Почему-то не смотря ни начто выполняет else

Почему-то, когда я ввожу "difficulty", оно кидает меня в "else", хотя я ввожу например "easy"

package com.company;

import java.util.Random;
import java.util.Scanner;

public class Game {

    public static Random rand = new Random();
    public static Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);

    public static int number;
    public static int tries;
    public static int guess;

    public static String difficulty;

    public static boolean running = true;

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        NewGame();

        while (true) {
            WRAPup();
        }
    }

    public static void NewGame() {
        tries =  0;
        System.out.println("Enter a difficulty");
        System.out.println("easy (guess a number form 1 to 10), normal (guess a number form 1 to 50), hard (guess a number form 1 to 100)");
        difficulty = sc.next();

// где-то здесь ошибка

        if (difficulty == "easy") {
            System.out.println("You picked a easy difficulty");
            number = rand.nextInt(10);
        } else if (difficulty == "normal") {
            System.out.println("You picked a normal difficulty");
            number = rand.nextInt(50);
        } else if (difficulty == "hard") {
            System.out.println("You picked a hard difficulty");
            number = rand.nextInt(100);
        } else {
            System.out.println("You picked a else difficulty");
            number = rand.nextInt(100);
        }
//

    }

    public static void takeAguess () {
        System.out.println("Ok, now take a guess");
        guess = sc.nextInt();
        tries += 1;
    }

    public static void body () {
        if (guess > number) {
            System.out.println("Your guess is greater than the number");
        } else if (guess < number) {
            System.out.println("Your guess is less than the number");
        } else if (guess == number) {
            tries += 1;
            System.out.println("Thats right the number was " + number + " and it took you " + (tries - 1) + " tries");
            NewGame();
        }
    }

    public static void WRAPup () {
        takeAguess();
        body();
    }
}