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Back 4 Blood offers its players three levels of difficulty: Recruit, Veteran, and Nightmare. These difficulty levels alter the amount of Trauma damage players take, how many lives they start a run with, and the strength and number of enemies. The highest difficulty level, Nightmare, is a significant challenge for all kinds of players in Back 4 Blood.
Those players looking to take on this ultimate challenge will find themselves in a world of hurt if they go in unprepared. For those players looking to better understand Back 4 Blood's Nightmare difficulty and learn some tricks for surviving, this guide is here to help.
Understand The Layout Of The Level
There is plenty going on in each level and Act in Back 4 Blood. Players who are unaccustomed to the choke points and intricacies of the map they are about to travel across are doomed from the start. The Ridden can come in fast and strong, but if players know where and when to expect them, they can prepare better.
This means players should go through the game on a lower difficulty setting and scope out an upcoming level on a throwaway campaign. While this doesn’t guarantee success, the more familiar players are with a map, the better they are for their Nightmare run.
Use A Customized Deck
Players have the option of selecting their own deck of cards to use on a run in Back 4 Blood. This makes the benefits players will earn as they complete levels much more predictable. Using a customized deck of player cards can make or break a Nightmare difficulty run in Back 4 Blood.
Players should know too that the first card chosen will always appear as a choice at the beginning of a run and so it should be worthy of this place. On top of this, if players don’t have a solid selection of cards in Back 4 Blood from which to choose, they should focus on earning supply points and purchasing better cards.
Skip The Bots And Play With Others
The more human players, the better a team will be on Nightmare difficulty. The bots in this game can be a bit frustrating and having a full human squad makes coordination much easier. With crossplay an option for Back 4 Blood players, there should be no shortage of available partners out there.
Beyond just having other human players, each one should focus on a specialty and carry a loadout that reflects that. Pairing some of the best characters in Back 4 Blood makes this challenge much more manageable.
Collaborate On Team Decks
Working together in Back 4 Blood also goes for building decks. Each member of a squad has the ability to build their own specialized decks and this can give quite the team a decent advantage. Voice chat is an option in Back 4 Blood, making communication for this part relatively easy, but players should know that the game records these conversations.
Loot Everything
More challenging enemies means more bullets and explosives, and healing items are required. Players taking on Nightmare difficulty in Back 4 Blood need to keep track of their items, use them wisely, and make sure not a single loot crate is left unopened.
Levels usually have a handful of opportunities to replenish supplies, which can be crucial on Nightmare difficulty. Ammunition and supply sharing will only go so far, and these crates need to be taken advantage of. Remembering where these crates are from previous playthroughs will help teams ration as well.
Be Careful Of Attachments
As of this writing, there is no way to remove an attachment in Back 4 Blood without replacing it with another. This makes the decision to add something to a player's favorite weapon a bit more challenging. When it comes to Nightmare difficulty, almost everything has to be working well, and if an attachment will make a weapon less effective then it should be avoided.
Be Aware Of Alarms
Flocks of birds, alarm doors, and Snitchers can all trigger the Horde down on a player’s team. It is crucial to be careful and avoid these when going through a level. Fortunately, each one of these has its own workaround, and players need to plan for encountering them.
When certain Corruption Cards are active in Back 4 Blood, there will be flocks of birds all over the level and, if avoiding them is impossible, they can be completely killed with a Molotov. For Alarm doors, players should do what they can to allow the Ridden to destroy these doors. This way, the alarm will not trigger. Snitchers are quite the challenge, but a coordinated team can stagger them with melee attacks or wipe them out with explosives.
Set A Good Pace
Part of what makes Nightmare difficulty in Back 4 Blood something that should be avoided for beginners is the pace. The levels in the game can quickly become overwhelming for teams that like to rush and for those who linger too long in one place. This requires players to practice and understand what strategy works best for their playstyles.
Look Out For Special Mutations
Special Mutations can make quick work of a team on any level of difficulty. The various types of Tall Boys and Reekers in Back 4 Blood are going to be quite the challenge on Nightmare, and any team looking to survive needs to identify and eliminate these special Ridden as soon as possible.
The best way to eliminate these enemies is at a distance and with high explosives, so players will need to save items like grenades and pipe bombs for these special enemy types.
Keep Track Of Each Player's Trauma
Nightmare difficulty, aside from making enemies more difficult, gives out more Trauma damage for players. Trauma is damage that decreases a player's overall health until it is resolved. This stays with a player's character until they find and use a First Aid Cabinet or complete a level and heal themselves at the Vendor Crate. Nightmare difficulty is enough of a challenge without this full health decrease, and so teams have to be careful about accumulating too much of this type of damage.
Back 4 Blood is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.