How to change difficulty in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 can be pretty tough, so here is a guide to changing the difficulty.

When you first pick up Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, there will be two difficulty options ready for you to select when you start your game but changing it after the initial choice gets a little complicated.

Overall there are currently three confirmed difficulty modes, Friendly, Mighty, and the final unlockable one – Superior. They are all fairly self-explanatory, but it should be noted that Superior doesn’t feel that much different than Mighty if you are always on top of your team’s levels and upgrades. It is mainly used as an extra playthrough and a way to unlock new costumes.

There are also rumors of a fourth difficulty level called Ultimate that can be unlocked once specific goals are met playing through Superior.

Like with previous entries in the series, UA3 wants you to play the game multiple times, grinding levels, gathering collectibles, and using different teams as you go. That means the difficulty is an essential aspect of how a run will go and isn’t supposed to be easily changed mid-run.

How to change the difficulty in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3

Say you select Mighty right out of the gate because you want to enjoy a challenging experience going through the game, but you run into a boss like M.O.D.O.K who you just can’t beat. This isn’t like most modern games where there is an easily accessible difficulty slider in the pause menu, so it takes a little work to change things.

That means you can’t just jump to the main menu and change it when you select the save file either. No, this requires a work-around that involves jumping back to S.H.I.E.L.D Points and changing things from there.

At each S.H.I.E.L.D Point, there is an option to reach the Chapter Select screen, where you can select which level you are going to be playing. This is where that work-around comes into play, as you can choose the difficulty level in each chapter individually.

Doing so will allow you to overwrite your previous save data with a new file that features whatever the new difficulty level you selected is. This isn’t a one-time thing either, as you can revert it at the start of the next level as long as you use another S.H.I.E.L.D Point to do it – because it won’t do it automatically or give you the option otherwise.

This is also true for playing online in rooms with friends because it defaults to whatever difficulty level whoever’s file is on at the time of creating the room. If you aren’t playing with friends and are just looking for a room to join, you can specify what difficulty level you are looking for.

Because it is an action game with RPG elements, the Team Ninja wants you to feel a sense of accomplishment every time you clear a level – especially if it beats you down before you can finally finish it. But these options are there for you if you want to enjoy your time playing the game as your favorite heroes with the option to tone things back as needed.