Difficulty Level (DX)

In Deus Ex, the difficulty level (also known as combat difficulty level) is a game setting that is selected by the player at the start of a new game. The player may select from four difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Realistic.

Actual effects
The sole effect of the difficulty level setting is that on higher difficulty levels, the player takes increased damage from the following damage types:


 * Shot – Damage caused by bullets and lethal melee weapons.
 * AutoShot – Damage caused exclusively by automated turrets.

Damage is increased in accordance with the multipliers listed below. Difficulty level has no effect on damage types other than "Shot" and "AutoShot." Therefore, difficulty level does not affect the damage that the player receives from other common types of damage, such as "Exploded" damage (caused by rockets, LAMs, and exploding objects), "Poison" damage (caused by tranquilizer darts), and "Burned" damage (caused by plasma bolts).

Difficulty level also has no effect on the damage taken by enemies, whether the damage is inflicted by the player or by another NPC. Therefore, enemies take the same amount of damage on "Realistic" as they do on "Easy."

Changing the difficulty level mid-game
The difficulty level can be changed mid-game by using the following console command:



where " " is the damage multiplier. For example, to change the difficulty level to "Realistic", the corresponding command would be " ". Cheats must be enabled in order for this command to be used. It is also possible to set the damage multiplier to any arbitrary value desired.

Checking the current difficulty level
The current difficulty level is not displayed in-game, but can be checked by using the object properties interface. Place the game in windowed mode (Alt + Enter). Then, use the console command " " (or an equivalent) to open the properties list for the player character. The value of the multiplier indicative of the difficulty level will be listed under the group "none".

If the difficulty level has been manually readjusted by the "set" command described above, the console command " " can also be used to check the current difficulty level. However, if the difficulty level has not been readjusted, then the "get" command will only return the default value of 1, and will not return the value that was set at the start of the new game.