A new update for The Last of Us Part II arrives today, adding a number of features to the game. The update includes a new difficulty mode, two new trophies and a large number of improvements and features requested by fans.
You can check out the detailed update notes below, including more details about the new difficulty mode and permadeath mode.
Grounded Difficulty and Permadeath Mode
Grounded difficulty represents the ultimate test of skill. This difficulty raises the stakes by making enemies deadlier and ammo, upgrade, and crafting materials incredibly scarce, but also removing invaluable tools for survival, such as disabling Listen mode, deactivating elements of the HUD, and more. Beginning with the update, Grounded will become one of the base difficulty options available when starting the story, so you won’t need to have beaten the game once already to access it.
As an additional layer of challenge, we’re also introducing a brand new Permadeath mode. With this custom mode enabled, there are no second chances — you must complete the entire game without dying or start over from the beginning. However, if taking on the whole game is too daunting, you can choose to enable Permadeath mode with checkpoints on a per-chapter or per-act basis. In other words, if you die at the end of Day One, you’ll have to play the entire day over again.
New Trophies
The Grounded update introduces two new Trophies: one for completing the game with any Permadeath mode enabled and another for beating it on Grounded difficulty. Don’t worry, though, neither of these Trophies will be required in order to earn the Platinum.
New Graphics, Audio, and Gameplay Modifiers
This update also adds nearly 30 new graphics rendering modes, as well as several new audio modifiers that allow you to change the look and feel of the game.
The update also adds new unlockable gameplay modifiers, like One Shot or Touch of Death that enable one-hit kills or Infinite Ammo, Infinite Crafting, or Infinite Listen Mode Range to add a new twist to gameplay:
- Mirror World
- Mirror on Death
- Slow Motion
- Bullet Speed mode
- Infinite Ammo
- Infinite Crafting
- Infinite Melee Durability
- Infinite Listen mode Range
- One Shot
- Touch of Death
- 8-bit Audio
- 4-bit Audio
- Helium Audio
- Xenon Audio
All of these modifiers can be accessed via the Extras menu and unlocked after completing the game.
New Options and Improvements
Finally, the update also adds a number of requested improvements to the game, including the option to disable Listen Mode, adjust Film Grain levels, additional display options, improvements to accessibility features, and more.
- Saves now display playtime up to the second
- Film Grain Adjustment option
- Disable Listen Mode option
- Motion Sensor Function Aiming option
- Arc Throw HUD Display option
- Aiming Acceleration Scale option
- Aiming Ramp Power Scale option
- Accessibility improvements to Ground Zero encounter, collectible tracking, Enhanced Listen Mode for collectibles, and rope gameplay