Like any dungeon crawler, Path of Exile has several difficulty levels players can go through. In this case, there are three; namely Normal, Cruel and Merciless. Collectors of POE Currency need to be aware of the difficulty they are in as it directly affects their activities. As such, we wrote a quick article to cover this mechanic of the game.
Difficulties to hunt POE Currency
The game has three difficulty levels hunters of Path of Exile items can play in. These difficulties are Normal, Cruel and Merciless. While each level has the same monsters, quests and zones, the level of the monsters go up with the difficulty. Furthermore, some areas like The Twilight Strand will only have its own way point in Cruel and Merciless difficulty. The Eternal Laboratory also becomes a separate area with a map device if you are playing on Merciless difficulty.
Numbers collectors of POE Credits to know
Each difficulty beyond Normal has a level requirement, that is, a character cannot play on the difficulty unless it is at or past that level. Cruel requires characters to be at level 20 or above, while Merciless can only be access at level 35 or higher. Cruel and Merciless also apply resistance penalties to the character. Elemental and Chaos resistance is reduced by 20% in Cruel, and by 60 in Merciless. As such, it is strongly advised to get mods from Path of Exile Orbs that increase these resistances. Lastly, dying in Cruel or Merciless will reduce your characters experience by 5% or 10% of level progress, respectively.
Difficulties are unlocked by completing the game in the previous difficulty. This mean, to unlock Merciless you have to finish the game in Normal, and again in Cruel difficulty. Depending on the difficulty you finished the game in and whether you are in softcore or hardcore league, a unique achievement will be unlocked. Hardcore league players get Fearless, Dauntless and Indomitable for completing the game in Normal, Cruel and Merciless difficulty respectively. Non-hardcore on the other hand get Breaking Free, Ascension, and Vengeance.