The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Guide – All Difficulty Levels Explained
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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is real and now available on Game Pass, PC, and consoles. For those curious about how to tweak the game’s difficulty to match your playstyle, this quick guide breaks down how Oblivion’s difficulty system works—now featuring five selectable difficulty settings.
How Difficulty Works in Oblivion Remastered
Whether you’re a first-time player or returning for a nostalgic run, understanding how the difficulty system affects gameplay can help you get the most out of your journey through Cyrodiil.
If you’ve played the original Oblivion, the remaster handles difficulty the same way. The setting only affects player damage dealt and damage received—it doesn’t change enemy AI behavior or the number of enemies encountered.
There are five difficulty levels. Here’s how the damage scaling breaks down:
Novice
Player Damage Dealt - x56.0
Player Damage Taken - x0.167
Apprentice
Player Damage Dealt - x3.5
Player Damage Taken - x0.286
Adept (default setting)
Player Damage Dealt - x1.0
Player Damage Taken - x1.0
Expert
Player Damage Dealt - x0.286
Player Damage Taken - x3.5
Master
Player Damage Dealt - x0.167
Player Damage Taken - x6.0
As you can see, difficulty levels above Adept feature a significant jump in scaling—Expert sees you taking three times more damage than on Adept, and Master cranks it up to six times.
Which Difficulty Setting Is Right for You?
Ultimately, this comes down to personal preference. That said, I recommend starting on Adept to get a feel for how challenging or easy the game is for you.
If you enjoy pain in your games, give Expert or Master a shot. I booted up the Remaster on Master for my first run, and even the rats and goblins in the tutorial were deadly. I was dying repeatedly and had to play a constant game of keep-away just to survive.
Thanks to how damage scales, you can always start with the default and bump it up later—especially if your build becomes so powerful that you're one-shotting enemies left and right. Increasing difficulty can breathe new life into combat and force you to think more tactically.
Can You Change Difficulty Mid-Game?
Definitely, and the change is instant, meaning you won’t need to reboot your game or anything as the moment you save the change, the new scaling is applied.
It’s also good to know that for achievement hunters, there is no achievement tied to the game’s difficulty, so feel free to adjust at any time without fear of missing out on an anchievement.
Can I change the difficulty scaling of a difficulty?
Not on the base game, but modders are already hard at work in providing mods for the remaster to tweak your experience the way you want. Nexus Mods (the go-to site for Elder Scrolls mods) already has a Difficulty mod that adjusts the scaling of each difficulty, fixing the sudden jump in scaling from the game’s default setting to have a more reasonable increase instead of a sudden spike or drop in difficulty.
The Elder Scrolls IV:" Oblivion Remastered stays true to the original’s flexibility in letting players shape their own challenge. Whether you want a relaxed adventure or a brutal slog through Tamriel, knowing how the difficulty works—and how to adjust it—lets you play your way.
Which difficulty are you tackling Oblivion Remastered on? I’ve already dropped to Adept as I want to leave the sewers already.
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