History Main / HardModeMook

Nowadays, a video game is expected to have a solid replay value to be well received. Having multiple difficulty levels is a simple way to prolong the life of the game, but then NumericalHard is to be avoided at all costs. As such, a common way of increasing difficulty is to put the player against tough mooks earlier and more frequently in the game.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': Master Mode introduces Golden-tier enemies that serve as the toughest non-boss or Guardian enemies in the game.

** In the original ''Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' game, Red Bubbles (which take away your sword permanently if they hit you) only appear in the Second Quest (that game's version of a Hard difficulty).

* ''VideoGame/Payday2'': Which types of enemies spawn depends on the difficulty, with higher difficulties bringing in tougher police. Normal mode brings in regular police and SWAT, and the only specials who appear are Shields and Snipers. Hard adds on Tasers. Very Hard replaces the SWAT with their heavier-armed and armored FBI variants, and also allows for Cloakers and the weakest variety of Bulldozer. Overkill adds Medics and the next-toughest Bulldozer variant. Mayhem replaces the FBI SWAT with even tougher [=GenSec=] SWAT units. Death Wish adds even more varieties of Bulldozer. Death Sentence moves on to the ZEAL Team enemies and allows for a variant of the Bulldozer that can heal his allies.

* ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'': A variant: the appearance of boss enemies as {{Degraded Boss}}es depends on the difficulty level. On the easier modes, the first boss, the Stone Gargoyle, reappears as a mook regularly, while the second one, Shial the giant spider, only does so once or twice and the third one, Cerberus, only appears in its boss encounter. On the harder modes, Shial becomes a regular encounter, and Cerberus makes a few appearances as a mook.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosCrossover'': It's possible to change the settings to replace the Goombas with not only Buzzy Beetles (as in [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros the original game]]'s second quest) but also with Spinies and with a completely new-to-the-original-game enemy, Spike Tops (which act as both Spinies and Buzzy Beetles at once).

Nowadays, a video game is pretty much required to have a solid replay value to be well received. Having multiple difficulty levels is a simple way to prolong the life of the game, but then NumericalHard is to be avoided at all costs. As such, a common way of increasing difficulty is to put the player against tough mooks earlier and more frequently in the game.

* ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'': A lot of [[NominalImportance named]] fighter [[EliteMooks aces]] only appear on Hard, Expert, and Ace difficulties.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'': Things that can appear on a map, including monsters, have flags that determine which difficulties they appear on, with three separate ones for the easier difficulties (I'm Too Young To Die and Hey, Not Too Rough), the medium one (Hurt Me Plenty), and the harder ones (Ultra-Violence and Nightmare). Going up in difficulty typically includes greater concentrations of enemies ([=E1M1=]: Hangar only has four zombies and two imps up to Hurt Me Plenty, then doubles both of those numbers and adds 16 shotgun zombies on Ultra-Violence), introducing stronger enemies sooner (the cacodemon is introduced in [=E2M3=]: Refinery on HNTR or below, and in [=E2M1=]: Deimos Anomaly on HMP or above), and/or even replacing lower-tier enemies with stronger ones (''VideoGame/DoomII'' [=MAP06=]: The Crusher has five hell knights on HMP, but replaces the three of them under the eponymous crusher with the game's first Spider Mastermind on UV). The [=PlayStation=] version of ''Doom'' expands on this by allowing several ''Doom II''-specific enemies [[EarlyBirdCameo to appear in]] ''Doom 1'' levels on higher difficulties, such as [=E1M1=] including a chaingunner and pain elemental on Ultra-Violence.

* ''VideoGame/WonderBoyIIITheDragonsTrap'': The 2017 remake has a four color of enemies (yellow) that appear only in the postgame... unless you're playing the game in hard mode, which throws a few of them in normal stages.