Hey wastelanders, I am making my first trek on hardcoe and I have some questions for those of you who have done it if you have the time.

I've just started and I'm not too sure I am having a good time or not. I usually play on Very Hard and use a slow leveling mod :turtle: so I don't get to 30 before the end of the game. I explore every part of the map and do a large number of quests as well. When I started the HC game I turned off the slow leveling and put difficulty on Normal just to get a feel of the game differences. I haven't even completed Nipton and I'm all ready lvl 6 and haven't had any real challenges so I think I will turn the slow leveling on and go to Hard difficulty.

My questions.... :shrug:


1. did you enjoy it ?
2. would you do it again?
3. what difficulty did you use?
4. are there things you wish you knew before you started?
5. if you did it over again you would ____________
6. did you primarily go for the end game or did you do a lot of exploring and questing?
7. did you vat a lot more than a normal game?
8. were any skills or attributes more important in the HC game than a normal game?
9. did you use companions? if so who?

Thank you! :hehe:

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. Normal.
4. No.
5. Do everything different.
6. A lot of exploring an questing.
7. Haven't done a normal game yet, but I never use VATS.
8. Haven't done a normal game yet.
9. Rex and Cass.

I liked it, all apart from the limb effect that you need a doctor to set a limb, I found more irratating than difficult or believable, then I found quite a few hydra's and adjusted my tactics a bit.
I explored the south of the map whole long before I even got to boulder city, and the north way before entering the strip so I explored / survived and did not just hash it out MQ wise.
I took cannibal as I usally do and did so in FO3 as I rarely used stims in that either, allways rest / water / food, and it made food a lot less needed in most parts of the map.
Normal difficulty, as I like being challanged but don't like frustrating gameplay, which anything higher can show up more imo on many games.
V.A.T.s rarely used it in FO3, NV has gimped it so that in those places I would makes a likely loss into a certain defeat, so outside of some needed stealth hits with certain weapons ( throwing knives ) I use it less.
Tried companions, but it did not suit the role.
Tried a game on normal but I missed the aspects in HC.
S.P.E.C.I.A.L is vital in either, dex, intelligence, cha are all changed in this game due to dialogue and gameplay changes, so depending on playstyle and wants it's good to mix it up on any setting.

Advice: sneak when needed but use distance and speed as your main style of combat, to avoid injury.

hardcoe wasn't really that hard imo. But hey, it's a nice feature...

1. Yeah
2. Already have done it again.
3. Normal
4. I read up on things beforehand
5. Do everything relatively the same as last time - it worked out really well.
6. I did as much side-quests as I could find without using the wiki and then mqed
7. I didnt use VATS at all
8. Survival is a little more important, but still relatively unneeded
9. Yes, all of them - I did all their side-quests. Arcade is my favourite

1: Yes. Only way to play NV for me.
2: Yet to play the game with it off.
3: Normal.
4: Wg reduction mods on weapons doing nothing.
5: Kill more bloatflies. Good eating when cooked just right.
6: Do as much of the game as possible on a single character.
7: VATS is rare. Don't even pick up a single VATS related perk.
8: No idea. Haven't played the game with hardcoe off yet.
9: Yes, Grab them all at some point. Lily and Rex are the hard ones to keep alive for me.

1. did you enjoy it ? Yes.
2. would you do it again? Yes.
3. what difficulty did you use? Normal.
4. are there things you wish you knew before you started? Yes.
5. if you did it over again you would use speech
6. did you primarily go for the end game or did you do a lot of exploring and questing? Exploring and quests.
7. did you vat a lot more than a normal game? No.
8. were any skills or attributes more important in the HC game than a normal game? Survival and Medicine and barter if you want.
9. did you use companions? if so who? Yes. Boone and ED-E.

Ive only played New Vegas on very hard and its no different to what playing FO3 was like.

Only difference was having to use a purified water after you fast travel or sleep. Use the occasional food item and thats it.

After first few levels you never get crippled.
And since I never carried that much ammo in the first game for my own 'hardcoe mode' its just the same in FO:NV since you dont carry it all now too.



