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How To Beat Impossible Difficulty in the Dead Space Remake

How To Beat Impossible Difficulty in the Dead Space Remake

Dead Space was a master stroke in the survival horror genre back when it first launched. The Dead Space Remake makes this gem shine even brighter and allows new players to experience the best in the class. Since Dead Space is all about facing your fears, the Impossible difficulty is the epitome of this most primal instinct.

It is quite a challenge to get through this difficulty as it will test every inch of your patience and wit. In this article, we will go over some tips you can use to beat the Impossible difficulty in the Dead Space Remake.

To beat impossible Difficulty in Dead Space Remake, you need to focus on avoiding damage at all costs. Conserve your ammo and utilize stasis, kinesis, and melee as much as you can. Take 2 to 3 weapons with you and not more or you will end up wasting valuable inventory.

Impossible Difficulty in Dead Space Remake

Impossible Difficulty

Before we can understand the Impossible difficulty, we need to cover the Hard difficulty as the former difficulty build up on the latter one.

Playing in the Hard difficulty, Isaac will be against much harder odds than normal:

  • Isaac will be weaker i.e. he will take more damage from the usual enemy attacks.
  • Enemies on the other hand will take lesser damage than before meaning you will have to pump more lead into these freaks.
  • The enemies AI will be a bit clever, having the ability to sidestep your attacks.
  • You will have to rely on smart upgrade choices to counter this damage imbalance.
  • The ammo and other drops will generally stay the same but the amount you receive will be much less.

Moving on to the Impossible difficulty, this mode will have the same implications as seen above with another layer of challenge, which are:

  • Autosaving will be disabled.
  • You will have only one save slot to save your progress into.
  • The kicker, you will only have one life. The moment you die, it’s game over man! You will have to either start your run from the beginning. If you continue the same run then the game will shift to Hard difficulty. You will have to end the entire game without dying!

Unlike the previous version of the game, this difficulty is available from the beginning when starting a new game in the Remake. You won’t have to end the game first on lower difficulties to unlock it this time.

dead space remake hand cannon

The Impossible Difficulty is a true testament to one’s ability to power through. Your Dead Space skills, knowledge, and heart will all be put to the test here and only the diehard fans will accept it. As a reward for completing this challenge, you will receive:

  •  “Untouchable” Achievement/Trophy i.e. bragging rights.
  • Special Suit called the Burnished Suit.
  • Special Weapon called Hand Cannon. An OP, with unlimited ammo, and a funny piece of an arsenal.

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How To Beat Impossible Difficulty In The Dead Space Remake

Now that we know what accepting this difficulty entails, let us get down to the brass tacks. What tips and things you can do to best this rather impossible challenge?

Beat the Game first on Lower Difficulty

hard difficulty dead space remake

Instead of jumping straight into the deep end of this challenge we highly recommend you first complete the game on any of the lower difficulties available. Preferably go for the Hard Difficulty as it will get you accustomed to the harder changes.

Doing so will allow you to familiarize yourself with the game. You will have the knowledge of what enemies you are about to face hence prepare yourself accordingly. You will be aware of the environmental hazards which are surefire ways to instantly end your run.

The general understanding of this game will help you stave off any upcoming surprises, especially those pesky jump scares.

Conserve Ammo

As stated before, ammo will be harder to come across, and the fact you will have to use more of it to take out each enemy makes this situation even worse. In this case, your ability to be frugal will be quite beneficial. Occasionally, you can avoid fighting altogether and run away if and when the situation allows you to.

When using automatic weapons such as the Pulse Rifle or Flamethrower, fire in controlled bursts to the limbs and avoid ammo-consuming secondary fire unless essential.

Always aim for the limbs of foes (especially the legs to topple them and slow them down) with precise weapons like the Plasma Cutter to save ammunition and deal more damage to the target.

During the early stages of the game, when you and the enemies are weaker, consider using the shoot-stomp combo (dismember a leg, then stomp until the fool stops moving), using Stasis for added backup.

Regular Necromorphs are rapidly dispatched with this strategy, and the only ammunition wasted is to shoot off their legs. But be wary of your surroundings.

Rely less on your gun and more on other tools at your disposal, especially when facing relatively easier enemy encounters. Use melee, stasis, and kinesis more often to conserve ammo for the harder challenges ahead.

Stasis, Kinesis, and Melee

stasis dead space

Speaking of other tools in your belt, these three things can be game changers if used effectively. Try to practice their efficient use when playing at lower difficulties. Below are some strategies that you can apply:

  • Melee in itself is quite weak but when used in certain scenarios it can provide openings for you to capitalize upon. You can swing your weapon at a charging enemy to push them away and land easier follow-up shots from your weapon.
  • If you dismember a necromorph’s legs, even crippling multiple of them, then you round them up and slow them down with stasis and go to town by stomping the ever-living hell out of them.
  • Freeze any enemy with stasis and turn them into passive punching bags and go to town on them.
  • Use kinesis to hurl objects at the enemy to stun them or knock them down then use melee to damage them or even finish them off.
  • Sharp objects from the environment and enemies’ limbs/claws can be utilized as makeshift guns by picking them up using kinesis and firing them instead of your weapon. Weaker enemies will get impaled through this tactic and die quickly.
  • Throw explosives canisters using kinesis whenever you see them as they are a godsend in many ways.

