Difficulty

The Three Difficulty Levels

Difficulty is set on the New Game screen and can also be changed later in the Settings menu. It applies four multipliers to different simulation systems. Medium is the default — the numbers the game is balanced around.

What Each Multiplier Affects

Needs decay rate

How quickly citizens' nine needs drain. On Easy (0.6×), food, warmth, and thirst all deplete 40% slower — you have more time to respond before a need becomes desperate. On Hard (1.5×), the same needs drain half again as fast. Citizens get hungry, cold, and thirsty sooner, recovery windows are shorter, and a food shortage that's uncomfortable on Medium can be lethal on Hard before you notice it.

Skill gain rate

How quickly workers accumulate experience toward the next tier (Apprentice → Journeyman → Expert → Master → Legendary). On Easy (1.5×), workers reach senior tiers significantly faster — a new farm can have an Expert farmer within a few years. On Hard (0.6×), the same progression takes nearly twice as long. Master-tier workers are rare, and Legendary-tier workers may never appear in a shorter run. This also means skill-based job assignment plays a larger role on Hard, where experienced workers are more valuable precisely because they're harder to develop.

Crop rotation impact

Controls the blight risk multiplier and fertility drain rate on your farms. On Easy (0.5×), growing the same crop family year after year has mild consequences — soil exhaustion is gradual and blight risk stays low. On Hard (1.5×), monocropping degrades soil faster and triggers much higher blight risk from as early as year two. See the Soil Fertility guide for how rotation and blight work.

Temperature amplitude

Scales the seasonal temperature swing relative to your chosen climate preset. On Easy (0.75×), winters are warmer and summers are cooler than the preset describes — about 25% of the swing is taken away. On Hard (1.25×), the seasonal extremes are amplified by 25%. This stacks directly with your climate choice: Hard + Harsh produces the coldest winters and hottest summers in the game.

Additional Options

One additional toggle is available on the New Game screen alongside difficulty. It is separate from the difficulty level and can be combined with any setting.

Soil Dynamics

When this option is disabled, the soil fertility system is turned off entirely. Farms ignore soil quality, fertility drain, crop rotation blight risk, and the compost chain has no effect on farming output. Everything else (seasons, temperature, farming mechanics) still applies. Useful if you want to focus on other systems and don't want soil management adding another layer of complexity.

Tips

• Start on Medium. It's what the game is designed around. Easy is a gentler on-ramp if systems feel overwhelming; Hard is a meaningful step up once you know what you're doing.
• Hard + Harsh climate is the hardest combination. Needs drain fast, winters are brutal, and slow skill gain means your workforce is less capable for longer. Approach it after you've run at least a few Medium games to completion.
• Difficulty can be changed mid-game. If you start on Hard and find it too punishing, you can lower it in the Settings menu. There's no shame in adjusting — the game is more interesting when you're engaged than when you're overwhelmed.
• Soil Dynamics off is not the same as Easy. Everything else still applies — needs still decay, skills still progress at the normal rate, and temperature still matters. It just removes one system.