Difficulty settings (Half-Life)

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Half-Life allows players to play through its campaign in one of three different difficulty settings, each affecting the game in a different way. Below is a list of enemies and items and how they are affected in easy, normal and hard difficulty, respectively.

Items and Interactables

The chosen difficulty setting determines how much Health or Suit Energy the player can get from the following items:

Entity	Difficulty	Amount
Health Charger	Easy	50
	Normal	40
	Hard	25
Suit Charger	Easy	75
	Normal	50
	Hard	35
Health Kit	Easy	15
	Normal	15
	Hard	10
Battery	Easy	15
	Normal	15
	Hard	10

Monsters

The chosen difficulty setting determines, among other things, how much Health each monster will have and how much damage their attacks will deal:

Aliens

Entity	Difficulty	Health	Attack 1	Attack 2	Attack 3	Notes
Headcrab	Easy	10	5	-	-	Baby headcrabs spawned by Gonarch have 25 % of the health points and their attacks deal 30 % of the damage of regular headcrabs.
	Normal	10	10	-	-
	Hard	20	10	-	-
Alien Slave (Vortigaunts)	Easy	30	10	8	-	Their first attack is their signature 'Electric Zap' attack. Their secondary attack type is a melee "Claw Attack". Their first attack charges faster on Hard difficulty.
	Normal	30	10	10	-
	Hard	60	15	10	-
Houndeye	Easy	20	10	-	-	A houndeye's damage is multiplied based on the size of their squad. (A Two-Houndeye squad will do 30 each, Three will do 45, etc.)
	Normal	20	15	-	-
	Hard	30	15	-	-
Barnacle	Easy	10	-	-	-	Barnacles wait for their prey to touch its long tongue and drag said prey upwards to their mouth instead of actively hunting.
	Normal	10	-	-	-
	Hard	10	-	-	-
Bullsquid	Easy	40	10	15	35	The Bullsquid's first attack is a projectile-based spit attack, the secondary attack is a melee-based 'biting' attack, and finally the third attack is a tail-whipping attack.
	Normal	40	10	25	35
	Hard	120	15	25	35
Alien Grunt	Easy	60	4	10	-	Their first attack is a projectile-based hornet attack that targets the player. The secondary attack is a melee-based punch.
	Normal	90	5	20	-
	Hard	120	8	20	-
Ichthyosaur	Easy	200	20	-	-	The Ichthyosaur only uses a melee-based 'biting' attack. Typically it makes a loud noise if it has found and is pursuing a target in the water.
	Normal	200	35	-	-
	Hard	400	50	-	-
Alien Controller	Easy	60	3	15	-	The first attack is a series of small and quick energy balls. The second attack is a larger energy ball that slowly homes in onto its target.
	Normal	60	4	25	-
	Hard	100	5	35	-
Leech	Easy	2	2	-	-	Typically, leeches are found in groups of two or more at a time in official maps.
	Normal	2	2	-	-
	Hard	2	2	-	-
Snark	Easy	2	10	5	-	The Snark's first attack is "Bite Attack" when they hit their target. The second attack occurs when they explode into acid after getting damaged or after 20 seconds. Note, it is the only "summonable" NPC by the player in form of a weapon.
	Normal	2	10	5	-
	Hard	2	10	5	-

Mutated

Entity	Difficulty	Health	Attack 1	Attack 2	Attack 3	Notes
Zombie	Easy	50	10	25	-	The first attack type is a one-arm slash attack, where-as the second is a heavier 2 arm slashing motion.
	Normal	50	20	40	-
	Hard	100	20	40	-

Turrets

Entity	Difficulty	Health	Damage
Turret	Easy	50	8
	Normal	50	10
	Hard	60	10
Mini Turret	Easy	40	5
	Normal	40	5
	Hard	50	8
Sentry Turret	Easy	40	3
	Normal	40	4
	Hard	50	5

Humans

Entity	Difficulty	Health	Attack 1	Attack 2	Attack 3	Pellets per attack	Notes
Human Grunt (9mmAR)	Easy	50	5	3	-	3	Their first attack is a melee-based kick attack. The secondary attack is their weapon's attack.
	Normal	50	10	5	-	5
	Hard	80	10	6	-	6

Entity	Difficulty	Health	Attack 1	Attack 2	Attack 3	Notes
Female Assassin	Easy	30	5	-	-	On Hard Female Assassins will be able to use their invisibility cloak, rendering them nearly invisible unless attacking.
	Normal	50	5	-	-
	Hard	50	8	-	-

Bosses

Entity	Difficulty	Health	Attack 1	Attack 2	Attack 3	Radius	Notes
Apache	Easy	150	8	-	-	-
	Normal	250	10	-	-	-
	Hard	400	10	-	-	-
Gargantua	Easy	800	10	3	50	-	Their first attack is a melee-based Slash / Swipe attack. Their secondary is a mid-range flamethrower attack, while the third is a slightly ranged stomping attack.
	Normal	800	30	5	100	-
	Hard	1000	30	5	100	-
Gonarch ('Big Momma')	Easy	-	50	100	-	250	First attack type is a melee Slashing attack. The second is a long range Spit attack that explodes on contact. It is the only enemy of the game capable of spawning in baby headcrabs (Smaller versions of headcrabs).
	Normal	-	60	120	-	250
	Hard	-	70	160	-	270
Nihilanth	Easy	800	30	-	-	-
	Normal	800	30	-	-	-
	Hard	1000	50	-	-	-

Trivia

• Gargantua, Gonarch and Nihilanth do have health values but can't be outright killed due to the way they are programmed in the levels where they reside.
• Some of the difficulty changes are defined in the skills.cfg file found inside "Half-Life\valve" folder and can be easily altered.
• Console command "skill" can be used to change the difficulty at any time ingame. However it may not change all difficulty settings properly. (Health Stations, Armor Chargers, etc.)