Halloween: The Game difficulty: Normal, Hard and Boogeyman
Three settings, one of them named after Michael, and a great deal of guessing about what the top one does. Here is what the patch notes and the achievement list actually say, and where the record simply runs out.
The short answer
Nothing published points at a difficulty requirement. Of the 47 Steam achievements that carry a description, not one names a setting — every chapter included, and the one for finishing the story. The honest gap: 3 achievements ship with no description, and The Perfect Killer asks for a perfect chapter score without saying what scores it.
A player who went looking reached the same place, and hedged it the way the evidence deserves: JEV, after working through the story mode unlocks — I couldn't find any achievements that have anything to do with playing anything on a higher difficulty. I'm pretty sure everything can be obtained just playing normal difficulty.
The chapter select, on camera
Halloween: The Game Customization + Unlockables Showcase!
Ravenysx
The three settings sit on the story mode screen, beside the prologue and five chapters. Narrating that menu: And you can also change difficulty to normal, hard, or boogeyman.
What the setting changes
This is a short list on purpose. IllFonic has never published a breakdown of the three settings, so everything below is either something they said in writing or something nobody has said at all.
Published
How long a civilian takes to struggle free once Michael has grabbed them scales with the difficulty you picked.
Fixed an issue where the NPC’s time to struggle free while grabbed was not properly scaling with difficulty in Story Mode
From the patch notes. It is a fix, which tells you two things: the scaling is intended, and for a while it was not working.
Not published either way
- How far away civilians and police notice Michael
- How many NPCs a chapter puts in your path
- How much damage Michael takes, or whether he can be downed sooner
- Whether patrol routes or scripted reactions differ
- Whether any cosmetic, skin or banner is tied to a setting
No number here would be one you could check. If IllFonic documents any of it, this column shrinks.
The three settings
- 1 Normal
- The first of the three, and the one players are heard playing on in launch footage.
- 2 Hard
- The middle setting. Some players switch to it when a challenge refuses to register.
- 3 Boogeyman
- The last of the three, named after Michael himself.
What the chapter achievements ask for
These are the ones that would name a setting if completion depended on one. The wording is the achievement description as it appears on Steam.
| Achievement | What it asks for | Names a difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Escape | Complete Smith's Grove story mode Chapter. | No |
| The Jump Suit | Complete the Road to Haddonfield story mode Chapter. | No |
| The Mask | Complete Main Street story mode Chapter. | No |
| He Came Home | Complete Returning Home story mode Chapter. | No |
| Babysitters | Complete the Babysitters story mode Chapter. | No |
| Into the Shadows | Complete Into the Shadows story mode Chapter. | No |
| The End | Complete the Story mode. | No |
The same holds across the other 40 described achievements. If you are chasing completion, the challenge tracker shows how far players actually get, and Steam does not split those figures by setting either.
Does Hard fix the challenge tracking?
Story mode’s challenge tracking has been unreliable since release, and switching to Hard circulates as a workaround. The reports do not agree, so here are both.
It worked for some
Several players got a stealth challenge to register only after replaying it on Hard, then pausing and restarting at the final objective.
And not for others
I've completed all Challenges and for some reason Chapter 5 Challenge 1, 4, 5 & 6 not working on any difficulty.
a Steam reviewer with a few dozen hours in — read it on Steam
If you try it, try it on a challenge you can repeat cheaply rather than on a long chapter. What each one actually asks for is on the challenge pages.
Frequently asked
- Do I have to play on Boogeyman to finish anything?
- Nothing published says so. Of the 47 Steam achievements that carry a description, none names a difficulty, and that covers all 6 chapter achievements and the one for finishing the story. 3 achievements ship with no description at all, so they are a genuine gap rather than a confirmation.
- What actually changes between the settings?
- One thing appears in the patch notes: how long a civilian takes to struggle free once Michael has grabbed them. IllFonic wrote it into a fix for that scaling. Nothing else about the settings turns up in the notes this site carries.
- Does a higher difficulty make challenges track properly?
- Reports disagree. Some players got a stuck stealth challenge to register after replaying it on Hard; others report challenges failing to register on every setting. Treat it as something to try, not a fix.
- Where do I change it?
- On the story mode screen, the one listing the prologue and the five chapters. Footage of that menu shows the three settings offered there.
- Is there an easier setting than Normal?
- Not on the menu. Normal, Hard, Boogeyman are the three that footage of the story mode screen shows, and nothing below them.
Keep going
Sources: IllFonic patch notes, as transcribed on this site · Steam global achievement statistics (Valve) · Story mode menu walkthrough (Ravenysx) · Story mode unlock run (JEV) · Steam store listing