Choosing difficulty in theAdventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary inBrawl.

Difficulty is an option in somesingle player andco-op modes that allows a player to adjust the game after one's skill. Depending on what mode is being played, different difficulty levels will affect the game in different ways. For example, a higher difficulty level in theSubspace Emissary will make the enemies harder by giving them moreHP and making their attacks stronger, while a higher difficulty level inTarget Smash changes the stage's design into a more difficult one. Sometimes,unlockables such as trophies or stickers depend on the difficulty on which a game mode is cleared. In the Subspace Emissary,Stock Balls vary in number, from appearing in most levels in Easy to never appearing in Intense.

The setting appears for all games'Classic Modes (includingSmash 64's1P Game),Adventure Mode,Subspace Emissary,All-Star Mode andWorld of Light. Additionally, inBrawl, the setting is available forBoss Battles, and has been added toEvent matches andTarget Smash!!. However, the event matches inSuper Smash Bros. Brawl andSuper Smash Bros. 4 only have three difficulties (Easy, Normal, and Hard).Smash 4 also featured an entirely retooled difficulty scale for its Classic and All-Star Modes, as withUltimate on its Classic Mode.

Difficulty levels inSmash 64 andMelee[edit]

• Very Easy (blue difficulty)
• Easy (green difficulty)
• Normal (yellow difficulty)
• Hard (orange difficulty)
• Very Hard (red difficulty)

Difficulty levels inBrawl[edit]

• Easy (やさしい,Easy)
• Normal (ふつう,Normal)
• Hard (むずかしい,Hard)
• Very Hard (とてもむずかしい,Very Hard)
• Intense (ゲキむず,Extreme)

InEvent Matches, only three difficulty levels are available: Easy, Normal, and Hard.

Difficulty scaling[edit]

InThe Subspace Emissary the difficulty corresponds to values used to influence various aspects of the mode, such as enemy damage, attack speed, health, attack knockback, or attack size. This is based on the simple equation${\displaystyle b+a\times d}$, where${\displaystyle b}$ is the base value,${\displaystyle a}$ is the additional amount, and${\displaystyle d}$ is the difficulty value. For example, with a difficulty value of 4 for aPrimid that has a base HP of 10 and an additional amount of 1.4, its HP would be${\displaystyle 10+1.4\times 4=15.6}$. There are five sets of difficulty values that an enemy can be assigned, meaning that a Primid later in a stage can be made stronger than those before it. With the exception of Master Hand and Crazy Hand, bosses will change which difficulty set they use as their health decreases.

While the player can select one of five difficulties, there are technically 15 difficulties. There are two additional difficulties, or "sub-difficulties", below each standard difficulty that are chosen when the player uses acontinue. The more continues that are used the lower the sub-difficulty goes, up to maximum of five decreases below the selected difficulty—this means with enough continues, a player can start on Intense and end up one sub-difficulty above Hard. In general every third sub-difficulty is used for a standard difficulty (i.e. sub-difficulty 3 = Easy, 6 = Normal, etc.).

There are three different groupings of five sets used in different contexts: Subspace Emissary,Boss Battles, and theClassic Mode battle against Master Hand and Crazy Hand also incorporate these mechanics. Subspace Emissary uses the first grouping and aligns with what is described above. Boss Battles uses the second grouping. Selectable difficulties correspond to the same sub-difficulties that SSE does aside from Easy, which uses the second sub-difficulty with the exception ofPetey Piranha's cages, which use the third sub-difficulty like SSE does—sub-difficulties are otherwise unused. Classic Mode allows for three sub-difficulty decreases instead of five. It additionally selects a different set for each difficulty except for Easy and Normal, which both use set 1 with set 4 going unused.

For clarity the unused values for Boss Battles and Classic Mode are omitted in the following tables.

