page 3 [FOCUSED FEEDBACK] New Expanded +5 & Incarnate +6/+7 Difficulty Options

[The Curator]

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New Expanded +5 & Incarnate +6/+7 Difficulty Options

Additions

• New higher difficulty options +5/+6/+7 have been added.
• +6 and +7 difficulty will only function when on Incarnate content such as Dark Astoria or Cimerora Incarnate repeatables, otherwise it will default to +5 anywhere else.
• Difficulty change options have been moved from the chat pop-menu to the Mission/Task tab found under the Navigation window.

• Visibility of the new higher difficulties require the following:
  • +5 - if you have Apha, Destiny or Lore + Well Drinker or Incarnate
  • +6 - if you have Destiny or Lore + Well Drinker or Incarnate
  • +7 - if you have Destiny + Well Drinker or Incarnate
  • You can still use /setdifficultylevel 7 to ignore those checks, but don't say we didn't warn you!
• Enemy groups that spawned at Level 54 have had their level range extended up to Level 55.
  • Mission modifiers can sometimes swing this to spawn to +1s!
• Incarnate enemy groups (higher base ToHit%) have had their level range extended up to Level 60.
• Existing content that is not impacted by the difficulty changes:
  • Incarnate Trials
  • LFG Trials
  • Mothership Raids
  • Labyrinth of Fog

[lemming]

Belladonna

"Take Control of Sinclair's Skyscraper"

A level 55 and level 58 minion give the same rewards, 12,141 XP, 5664 inf.   (that's with patrol bonus)

[KaizenSoze]

7 hours ago, lemming said:

Belladonna

"Take Control of Sinclair's Skyscraper"

A level 55 and level 58 minion give the same rewards, 12,141 XP, 5664 inf.   (that's with patrol bonus)

I checked Number 6's arc, same thing. The level 57 mobs give the same experience and inf as the level 54.

 

Probably the Praetorian Incarnate arcs where missed. Good catch.

[Andreah]

Which contact in Cimerora has the incarnate-level repeatables?

[lemming]

5 minutes ago, Andreah said:

Which contact in Cimerora has the incarnate-level repeatables?

Alexandra Sideris

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Alexandra_Sideris

[Troo]

12 hours ago, lemming said:

A level 55 and level 58 minion give the same rewards

 

Just my opinion: Since 56-60 are only for Incarnate level characters wouldn't regular experience and infamy remain the same? (incarnate experience would increase)

 

What's to keep folks from abusing this for power leveling or infamy gathering? (rich get richer scenario)

[lemming]

4 minutes ago, Troo said:

Just my opinion: Since 56-60 are only for Incarnate level characters wouldn't regular experience and infamy remain the same? (incarnate experience would increase)

 

What's to keep folks from abusing this for power leveling or infamy gathering? (rich get richer scenario)

What would be the point of increasing the difficulty then for most people?  Vet levels are still a thing.    Incarnate experience is such a temp thing.

 

Plus difficulty usually means extra rewards.   And I've seen the same plateau in several other missions as well.   (notes at home)

[Troo]

1 minute ago, lemming said:

Vet levels are still a thing. 

 

doh, I forgot about those.

 

1 minute ago, lemming said:

What would be the point of increasing the difficulty then for most people?

 

I believe after a point difficulty should not solely determine rewards. Doing really hard things should be their own reward.

 

If it gets people to play, that's good.

If it gets people to play for longer that's good too.

However if it results in folks leveling up even faster, skipping most of the content and quitting because "there is nothing to do".. that's not good. 

[Skygoddess]

I can't set other difficulty settings beside "Adjust level" due to being unable to scroll down if navigation is at top right corner of screen.  

[Uun]

I assume this is working as intended, but worth noting that selecting +4 on a lvl 50 mission now results in lvl 54 and 55 foes (as opposed to lvl 54 only). 

[lemming]

3 hours ago, Skygoddess said:

I can't set other difficulty settings beside "Adjust level" due to being unable to scroll down if navigation is at top right corner of screen.  

You can click on the Set Difficulty setting which will drop the list, then move the mouse to the left then down to avoid hitting Adjust level, etc...

[KaizenSoze]

2 hours ago, Uun said:

I assume this is working as intended, but worth noting that selecting +4 on a lvl 50 mission now results in lvl 54 and 55 foes (as opposed to lvl 54 only). 

Yes, in general content level 55 mobs will appear at 4x8.

[Bionic_Flea]

I miss them from the chat box icon.  Muscle memory is hard to break, but I realize you need more real estate to get to +7.

[Andreah]

In terms of xp/inf gain per minute of play, most teams (based on the makeup, builds, and players skills) have a difficulty "sweet spot". Play at higher difficulties is worse for many teams, because they slow down much more than the inf/drops increase.

 

I don't see really high difficulty teams being a common way to power-level lowbies. I feel that mission-based incarnate content already was a bit too easy for teams of incarnates, but often low levels would have a miserable time on them.  

 

And after a month of ToT farming, and all the other hyper-charged leveling events we have through the year, I don't think running +5, +6, or +7's with incrementally increased rewards is going to break anything that hasn't already been broken worse. 

[Faultline]

The intention is for them to have increased rewards, and Cobalt did expand the reward tables for critters up to 60, but it isn't working correctly right now; the rewards code is capping things at 54 and I haven't figured out exactly where yet. This is not considered a show stopper for live, because we want this patch out before we all take our break in December.

[WindDemon21]

If this is going to be implemented, which is fine, wonderful in some parts, but can you please fix the difficulty slider so if you set to +3/8 for example, the mobs are ALWAYS +3, and don't randomly go up to +4 etc. This has always been weird, but now would be the time to fix it so the levels always remain consistent in a mission. They never should have fluctuated before anyway.

[Faultline]

29 minutes ago, WindDemon21 said:

If this is going to be implemented, which is fine, wonderful in some parts, but can you please fix the difficulty slider so if you set to +3/8 for example, the mobs are ALWAYS +3, and don't randomly go up to +4 etc. This has always been weird, but now would be the time to fix it so the levels always remain consistent in a mission. They never should have fluctuated before anyway.

 

That has been done for Task Forces, which are considered the highest priority for the change.

[Championess]

[WindDemon21]

8 hours ago, Faultline said:

 

That has been done for Task Forces, which are considered the highest priority for the change.

I'm talking about for all content. It never made sense before even that the level would waiver. It should just be a strict level across all fields of play.

[Troo]

"The intention is for them to have increased rewards, and Cobalt did expand the reward tables for critters up to 60"

 

Ah okay. So it is the rich get richer. Thanks.

 

Solo is for stories & the smaller servers are further disincentivized. 

[mistagoat]

11 hours ago, WindDemon21 said:

I'm talking about for all content. It never made sense before even that the level would waiver. It should just be a strict level across all fields of play.

I certainly understand the logic but I enjoy that bit of fluctuation. I'm fine with the TFs being normalized but I'd prefer that variance be kept in normal missions.

[Cobalt Arachne]

On 11/11/2025 at 12:13 PM, Troo said:

What's to keep folks from abusing this for power leveling or infamy gathering? (rich get richer scenario)

The difficulty increase from a difference in Level is not trivial.
I wager most AE farmer builds will not be able to just casually turn things up to +5 without major tweaks to their build.

 

+There's no meaning in CoH to relativistic wealth. Another player having more Inf means literally nothing to your gaming experience unless they plan to give it to you.
We also do tax the rich by way of forcing them to buy all their Prismatic Aether from other players because they can't be farmed in AE.