What Are the Difficulty Options in Sniper Elite 5?

I admit it: I was terrified of playing Sniper Elite 5. Yes, in part it's because I've never played a game in the Sniper Elite franchise, and yes, it's also because I'm terrible at shooters. But more so than both of those things, I was terrified that I was going to be far too bad to calculate my shots accurately with gravity and wind.

Yes, I was very excited to enjoy the game's challenge of trying to align the perfect shot and feel like a badarse, but I was also terrified that I just wouldn't be able to. My worries dissipated almost immediately upon booting up my campaign. So, what are the difficulty options in Sniper Elite 5, and why did they soothe me?

How Does Sniper Elite 5 Calculate Its Difficulty?

First, I'd like to talk about this. There are three main categories that Sniper Elite 5 takes into consideration whenever you're selecting any of the five preset difficulties: COMBAT, SNIPING, and TACTICAL. 

The COMBAT setting controls how difficult every encounter with the Axis forces is going to feel; it controls the skill, perception, and resilience of the enemy, whilst also tweaking yours. This setting is also responsible for how much (or how little) ammo is accessible to you throughout the campaign.

The SNIPING setting dictates how difficult your sniping encounters are going to be. This option manages three aspects of the SNIPING and enables or disables them accordingly per difficulty: Bullet Drop, how much bullets are affected by wind, and the Empty Lung benefits (which we'll get to later).

Finally, the TACTICAL setting controls difficulty differently by adjusting how much information the game gives you at any given point. This setting is responsible for how much of the HUD you see, how much your Radar sees, along with the visibility of your Health, Ammo, and Objectives. Depending on how good or bad you are at some of the things affected here, this is the most difficult setting by far. Without further ado, let's talk about the first difficulty setting:

Civilian (Very Easy)

As the Very Easy setting in the game, Civilian should be the most accessible version of Sniper Elite 5. How easy is it? Very.

On this difficulty, you will be able to fully regenerate your health, enemies deal far less damage, the player has far more resilience, enemy aggression and intelligence are practically nullified, and scary aspects of sniping like gravity and wind no longer affect bullets. I do not recommend trying this difficulty out as your starting point; instead, reduce everything accordingly as you progress the campaign. Sniper Elite 5's premise is not only centred around its realistic gunplay but it also revolves a lot around combat, and Civilian practically nullifies that aspect.

Cadet (Easy)

Cadet is the easy mode in Sniper Elite 5; you don't regenerate your full health but instead one bar of it after a short waiting period. The player resilience is set to "increased" and enemy resilience is set to "normal". Though from there, enemy AI and intelligence are set to reduced, which is just a bit harder than Civilian difficulty.

Cadet difficulty also offers no bullet interaction, which means that your bullet will be immune to gravity and wind effects as long as Cadet is set. Although this is a great starting point for those that don't feel confident about being a sniper with all of the realistic gunplay, I still think that Cadet is a bit too easy for newcomers; a big part of the fun is intelligent AI, something Cadet disables.

Sharpshooter (Medium)

This is what I'd call the Sniper Elite 5 sweet spot. You get the intelligent AI and some difficulty settings that are meant to make your round a bit more difficult than brainless run 'n' gun, but not so difficult that it feels impossible. As the first difficulty I started my round on, I think Sharpshooter is a good middle point to figure out whether you want to go higher or lower in the difficulty.

Everything on Sharpshooter difficulty is set to normal, so it is the "intended" way to experience Sniper Elite 5. Enemies won't do egregious amounts of damage nor drop abundant ammo, but it also isn't so easy that you can charge in headfirst. That said, if you feel uncomfortable with the sniper settings (including Empty Lung benefits like slow motion and sniper calculation along with gravity and wind affecting your bullet), feel free to jump into the settings and disable them to your heart's content. I do recommend, however, playing with realistic gunplay for a bit and seeing if the system is to your liking, as I thought it would be far more punishing and difficult than it actually was.

Sniper Elite (Hard)

You know it's bad when the difficulty has the game's name, and it still isn't somehow the hardest difficulty. Sniper Elite (or hard mode) is a bit of an increased challenge, as enemies will have most settings (including resilience and damage) maxed out. Meanwhile, the player settings will be set to reduced, meaning that not only will Karl Fairburne be more vulnerable, but his enemies will also deal more damage.

Sniping settings will be set the same as the Sharpshooter difficulty, as it won't change until Authentic. And finally, the HUD will be far less forthcoming (but still not punishing) with its information, as your radar information will be far less giving and the tags will stop working unless you have your binoculars enabled. 

Authentic (Very Hard)

Just by its name, you should know you should avoid it. Every difficult setting is cranked to the hardest difficulty, so enemies will do max damage while you will have the least amount of resilience active for Karl Fairburne. Your bullets will be affected by gravity and wind, and your foes will be the smartest they can be.

Perhaps the most perilous part of Authentic difficulty (aside from the bullets doing tons of damage) is the game's missing HUD. You won't be able to see your tags unless you're using the binoculars, but — more importantly — you won't be able to see your Heart Rate, HP, Ammo, and Objectives; when the game says "Authentic", it means "Authentic".

Which is the best difficulty to start with?

You might've read all of that and been left with more questions than answers. Aside from knowing to actively avoid Authentic out of sheer fear of death, it seems like most difficulties are a good starting point. That said, I'd argue that if you want to go for one of the preset difficulties, Sharpshooter is the best starting point. That said, I think going for a Custom difficulty is the ideal sweet spot.

Not only can you manipulate AI intelligence and bullet trajectory options, but you can also manage how your preferred playstyle will be. Tweaking how much ammo foes drop, their aggression, and damage will allow you to choose between fighting as a sniper or as a frontline infantry. Although the game is intended to be played as a sniper (thus the name), the most important aspect is to have fun with the difficulty.

So my general advice is: play in Sharpshooter first and give it a whirl. If you like what you are dealing with, then great! If not, tweak according to how you feel, and you'll find your prefered difficulty in no time.

Now that you're an expert, go out and kill some Nazis! They should prove no match for you with all of this knowledge.