Thanks for playing and the helpful feedback love me some Mark Brown.
I was keeping track behind the scenes of your play through lifetime points and that affected how many space pirates spawned to affect difficulty some, but I could have also increased their armor or something too.
I tried to include the unlock options in a way that you could make it as difficult as you wanted. Leave off the ones that make the pirates passive and turn on hard rock and turn off freedom, but I do think I could have made some more behind the scenes adjustments.
Thanks again for playing and the great feedback.