With Astor being an action third-person hack-and-slash game, difficulty becomes an important element of your experience as it affects enemy HP and damage. So, what’s the best difficulty for Astor: Blade of the Monolith for a proper and enjoyable challenge?
What Difficulty Should You Choose in Astor: Blade of the Monolith
The two main difficulties in Astor are Normal and Hard, but I found these to be more like Easy and Normal, respectively, for experienced hack n’ slash players. Essentially, if you’re new to the genre then I recommend you pick Normal. Furthermore, if you’re used to spectacle fighting games with multiple weapons, combos, abilities, and waves of enemies and bosses, then Hard will be no problem.
Overall, the Normal difficulty feels too easy since enemies aren’t doing that much damage, and you can often clear large sections without using HP potions. This is because the stamina and parrying systems are too lenient, and with good timing, you can pretty much parry any attack. There’s a mechanic for switching to the spirit realm, which increases your damage but reduces your HP; however, it’s a negligent damage bump. If you don’t use this in combat, you probably won’t be getting hit for a lot of damage, so go with the Hard difficulty for a better challenge and experience.
On Hard, everything seems to fit the Soulslike standards of damage a bit better. Yes, the enemies become a bit bullet-spongy, and that’s a minor flaw of the game, but at least you won’t be steamrolling through everything at minor expenses to HP.
Overall, the best difficulty for Astor: Blade of the Monolith is Hard for almost every seasoned player of hack and slash games and Normal for newcomers to the genre. For more Astor: Blade of the Monolith guides, check out our Astor beginner tips.
