Rougelites are almost universally difficult, and while Have A Nice Death is generally no exception, the game is not without mercy. Enabling the "Self-Fulfillment" difficulty mode turns the game into a much more forgiving, casual jaunt through the afterlife's bureaucracy.
Introduced in the Executive Decisions pre-release update, Self-Fulfillment mode allows newer or casual players of Have A Nice Death to get a grasp of the game's controls and gameplay loop in a low-stress environment. In this mode, mistakes are punished less severely, and the player is given more opportunities to bounce back from a bad scrape.
The Benefits of Self-Fulfillment Mode
Compared to the game's base difficulty, Self-Fulfillment mode tweaks a number of health and damage values to make mistakes less punishing. These changes are:
- The game begins with all empty healing slots instead filled with anima, which may heal any greyed-out portion of the health meter
- Health refills 50% of its current maximum after beating a Sorrow, the game's boss enemies
- Basic enemies will deal 33% less damage through both contact and projectile attacks
- With every consecutive death, anima restores more health on usage
By default, anima restores the player's health by 15, just short of 25% of the player's base maximum health of 65. As a player progresses through a run, their maximum health will naturally increase, which normally makes anima a comparatively less helpful resource. Self-Fulfillment's system of scaling anima effectiveness with repeated deaths alleviates this problem, slowly tipping the balance so that anima heals as much as the player needs to succeed.
Players should bear in mind that anima alone cannot restore portions of the health meter that have been made entirely black. This lost health requires a "pure heal" to restore, which is most readily available by using a pure anima item.
Pure anima is gained by collecting anima while the player already has an anima in their inventory, and all healing slots are currently filled. This lines up rather conveniently with Self-Fulfillment loading the player's inventory with anima, meaning that as long as the player doesn't tap into their starting anima, they can turn early anima drops into pure anima to store for later.
How to Activate Self-Fulfillment Mode in Have A Nice Death
Self-Fulfillment mode unlocks as a difficulty option after the player has died at least once. After being shuffled off this post-mortal coil, the player will be deposited into Death's office, where the player can manage their meta-progression between runs, including the difficulty on which their next run will begin.
The player may adjust the difficulty of the next run by interacting with the portrait of Death, the very last node to the right before entering the elevator to begin a run. By default, this node will be visualized only by a sticky note, signaling that the player is on the game's base difficulty, "Imminent Breakdown."
Interacting with this node will allow players to cycle through the difficulties they have unlocked, with the level of difficulty ascending as the player scrolls to the right. Players seeking Self-Fulfillment should scroll all the way to the left, which will display the mode's name and modifiers. They'll know that Self-Fulfillment mode is active when the sticky note on the wall has been replaced with tally marks.
After this point, the player needs only to board the elevator to begin playing with the benefits of Self-Fulfillment mode enabled. As Self-Fulfillment continues to grow more forgiving with each consecutive death, players should not be discouraged if they die even with the mode enabled. Repeated tries will only make things easier for the player, and with enough practice playing Have a Nice Death, they may find they no longer depend on the lenient difficulty of Self-Fulfillment mode.
Have a Nice Death is available on PC and Switch.