New Game Settings

Maincharacter
You can choose one out of four Main Characters, their elemental affinity, dating interests and your saved loadouts.

Difficulty
You can change the game length and difficulty modifier here. Many toggles, choices and selections can vary the difficulty modifier from the minimum of 8% to the maximum of 774% - but to unlock Achievements and new gallery entries, which provide new start options, the difficulty modifier for that playthrough must be at or above 100%.

Game mode
Game modes largely affect how long the game being set up will be. On the last day of the game mode, the final mission portal will spawn which you must clear within its time limit to win the game. Each mode also has separate effects, such as for how long the King's quests remain active, how many times they can be failed without game over, and so on.

Difficulty modifiers
These options apply the most impact on the game's difficulty. They affect the difficulty rating in a multiplicative fashion - piling easier or harder choices will have compounding effects. Here, the options will have a difficulty factor noted within parentheses next to them. The factor of x1.0 indicates the recommended choice for new players.

Penalty
This option determines what happens to a character who falls in battle.

Mc-points
This option determines how many points the player can distribute for their Main Character.

Starter points
This option determines how many points the player's two Starter units receive. Here, the Starters refer to the girls the player can configure under the Starters option to the right of the screen. Like with Mc-points, this option ranges from 0 to 50 albeit with different difficulty factors.

Starting money
The Main Character will have access to money at the start of the game depending on this option.

Save type
This option configures how the player can save and load their progress and interact with the chosen game mode.

King's Quests
Four toggles to the top right of the screen show what types of King's quests you will receive in the game.

Choosing all 4 applies a x1.2 multiplier to the difficulty, Choosing 3 applies a x1.0 multiplier, Choosing 2 applies a x0.9 multiplier, Choosing only 1 will apply x0.6 multiplier.

It is impossible to choose none even if King's quests are rendered optional.

Bonus
The list of options here forms the main bulk of difficulty boosts. The percent numbers here are additive instead of multiplicative. The list here is up to date as of v0.22.01.

Traits/Profession
You can choose your Main Characters profession, traits and genes here.

Starters
You can choose your starters species, genes and traits.

Initially you can only pick from Base Species. After you unlock a Hybrid Species in the gallery you can also pick them.

You will receive starting Essence based on what primary species you've picked for your starters. If you choose hybrid species make sure that you've chosen the right primary species, as Centaur/Mermaid and Mermaid/Centaur starters will have different essence.

Additionally you can see your starters species description, base stats and possible, as well as guaranteed skills.

Challenge Rank
Challenge Ranks provide additional difficulty increases that do not affect other unlockable settings. Instead of allowing more flexible options, Challenge Ranks simply make the game harder. However, there exists a rare Achievement at clearing a Challenge Rank 10 game with a powerful reward.

Each CR up to 10 has a unique global modifier that complicate a playthrough in its own ways. Beginning with CR11, more general, numerical bonuses begin to apply to enemies. There appears no limit to how many Challenge Ranks can pile up.

With a brand new game, the Challenge Rank is limited to 0. Each time the player clears a game in the highest Challenge Rank, the next rank is unlocked for future playthroughs.

Rank Details

 * 1: Enemies have +25% strength/magic/LDmg. The player cannot flee on the first turn.
 * 2: Portals spawn less frequently and cost +400% more gold to enter.
 * 3: Unstable portals' hostility increases by 2.
 * 4: Brothel work earns half as much. Enemies' LRes inccreases by 2.
 * 5: King's quests remain active for 1 less day. The King is stronger.
 * 6: Enemies have +1 speed and armor.
 * 7: Shop, tavern, and market purchases cost increases by 100%.
 * 8: Enemies have +25% HP and an additional genetic trait.
 * 9: Enemies start battles defending.
 * 10: King's quests remain active for 1 less day. The King is even stronger.
 * After clearing a Challenge Rank 10 game, the player may play even higher CR games with repeating bonuses for enemies.
 * 11+: All enemy stats increase by 2% for every additional rank.
 * 11, 16, 21...: Hostility of everything increases by 1.
 * 12, 17, 22...: Enemy strength and magic increase by 1.
 * 13, 18, 23...: Enemy armor increases by 1.
 * 14, 19, 24...: Rival power increases by 10.
 * 15, 20, 25...: Enemy LDmg and LRes increases by 1. (Note: CR15 does not increase enemy LRes; the effect kicks in with CR20 and above).

New Game+
You can only start NG+ by starting a new run and winning the game. It allows you to carry over 5 characters and equipped items. It will also increase the difficulty.

For more information look here.