Subspace Emissary

Difficulty	Sets
	1	2	3	4	5
-2	0	0.6	1.2	1.8	2.4
-1	0.3	0.9	1.5	2.1	2.7
Easy	0.5	1.1	1.7	2.3	2.9
-2	1.7	2.5	3.3	3.9	4.5
-1	2.1	2.9	3.7	4.3	5
Normal	2.5	3.3	4.1	4.7	5.5
-2	3.2	3.8	4.7	5.5	6.2
-1	3.6	4.2	5.1	5.9	6.6
Hard	4	4.8	5.5	6.3	7
-2	5.5	6.1	6.7	7.3	8
-1	6	6.6	7.2	7.8	8.5
Very Hard	6.5	7.1	7.7	8.3	9
-2	8	8.5	9	9.5	10
-1	8.5	9	9.5	10	10.5
Intense	9	9.5	10	10.5	11

Boss Battles

Difficulty	Sets
	1	2	3	4	5
Easy	0.6	1.2	1.6	2.4	2.8
Easy(Petey cages)	1	1.6	2	2.8	3.2
Normal	2	2.6	3.2	3.8	4.4
Hard	3.5	4	4.5	5	5.5
Very Hard	5	5.7	6.4	7.1	7.8
Intense	9	9.5	10	10.5	11

Classic Mode

Difficulty
-1	1.2
Easy	1.6
-1	2
Normal	2.3
-3	3.6
-2	4
-1	4.3
Hard	4.6
-3	6
-2	7.3
-1	7.6
Very Hard	8
-3	10
-2	10.2
-1	10.6
Intense	11

Difficulty levels inSSB4 andUltimate[edit]

Difficulty levels were significantly overhauled inSmash 4. The game's retooled Classic Mode features theFiend's Scale to determine the game's difficulty. In this system, the player is able to select an intensity from 0.0 to 9.0, with higher intensities leading to harder fights, but more rewards; the default intensity is 2.0 (which is free to start), and selecting other intensities requires somegold, with each 0.1 increment costing the player a set number of gold depending on the intensity. The system is identical to theFiend's Cauldron intensity system fromMasahiro Sakurai's previous game,Kid Icarus: Uprising, and it even uses the same titles.

Selecting an intensity lower than 2.0 also costs gold, with the amount increasing per decrement. Setting the Intensity to 5.1 or higher allowsMaster Core to appear at the end of the mode after the player weakens Master Hand and Crazy Hand.

Intensity level	Picture	Picture	Numeric values	Cost per 0.1 increment	Starting cost
Effortless			0.0 to 0.9	−5G	100G
Easy			1.0 to 1.9
Standard			2.0 to 2.9	8G	0G
Tougher			3.0 to 3.9	12G	80G
Challenging			4.0 to 4.9	15G	200G
Heatin' Up			5.0 to 5.9	20G	350G
Extra Spicy			6.0 to 6.9	25G	550G
Infernal			7.0 to 7.9	45G	800G
White Hot			8.0 to 8.9	95G	1250G
Nothing Harder!			9.0	N/A	2200G

The difficulty chosen - in addition to making the CPU opponents tougher and the prizes greater - determines what is faced at the end of the game, with higher intensities adding new foes to the mix. In both versions, the encounter is as follows:

Inclusion	Intensity range
Master Hand	All Intensities
Crazy Hand	3.0 and Up
Master Edges & Master Shadow	5.1 and Up
Master Beast	6.0 and Up
Master Giant	7.0 and Up 7.5 and Up
Master Fortress	8.0 and Up

Every time the player loses, they are given the option tocontinue. If the player elects to continue, the intensity lowers by 0.5. Regardless of whether or not the player continues, some rewards attained in the Classic Mode will be lost, as will some gold on the Fiend's Scale.

The game'sAll-Star Mode andEvent Matches, however, use the traditional difficulties, though only three are available: Easy, Normal, and Hard. Unlike inBrawl, however, the colors for Normal and Hard are yellow and red, respectively.

InSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate, the intensity can no longer be initially increased past 5.0 in Classic Mode; however, the intensity can increase depending on the player's performance in each round. The more the intensity racks up, the more of the mural is shown. The intensity scale's affect on bosses will depend on certain characters. For example,Fox can only fight Crazy Hand if he's able to get the intensity high enough, but for characters likeMario orSimon, who have a different boss other than Master and Crazy Hand, the intensity will not add any additional bosses. Traditional difficulty settings can be found in the game's Adventure Mode: World of Light: Easy, Normal and Hard, with update 4.0.0 adding a Very Easy setting. (Hard was added in the game's day 1 patch, update 1.1.0.)

The mural that is displayed when selecting the difficulty level.

• Single-player modes
• Difficulty