On easy mode, Atomic Heart stops punishing your mistakes and starts rewarding your curiosity, turning wild powers, brutal weapons, and bizarre Soviet sci-fi setpieces into a non-stop playground instead of a slog through constant deaths.
Atomic Heart difficulty settings explained
Atomic Heart offers four difficulty settings to match your playstyle. Easy mode cuts enemy health and damage by half while boosting your robot glove and weapon power, making combat forgiving and letting you soak up mistakes. Normal keeps things balanced for standard challenges. Hard ramps up foe toughness and aggression, demanding precise shots and dodging. Veteran pushes limits with brutal damage output and scarce resources, turning every fight into a survival test. Pick based on whether you want story focus or hardcore action.
Atomic Heart, released on PlayStation, Xbox, and Windows PC on Feb. 21 (and as part of the Game Pass library at launch), features three difficulty settings:
- Peaceful Atom – easy
- Local Failure – medium
- Armageddon – hard
These settings don’t appear to alter the number of enemies you face, or to change the parameters of any missions and challenges. They do, however, tweak how much damage you deal and how much damage you receive. You can swap between difficulty levels on the fly in the gameplay menu.
What difficulty setting should you play Atomic Heart on?
Atomic Heart can feel punishing on higher settings, especially during early encounters when resources are scarce and enemies swarm from every angle. Playing on easy mode keeps the experience balanced, letting you enjoy the combat creativity, clever weapon designs, and surreal world without constant frustration. It still offers satisfying fights and impressive visuals, but with smoother pacing that lets the story and exploration shine instead of endless retries.
Though developer Mundfish describes Peaceful Atom as “only the plot will keep you on your toes,” I’ve found it to be anything but. Some bosses have still killed me, particularly those that rely on quick-time events. (Switching the difficulty does not appear to lengthen the window of Atomic Heart‘s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it quick-time events.) In the more frenetic combat encounters, I’ve found myself overwhelmed by enemies, scrambling to survive, and regularly failing. On easy mode, Atomic Heart feels like a typical first-person shooter.
By contrast, Local Failure comes across as less of a challenge, more of a taunting middle finger – as if the game itself is booing you from the sidelines, peppering you with ripe tomatoes, then daring you to give up when you stop to clean up the mess.
While some missions have a healthy number of save points, others, including the first major one, are stingy with how frequently they let you save. Too often have I lost a not-insignificant amount of progress due to a robot I did not see or hear. This falsified tension ultimately incentivizes backtracking to save stations, turning what should be a confident march to the finish into an exercise of incremental progress.
But playing on the Peaceful Atom difficulty has allowed me a greater appreciation of the game. I switched difficulty levels during one early boss – against the fire-breathing Giant Mutant – and haven’t looked back.
I’ve been able to use melee weapons more effectively against cannon fodder, conserving ammo for tougher fights, which in turn has let me get better acquainted with Atomic Heart‘s ’50s-inspired arsenal. It has allowed me to freely experiment with its array of skills, instead of relying on the few I learned to trust in the opening hours (the electrifying Shok and the freezing Frostbite). And best of all, the save spots actually feel safe.
How to unlock Hardcore Mode in Atomic Heart
You can’t actually “unlock” a separate Hardcore Mode menu option in Atomic Heart right now; the Hardcore trophy/achievement is tied to beating the game on the highest difficulty, Armageddon, under specific conditions.
How Hardcore currently works
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There is an achievement/trophy description that says to complete the game in Hardcore Mode, but no separate Hardcore difficulty appears in the in-game difficulty list.
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Players and guides have confirmed that you must complete the entire game on Armageddon difficulty without ever lowering the difficulty to trigger the Hardcore achievement.
Practical steps to get the Hardcore trophy
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Start a new playthrough and select Armageddon, then stick with it for the full run; changing the difficulty down at any point can void the Hardcore/Armageddon achievement.
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Some guides also desc
Tips for beating Atomic Heart on Armageddon difficulty
Armageddon in Atomic Heart is mostly about smart builds, strict resource use, and avoiding unnecessary fights. Here are concise, practical tips to make a full run much more manageable.
Best skills and powers
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Prioritize Shock upgrades that boost damage to electrified enemies and reduce their resistances; this massively improves all your weapons’ effectiveness.
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Take Telekinesis and its damage/area upgrades; it lets you control crowds, interrupt dangerous attacks, and create breathing room often enough to avoid chip damage.
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Invest in survivability (health upgrades, dodge/slide improvements, and reduced incoming damage) early; on Armageddon, a few hits can down you.
Strong weapons and upgrades
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Fully upgrading the Zvezdochka (sawblade axe) pays off: its charged attack does huge damage to bosses and tanks regular enemies while saving ammo.
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Use an energy weapon (Electro or Dominator) with energy-regen upgrades so you always have a “free” damage source and can keep your melee charged.
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For late-game and bosses, a well-upgraded Fat Boy (rocket launcher) or another heavy weapon plus extended magazine drastically shortens dangerous phases, especially if you combine it with Shock/elemental setups.
Combat and resource habits
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Avoid fighting every patrol: bypass cameras, sprint through open areas, and de-aggro robots instead of clearing zones; this preserves ammo and healing for mandatory encounters.
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Always loot methodically when you’re in a “safe” interior or after big fights; Armageddon punishes running dry on ammo and heals much more than lower difficulties.
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Go into each big arena with full cartridges, consumables on quick-use, and your main weapons fully repaired and upgraded; restarting from a bad autosave with no resources is brutal.
Boss and Twins specifics
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For major bosses (including the Twins), apply a polymer (e.g., Polymer Jet) then Shock to “prime” them, and only then unload heavy weapons; this amplifies your damage noticeably.
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Learn each boss’s big telegraphed attacks and prioritize dodging over squeezing in extra shots-survival is more important than a bit of extra DPS on Armageddon.
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Against the Twins, focus damage on just one sister to push phases faster, keep moving laterally to avoid beams, and don’t hesitate to spam heals during the second phase if your health dips.
If you tell me which part of the game you’re stuck on (area or boss), I can give more tailored, step-by-step advice for that sect
