Hard mode difficulty differences in Sonic Frontiers, explained

Gotta go fast…er

Sometimes when you start a game, it can be tough to gauge what difficulty you should start on. Not only will it impact how hard the enemies in the game are to defeat, but in the case of Sonic Frontiers, it can also affect what content you get, like an entirely different ending. If you’re looking to start a new playthrough in the most recent game of the Sonic franchise, there are certainly a few different factors that could determine which difficulty you play with, so let’s break those down.

When it comes to the Hard difficulty in moment-to-moment gameplay in the open world, you can expect the usual fare of enemies having more health, as well as dealing more damage to Sonic during encounters. There’s a decent amount of platforming in the game, but don’t worry, the different difficulty modes don’t change the intensity of those set pieces. The enemy move sets are the same across all of the difficulties as well, so players who aren’t playing on Hard won’t miss anything there, either.

Beware the boss fight

The one area to look out for on Hard, though, are the boss fights. The bosses on Hard mode have more health, higher defense, and higher attack power, which can make for a rough time, even with Sonic’s special abilities like his Super Sonic form that grants him invulnerability. Sonic Frontier‘s final boss fight is most different on Hard — aside of the other stat modifiers like health, the last boss of the game has an extra phase. Finally, and most importantly for the story-minded players out there, you can’t get the post credits scene unless you beat the game on Hard.

You can adjust Sonic Frontiers’ difficulty setting from the menus, and can do so at any point during your playthrough. It’s also been confirmed that you can play the entire game on a lower setting, but as long as you change it to Hard right before the final boss fight, you’re all set to get that “true” ending. It’s also important to keep in mind that if you’re dying a lot, the game will automatically turn the difficulty down on you, so make sure you double-check before proceeding.

There’s a whole host of other options available as well for players to fine-tune their settings to exactly how they want to play, including a choice between Action Mode or High-Speed Mode, as well as additional sliders for Sonic’s top speed, turning sensitivity, acceleration, and so on.