Divinity Original Sin 2: The Different Modes And What They Mean (2024)

There are many different Divinity: Original Sin 2 game modes that affect the difficulty and challenges you face within the game. The developers provided different options for all types of gamers so that everyone could have the best experience playing it. Divinity: Original Sin 2 delivers on all fronts: extra content, more difficult challenges, story mode, and more.

There are also editions and bundles similar to DLC. These options can become confusing and make players indecisive due to the variety available and the lack of detailed in-game explanations. You just have to decide how you like to play games hopefully, this list helps with that.

Updated on November 7, 2023, by Doruk Kaptan: With the success of Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios has fully cemented the team as a powerhouse in the genre. Thus, it's as great a time as any to revisit their previous mega-hit, Divinity: Original Sin 2.

The game has several in-game difficulty modes and even some unique ways to experience what the game has to offer. Divinity still offers an immensely fun time even after so many years, and here are some of the ways you can experience it all over again.

7 Story Mode

One of the reasons people like RPGs is because of their expansive story. These game developers and writers create something from nothing, with whole new races and world conflicts that feel so real yet so far away. Larian Studios, in particular, is incredibly good at this, sprinkling whole plots and character arcs in every corner.

With Story Mode, players can focus on just that. After all, life gets too stressful sometimes, and people don't want to play their favorite game to get more anxious. Story Mode doubles the increased buff of Explorer Mode for player characters, and the nerf to NPCs. It gives the player a permanent resurrection spell at the beginning of the game, too, so you can easily keep going after a tough fight.

6 Explorer Mode

Explorer Mode is for those who enjoy a good time and not a hard one. Gameplay won't feel overwhelming or confusing, leaving room for exploration and basking in the vast RPG world Larian Studios gives us. Fights are adjusted to feel fair, and the mode allows players to use smart thinking over blunt strength.

This mode increases the player's stats and decreases NPC stats, making sure that no one can overpower your party and ruin the immersion desired. After all, it's not always about blood, sweat, and tears. Sometimes you just want to experience a great story and breeze through the action-heavy sequences, which is totally fair.

5 Classic Mode

Play as the game was intended, where everything is right in the middle. There are no nerfs or buffs to anyone's stats for a harder or easier time. Every encounter is balanced, and players can experience the game as the developers sought it out to be. It's the default difficulty, if you will.

Classic Mode is for players who don't have a strong opinion on the way that they play RPGs. It's for those who want to do a normal run before challenging themselves a second and third time. Nothing is too hard, but nothing is too easy either. It's likely the way to go for an initial playthrough, allowing you to get familiar with the game's systems.

4 Tactician Mode

If you're familiar with RPGs and/or searching for a real challenge, Tactician Mode is the way to go. With improved AI, improved stats for enemies, and even stingier merchants, Tactician Mode is determined to make your life hard. This mode is definitely supposed to be played with careful planning and full knowledge of the game's mechanics.

However, some people like a challenge. Especially if you're an experienced RPG player or are on your umptieth replay, Tactician Mode can provide a breath of fresh air by forcing you to think about your actions. Not for everyone surely, but it's a very rewarding and fun way to experience the game again after an initial playthrough.

3 Honor Mode

Honor Mode is quite literally the hardest way you can play the game. No mistakes are allowed as only one saved file is available, which will be automatically deleted if your whole party dies at any point. This is the ultimate test of mettle and strength, only meant to be played by veterans.

In the Classic Edition of the game, Honor Mode is its own difficulty option. In Definitive Edition, it's an option under the difficulty Tactician instead of a standalone mode. Once again, this mode is not for the easily stressed, as each mistake will have the chance to end your whole playthrough, ensuring a pumping heart.

2 Game Master Mode

Divinity: Original Sin 2 did something that almost no video game RPG ever does, take it back to its tabletop routes in pride. This is most evident in Game Master Mode, where you can use the game to build your own adventure for friends to experience, just like you would in a

The GM gets to create and control the environment, NPCs, Objects, and even maps, using the game's assets, and run an adventure for your party. You still get to use the gorgeous graphics of the game as well as its intricate mechanics, which is tons of fun. It's truly a shame that this mode is overlooked since it's one of the more potent virtual RPG systems you can get.

1 Arena Mode

Arena Mode almost feels out of place in Divinity: Original Sin 2. It is a mode in which you get to use four preset characters to battle against others online. The characters are important NPCs from the game's story, and it's not unfun to use them and see their builds in full detail. However, Arena Mode is mostly untouched by players for a few reasons and valid ones too.

First of all, you cannot use your original characters, or even the Origin's characters such as Red Prince, Sebille, etc. This turned off a lot of players as character creation is a huge part of any RPG, and most players experiment with alternate modes after finishing their playthroughs, meaning they'll be attached to their characters by that point.

A complete lack of story or plot also cheapens this mode for many, turning it a lot more arcadey than fans of the series are used to. It is still a testament to how Larian is willing to experiment though, which is nice.

Classic Edition

The Classic Edition of Divinity: Original Sin 2 was the first official game made under the name. The way the game felt in terms of gameplay, physics, plot details, and so on was updated and optimized into the Definitive Edition we know today. Classic Edition itself has a weaker story and makes you feel either outclassed or overpowered in combat quite often.

In Classic Edition, you can create cheesy, overpowered player builds for a more comedic time. Unfortunately, there really isn't more of a reason to play the original when you have the Definitive Edition. It is the complete, story-driven, balanced game that Larian Studios wants people to know and play. They just allow players to keep Classic Edition because that was the initially launched game, and people have saves they might want to keep before Definitive Edition was a thing.

Definitive Edition

After talking about the different Divinity Original Sin 2 in-game modes, let's look at the different editions. Definitive Edition is the upgraded version of Divinity: Original Sin 2. When the game was first launched in 2017, the people spoke, and the developers took notes. Credit to Larian Studios; they take player feedback very seriously and have put out better products because of it. Alas, they created a Definitive Edition in 2018, where they added more quests, fights, story beats, and tons of polish to existing aspects.

Many players thought that the story beats for the later acts in the game were somewhat tedious and boring, so they changed the ending for Definitive Edition. This edition is the best option for experiencing the game if you haven't played before because it contains more content and is overall more complete.

Notable Changes Include:

• A complete update to the story, improving dialogue and story arcs to make them more immersive.
• New quests containing new battles and story beats.
• UI Improvements, including the journal, separating lore entries and quests to make things simpler to follow.
• Arena Mode revamp with new arenas, modifiers, and more.
• Addition of Story Mode.
• Balancing changes so that battles feel fairer. This includes things like wands creating surfaces, enemies reflecting damage more often, tweaks to prices and persuasion checks, as well as a whole rework of the difficulty curves in different modes.

Divine Ascension

As with many modern games, there's DLC for Divinity: Original Sin 2 as well. However, it's more extra side content as opposed to more content for the game. That extra content is Divine Ascension, a large addition of lore that lets players get a detailed history of the game world.

Players who want to immerse and dive into lore after their experience without buying a physical book can purchase Divinity: Original Sin II: Divine Ascension to receive digital merchandise of some goodies. You get a detailed Reaper's Coast map, a lore book, over 1,200 pieces of concept art, and the original soundtrack paired with new songs. You also get The Essential Compendium of Notable Rivellonian Artwork, which is an art book of over 150 pages.

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