The Last of Us fans will remember when developer Naughty Dog introduced Grounded mode as DLC for the original. Grounded mode basically was a way for veteran players to up the difficultly in a major way. Enemies hit harder, supplies are tougher to find, and you can't even use listen mode. The difficulty didn't ship with The Last of Us Part 2; however, the team at

The Last of Us 2 just got DLC Trophies. Patch 1.03 with Grounded Difficulty + Permadeath Mode incoming. pic.twitter.com/drUsvnHqIk

— PowerPyx (@PowerPyx) August 10, 2020

" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">PowerPyx noticed an update to the game's trophies. It appears Grounded mode is coming sometime soon.

Given how much improvement Naughty Dog made to combat with The Last of Us Part 2, it'll be interesting to see how they handle Grounded mode with the sequel. It doesn't seem like something you can just cut and paste from the original, but I'm also not a game developer. So, what do I know? That said, I'm sure hardcore TLOU2 fans are excited to start their second (or third) playthrough on the new difficulty.

It's also worth mentioning that it looks like Grounded will also have a permadeath option. As someone who died quite a bit during his The Last of Us Part 2 playthrough, that sounds terrifying. I'm sure some people will love it, I'm just not one of them.

It will also be interesting to see if the DLC comes free. Naughty Dog probably could charge for it, but I'd hope they don't. We saw some blowback with Yakuza: Like a Dragon charged for its New Game Plus and tougher difficulty in Japan. It's easy to see a similar thing happening here.

The Last of Us Part 2 is available now on PS4. No word yet on when the Grounded mode will hit PSN. However, I wouldn't expect to be waiting too much longer.