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This subject is related to the Black Mesa Incident era.

Difficulty settings (Half-Life)

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This subject is related to the Black Mesa Incident era.

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Half-Life allows players to play through its campaign in one of three different difficulty settings, each affecting the game in a different way. Below is a list of enemies and items and how they are affected in easy, normal and hard difficulty, respectively.

Items and Interactables[edit]

The chosen difficulty setting determines how much Health or Suit Energy the player can get from the following items:

Entity Difficulty Amount
Health Charger Easy 50
Normal 40
Hard 25
Suit Charger Easy 75
Normal 50
Hard 35
Health Kit Easy 15
Normal 15
Hard 10
Battery Easy 15
Normal 15
Hard 10

Monsters[edit]

The chosen difficulty setting determines, among other things, how much Health each monster will have and how much damage their attacks will deal:

Aliens[edit]

Entity Difficulty Health Attack 1 Attack 2 Attack 3 Notes
Headcrab Easy 10 5 - - Baby headcrabs spawned by Gonarch have 25 % of the health points and their attacks deal 30 % of the damage of regular headcrabs.
Normal 10 10 - -
Hard 20 10 - -
Alien Slave (Vortigaunts) Easy 30 10 8 - Their first attack is their signature 'Electric Zap' attack. Their secondary attack type is a melee "Claw Attack". Their first attack charges faster on Hard difficulty.
Normal 30 10 10 -
Hard 60 15 10 -
Houndeye Easy 20 10 - - A houndeye's damage is multiplied based on the size of their squad. (A Two-Houndeye squad will do 30 each, Three will do 45, etc.)
Normal 20 15 - -
Hard 30 15 - -
Barnacle Easy 10 - - - Barnacles wait for their prey to touch its long tongue and drag said prey upwards to their mouth instead of actively hunting.
Normal 10 - - -
Hard 10 - - -
Bullsquid Easy 40 10 15 35 The Bullsquid's first attack is a projectile-based spit attack, the secondary attack is a melee-based 'biting' attack, and finally the third attack is a tail-whipping attack.
Normal 40 10 25 35
Hard 120 15 25 35
Alien Grunt Easy 60 4 10 - Their first attack is a projectile-based hornet attack that targets the player. The secondary attack is a melee-based punch.
Normal 90 5 20 -
Hard 120 8 20 -
Ichthyosaur Easy 200 20 - - The Ichthyosaur only uses a melee-based 'biting' attack. Typically it makes a loud noise if it has found and is pursuing a target in the water.
Normal 200 35 - -
Hard 400 50 - -
Alien Controller Easy 60 3 15 - The first attack is a series of small and quick energy balls. The second attack is a larger energy ball that slowly homes in onto its target.
Normal 60 4 25 -
Hard 100 5 35 -
Leech Easy 2 2 - - Typically, leeches are found in groups of two or more at a time in official maps.
Normal 2 2 - -
Hard 2 2 - -
Snark Easy 2 10 5 - The Snark's first attack is "Bite Attack" when they hit their target. The second attack occurs when they explode into acid after getting damaged or after 20 seconds. Note, it is the only "summonable" NPC by the player in form of a weapon.
Normal 2 10 5 -
Hard 2 10 5 -

Mutated[edit]

Entity Difficulty Health Attack 1 Attack 2 Attack 3 Notes
Zombie Easy 50 10 25 - The first attack type is a one-arm slash attack, where-as the second is a heavier 2 arm slashing motion.
Normal 50 20 40 -
Hard 100 20 40 -

Turrets[edit]

Entity Difficulty Health Damage
Turret Easy 50 8
Normal 50 10
Hard 60 10
Mini Turret Easy 40 5
Normal 40 5
Hard 50 8
Sentry Turret Easy 40 3
Normal 40 4
Hard 50 5

Humans[edit]

Entity Difficulty Health Attack 1 Attack 2 Attack 3 Pellets per attack Notes
Human Grunt (9mmAR) Easy 50 5 3 - 3 Their first attack is a melee-based kick attack. The secondary attack is their weapon's attack.
Normal 50 10 5 - 5
Hard 80 10 6 - 6
Entity Difficulty Health Attack 1 Attack 2 Attack 3 Notes
Female Assassin Easy 30 5 - - On Hard Female Assassins will be able to use their invisibility cloak, rendering them nearly invisible unless attacking.
Normal 50 5 - -
Hard 50 8 - -

Bosses[edit]

Entity Difficulty Health Attack 1 Attack 2 Attack 3 Radius Notes
Apache Easy 150 8 - - -
Normal 250 10 - - -
Hard 400 10 - - -
Gargantua Easy 800 10 3 50 - Their first attack is a melee-based Slash / Swipe attack. Their secondary is a mid-range flamethrower attack, while the third is a slightly ranged stomping attack.
Normal 800 30 5 100 -
Hard 1000 30 5 100 -
Gonarch ('Big Momma') Easy - 50 100 - 250 First attack type is a melee Slashing attack. The second is a long range Spit attack that explodes on contact. It is the only enemy of the game capable of spawning in baby headcrabs (Smaller versions of headcrabs).
Normal - 60 120 - 250
Hard - 70 160 - 270
Nihilanth Easy 800 30 - - -
Normal 800 30 - - -
Hard 1000 50 - - -

Trivia[edit]

  • Gargantua, Gonarch and Nihilanth do have health values but can't be outright killed due to the way they are programmed in the levels where they reside.
  • Some of the difficulty changes are defined in the skills.cfg file found inside "Half-Life\valve" folder and can be easily altered.
  • Console command "skill" can be used to change the difficulty at any time ingame. However it may not change all difficulty settings properly. (Health Stations, Armor Chargers, etc.)