Advanced Difficulty

Summary

Advanced Difficulty (or 'Hard Mode') is a system that was introduced in Issue 27 Page 3 alongside the Dr. Aeon Strike Force, as a means to introduce optional increased challenges into Task Forces. While originally limited to the Dr. Aeon Strike Force, the system was rolled out to the Imperious Task Force in Issue 27 Page 4. While individual Task Forces and Strike Forces with the system have a general set of modifiers, they also have unique individual changes that are affected by the Difficulty Options. Advanced Difficulty is currently the best source of Prismatic Aether Particle Salvage.

Difficulty Options

As of Issue 27 Page 4, these are the effects of selecting each difficulty in the Advanced Difficulty Options menu:

Heroic/Villainous (Default)

The default, Normal difficulty of a Task Force with Advanced Difficulty settings. There are no additional rewards or challenges.

Tenacious/Malicious (☆)

This content is balanced around everyone on the team having Tier 1 incarnate powers, and is the lowest level of Advanced Difficulty.

General Effects

• Enemies have access to additional/improved powers.
• Certain enemy groups can sometimes have Elite Bosses/Bosses spawn in place of Bosses/Lieutenants in regular enemy spawns.
• Access to exclusive challenge encounters and mechanics not found in the default difficulty.
• Arch-villain/Giant Monster have Incarnate base hit chance (63.75%).
• Certain powerful Arch-villains/Giant Monsters have double base health (with normalized regeneration numbers).
• No additional enemy stats or defeat rewards.
• Players are unable to use non-revive Super Inspirations.

Additional Rewards

• In addition to all standard rewards, completion of this difficulty will reward 15 Reward Merits.
• An amount of Prismatic Aether Particle Salvage on an 18 hour cooldown, with the specific amount depending on the specific content completed.

Rugged/Vicious (☆☆)

This content is balanced around everyone on the team having Tier 2 incarnate powers.

General Effects

• The minimum mission difficulty is locked at +2 and the team size at x8.
• Enemies have access to additional/improved powers.
• Certain enemy groups can sometimes have Elite Bosses/Bosses spawn in place of Bosses/Lieutenants in regular enemy spawns.
• Boss class enemies and above have inherent magnitude 10 Confuse protection.
• Access to exclusive challenge encounters and mechanics not found in the default difficulty.
• All enemies receive the following baseline buffs: +10% Resistance[All], +15% Defense[All], +20% Damage[All], +10% ToHit, 66ft Perception radius.
• Arch-villain/Giant Monster ranked enemies have Incarnate base hit chance (63.75%).
• Certain powerful Arch-villains/Giant Monsters have double base health (with normalized regeneration numbers).
• Players are unable to use non-revive Large/Super Inspirations.

Additional Rewards

• Arch-villain/Giant Monster ranked enemies will reward 3 Reward Merits per defeat.
• Certain powerful Arch-villains/Giant Monsters will reward 6 Reward Merits per defeat.
• In addition to all standard rewards, completion of this difficulty will reward 30 Reward Merits and an Incarnate reward table containing your choice of a random Incarnate Component, an Empyrean Merit, or two Super Inspirations.
• All enemies reward 20% more experience/influence.
• An amount of Prismatic Aether Particle Salvage on an 18 hour cooldown, with the specific amount depending on the specific content completed. This amount will be the combined total reward of this difficulty, plus any lower difficulties not yet completed within the 18 hour cooldown. Those difficulties will also go on cooldown.

Unyielding/Ruthless (☆☆☆)

This content is balanced around everyone on the team having Tier 3 incarnate powers.

General Effects

• The minimum mission difficulty is locked at +3 and the team size at x8.
• Enemies have access to additional/improved powers.
• Certain enemy groups can sometimes have Elite Bosses/Bosses spawn in place of Bosses/Lieutenants in regular enemy spawns.
• Lieutenant class enemies and above have inherent magnitude 10 Confuse protection.
• Elite Bosses have magnitude 10 Knockdown protection.
• Access to exclusive challenge encounters and mechanics not found in the default difficulty.
• All enemies receive the following baseline buffs: +15% Resistance[Lethal/Smashing], +20% Resistance[All but S/L], +20% Defense[All], +30% Damage[All], +20% ToHit, 66ft Perception radius
• Arch-villain/Giant Monster ranked enemies have Incarnate base hit chance (63.75%).
• Certain powerful Arch-villains/Giant Monsters have double base health (with normalized regeneration numbers).
• Players are unable to use Temporary Powers or non-revive Medium/Large/Super Inspirations.

Additional Rewards

• Arch-villain/Giant Monster ranked enemies will reward 6 Reward Merits per defeat.
• Certain powerful Arch-villains/Giant Monsters will reward 9 Reward Merits per defeat.
• All enemies reward 30% more experience/influence.
• In addition to all standard rewards, completion of this difficulty will reward 45 Reward Merits and an Incarnate reward table containing your choice of a random Incarnate Component, an Empyrean Merit, or two Super Inspirations.
• An amount of Prismatic Aether Particle Salvage on an 18 hour cooldown, with the specific amount depending on the specific content completed. This amount will be the combined total reward of this difficulty, plus any lower difficulties not yet completed within the 18 hour cooldown. Those difficulties will also go on cooldown.

