FF7 Rebirth Dynamic Difficulty Mode: How It Works and Should You Choose It?
A difficult decision.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth makes some big changes from Remake, especially to the combat system and side content. To go along with that, the game has introduced a brand new difficulty option, called Dynamic Difficulty. This gives you three options to choose from on your first playthrough, and Dynamic is quite a bit different from the returning Easy and Normal modes. With that in mind, we’ll help explain exactly how Dynamic difficulty works in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and whether or not it’s the right choice for your playthrough.
How Dynamic Difficulty Works
Dynamic difficulty scales every enemy in the game, unlike Normal and Easy where enemies have set parameters.
The key difference of Dynamic difficulty is that it makes every single enemy in the game scale to your party’s level and strength. While enemies in Rebirth don’t have levels, in Easy and Normal mode they have pre-determined stats in terms of how much HP they have, how much damage they cause, how aggressive they are, etc.
In Dynamic mode, these stats will adjust to the strength of your party, and how well you’re doing in battle. This applies to enemies across the entire game, so if you go back and explore old areas, all of the enemies there will be scaled up to your level. But this can also change how side quests play out a bit.
Every side quest and battle simulation in Rebirth has a recommended level. Easy will often scale down the level, while Normal will set enemy strength as appropriate for that recommended level. Dynamic, however, will scale enemies to whatever your level is. So if you’re taking on a Level 50 side quest at level 40, ironically, the enemies will be a bit weaker than if you were playing on other modes. Essentially, Dynamic eliminates the need to grind experience.
Should You Choose Dynamic Difficulty?
If you play on Dynamic, you may want to consider changing the difficulty for certain boss battles or combat simulators.
Your choice of difficulty largely comes down to what kind of experience you want out of Rebirth. If you want to just focus on the story without too much frustration, then Easy or Normal would probably be a good choice. In our experience, Dynamic makes Rebirth quite a bit more challenging, especially during some of the later boss battles and combat simulators. If you want a consistent challenge across the entire experience, Dynamic is the perfect choice. That’s especially the case if you’re intent on returning to complete side content but want those monsters to be up to snuff.
Of course, keep in mind that you can also switch between difficulty modes at any time. So if you find a particular boss or section a little too hard, don’t be afraid to swap between Dynamic, Normal, and Easy.
How to Unlock Hard Mode
Hard mode is the fourth difficulty mode in Rebirth, and it’s easy to unlock. You simply need to beat the game once. After the ending, you’ll be able to jump directly into any chapter and can pick any of the four difficulties. In Hard mode, enemies have more health and hit harder, rest stops only restore HP and not MP, and you can’t use items whatsoever, both in and out of combat.
