona 5 Royal, and How To Unlock Persona 5 Royal's New Semester Endgame.
What Persona 5 Royal difficulty setting do you play on? Pick an option that suits you in the comments section below.
Comments 17
Thanks for this! I'll be new to the series so it looks like Safety Difficulty is the way to go. I'm not in it for the challenge, I'm in it for the experience / story.
@glassmusic We'll have more guides going up very soon - hopefully they're useful!
Playing safety for Persona Q on DS. Still challenging against FOE's 😀
On both P3 and P4G I started on normal and changed down to easy when it became too much of a test for my incompetent mind to cope with. I very much doubt it'll be any different here, therefore I've started on normal while keeping my finger on the difficulty change switch
Typically I play games on normal (bragging about difficulty settings is an ego thing anyways) but I'll probably play this on easy. It's my first Persona game and it's long enough already without having to fight a boss battle over and over or wasting time grinding. I play Witcher 3 on easy for the same reason.
Hard mode for my first playthrough, for sure. I'll save "Merciless" for a second playthrough.
I'll be starting on normal but what I'll be finishing on is yet to be decided going on my experience with P4 Golden.
Can you confirm if I start on normal, can I change to easy if it gets to hard?
I'd prefer it if you got better equipment playing on a harder difficulty otherwise it make's doing the harder difficulty's pointless unless your a trophy hunter which i'm not, i'll bang it on normal unless there's any incentive to play it on a harder setting you've not mentioned here. Who's gunna play without spoiling it for themselve's by reading one of the many article's you've published on how to play, where to go and how to get desired finish? Not the trophy hunter's lol Youtube at the ready!! Youtube spoiling game's since 1999!!! (or whenver that crap was made). Anyhow looking forward to the game, first one i've paid full price for this year, I thought it was gunna go all the way until RDR was released until a game come out I actualy wanted to play. Picking this bad boy up in a few hour's.
@mrobinson91 "Keep in mind that if you choose anything other than Safety, you'll be free to change the difficulty at any time outside of combat and cutscenes." You can indeed.
@ShogunRok Sorry I should have spotted that! It was early in the morning and I was barely awake Thanks!
@mrobinson91 Don't worry about it - I've just convinced myself that it's Wednesday for about the 8th time today. Maybe it's something in the air!
I'll probably start on Easy or Normal as it's my first Persona game.
Just started it last night and I like it! I tend to go normal on this sort of thing and should be fine - even though it's my first persona, I'm used to jrpgs.
@shogunrok random question though. I've just had my first persona (the being, not the game) tutorial and it explains why using skills the enemy is weak against is beneficial. Does it eventually explain how to tell what an enemy is weak against, or is it trial and error?
@ztpayne7 Against brand new enemies it's trial and error - you have to find the weakness. Once you know them, you can check weaknesses and strengths by pressing L1. You can also learn all of a persona's information by acquiring it as a mask.
Hope that helps!
@ShogunRok yes that does! Thank you!
Since there are no difficulty trophies I'll probably play this at normal. Giving kess money at higher difficulties is terrible and makes the game more grindy. Getting the money you need to buy what you want will probably make you op even if you are getting less experience points. Neede better ai in higher difficulties not "bullet sponges"
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