Invincible/Relentless (☆☆☆☆)

This content is balanced around everyone on the team having Tier 4 incarnate powers. This is currently the highest level of Advanced Difficulty, and some of the hardest content in the game.

General Effects

• The mission difficulty is locked at +4 and the team size at x8.
• Enemies have access to additional/improved powers.
• Certain enemy groups can sometimes have Elite Bosses/Bosses spawn in place of Bosses/Lieutenants in regular enemy spawns.
• All enemy classes have inherent magnitude 10 Confuse protection.
• Bosses and Elite Bosses have magnitude 10 Knockdown protection.
• Access to exclusive challenge encounters and mechanics not found in the default difficulty.
• All enemies receive the following baseline buffs: +20% Resistance[Lethal/Smashing], +30% Resistance[All but S/L], +30% Defense[All], +40% Damage[All], +30% ToHit, 66ft Perception radius
• Arch-villain/Giant Monster ranked enemies have Incarnate base hit chance (63.75%) as well as a +1 Level Shift.
• Certain powerful Arch-villains/Giant Monsters have double base health (with normalized regeneration numbers).
• Players will be unable to use Temporary Powers or any non-revive Inspirations.

Additional Rewards

• Arch-villain/Giant Monster ranked enemies will reward 9 [[Merit Rewards|Reward Merits] per defeat.
• Certain powerful Arch-villains/Giant Monsters will reward 15 [[Merit Rewards|Reward Merits] per defeat.
• All enemies reward 40% more experience/influence.
• In addition to all standard rewards, completion of this difficulty will reward 60 Reward Merits and an Incarnate reward table containing your choice of a random Incarnate Component, an Empyrean Merit, or two Super Inspirations.
• An amount of Prismatic Aether Particle Salvage on an 18 hour cooldown, with the specific amount depending on the specific content completed. This amount will be the combined total reward of this difficulty, plus any lower difficulties not yet completed within the 18 hour cooldown. Those difficulties will also go on cooldown.

Task Forces

The following Task Forces currently have access to Advanced Difficulty settings:

• Dr. Aeon Strike Force

• Imperious Task Force

Prismatic Aether Particles

Prismatic Aether Particles are a form of Special Salvage primarily obtained through Advanced Difficulty settings - though also available via Incarnate Trials and the Weekly Strike Target in much smaller amounts. This salvage can be traded or used to purchase permanent costume powers to make a character look like NPC enemies from various factions.

Prismatic Aether payouts in Advanced Difficulty Task Forces work on a four-tiered drop system, where there are four difficulty level rewards each with their own 18-hour drop lockouts. Completing content on Advanced Difficulty rewards the maximum value of the difficulty minus any completions of lower values from the character on the same day.

Drop Totals

Note: While these are currently identical, they are independent, and future adjustments or additional content in Advanced Difficulty may differ from these values on an individual content basis.

Advanced Difficulty - Dr. Aeon's Strike Force:

• ☆ 1-Star = 2 Prismatic Aether Particle salvage.
• ☆☆ 2-Star = (2+5) 7 Prismatic Aether Particle salvage.
• ☆☆☆ 3-Star = (2+5+6) 13 Prismatic Aether Particle salvage.
• ☆☆☆☆ 4-Star = (2+5+6+7) 20 Prismatic Aether Particle salvage.

Advanced Difficulty - Imperious Task Force:

• ☆ 1-Star = 2 Prismatic Aether Particle salvage.
• ☆☆ 2-Star = (2+5) 7 Prismatic Aether Particle salvage.
• ☆☆☆ 3-Star = (2+5+6) 13 Prismatic Aether Particle salvage.
• ☆☆☆☆ 4-Star = (2+5+6+7) 20 Prismatic Aether Particle salvage.

Badges

Dr. Aeon Strike Force

The following badges are exclusively obtainable through Advanced Difficulty mode in Dr. Aeon's Strike Force, and are required for the Master of Dr. Aeon's Strike Force Badge:

	Unfriendly Fire	Hit a Golden Brickernaut with the Dimensional Grounding Ray or Golden Throwing Wrench to disable the limiter on their self-destruct, then use it to hit Princess Zoe in Mission 4 while she is under 10% health on Malicious difficulty or higher.
	Power Overwhelming	Defeat Ripplesurge in Mission 6 while it is empowered from standing in the residual energy left behind from consuming the energy it summons while on Malicious difficulty or higher.
	Can't Touch This	Defeat King Midas in Mission 7 without any members of the team being hit by his blue beam targeted attack during the length of the fight on Malicious difficulty or higher.

Imperious Task Force

The following badges are exclusively obtainable through Advanced Difficulty mode in Imperious Task Force:

Freezer Burn

Defeat the additional boss encounter in Mission 3 on Advanced Difficulty.

See Also

• Issue 27 Page 3
• Issue 27 Page 4
• Prismatic Aether Particle Salvage
• Task Force
• Strike Force