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Weapon Selection

weapon wheel

Since ammo is in short supply throughout this difficulty, you should stick to a selection of 2 to 3 weapons. The way this game works is if a weapon is in your inventory then you will continually find its ammo in the world. For weapons, you don’t use that often this ammo is essentially waste.

Equip only the set of weapons that you use regularly or are most effective in certain situations, and throw the unnecessary weapon in storage. This will ensure you won’t get any useless ammo. You can also change the weapons according to the occasion. Just do not let go of the Plasma Cutter. We will cover its benefits later on.

Having a few weapons also ensures that all the upgrades are directed toward the right weapons.

Health (Suit and Med Packs)

upgradting health

The best decision you can take while upgrading is to increase your Suit’s Health (HP). Since enemies’ attacks hit harder in this difficulty, they can easily make quick work of you especially when you are in a dicey situation or not aware of your surroundings.

Putting Power Nodes into Health will guarantee that you can withstand some punishment. It won’t turn you into a tank by any means but having that extra bit of health can work in your favor in many cases.

While on the subject of health, the appropriate use of the Med Packs you find while playing can likewise be beneficial. It is optimal that you rely on Large Med Packs which will restore 5 health bars. The rest can be sold for credits so that you can buy other useful items.

You will be coming across tons of small and medium health packs and those take up valuable inventory space which could be utilized for other important things. Either store them for later use or sell them if you have a surplus of them.

Health won’t be much of an issue if you are cautious about avoiding damage. Therefore, inventory could be used elsewhere.

Save Constantly

save point

Needless to say, save your progress at any chance you get. This could be a blessing in case your game decides to crash or glitch out at any point. Having a recent save will allow you to quickly exit and return to the last save, just don’t die in the middle of it.

Another way of using this saving to your advantage is by “save scumming“. At any point in the game, if you get stuck in an impossible situation or right before you are about to get killed, you can simply pause and exit the game and then reload your save file.

If you do this right and the game doesn’t register your death before exiting, you can easily keep continuing this challenging run and the game won’t revert to hard difficulty.

You can also exploit the cloud save feature. Save scumming with cloud saves allows you to overwrite your local save files and revert them to Impossible mode. Just make sure Auto-sync is disabled first. Otherwise, the death will overwrite the cloud file, which defeats the purpose.

Selling Items

shop dead space remake

As we have mentioned before, selling any extra health packs that are of no use for that additional cha-ching. This could be applied to anything you can find in the game. Some pickups are worth it and should be kept while others take up valuable inventory real estate.

Judge for yourself and know when to carry or sell off an item.

The Bench, Upgrading, and Power Nodes

It is safe to say that this game doesn’t give you enough Power Nodes to upgrade everything and also open those locked doors. Other than the ones you find in the game, Power Nodes cost 10,000 credits at the store which is quite a lot if you end up wasting them on useless upgrades or unnecessarily locked rooms.

As for upgrading, prioritize weapon damage so that less ammo is needed to take an enemy down. As stated before, upgrade your Suit’s health too.

Also, avoid reloading or healing if there’s a Bench nearby and you have spare Power Nodes; upgrading ammo capacity in a weapon or max health in your RIG will automatically restore the ammo clip or health, respectively, saving you precious ammo and health packs.

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One-Gun Strategy (Plasma Cutter Only)

In addition to the techniques stated above, the following strategy can be quite helpful in the impossible run. Although counter-intuitive, Impossible Mode is the best candidate for a one-gun run with the Plasma Cutter.

It is the most cost-effective weapon in terms of ammo consumption, inventory space stacking, and quantity of ammo to kill per ammo pickup. When compared to other types of ammunition, Plasma Energy is quite inexpensive to purchase from a shop.

The Plasma Cutter offers exceptional single-target damage per shot, capable of dismembering limbs in two hits. The Plasma Cutter is very precise due to its secondary firing, reducing ammo waste.

Having only one gun increases the rate of Plasma Energy drops from opponents and containers and allows the player to concentrate upgrades on a single weapon. Aim for the Necromorphs’ crotch region so that every shot hits with the body and both legs, increasing the damage per shot. Your ammunition consumption will be reduced by half.

Prioritize damage upgrades so that it takes fewer shots to defeat an opponent. Ammo conservation is critical. During your gameplay, you will find ammunition for additional guns. Because you won’t need them, sell them at the Store to get credits for Power Nodes and ammunition.


The Impossible difficulty in Dead Space is hard but the sense of achievement you get after conquering it is unlike anything else. Not to mention the amazing rewards you will receive for taking up this challenge.