ULTRAKILL Brutal difficulty, explained

If you want to break multiple keyboards and never leave your room again for fear of mission failure, then the ULTRAKILL Brutal difficulty is the one for you. Sleeping just doesn’t hit right unless you have that P rank you deserve from back-to-back S runs.

Here’s everything you need to know about Brutal difficulty in ULTRAKILL.

What is Brutal difficulty in ULTRAKILL?

Brutal is ULTRAKILL‘s current highest difficulty, although that may change in the future. Enemies in this difficulty will come after you aggressively and wield quick, high-damage attacks.

ULTRAKILL offers multiple acts, divided into missions. Each mission grades you on your performance. Currently, there are five difficulties in ULTRAKILL. Brutal released alongside new weaponry for the Full Arsenal update on April 15, and a sixth difficulty is currently Under Construction. On the difficulty menu, this unreleased mode is located underneath Brutal, suggesting it will be even harder than Brutal.

Difficulty is chosen every time you launch the game or exit to the main menu. You can switch between each difficulty after exiting the game, with each setting acting as individual save files. These are ULTRAKILL‘s difficulties:

• Harmless: Damage is the same as other difficulties, but enemy movement and attacks are slowed, making them easy to evade.
• Lenient: Enemies can appear passive on this difficulty, with slower attacks.
• Standard: The default difficulty, recommended for new players. Enemy have high damage with somewhat easy attacks to dodge.
• Violent: Hostile enemies with quick attacks.
• Brutal: Highly aggressive enemies with high damage and fast attacks.

How does Brutal compare to other ULTRAKILL difficulties?

Brutal is the last difficulty you want to try out if you’re new to the way ULTRAKILL works. ULTRAKILL is a gory whirlwind from the get-go, with Standard difficulty proving to be a challenging, but satisfying experience.

Speaking from personal experience where ULTRAKILL‘s challenge is lowered once I connect my control, the sheer speed and attacking power of the opposition can quickly become too much to bear on Brutal difficulty. The only way to manage it is to adopt the gamer lean, and spend the next five to 10 minutes not blinking in case I accidentally miss an incoming attack.

ULTRAKILL‘s ranking system works the same, regardless of your chosen difficulty. But only the toughest of ULTRAKILL veterans will be brave enough to venture down into the depths of Hell and reach those crucial money shots. Enemies and bosses you face across the missions remain the same also, but their behavior changes depending on what difficulty you chose. Harmless difficulty offers a slow-paced action game, giving you more time to react and dodge attacks. Meanwhile, Brutal is all-out action from mission start to end (if you get that far).

Due to the high demand and pure perfection that is asked of you while playing Brutal, changes have already been made for better gameplay and improved balance. These include boss attack adjustments, added cooldowns, increased windup time for elemental moves, and clearer visuals on incoming attacks.