---
name: onboarding-difficulty
description: "Design and critique onboarding, tutorials, FTUE, teaching, skill ramps, difficulty curves, assist modes, accessibility of challenge, failure, and mastery progression. Do not use for UI implementation or code."
---

# Onboarding And Difficulty

Use when the question is how players learn, survive, improve, and feel challenged without being lost, bored, or coerced.

## Teaching Principles

Teach through play where possible; use direct instruction when playtesting shows subtlety fails.

- introduce one concept at a time;
- create a safe first use;
- require the player to act, not only read;
- give immediate feedback;
- repeat in a new context;
- combine learned concepts only after each is legible;
- remove instructions once behavior proves understanding.

## Difficulty Curve

Map challenge against player skill, not an average-player fiction:

- starting skill assumptions;
- first friction point;
- mastery gates;
- optional challenge branches;
- failure cost;
- retry time;
- player-controlled assists;
- catch-up or re-entry paths;
- endgame challenge identity.

A strong curve can be linear, branching, adaptive, optional, social, or player-selected, but it must be readable.

## Assist And Accessibility Of Challenge

Assist options preserve dignity:

- describe what changes;
- let players choose the kind of help;
- avoid shaming labels;
- preserve core fantasy where possible;
- separate accessibility from prestige only when the game's social contract requires it;
- make the default challenge intentional but not exclusionary.

## Failure Review

Good failure is readable, points to a better next attempt, has proportionate cost, preserves momentum, supports mastery, and does not hide rules.

Bad failure:

- repeats long known content;
- punishes experimentation;
- obscures cause;
- blocks learning behind grind;
- humiliates or excludes players.

## Output

Return:

- first-session learning path;
- skill ramp and difficulty curve;
- confusion and boredom risks;
- assist/accessibility recommendations;
- failure-cost diagnosis;
- playtest tasks and stop conditions.

Use `../../references/contracts.md` for reusable onboarding and difficulty reviews.