The Difficulty Meter

Intro
Everyone plays Journey differently, thus it is hard to apply a difficulty to things.

The individual difficulty is depending


 * on the platform (PS3, PS4, PC, iOS)
 * input device (controller, mouse and keyboard, keyboard only, phone screen)
 * how powerful a PC is (sometimes even lower FPS can make things easier)


 * your own exploration
 * luck
 * companions you meet, following them and trying to figure out what they want
 * your will to train things over and over again
 * eventually your overall knowledge about the game (mechanics and differences)

and so on. Although in the end its mostly depending on you, how hard you are trying and testing things out to gain experience. A medium difficulty thing could feel very hard for you, its just an estimate.

Journey skills are rather built on each other, by going forward too fast you might miss some basics skills or knowledge, since your eyes might be only on the "cool stuff".

Example: someone knowing the Out of Bounds areas very well, but still not knowing why people "suddenly vanish in the Tower" (when they activate Glyphs, while a companion is too far away).

The Difficulty Meter is here to help you to estimate if certain skills or knowledge is needed to do a certain glitch or trick. The Faceplant itself is rather easy to learn, but to FP onto a banner is rather difficult.

Some are happy with some playthroughs and helping newcomers. Some want to see what else is there to discover, expand their knowledge about the game until infinity. There is no need to do Expert Mode things. It's all about you and enjoying Journey!

This means everyone is learning at a different speed. There is no "first start with Faceplant, then do glitches".

Difficulty levels
Beginner - Easy, Rookie - Medium, Advanced - Hard, Pro - sees the Matrix :)

Beginner
~ 1-5 journeys Knows how to get through the levels and how they look like

At the end of this scale, they know about the basics:


 * Finds symbols, glyphs and trophy stuff without searching
 * Gameplay Basics, about how to use the scarf and chirp, especially with a companion
 * The three guides for the first Journeys offer tips on what to try out: Basics Guides

If you see this icon, it means that this trick/glitch is easy to accomplish.

Being white might be helpful, but with some trying a red can also do it.

Next: Explore levels, learn to interpret Companions behavior, experiment with the War Machines, find out where triggers of events are, learn about connection. Just get to know the game real well.

Rookie
~ 5-10 Journeys, at least

Again: It is not needed to learn the Expert Mode-things, no one can force you to do things you do not want to do (or do not want to learn) in Journey.

Travel as you wish, if you are looking for some extra, the medium stuff is probably also suitable for you, Expert Mode offers a broad variety.

"Medium" labelled things may run under "Expert Mode", simply because they are not standard or most basic gameplay anymore.


 * White Robe
 * starts with charge- and dive boosting
 * knows some OOB entrances
 * the Gameplay Basics
 * maybe Faceplant (FP)
 * finds symbols, glyphs and trophy stuff without searching
 * knows how connection works and how to arrange a Journey with someone.

If you see this icon, it means that this trick/glitch requires solid knowledge of the basics of the game. This is mostly because certain locations or terms will not be explained extra, the knowledge of those will be assumed.

Example: If flyers are needed to get to a place, the article might just mention "to go there", since at this point you should know how to get there - with the help of the flyers.

Being able to identify Companions behavior, finds and learn different routes to show players stuff, learns new things from companions etc.



Advanced
~ travels regularly, on to infinityThis is for the hardcore fans. "Hard" just means its either difficult to accomplish or just requires much knowledge about the game / Expert Mode.


 * They are learning or are already able to do some more boosting techniques.


 * list of known CB-points is increasing
 * they know some OOBs or parts of them very well: it means they could lead a Companion to nice places there, without getting stuck or losing orientation, knows how to leave the OOB again etc.
 * knowledge about common glitches, how the game might look for the Companion

If you see this icon, it means that this trick/glitch most likely requires either one or more of the following points:


 * Fancy Flying
 * OOB
 * patience to try several times, experiment on your own, sometimes not all specifics to a glitch are known (to this wiki)
 * eventually an advanced companion
 * Learning about about the ID rule

For those travelers, its also fun to try-out instead of just following a description on a wiki or YT video. Maybe you will find some totally new stuff and can report it to the wiki!

"PRO"
This assumes that you either played the game for years or several (at least 100) times. Though depending on how fast and eager you are to learn it could be less than that. Most glitches and tricks are do-able for you or are at least known (even those that are not mentioned on the wiki yet), manages most flying techniques almost perfectly, knows "everything" in OOB and also uncountable tricks and mini games in Journey.

Pro, as in Professional.

The wiki rather needs them, than they need the wiki, since they know so much about the game. If you see this icon, it means that this trick/glitch is so advanced, that specifics might be unknown and information about it is still gathered (talk-pages).

PRO things are for those who actively try to find out how certain glitches work, experiment with known glitches and timings

"PROs" are probably rather good at Faceplant Jump (FPJ)/Zen Jump onto certain things.

They may know many glitches, enjoy tandem flying with other long-term players, create (and participate in) mini-games and challenges as well. They have fun just dancing around or doing "silly things".

Some experts start speedrunning Journey; a common reference is sub 30 minutes for an "Any%" glitched run (= under 30 minutes) which should be doable for a traveler at PRO level. Here is a guide that may help those willing to start on this adventure!

Two experts meet:

another expert player that knows the common places for Zen Jumps, recognises when the companion wants to Beam Down or which glitch the companion is trying to do with them. Everything they do is by mutual understanding of whats going on.



Additional notes
The Difficulty Meter is meant to be a scale showing up the minimum requirements for doing something. Like "recommended to try when you can do at least [this or that] consistently".

On the talk page to each Glitch-article or in the Journey discord you can discuss, which difficulty should be chosen for that glitch. This will help us to find a common ground for difficulties.