This page outlines the difficulty settings across games in the Duke Nukem franchise.
Duke Nukem 3D Collection
Classic difficulty settings
There are four difficulty settings in Duke Nukem 3D and in most of its ports and expansions.
Piece of Cake
- Reduces the number of enemies on each level
Let's Rock
- Normal difficulty
Come Get Some
- Increases the number of enemies on each level
Damn I'm Good
- Increases the number of enemies on each level to the same number as Come Get Some
- After 25 seconds, corpses that have not been gibbed (exploded, squished, frozen and shattered, or incinerated) will be revived
- Cheat codes are blocked, but if cheats are enabled on a lower difficulty before switching to this difficulty, then they will remain in effect
- "Enemies Left" on the level-end screen will always display "N/A"
Duke Caribbean: Life's A Beach
In the Duke Nukem 3D expansion pack Duke Caribbean: Life's A Beach, the difficulty settings mirror those from the base game but have been renamed.
Low Tide
- Same as "Piece of Cake" above
- If this difficulty is selected, Duke will say, "Have one on the house!"
Makin' Waves
- Same as "Let's Rock" above
- If this difficulty is selected, Duke will say, "It's time to limbo!"
Big Kahuna
- Same as "Come Get Some" above
- If this difficulty is selected, Duke will say, "Time to crash this party!"
Tsunami
- Same as "Damn I'm Good" above
- If this difficulty is selected, Duke will say, "Life's a bitch, and then you die!"
Duke Nukem Advance
The difficulty settings in Duke Nukem Advance use the same naming scheme as Duke Nukem 3D. The difficulty determines how many enemies are found on each level, but unlike Duke Nukem 3D, it may also replace certain enemies with stronger ones and add extra items, such as ammo or health items, on harder difficulties.
The difficulty settings include:
- Piece of Cake
- Let's Rock
- Come Get Some
- Damn I'm Good!
Duke Nukem: Time To Kill
Duke Nukem: Time to Kill uses a different naming scheme for its difficulty settings as the previous games. Aside from the enemies' strength, the difficulty also determines the number of continues after dying.
Wussy
- Continues: 4
Get Some
- Continues: 3
Let's Go
- Continues: 2
Death Wish
- Continues: 1
Duke Nukem Forever
Duke Nukem Forever uses the same naming scheme for its difficulty settings as Duke Nukem 3D, except that Duke Nukem Forever inserts a comma into "Damn, I'm Good.". Enemy appearances, AI, etc. remained unchanged across all difficulties; the only stats affected are Duke's ability to deal and receive damage. Some non-enemy objects like crates also require more firepower, and some attacks like thrown objects, vehicle splatters, etc. are unaffected by the damage reduction on higher difficulties, making them far more attractive options during combat.
Piece of Cake
- "Easy Difficulty. You don't play many shooters."
- Damage Dealt: +25%
- Damage received: -25%
Let's Rock
- "Normal Difficulty. Recommended for most players."
- Enemy health: Default
- Damage received: Default
Come Get Some
- "Hard Difficulty. Enemies are tougher and deal more damage."
- Damage Dealt: -25%
- Damage received: +50%
Damn, I'm Good
- "Insane Difficulty. You are Duke incarnate."
- Damage Dealt: -50%
- Damage received: +100%
Trivia
The Damn I'm Good difficulty in Duke Nukem 3D is similar to the Nightmare difficulty in Doom. Both retain the same number of enemies as the next-highest difficulty, and both revive corpses. However, gibbing an enemy in Duke Nukem 3D will permanently kill them, whereas this is not the case in Doom.
- By mistake, there are some enemies in Duke Nukem 3D that are only present on the Damn I'm Good difficulty due to incorrect map coding. For example, there is an Assault Trooper set with a lo-tag of 4 that will appear in a cage on Death Row only on the Damn I'm Good difficulty.