Difficulty Levels

This article is about the four campaign difficulty levels established by Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

There are four difficulty levels in the Call of Duty series' campaigns. Each is different, with Recruit being the easiest and Veteran being the hardest.

Recruit
"For players new to first person action games"

- In-game description

Recruit is one of the four difficulty settings in the Call of Duty series. It is the easiest of the four difficulties, as the player takes small amounts of damage from most weapons and the AI is generally inaccurate. This difficulty is recommended for players new to the First Person Shooter genre.

Regular
"Your abilities in combat will be tested."

- In-game description

Regular is one of the four difficulty settings in the Call of Duty series. It can generally be considered the "normal" difficulty setting as it is slightly harder than Recruit, but easier than Hardened and Veteran.

Hardened
"Your skills will be strained."

- In-game description

Hardened is one of the four difficulty settings in the Call of Duty series. It is harder than Recruit and Regular but easier than Veteran. Playing on Hardened mode allows players to achieve many of the trophies and achievements that can only be obtained by playing on the harder difficulties, without actually playing on Veteran. It is recommended to play on Veteran, seeing that your health is already low, and you can earn more trophies or achievements.

Veteran
"You will not survive."

- In-game description

Veteran is the hardest of the four difficulties that are in the Call of Duty series. The player will find they will take much more damage and have very low health, with enemies having increased accuracy and deadly reaction time.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies
"Feeling tired or rundown? Try reducing the difficulty."

- In-game description

Call of Duty: Black Ops II features two separate difficulties for Zombies, those being "Easy" and "Original." On "Easy", weapons have higher damage, zombies have lower health, the probability of receiving a better weapon from the Mystery Box is higher, and there are less zombies per round. Zombies do not sprint until rounds 14-16 on Easy. However, Easter Eggs cannot be completed while playing on Easy, and Perma-Perks are not retained/cannot be obtained.

Call of Duty: Ghosts - Extinction
Casual: The number of Cryptids that appear are reduced by 50%, their health is also reduced by 50% (Scouts can now be killed with a single melee attack; Rhinos only take up to a single LMG magazine to be taken down). Cryptids are not as aggressive as before the patch, players will take less damage as a result. Players also spend less money by having to use their abilities less often (the prices are still the same, it's the frequency of using them to resupply/re-armor that allows players a full bank most of the time in this difficulty). Playing on Casual, however, does not count towards leaderboard placings; scores won't be posted, escapes will not count. But, the number of Cryptids the players kill will still count towards the 10,000-weapon-kill operation and still earn the Multiplayer patch. Additionally, escaping while using a Relic will also still count towards the background challenges. A recent update made a casual playslist online, with rotating maps.

Regular: This difficulty is essentially the way the mode has been played before the patch.

Hardcore: The crosshairs on the player's HUD is removed, the Cryptids are more aggresive and skill points are not earned for destroying hives. Richochet friendly fire is also turned on. Substancially more difficult enemies appear to spawn much earlier on. Players tend to be faced with Hunters on the very first hive. Specifically on Point of Contact, within the first area, players come face to face with large numbers of Meteors/Seekers. A recent update made on online hardcore playlist, with alternating maps.

Trivia

 * In Call of Duty and Call of Duty: United Offensive, the "Recruit" level is called "Greenhorn", and in Call of Duty: Finest Hour, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 3 are called "Easy".
 * Call of Duty: Black Ops II is the first game to have difficulties for Zombies.
 * The difficulty in Zombies cannot be changed in public matches and is only affected in split-screen, system link, and custom games.