Summary

  • Oblivion Remaster's difficulty settings are a mess, say the community.
  • Players are finding the jump from Adept to Expert frustrating.
  • Fans have created a mod to adjust difficulty for better balance.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remaster does a lot of things right. It manages to keep the game's original jank, while updating the beloved character creator, and allowing players to explore Cyrodiil in all of its glory.

Related

Bethesda Is Already Asking Fans For Suggestions For Potential Changes To The Oblivion Remaster

What more could we see in the game?

Posts

But, while the game is on track to become one of the biggest of 2025, it's not perfect, and fan complaints have begun to rise to the surface, one of which revolves around the game's awful difficulty settings.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remaster's Pre-Set Difficulty Settings Are Really Unpopular

You know a game's difficulty settings aren't really going to work when the two most viable options' names evoke such different feelings, which is very much the case with the Oblivion Remaster. Adept makes you feel like you should breeze through the game, Expert makes it seem like you're in for quite the challenge, and lo and behold, this is what players are finding.

Since its release, multiple threads have popped up on the Oblivion subreddit, garnering over 5,000 upvotes and almost 1,000 comments between them, with players incensed by the game's difficulty options.

In one of the threads, Azir44 said, "The 'Adept' level is a little too easy at first, but becomes ‘normal’ around level 10-15. However, the 'Expert' level is so f***ed up. I understand it as a challenge, but I find it ridiculously difficult, with no point in spending one hour doing a random dungeon rather than 20–30 minutes." It's an opinion that was shared by much of the community.

During the discussion, players were quick to suggest how the issue could be fixed. "I don't understand why they didn't give both sliders. One for damage and one for 'enemy armor'," said Vashy96. Thankfully, some enterprising Oblivion fans have fixed things already.

Thankfully, Fans Have Already Created A Mod To Fix Them

The Oblivion Remaster's pre-set damage modifiers are as follows:

Difficulty

Damage Taken

Damage Dealt

Novice

x0.2

x5.0

Apprentice

x0.6

x3.0

Adept

x1.0

x1.0

Expert

x3.0

x0.6

Master

x5.0

x0.2

As you can see, there's a pretty monstrous jump from Adept to Expert, and that's where players' frustrations are coming from.

Over on Nexus Mods, however, one player has decided to fix things, adjusting the modifiers to be much more reasonable, and it's gone down a treat. The modified damage modifiers are as follows:

Difficulty

Damage Taken

Damage Dealt

Novice

x0.67

x1.5

Apprentice

x0.83

x1.25

Adept

x1.0

x1.0

Expert

x1.25

x0.83

Master

x1.5

x0.67

This mod has already been downloaded over 15,000 times, showing just how significant the disparity is between Oblivion's difficulty and what players actually want.

It remains to be seen whether Bethesda will make the changes themselves, but at least for now, PC players have one option to make things better.

6 Images 6 Images Close

Your Rating

close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10

Your comment has not been saved

Like Follow Followed

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

Action RPG Open-World Adventure Systems 20 8.6/10 OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 82/100 Critics Rec: 86% Released April 22, 2025 ESRB Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Violence Developer(s) Virtuos, Bethesda Publisher(s) Bethesda Engine Unreal Engine 5
Where to play Close

WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
Powered by Expand Collapse