Casualties: Unknown Difficulty Guide: Every Preset Explained

Casualties: Unknown does not have a single difficulty slider. It ships six presets and a custom run settings panel with 41 individual values, from loot density to the speed of infection. Two players can both say they are on "Normal" and be playing very different games.

This page lists every preset, every custom setting with its default and range, and the handful of values that decide whether a run is tense or simply unfair.

Official source: Casualties: Unknown store page ↗

The six presets at a glance

The full kit is a lantern, dog food, a water bottle and a trash bag. The default layer timer is 60 minutes; when it expires, a radiation line pushes you toward the exit whether you are ready or not.

Normal

Normal is the reference point. Default loot, default traps, default infection, a 60-minute layer limit and an emergency light in your inventory. It is the correct first run: the first two layers are forgiving enough to learn in, and Dried Desert is where the systems start compounding.

Relaxed

Relaxed doubles the layer timer to 120 minutes, enables ambient light so you need fewer light sources, and gives the full starting kit. It does not remove damage. A bad fall still breaks a leg, and a Shade crawler still opens an artery.

Paradise

Paradise triples the timer to 180 minutes, makes ambient light brighter than Relaxed, and keeps the full kit. It is the most forgiving preset, but it is still the same damage model. Think of it as a longer, better-lit classroom rather than a story mode.

Desolate

Desolate removes your starting supplies, drops ambient temperature by 15 °C, makes loot and ore far less common, guarantees a layer modifier, and makes traders much rarer — while giving each trader triple the inventory. The result is a harsher economy with fewer but more valuable trading stops.

The temperature change is the part that kills. A route that works in a hoodie on Normal needs real insulation on Desolate, and layer 1's average 15 °C becomes a genuine cold layer.

Unchipped

Unchipped disables the health panel, restricts vision to line of sight, starts you with nothing and removes the layer time limit. You have to read blood loss, infection and consciousness from symptoms instead of numbers.

It is an excellent second playthrough and a terrible first one. If you try it, learn the symptom order in the bleeding guide first.

Endless

Endless is listed but unavailable because the game is already endless: the demo loops after layer 5, and the release continues after layer 11. A separate mode would duplicate the campaign.

All 41 custom run settings

The custom panel exposes the preset values individually. These are the defaults and ranges in the current build.

The settings that actually change survival

Some options look dramatic and barely matter. Others look minor and reshape the run.

Infection chance and speed

These two are the real difficulty knob. At default, a wound checks for infection every 40 seconds using skin integrity and bleeding. Raising infection chance turns every scrape into a timer, and raising speed means the fever arrives before you can craft antiseptic. If you want a medical survival game, raise these before you touch enemy damage.

Bleeding rate

At 2×, an arterial wound can empty a useful fraction of your 5 litres in under a minute. This does not make combat harder so much as make post-combat the hard part. Combine it with low loot density and bandages become the most valuable item in the game.

Temperature offset

A -15 °C shift is exactly what Desolate does. It changes which layers are survivable in starting clothes and makes insulation mandatory. A +10 °C shift turns Dried Desert into a stamina drain and makes water planning harder.

Layer time limit

The timer is not a soft suggestion. When it expires, radiation pushes you out and the route behind you closes. A 60-minute limit forces a one-trip layer; a 120-minute limit allows a return to the pod. This single value changes the shape of a run more than most combat multipliers.

Loot density and ore amount

These control whether the game is about fighting or about finding. Low loot makes every container a decision; high loot turns the game into a power fantasy by layer 3. The distance multipliers stack as you descend, so a 1× base with a 0.9× per-layer multiplier gets noticeably poorer by layer 5.

Trader chance and stock

Desolate's identity comes from this pair: traders are rare, but each one carries triple stock. That makes a trader encounter a event rather than a routine stop, and it makes reputation worth protecting. The trader guide covers pricing and reputation.

The toggles people forget

Strokes, brain damage effects, disfigurement and low-mood events are all on by default. Turning them off makes the game less medical and more action. Leaving them on is why a head injury can end a run hours later: a stroke or a mood collapse is not visible on the body map until it happens.

Recommended settings by player type

First run: Normal, default loot and danger, health panel on, 60-minute timer. Use the beginner guide.

Demo veteran: Desolate with normal attack damage. You know the maps; the economy is the new puzzle.

Realism fan: Unchipped, default bleeding and infection, no layer timer. Expect to die to something you did not notice.

Modded co-op: Normal with loot raised one step. More players means more wounds and more mouths, and the medical economy does not scale on its own. The multiplayer guide covers what works.

Challenge run: Low loot, high danger, 100% modifier chance, no starting supplies. Do not add damage multipliers on top; supply starvation is already the challenge.

How difficulty interacts with traits

Strength, Resilience and Intelligence change what a setting means. High Strength carries more loot out of a low-loot layer; high Resilience survives the infection checks that make Desolate brutal; high Intelligence identifies medicine and unlocks recipes earlier.

On Unchipped, Intelligence becomes a navigation stat because item identification replaces part of the interface. On Desolate, Resilience is worth more than Strength because cold and infection are the main threats. The traits guide has the per-level numbers.

FAQ

Does difficulty affect achievements? The launch build has no Steam achievements listed, so there is nothing to lock out. If achievements are added later, expect presets to be tracked separately.

Can I change difficulty mid-run? No. Run settings are fixed when the run starts. Stored loot in the life-pod persists across runs.

Is Unchipped playable without the health panel? Yes, but you need audio cues and visible symptoms. It is not recommended for a first playthrough.

What is the difference between Relaxed and Paradise? Relaxed gives 120 minutes and ambient light; Paradise gives 180 minutes and brighter light. Both start with the full kit and keep the same damage model.

Sources and further reading

• Steam store page ↗
• Wikipedia entry ↗
• SteamDB app page ↗

Related guides

• Beginner guide: first five layers
• Tips that keep runs alive
• Best build by trait and playstyle
• What the demo includes