DREAD ADMIRALGAME FIELD MANUAL

FOUR SETTINGS · BUILD CHECK 1.0.4

Dread Admiral Game Difficulty Levels & Rewards

The Dread Admiral game has four difficulty levels. A launch-day developer answer lists campaign XP modifiers of −25% on Easier, +50% on Hard and +100% on Brutal; Normal is the baseline. Difficulty also changes enemy resources, modifiers and AI behavior, so the higher XP reward comes with materially harder decisions.

QUICK ORDERS

What the evidence supports

  1. 01Four difficulty options were announced for release.
  2. 02Campaign XP is −25% on Easier, +50% on Hard and +100% on Brutal.
  3. 03Skirmish XP is −25% on Easier, +25% on Hard and +50% on Brutal.
  4. 04Brutal unlocks at Prestige 1 or after beating a Hard campaign.

What difficulty changes

  • Enemy fleet size and available money.
  • Mission modifiers and rewards.
  • AI goals, movement and combat decision quality.
  • Availability of strategies, including tactics designed to counter submarines.

Release 1.0.3: Easier and Normal reductions

Patch 1.0.3 reduced the relative chance of mission modifiers by roughly 25% on Easier and Normal while lowering several AI resource and fleet advantages.

  • AI mission money changed from 15 to 10 on Easier and 25 to 20 on Normal.
  • The base AI fleet was reduced by $35 on Easier and $25 on Normal across all missions.
  • Per-mission AI fleet scaling fell from 15 to 10 on Easier and from 20 to 15 on Normal.
  • Admiral bonus fleets, protected-city bonus fleets and initial hostile-city populations were also reduced; the developer says AI takes risky fights more often.

Choose for the experience you want

  • Start lower to learn ship counters and timer management without sacrificing long-lived ships.
  • Move up when you can preserve the Flagship while completing optional objectives.
  • Expect Hard and Brutal to change AI behavior, not merely inflate health.
  • Re-check the difficulty panel after updates; Demo-era turn bonuses may no longer match release.

Difficulty XP rewards

  • Campaign: Easier −25%, Normal baseline, Hard +50%, Brutal +100%.
  • Skirmish: Easier −25%, Normal baseline, Hard +25%, Brutal +50%.
  • Quick Study gives +25% and combines multiplicatively; the developer example makes Hard campaign +87.5%.
  • Prestigious is a separate scaling bonus-XP perk after Prestige.
Evidence boundary

These values come from a developer reply posted on launch day. Re-check the in-game difficulty panel after later balance patches.

CONTINUE THE CAMPAIGN

Dread Admiral Game Black Fleet Timer Guide→Dread Admiral Game Missions & Achievements Guide→Dread Admiral Game Beginner & Campaign Start Guide→