whether you want to enjoy the story or take on the advanced Grand Weaver difficulty.
Although action games have been ahead of the curve in providing multiple difficulty levels for decades, it's always nice when something follows suit, and South of Midnight can be enjoyed by pretty much anyone of any skill level. Considering you can change the difficulty at any time on the fly using the pause menu, South of Midnight also allows plenty of room for exploration.
Scryer Difficulty Is For People Who Just Want to Enjoy the Story
Focus On the Story And Remove All Challenge From Combat
If you want to experience South of Midnight's core story and nothing else, you'll pick the Scryer difficulty from the start. Combat and platforming are formalities in this setting, and you'll be able to fully focus on the narrative beats and the beautiful recreation of the Deep South game world. Combat will also be less taxing to deal with as Health Coils (healing spots) can be used more than once per coil.
South Of Midnight Review: A Gorgeous Southern Gothic Adventure That Can Be A Little Tedious
South of Midnight is visually striking, and its narrative pulls at your emotions with an incredible cast, but its mechanics don’t necessarily impress.
Think of this setting as below "easy" (a moniker the developers have used for the next difficulty setting) in of how much it taxes the player. Also, that you can swap to a higher setting if you're finding Scryer not up to your personal standards.
Healer Difficulty Is South of Midnight's Version of Easy Mode
Focus On The Story While Enjoying Accessible Combat
Healer is the traditional "easy mode" for South of Midnight. It allows for a greater challenge compared to Scryer, and players can more feasibly see a game over screen with the need to restart at a checkpoint every so often. Like the Scryer difficulty, Health Coils will be replenished and can be used multiple times.
With Scryer in the mix, this feels like a less essential difficulty setting for those of you who just want to see the narrative, but it's in there regardless if you need it.
Weaver Is A Balanced Normal Mode That Provides Some Challenge Without Overdoing It
Balanced Combat Experience
However you want to slice it, Weaver is the "balanced," or what many players would refer to as a "normal/default" difficulty setting. Combat and platforming will be tougher than Scryer and Healer, but won't be quite as difficult as Grand Weaver. Also, from here on out, Health Coils can be used only once.
Starting at Weaver and then sliding everything up or down later on will result in the best possible onboarding experience for most players.
Weaver is how I started my first playthrough, and found it to be extremely fair in how it doled out damage both in and out of combat. Consider picking this one from the beginning if you want a more challenging run.
Grand Weaver Is What Seasoned Action Veterans Will Want To Pick At The Start
Harder, More Intense Combat Challenge
Grand Weaver is the highest "default" difficulty available at the start of South of Midnight, and it functions more like a "hard mode" in a typical action game. Enemies require more damage to defeat, and can defeat you in turn easier. Combat intensity and larva spawns will also be tuned up, making the action a bit more hectic.
If you're a seasoned genre fan, I recommend turning this option on right away. Some folks are extremely adept at combat-based systems and may not enjoy South of Midnight's platforming, but Grand Weaver will be a more enjoyable experience out of the gate if you play a lot of action games.
Custom Tapestry Allows For Multiple Degrees Of Freedom With How You Play The Game
A Custom Mode With Tons of Toggles
In case you march to the beat of your own drum, there is a fifth setting that many similar games do not have: Custom Tapestry. This mode lets players complete rework nearly every facet of the game so that it suits them and still allows full story and gameplay access. After selecting Custom Tapestry, difficulty options include individual toggles for:
- Player damage (more, less, or balanced)
- Health Coil strength/regeneration
- Player invincibility
- Enemy damage
- Boss damage
- Combat intensity
- Larva spawn rate
- Ally damage
- Hazard damage
- Crouton invincibility
While nearly all of these South of Midnight custom options are self-explanatory and mostly deal with damage statistics, "Crouton invincibility" is directly tied to your companion, which is used for scouting and other light puzzles. With this setting on, they cannot be killed by hazards, which makes those Crouton sections that much quicker to complete.
Which Difficulty Setting Should You Choose?
Go For Weaver To Start, Then Tweak From There
As for a recommendation, I found Weaver (Balanced) to be the simplest option. The systems in South of Midnight are slowly taught to you over the course of the game, allowing you to pick them up as they arise, before they get overwhelming. As an absolute worst case, you will be fine if you decide that Weaver is either too difficult or too easy. All you need to do is head to the pause menu and swap the difficulty to whatever you prefer.
The Custom Tapestry option in South of Midnight might be the best choice for some folks, especially if you find combat to be difficult and are struggling with hazards (or vice-versa). If the latter is giving you trouble, we suggest turning on Crouton Invincibility, and tone down hazard damage. Just know that altering the difficulty during combat will cause the arena to reload.
South of Midnight
- Released
- April 8, 2025
- ESRB
- rp
- Developer(s)
- Compulsion Games
- Publisher(s)
- Xbox Game Studios
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
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