Difficulty

Path of Exile currently has three difficulties: Normal, Cruel, and Merciless.

Each difficulty level contains the same zones, monsters and quests. The difference in difficulty comes from the zones being generated at a different level and hence monsters and items within them also being that level. The only structural differences are that the Twilight Strand does not have a waypoint in Normal difficulty, and the Eternal Laboratory is only a separate area with a map device on Merciless difficulty.

Difficulty	Penalty on Death	Resistance Penalty	Level Requirement
Normal	N/A	N/A	N/A
Cruel	5% of level progress lost	−20% Elemental and Chaos resistance	Level 20
Merciless	10% of level progress lost	−60% Elemental and Chaos resistance	Level 35

In addition to the experience penalty, death in hardcore leagues removes you from the Hardcore league and places you in the Standard league. Characters that die in nemesis are also moved to Standard (not domination).

After completing Act 3 in either Normal or Cruel, players restart the game in Act 1 at the next higher difficulty, as long as they meet the level requirement.

Achievements

There are 6 achievements available for completing each of the 3 difficulties in each of a softcore league and a hardcore league:

Name	Achievement
Breaking Free	Finish the game on Normal difficulty in a non-Hardcore League.
Ascension	Finish the game on Cruel difficulty in a non-Hardcore League.
Vengeance	Finish the game on Merciless difficulty in a non-Hardcore League
Fearless	Finish the game on Normal difficulty in a Hardcore League.
Dauntless	Finish the game on Cruel difficulty in a Hardcore League.
Indomitable	Finish the game on Merciless difficulty in a Hardcore League.