Difficulty, resolved to one player

A game is not hard.
It is hard in a particular way, for a particular player.

CLIMBINGTRIVIAL, then GENTLE, then MODERATE, then STEEP, then PUNISHING, then BRUTAL — and then a wall.→ WALL

Celeste demands frame-perfect inputs and forgives every mistake instantly. Darkest Dungeon barely tests your hands and can erase forty hours. Collapsing both to “7/10 difficulty” tells you nothing. TrialPixel maps games across eight axes, then re-scores every one of them against your skills, your controls, and what you are willing to put up with.

Or browse the whole catalogue — 204 games with a fingerprint solid enough to rank.

Calibrate — 2 minutes

or see what an account keeps

209
GAMES MAPPED: 166
WALLS CHARTED

Every number on this site is currently about nobody.

Answer eight questions about what you are good at and what you can stand, and the whole catalogue re-scores. Two minutes, no account, works signed out.

Calibrate

01Rate your own aptitude on the eight axes — honestly, not aspirationally.
02Say what you play on and what you need: input, platform, access, assists.
03Every score on the site becomes a score for you, and stays that way.

What it does

Every panel below is live data, not a mock-up. Hold one to watch it run.

Scored for youOne profile, every number redrawnTell it what you are good at and what you can stand. Every score on the site is recomputed against that, not against an average nobody is.Average player8.1You, once calibrated?.?Dota 2 Eight axes, never averagedThe fingerprint, not the verdictExecution, reaction, strategy, puzzle, grind, punishment, curve, obscurity. Kept apart, because brutal-on-reaction and trivial-on-strategy is not “medium”.Dota 2 · hardest on learning curve One question, two gamesHead to headNobody can put a number on obscurity. Everybody can say which of two games explained itself less. Ratings are fitted from those calls.I Wanna Be the GuyVSDwarf FortressWhich demanded more precise inputs?Settled argumentsRankings per axisThe hardest games on each axis, fitted with Bradley–Terry from every comparison players have made, rather than averaged out of star ratings.1Dota 28.12I Wanna Be the Guy8.13Noita8.0Hardest overall, published fingerprint Work up to itLaddersA route from something you have already beaten to the game you keep bouncing off, with each rung close enough to the last to be worth playing.3Dota 28.12Metroid Dread5.51What Remains of Edith Finch1.0A rung is a step you can actually make Where it bitesWalls, mapped and spoiler-safe166 known walls: how far in they sit, what they cost, and how people got past them. Names stay hidden until you ask for them.STARTWHERE RUNS ENDCREDITSDifficulty is not a slope. It is a few cliffs.

Compare two gamesBoth fingerprints on one 1-10 scale, ordered by where they disagree most.Import from SteamYour library, matched to the catalogue, with beaten and bounced inferred from playtime.Assists & accessibility603 options catalogued per game, and a warning where the one you need is missing.

What an account keeps

The same game, two players, two answers

Nothing on this site is behind a sign-in — calibration works signed out and always will. An account is how the result stops being about this browser and starts being about you.

Dota 2A dead-average player8.1Shaky hands, keyboard + mouse8.4

One fingerprint, one scoring engine, two players. Yours is the one it cannot compute yet.

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The eight axes

Every axis runs 1 to 10 and every one points the same way: higher is harder. Follow one to see the games that lean on it.

EXEExecutionPrecise inputs, tight platforming, combo consistency, aim.REAReactionTwitch timing, parry and dodge windows, reading tells under pressure.STRStrategyPlanning, builds, economy and resource management, long-range decisions.PUZPuzzleLateral thinking, environmental logic, riddles you must actually solve.GRDGrindRepetition, farming, time-to-power, retries measured in hours.PUNPunishmentWhat failure costs you — checkpoint distance, lost runs, permadeath.CRVLearning CurveHow steep the ramp is before you are merely competent.OBSObscurityCryptic systems, hidden rules, weak feedback. How much the game refuses to explain.

Where the numbers come from

Editorial anchors set the scale, players move it. Every head-to-head call feeds a Bradley–Terry fit that re-derives each axis from the comparisons rather than from an average of star ratings, and anything still resting on an estimate is labelled as one wherever it appears. Nothing here pretends to more confidence than it has earned.