New trophies for the controversial yet successful The Last of Us Part II hint that the Grounded difficulty setting will return, alongside the addition of a Permadeath mode.
The grounded difficulty was added post-launch to The Last of Us to provide a bigger challenge to players who already finished the game. Activating the setting triples enemies’ damage, minimizes checkpoints, eliminates the HUD, makes supplies very scarce, and removes Listen Mode.
Developer Naughty Dog has added two new trophies to The Last of Us Part II under a Grounded Mode category, which points to the upcoming addition of the difficulty setting. The trophies are Dig Two Graves, which can be acquired by beating the game in Grounded difficulty, and You Can’t Stop This, obtained by completing the story on any Permadeath setting.
The Last of Us 2 just got DLC Trophies. Patch 1.03 with Grounded Difficulty + Permadeath Mode incoming. pic.twitter.com/drUsvnHqIk
— PowerPyx (@PowerPyx) August 10, 2020
With the wording of the You Can’t Stop This trophy, it seems that Permadeath, which ends the game if their character dies, may be applied to any difficulty setting. However, once it is available, expect hardcore players to start trying to beat The Last of Us Part II on Grounded with Permadeath activated.
Naughty Dog has not released specific information on whether Grounded in The Last of Us Part II will work the same way as in its predecessor, but the details should be revealed once the update that adds the difficulty setting is rolled out.
Digital Trends reached out to Naughty Dog for information on when the Grounded difficulty setting and Permadeath mode will be added to The Last of Us Part II. We will update this article as soon as we hear back.
