So, we’ve been told that Pathologic 2 is kind of on the hard side. And, well, we agree.

Which is why today we’re finally introducing the promised Difficulty Slider.

Difficulty Slider

Pathologic 2 is supposed to feel almost unbearable. However, we concede that every player has their own limit. And so, following today’s patch/update, you’ll see a new option in the Settings:

The Intended Difficulty is opt-out (meaning the game will launch in this mode by default). As you can see, we also explain why we believe it is a good choice to just play the game as it is—doing our best to communicate the intent while also providing options.

If you toggle Intended Difficulty off, you’ll see the Difficulty Slider itself:

It’s a good way to tweak the experience somewhat without being overwhelmed by more finicky settings. It does not, however, provide a preset for a “story mode”. We strongly suggest preserving at least some level of challenge to Pathologic 2—and give you every option to fine-tune it.

There are even more sliders below:

Basically, you can tweak any aspect of the game that gives you trouble. Perhaps you’re fine playing the game as it is and only want to lower Hunger or Thirst a little… maybe even raising another parameter to compensate.

Oh yeah, it’s possible to make Pathologic 2 way harder now too.

To save you from being lost in the Sea of Sliders, each comes with an explanation, including our suggestions and assessment of how strongly changing this option would impact the game:

This will hopefully make the robust settings easier to navigate and help the players figure out which options to tweak first.

Difficulty can be changed at any moment during the game. So if you’re stuck at a particular section, you may want to lower or raise the stat that gives you trouble and then revert back to normal when you feel that you’re ready to.

However, consider also…

The “Imago” Achievement

The only one that comes in yellow color, clearly making it cooler than the rest

This new achievement is granted for finishing the game on Intended Difficulty—meaning not opting out of it. If you toggle “Intended Difficulty” off while keeping all parameters the same, it won’t count. Want to have this yellow thing on your profile? Don’t touch the difficulty settings at all.

If you’ve finished Pathologic 2 already (or are close to completion), just load the latest save you have and play the game to the ending credits, and you’ll get the achievement.

Patch 4 Notes

v1.3.24891-rel-dev-st
The update also comes with a bunch of improvements and fixes.

1. Optimization:

• decreased the size of loaded textures;

• decreased the size of loaded shaders;

• minor improvements to the FPS when traversing the Town.

2. AI Fixes:

• minor improvements to NPC pathfinding.

3. Quest and Logic Fixes:

• (NB!) fixed an unfortunate bug that made Aglaya speak nonsense when you first meet her (the branches in her dialogue were swapped, reflecting the opposite of reality);

• (NB!) fixed a critical bug that sometimes locked the player in The Rod on Day 6;

• (NB!) fixed a critical bug with characters (Katerina, Sticky, Notkin. Khan) disappearing on later days;

• fixed a bug that made Rubin’s adoring fans despawn too early, rendering an event impossible to complete;

• now empty bottles will return to your inventory if you drink from them during a late-game event;

• fixed a minor bug when finishing everything early on Day 1;

• fixed a bug with the barkeep’s prices;

• a minor technical fix to one of the endings;

• Peter has a name now when you meet him outside of his place (the numbers were neither an obscure storytelling technique nor the coordinates for the Polyhedron as some have assumed, they were basically our version of “undefined”);

• a bunch of other minor fixes.

4. Animation Fixes:

• at low stamina, knives and scalpels now perform a normal attack instead of a strong one;

• polished animation switching across the whole game.

5. Visual Fixes:

• taught crows to conceal their low-poly nature by not landing close to the player;

• minor collision fixes;

• minor fixes of Murky’s model materials;

• minor fixes to lighting on interior furniture;

• fixed the lighting during a number of pantomimes;

• fire particles are now emitted from the largest part of a burning person (or object);

• fixed the glitch that made the camera jerk around when going outside.

6. Audio Fixes:

• invisible cats meow at a different rate at Notkin’s Castle now;

• fixed the bug that excluded certain sounds (like fires or the hum of the Polyhedron) from audio settings;

• the Abattoir speaks to you now.

7. Misc:

• (NB!) all keys are fully rebindable now!

• tweaked some hunger parameters slightly (VERY slightly);

• fixed an error with aiming mode lingering when a firearm was put away;

• typos.

See you in Patch 5!