Pass the Fear Normal Difficulty: Clear Rate and Build Rules

The first clear. Two thirds of all owners reach it, so the failure mode here is usually an incoherent build rather than execution.

Official / in-game data
Official / in-game data

66.3% of all Pass the Fear owners hold First Victory (Clear Normal difficulty). Captured from public Steam achievement statistics on 2026-07-31.

Where Normal sits on the ladder

DifficultySteam achievementClear rateOf those who cleared the tier below
NormalFirst Victory66.3%
HardUnbreakable46.7%70.4%
NightmareNightmare Conquered33.1%70.9%
HellHell Walker24%72.5%
RealityTrial of Reality17.8%74.2%

Read the last column rather than the raw percentages. Each tier removes a remarkably consistent share of the players who cleared the one below it — between 70% and 75% survive each step. The ladder is not getting proportionally harder; it is applying roughly the same filter five times.

This is the first clear most players achieve, and the widest part of the funnel. Everything above it is a subset of this population.

How the decision tool changes on Normal

The run decision tool applies a different weighting once you select this difficulty. The intent is simple: the harder the tier, the less willing the tool is to recommend something that only pays off when other conditions line up.

Option traitAdjustment on Normal
Reliable / unconditional value+1
Conditional (needs setup to fire)+0
Survival+0
Safe execution+0
Patch-sensitive (extra penalty)+0

What this page does not claim

The clear rates above are measured facts. The build advice built on top of them is not yet. This site has not verified, for Normal specifically, which Hunter clears it fastest, which relic combinations appear most often in successful runs, or how the enemy and modifier rules differ from the tier below.

Those answers require evidence from actual clears, not from restating a database. Until that evidence exists here, this page tells you where the tier sits and how the tool reasons — and stops there.

Next tier up: Hard (46.7% of owners).

Source

Clear rates and achievement names come from the public Steam global achievement page for Pass the Fear (appid 3561220), captured 2026-07-31. Percentages are shares of all owners. The tutorial achievement sits at 100.0%, so owners and players who actually launched the game are effectively the same population.