The short answer
- Easy: you have 75% health and take 50% damage.
- Normal: the baseline game values.
- Hard: you have 125% health and take 125% damage.
- Change difficulty from the main menu or the in-game menu.
See it in the game
Videos open on YouTube. Unless a timestamp is cited in the Sources section, use them for visual context—not as a guaranteed drop table or fix.
Which mode should you choose?
Choose Easy when incoming damage is stopping progress: the 50% damage modifier is the largest practical change. Normal preserves the intended baseline. Hard is for players who want both a larger health pool and harder hits; it is not simply a low-health mode.
How to change difficulty
- 1
Open the main menu or pause into the in-game menu.
- 2
Select the difficulty option.
- 3
Choose Easy, Normal or Hard, then return to play.
- 4
If the behavior does not match the values above, confirm the game is updated to Patch 1.0.9 or later.
What difficulty does not prove
The patch notes publish health and damage modifiers, not fish rarity, reward odds or boss-specific hidden rules. Do not assume a difficulty setting changes catch rates unless a later official source says so.
Sources used on this page
Community observations are useful leads, but they are not official drop probabilities.