Infact its strange as when I played FO3, I ate and drank occasionally, slept at nights and only carried one set of armour with couple guns and some ammo for them to make it feel more real. Which really what needs to be done in FO:NV hardcoe mode.

1. did you enjoy it ? - Yes, its a nice feature, I hope all future Fallout games have it.
2. would you do it again? - Absolutely, I will do it every time from now on.
3. what difficulty did you use? - Normal, that is tough enough to be a challenge on hardcoe mode without enemies becoming bullet sponges as well.
4. are there things you wish you knew before you started? - Not really, its fairly self explanatory.
5. if you did it over again you would ____________ - give myself a greater Strength SPECIAL, and dump all skill points into Speech sooner.
6. did you primarily go for the end game or did you do a lot of exploring and questing? - I do a bit of both. Main Quest for a bit (its the one that interests me the most), then some side quests. Then back to MQ again.
7. did you vat a lot more than a normal game? - Possibly slightly less, since you take full damage in VATS now, its no longer a free pass for critical hit.
8. were any skills or attributes more important in the HC game than a normal game? - Not sure, possibly Medicine, due to the healing restrictions on hardcoe.
9. did you use companions? if so who? - Yes, Cass mostly, even though she is easily overwhelmed and has a poor default weapon. Thinking of trading her in for Veronica but I like the Whisky Rose perk too much....the STR, CHR and DT boost is so useful in hardcoe, its the only reason I keep her.

1. did you enjoy it ? Yes
2. would you do it again? Yes
3. what difficulty did you use? Very Hard, with Endurance 1 Strength 1, no armour, and a self-made slower-levelling mod
4. are there things you wish you knew before you started? No, it all becomes pretty clear
5. if you did it over again you would ____________ Just create a different character and follow a different path through the game
6. did you primarily go for the end game or did you do a lot of exploring and questing?Exploring and questing, haven't reached the end
7. did you vat a lot more than a normal game? A few times on Cazadors, otherwise not at all
8. were any skills or attributes more important in the HC game than a normal game? Not really. My Survival skill is 18 and I'm surviving!
9. did you use companions? if so who? Yes. So far Boone, then Lily, currently Rex and Raul.

• Very much
  
• Every time now
  
• Hard
  
• Explosives are freaking heavy (so are batteries)
  
• Only take survival to 60 for Desert Salads and Gecko Kebabs
  
• Decent amount of questing
  
• Well I used explosives and thrown grenades are useless without VATS but probably not a lot more
  
• Strength for carry weight, endurance for health, survival for food and healing
  
• Various companions. Raul my first time since he is compatable with my legion character

1. did you enjoy it ? Yes
2. would you do it again? I already am
3. what difficulty did you use? Hard
4. are there things you wish you knew before you started? How rare Doctor's Bags really are
5. if you did it over again you would ____________ Pay closer attention to the meters, it's annoying when you can't fast travel out of a place until you find a bed
6. did you primarily go for the end game or did you do a lot of exploring and questing? I did a lot of sidequests before I ever touched the MQ
7. did you vat a lot more than a normal game? Haven't played normal NV, but not any more than I did in Fallout 3
8. were any skills or attributes more important in the HC game than a normal game? Survival and Medicine. Medicine because it makes Stimpaks better, survival because food made at campfires is a lot more useful
9. did you use companions? if so who? Boone, then Cass, then Veronica. Cass was with me at the end.

1. No. I did not enjoy it.
2. No. I will not do it again.
3. Normal.
4. No. I knew everything I needed to know before turning it on.
5. n/a. I'm not ever doing it again.
6. End game. I did hardcoe for the achievement.
7. No. Used VATS same as always.
8. Yes. Survival.
9. Yes. Ed-E. Boone.

As an aside, I still really want to know how it is that anybody needs a slow-leveling mod when I can't hit level 30 until I'm about 90% done with the game. I'm not entirely sure I believe that anybody is hitting 30 as soon as "halfway through the game." Not unless the perks for more XP have been taken and you're always well-rested. I kind of wish somebody would show some proof of having reached level 30 "halfway" through the game - maybe a video showing all the character stats (perks, esp) and the list of completed quests. But I think I won't ever see THAT.

