Age of Mythology: Arena of the Gods - What's the best diffculty setting for playing it?

Age of Mythology: Retold – Arena of the Gods is a free mod that was released last week, and its 35 Skrimish-based Scenarios will have you control Kastor battling with his enemies with the help of Gaia, the other Major Gods, blessings, and world twists.

Aside from building your base and destroying your enemies by taking advantage of blessings and world twists, there isn’t much going on. Still, one exciting thing about Age of Mythology’s Arena of the Gods mod is the difficulty.

Arena of the Gods has three difficulty options: Standard, Hard, and Extreme. Similar to Age of Mythology: Retold, each is quite different.

Age of Mythology: Arena of the Gods – What’s the best difficulty for playing it?

The Standard difficulty will hardly be a challenge. Similar to the Standard difficulty from Age of Mythology: Retold, the one in Arena of the Gods is not different. The computer plays moderately, and it will attack you in small packs. This is the one if you want to learn about the mod, its blessings, and world twists. I played the first mission to get the hang of it and switched to Hard the next couple.

The Hard difficulty is a challenge, as the AI will play as you play and have the same capabilities. It will advance to later ages quickly and upgrade its infantry/myth units. You’ll also get attacked more often with bigger armies, and the AI will build a Titan Gate/Wonder and use God Powers usually. This is a cool difficulty that keeps it balanced enough to actually enjoy the game and get a challenge without ending up losing.

The Extreme difficulty, however, makes Arena of the Gods a gem part of Age of Mythology: Retold. The AI will play as competently as it does in the Hard difficulty, but it will have a 25% + advantage in terms of resources. It will quickly advance to Mythic Age and build a Titan Gate and a Wonder fairly quickly, giving you no time to prepare. Playing this mod is quite challenging, and I lost many times in Scenarios where I had to put up with 2 AIs, but it is very fun. The AI will attack you relentlessly, use God Powers, and spread all over the map.

Which one is the best? That’s depending on your gameplay style. But I would recommend going for the Hard difficulty, and when you master that well enough, you can go for the Extreme one. Remember that Age of Mythology made Arena of the Gods replayable, so you can actually replay a certain Scenario with different difficulties.

Arena of the Gods is a free mod, and you can play it by getting Age of Mythology: Retold, available on Steam.