Every Day We Fight Difficulty Settings: What’s Adjustable

Every Day We Fight does have difficulty settings, and they run deeper than a single preset. The official Steam page lists Adjustable Difficulty among the game's accessibility features, and the developer's own description of the game says "Multiple difficulty modes make the game as accessible – or difficult – as you would like," pointing to Iron Man mode and Forever War mode for players who want a real challenge.

The 1.0 release on 22 October 2026 pushed this further: "Customizable difficulty settings" sits in the developer's short list of the most heavily requested changes that shipped with the full version. Before that, the "Road to 1.0" announcement had already summarised the Early Access work as "Difficulties for every level. More accessible for new players, more hardcore for those who want it."

Presets, then customisation

The store page confirms adjustable difficulty but does not publish the preset names or the settings menu layout, so treat the following as what the patch notes happen to reveal rather than a complete list:

• The 1.0 notes refer to "Difficulty Presets" while describing a health bug, which implies named presets you select rather than a single slider.
• The same notes mention "Story Difficulty" in a damage-preview fix, and a Story Mode state elsewhere, so a gentler story-focused option exists in some form.
• Difficulty is not cosmetic. One 1.0 fix reads "Fixed Explosive attacks being unaffected by Difficulty settings," which tells you the setting feeds into combat damage rules, not just enemy labels.

Modes that stack on top of difficulty

Iron Man and Forever War are framed on the store page as the challenge options, and they behave differently from a difficulty preset.

Iron Man mode arrived in the 0.9 update. It is chosen as an option when you start a new game and is described by the developer as the intended, more roguelite way to play: death still isn't the end, but it resets some progress. The 0.9 notes also confirm that manual and multiple saves were added alongside it, so Iron Man is the stricter alternative to normal saving.

Forever War mode is a 1.0 addition. It unlocks after you beat the campaign: clear zones, kill bosses, and survive as the difficulty "ratchets up permanently." You choose whether to keep your gear or reset to level 1 with just a dart gun and a teleporter.

Heat is the in-run difficulty dial

Separate from the settings menu, the Heat system lets you dial pressure up or down during play. Higher heat means harder fights and better drops. The 0.9 notes reduced heat level multipliers on high difficulties, and 1.0 added two mission types built around the dial: Sabotage pushes heat higher for better loot, while Ambush brings it back down.

How hard it plays in practice

The Epic Games Store guide to surviving the Rifters, written while the game was still in Early Access, calls it a steep challenge and notes that the developers themselves acknowledged some fights are "incredibly difficult" and were actively rebalancing. Its practical advice — aim in first person, bank Action Points, save grenades for chokepoints, and set Overwatch deliberately — was written before the 1.0 balance pass, so treat the specifics as a starting point rather than current tuning.

If the difficulty controls don't appear where you expect, check which build you're running first: the customisable settings were highlighted as a 1.0 improvement, so an older Early Access install may offer a shorter list of options.

FAQ

What difficulty settings does Every Day We Fight have?

The official Steam page lists Adjustable Difficulty and the developer describes multiple difficulty modes, while the 1.0 notes confirm customisable difficulty settings alongside named presets.

Is Iron Man mode the same thing as a difficulty setting?

No. Iron Man is a separate play-style option selected when starting a new game; it makes death reset some progress rather than ending the run, and it sits apart from the preset you pick.

Does difficulty affect anything beyond enemy health?

The 1.0 notes show difficulty feeding into combat damage rules, and the 0.9 notes reduced heat multipliers on high difficulties, so it touches scaling as well as raw toughness.

Which mode is hardest?

The store page groups Iron Man and Forever War together as the options "for those who truly want a challenge" without ranking them; Forever War is the one explicitly described as ratcheting difficulty up permanently after the campaign.