In Path of Exile 2, players cannot adjust the game difficulty upon starting a campaign. Check out our guide to learn more about the game's difficulty and the difficulty differences in the game!

Can You Adjust Game Difficulty?

Set Difficulty in Character Creation

You can only set the difficulty of the game at the beginning, during character creation. There are 4 different difficulty Leagues you can choose from: Standard, Hardcore, Solo Self-Found, and Hardcore Self-Found.

Dying in Hardcore League Sends You to Standard League

You only get 1 life in Hardcore difficulty. Once you die, you are disqualified from Hardcore and are sent to Standard League, where you can die without consequence.
League Guide and List of All Leagues

League Migration Temporarily Unavailable

Upon creating your character and starting Act 1, players can no longer switch game difficulty. The only time players can set their difficulty is during character creation.

As of Early Access, League Migration is not available, but this feature would commonly see players being able to change their difficulty, an example of which is migrating from Hardcore to Standard.

Finsihing All 3 Acts Starts Cruel Difficulty

Clearing the first three acts for the first time will advance you to Cruel difficulty, where you must redo the first three acts before reaching the Atlas. Enemies in Cruel difficulty have increased health and deal more damage. Rare mobs also spawn more frequently, increasing the rarity of item drops.

Walkthrough and List of Acts

Use Waystones in Atlas of Worlds

The Atlas of Worlds is an endgame system wherein you use Waystones to enter different maps. These Waystones can be modified using Orbs of Transmutation and Orbs of Augmentation to change and increase the difficulty of each map.
Atlas of Worlds Endgame Explained

Difficulty Differences

All Difficulty Settings

There are all four difficulty settings you can choose from when creating a new character. Standard is the recommended experience for most players, while Hardcore is there for players who want bigger stakes and a higher challenge.

Players can choose Self-Found Leagues if they wish to rely on no one but themselves for loot and combat.

Path of Exile 2 Related Guides

Beginner's Guide

All Tips and Tricks Guides