hard mode

plural hard modes · alternative hardmode

1. countableuncountablevideo gamesA game mode with a higher difficulty than the standard gameplay.

   If you’re playing on hard mode, be warned that zombies can break down wooden doors.

   2014, “Defending Your Home”, in How to Do Everything in Minecraft – 100% Unofficial & Independent, London: MagBook, Dennis Publishing, page 55, column 3

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   Even then, once the main game is cleared – it has to be clocked in one play session, but it’s far from lengthy – hard mode is unlocked (plus a pair of affable bonus modes) which doesn’t just up the difficulty, but completely rewrites the dungeon structures and enemy patterns.

   2008 April, “Dark Mist”, in Edge, Bath, Somerset: Future Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 96, column 4

   Currently, to increase accessibility as well as replayability of the game, we added two difficulty levels. On easy mode, most players should have little trouble reaching the end of a level. On hard mode, extra obstacles offer bigger challenges.

   2013, Rafael Bidarra, Dien Gambon, Rob Kooij, Dylan Nagel, Maaike Schutjes, Ioanna Tziouvara, “Gaming at the dentist’s – serious game design for pain and discomfort distraction”, in Ben Schouten, Stephen Fedtke, Tilde Bekker, Marlies Schijven, Alex Gekker, editors, Games for Health: Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Gaming and Playful Interaction in Health Care, Wiesbaden, Hesse: Springer Vieweg, →ISBN, “Games for Care, Cure and Medicine Adherence” section, page 211

   More commonly, to support all player skill levels, games ship with multiple difficulty levels: an easy mode that’s tuned to provide very little resistance for players who want to focus on the story, a normal mode that’s tuned for most typical builds, a hard mode that’s challenging for a typical build, and a hardest mode tuned to be a challenge even to optimal builds, for example.

   2022, Ian Schreiber, Brenda Romero, “Balancing for Character Progression”, in Game Balance, Boca Raton, Fla.; Abingdon, Oxfordshire: CRC Press, →ISBN, part I (Game Balance), chapter 9 (Characters and Character Builds), page 203

2. countablefigurativelyuncountableA task or situation made deliberately more difficult than usual, often as a test of skill or endurance.

   Easy mode: draw the recipe you found. Hard mode: Make the recipe and write about the experience making it.

   2022, Caroline Brookfield, “N. is for Novelty”, in The Reluctant Creative: 5 Effortless Habits to Expand Your Comfort Zone, Artful Science, →ISBN

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   But just when I thought I’d gotten the hang of things, a snake chased me into a deeper level of the labyrinth! Everything’s on hard mode down here.

   2018 March, Okina Baba, translated by Jenny McKeon, So I’m a Spider, So What?, volume 2, New York, N.Y.: Yen Press, →ISBN, back cover

   I moved across the country twice the year I finished my dissertation because I like to live on hard mode, apparently.

   2019, Rachel Neff, “Is It a Dragon or a Windmill?”, in Chasing Chickens: When Life after Higher Education Doesn’t Go the Way You Planned, Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, →ISBN, page 74

3. countableuncountableUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see hard, mode.

   A hard mode in the form of a written document is often referred to as a “hard copy.”

   2004, William H. A. Johnson, “How Hard Can It Be to Communicate? Communication Mode and Performance in Collaborative R&D Projects”, in Susan H[ayes] Godar, Sharmila Pixy Ferris, editors, Virtual and Collaborative Teams: Process, Technologies and Practice, Hershey, Pa.: Idea Group Publishing, →ISBN, section III (Communication in Virtual Teams), page 176

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   Notwithſtanding this melancholy and hard mode of living, they are ſeldom or ever ſick, and all arrive at extreme old age.

   1785, [Georges-Louis Leclerc,] Count de Buffon, translated by William Smellie, “Of the Varieties of the Human Species”, in Natural History, General and Particular, […], 2nd edition, volume III, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 63

   Since you are working on a target mode of giving—an unfamiliar or a hard mode—you will find this formula especially useful.

   2009, Willa Miller, “Day Six: The Five Steps of Giving”, in Everyday Dharma: Seven Weeks to Finding the Buddha in You, Wheaton, Ill.: Quest Books, →ISBN, “Week Five: Be Magnanimous” section, page 189