Difficulty

Difficulty represented by a Sawblade in the in-game options menu of Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Difficulty is a measure of how hard a video game is. Although highly subjective, many games have a difficulty setting that allows players to set the general level of challenge they will face.

In the Epic Battle Fantasy series, there are five difficulty levels available for selection: Zero (EBF5 on) Easy, Normal, Hard, and Epic. The main differences are in the enemies: as the difficulty level rises, they gain more HP, their attacks do more damage, and they may gain new abilities or traits to make them even more threatening. Some medals can only be achieved on higher difficulties. Exact attributes of difficulties change between games, becoming more drastic with each game.

Epic Battle Fantasy

None of the difficulties affect anything other than enemy HP and damage.

• Easy — Enemies have 80% of their normal HP and damage.
• Normal — 100%
• Hard — 120%
• Epic — 140%

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

Enemy HP is no longer boosted on higher difficulties.

• Easy — Enemies have 80% of their normal HP and damage.
• Normal — 100%
• Hard — Enemies do 120% of their normal damage. Some enemies gain new abilities.
• Epic — Enemies do 140% of their normal damage. Many enemies gain special bonuses to themselves or their abilities, e.g., Giga Golem's melee attacks inflict stronger debuffs with higher chance.

Medals

• Middle Tier — Beat the game on Normal difficulty.
• Leet Tier — Beat the game on Hard difficulty.
• God Tier — Beat the game on Epic difficulty.

Epic Battle Fantasy 3

• Easy — Enemies have 70% of their normal HP and damage.
• Normal — 100%
• Hard — Enemies do 130% of their normal damage. Unlike in EBF2, nothing else is affected.
• Epic — Enemies do 160% of their normal damage. Many enemies gain special bonuses to themselves or their abilities, e.g., Green Slimes begin battle with the Poison ailment, regenerating HP every turn.

Medals

• Hero — Beat the game on Hard or Epic difficulty.
• Legend — Beat the game on Epic difficulty.

Adventure Story

This Epic Battle Fantasy spinoff may have changed genres from turn-based RPG to action platformer, but the difficulty levels are generally the same as the main series.

This section is incomplete. You can help Epic Battle Fantasy Wiki by adding required information to it.
To do: Confirm if these values are correct. They look identical to EBF4's, and that is worrying.

• Easy — Enemies have 50% of their normal HP and damage. Falling into a pit inflicts 5 damage to Matt.
• Normal — 100%. Pits deal 10 damage.
• Hard — 150%. Pits deal 15 damage.
• Epic — 200%. Pits deal 20 damage.

Medals

• Foe Exterminator - Complete Stage 21 on Hard or Epic difficulty.
• Boss Hunter - Complete Stage 22 on Hard or Epic difficulty.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

EBF4 introduced the ability to change the difficulty mid-game via the Difficulty option in the Options menu. This makes getting some medals (specifically, the ones requiring players to defeat certain bosses on Epic difficulty) somewhat faster, allowing to breeze through other fights by temporarily lowering the difficulty.

Unfortunately, the game is exceptionally incompetent at explaining what do the difficulties do.

Declared

• Easy — Enemy stats are scaled at 50%.
• Normal — 100%.
• Hard — 150%. The Endless Battle on Battle Mountain is forced to this difficulty.
• Epic — 200%.

Factual

• The game uses 3 separate sets of stat modifiers to govern the game difficulty: one for foes' Attack and Magic Attack, one for foes' HP and one for players' Limit Break charging speed.
  • From foe's level 33, the Attack/Magic Attack modifier is applied a second time, stacking on top of the original one. This cause the enemies to receive a significant damage boost on Hard and Epic difficulties, but a severe damage nerf on Easy difficulty.
• The Endless Battle has its own set of stat modifiers, though they are closest to the Hard difficulty.
  • In "Endless difficulty", the enemies also receive a small modifier to Evade.
  • Due to improper programming of the Endless difficulty, it doesn't fully override the difficulty chosen in options. Limit Break charging speed modifier, the strength of enemies' Mana Drain ability and the status infliction chance of enemies' slimefication attacks still depend on whatever difficulty being selected in game.
• Defence, Magic Defence, Accuracy and Evade (except in the Endless Battle) are unaffected by difficulties.

Stat Modifier Statistics
Aspect	Easy	Normal	Hard	Epic	Endless
Foes
Attack/Magic Attack (Before level 33)	0.5	1	1.5	2	1.5
Attack/Magic Attack (From level 33)	0.25	1	2.25	4	2.25
HP	0.7	0.9	1.1	1.3	1
Evade	1	1	1	1	0.9
Players
Limit Break charge speed	1.2	1	0.9	0.8	Variable

Additional differences

The Creator casts Absolute Zero

Like previous games, higher difficulties also grant special bonuses to enemies themselves or their abilities. In this game, all of these bonuses apply to both Hard and Epic difficulties. Below is a list of examples, general ideas of which also apply to EBF3 and 5.

