The Last of Us Part II gets a permadeath mode and more

The Last of Us Part II made big waves upon its release in June 2020. After years of waiting, the game received critical acclaim but also stirred the pot within some online communities. That hasn’t stopped Naughty Dog from releasing more content for it, though.

While no story content has been promised, the beloved studio is releasing a big update on August 13th with new ways to play The Last of Us Part II. Naughty Dog’s trademarked Grounded difficulty mode is making its debut in the post-apocalyptic sequel on top of a separate permadeath mode.

The Grounded difficulty makes ammo and other resources far more scarce and toughens your opposition. Enemies are smarter, deadlier, and you’re much weaker. You’ll also have your listen mode and select HUD elements removed.

As for permadeath, there’s no second chances. You die, you completely. If that’s a bit much for you given the length of The Last of Us Part II, you can play each respective “day” (such as Seattle Day One) in this mode. That way each day acts as a bit of a checkpoint but those are long chapters so even a death during this version of the mode will be punishing.

As a reward, you will get two trophies. One for beating the game on Grounded, another for beating it on permadeath in any of its variations. Neither of these are required for the platinum trophy.

Other new additions in the Grounded update for The Last of Us Part II include gameplay, visual, and audio modifiers. This ranges from instant kill attacks to infinite ammo and more. You can see a list of them below as a well as another list of improvements to the overall quality of life.

This modifiers are accessed via the game’s Extras menu, and are only unlocked after completing the game.

• Mirror World
• Mirror on Death
• Slow Motion
• Bullet Speed mode
• Infinite Ammo
• Infinite Crafting
• Infinite Melee Durability
• Infinite Listen mode Range
• One Shot
• Touch of Death
• 8-bit Audio
• 4-bit Audio
• Helium Audio
• Xenon Audio

New options and improvements

• Saves now display playtime up to the second
• Film Grain Adjustment option
• Disable Listen Mode option
• Motion Sensor Function Aiming option
• Arc Throw HUD Display option
• Aiming Acceleration Scale option
• Aiming Ramp Power Scale option
• Accessibility improvements to Ground Zero encounter, collectible tracking, Enhanced Listen Mode for collectibles, and rope gameplay

The Last of Us Part II is out now on PS4. You can read our review here where we gave the game an 8.5/10.