(!) Spoiler Alert (!) -- [Any Details Provided are Subject to Change] (Part 1)

[Lyrian]

@awryan

I’m 99% sure that they mentioned removing the difficulty from Explore eventually.

Yup. Skimming through the dev stream Q&A notes,

@Lyrian

With the changes to Challenge + Quest difficulty what’s happening to other game modes that use difficulty?

– In 4.6, all player selectable difficulty modes will be removed (these will still be in place in 4.5). [RIP fire bomb/bombot/firebird teams]
– Needed to happen for the eventual “big 5.0” update in 2020.