• Some enemies gain new skills, which can replace weaker ones, e.g., Florn trades Nettle for Vines.
  • Godcat's battle machines and River Squid will use Limit Breaks at low HP (Absolute Zero for The Creator, Supernova for The Destroyer, Tsunami for River Squid).
  • Certain enemy attacks summon other attacks, e.g., Glacier Turtle's shell smash casts Tundra on a random player, besides applying buffs onto the turtle.
• Many enemy attacks have new statuses/debuffs or increased status/debuff chance or strength, e.g., Praetorian's dash has twice the chance to inflict Instant Death.
• Many enemy buffing abilities apply extra buffs/statuses or have stronger buffs/statuses, e.g., Mighty Oak's self-buff applies Brave on top of stat buffs.
• Some enemies come into the battle with a specific status effect on them already, e.g., Lightning Sprite and Thunder Elemental start with the Charge status, allowing them to use their most powerful attacks from the get-go.
  • Certain enemies with elemental absorption(s) spawn with a status effect that deals damage of that element and thus regenerates their HP, e.g., Sludge Slime gets Poison.
• Foes that can summon allies, such as Black Wasp or Big Green Bush, often have increased spawn chance or spawn extra allies.

Medals

• Bosses:
  • Lumberjack — Defeat Mighty Oak on Epic difficulty.
  • Rock Miner — Defeat Crystal Golem on Epic difficulty.
  • Electrical Engineer — Defeat Praetorian on Epic difficulty.
  • Extreme Gardener — Defeat Rafflesia on Epic difficulty.
  • Cat Person — Defeat Godcat on Epic difficulty.

• Mini-bosses:
  • Worm Control — Defeat Sand Worm on Epic difficulty. (added in the Battle Mountain update)
  • Lo And Behold — Defeat Beholder on Epic difficulty.
  • Unprotected — Defeat Protector on Epic difficulty. (added in the Battle Mountain update)
  • Dragon Slayer — Defeat Zombie Hydra on Epic difficulty. (added in the Battle Mountain update)

• Battle Mountain challenges:
  • Trees Go To War — Defeat Armored Oak on Epic difficulty.
  • Die for Diamonds — Defeat Diamond Golem on Epic difficulty.
  • Hardware Upgrade — Defeat Praetorian MKII on Epic difficulty.
  • End of the Rainbow — Defeat Rainbow Rafflesia on Epic difficulty.
  • Shadow Huntress — Defeat Dark Anna on Epic difficulty.
  • Dark Seductress — Defeat Dark Natalie on Epic difficulty.
  • Captain of Death — Defeat Dark Matt on Epic difficulty.
  • Fallen Comrade — Defeat Dark Lance on Epic difficulty.
  • Foe Rush — Beat the Monster Marathon on Epic difficulty.
  • Miniboss Rush — Beat the Miniboss Marathon on Epic difficulty.
  • Boss Rush — Beat the Boss Marathon on Epic difficulty.
  • Mega Boss Rush — Beat the Mega Boss Marathon on Epic difficulty.
  • Dark Boss Rush — Beat the Dark Players Marathon on Epic difficulty.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

This section is incomplete. You can help Epic Battle Fantasy Wiki by adding required information to it.
To do: Medals and maybe some examples of foe behavior/attack differences.

Other than the standard difficulty options, the v2 update also added a new feature in Cheats & Challenges, which allow the player to enable certain custom settings that make the game easier or harder.

Declared

• Zero — Enemy stats are scaled at 25%.
• Easy — 50%.
• Normal — 100%.
• Hard — 150%. The Endless Battle in the Temple of Trials is forced to this difficulty.
• Epic — 200%.

Factual

• Difficulty mostly works the same as in 4, with modifiers to Attack/Magic Attack, HP, and Limit Break charging speed.
• Difficulties below Normal now reduce all Status damage received by both players and foes (30% reduction on Easy and 65% reduction on Zero).
• On difficulties below Normal, players have a lower chance of being inflicted with the Stun, Instant Death, Freeze and Confuse status effects (enemy attacks that apply these statuses have their infliction chance reduced to 1/2 on Easy and 1/3 on Zero).
• Before the v2 update fixed it, Endless Battle still had the Limit Break charge speed depend on your actual difficulty, additionally, the aforementioned reduced status damage and reduced chance to be inflicted with crippling statuses also would apply if your actual difficulty was set to Easy or Zero. Finally, the enemies' behavior and attacks also depended on your actual difficulty.

Stat Modifier Statistics
Aspect	Zero	Easy	Normal	Hard	Epic	Endless
Foes
Attack/Magic Attack	0.3	0.5	1	1.5	2	1.5
HP	0.5	0.7	0.9	1.15	1.4	1
Evade	1	1	1	1	1	0.9
Players
Limit Break charge speed	4	2	1	0.85	0.7	0.85

Additional differences

Just like in 4, most enemies get stronger attacks or have increased status chance/strength on their attacks on both Hard and Epic. A new addition in 5 is that certain foes become smarter on Hard and Epic, and will choose the element the players are weakest to when attacking.