1. Yes.
2. I have not played a non hardcoe character yet.
3. Normal for vanilla-I'm using a lot of mods now so anything beyond my first character is skewed in perspective.
4. Companions on hardcoe are a hardcoe pain in the rear(stay solo or go slow if companion questing).
5. If I did vanilla over again I would stay away from single loader weapons til the fix is settled once and for all(shotguns, revolvers and lever action weapons are worthless atm).
6. I quested right to level 30 and had over 100 locations discovered before entering the Strip for the first time.
7. I was a Lucky wielding cowboy and I used vats a lot since I often engaged at close range...again that was prior to the patch that utterly ruined guns like Lucky.
8. Sneak, Sneak, and Sneak. Everything else supports your character well, some more then others like guns skill, but sneak will help keep you alive better then any other ability in the game.
9. My vanilla hardcoe run had Cass with the vengeful heart perk(the companion quest where you confront the Van Griffs and the head of the Crimson Caravan). Let me just say you need to think outside the kill box to keep Cass alive for the Silver Rush gunfight. That battle was worth it.

1) Yes
2) I'm 45 hours into my second run. Both have been hardcoe, as probably all my future runs will be.
3) Normal
4) My first character tagged survival, and while I think it could be a useful skill and very well suited for a HC game, I didn't make full use of it because I didn't take the time to write myself up a list of "keeper" ingredients.
5) Nothing comes to mind. Never carry more than three guns plus ammo maybe? Really, HC is more than manageable with any build imo.
6) First character: lots of exploring and questing for first 50 hours or so, then full steam ahead to the end game. Second run planning to do lots more exploring and questing.
7) Hard to compare because I haven't played a normal game. I guess I do it about as much as I did in FO3.
8) Maybe Strength. Perhaps Survival and Medicine.
9) First run: Boone (died at the Tops), Lily (died somewhere along to way), Rex (died in lead up to final battle), Cass (died in final battle). Second run: Boone and ED-E (both still alive) :thumbsup:

1. did you enjoy it ? Yes, very much so. I think hardcoe is how the game was meant to be played.I wish had had played my first game that way. It makes sense of the sleeping, eating and drinking functions and increases the involvement of the game.
2. would you do it again? In a minute.
3. what difficulty did you use? Either easy or normal. I don't like harder than normal because human characters that keeping moving after three gun shot wounds to the head really break the suspension of disbelief.
4. are there things you wish you knew before you started? The location of places where sleeping, storage and campfires were very close to each other.
5. if you did it over again you would ____________ See #4.
6. did you primarily go for the end game or did you do a lot of exploring and questing? A lot of exploring and questing to build up XP before joining the Legion.
7. did you vat a lot more than a normal game? Once I had a sniper rifle and then an anti-material rifle I'd use non-VATS at extreme rangers. Fun!
8. were any skills or attributes more important in the HC game than a normal game? You can survive with a low survival skill.
9. did you use companions? if so who? Veronica for melee initially, ED-E for extended perception of enemies. Later switched Veronica to ranged weapons.

1. did you enjoy it ? Yes. I especially enjoyed having a reason to sleep and eat, and having to be strategic about the kinds of ammo I carried.

2. would you do it again? Yes. I did hardcoe on my first playthrough. Now I only do hardcoe.

3. what difficulty did you use? Normal. Considering doing Easy or Very Easy for added realism sometime (bullets to the head should almost always kill or cripple), but I like Normal.

4. are there things you wish you knew before you started? It doesn't actually make the game harder outside of how easy it is to heal in the middle of a fight, but even that is still doable if you pause with the Pip Boy and eat a bunch of steak.

5. if you did it over again you would ____________ Play pretty much the same way I did before.

6. did you primarily go for the end game or did you do a lot of exploring and questing? Lots of exploring and questing, but I've played it so much now that I may just do a direct playthrough or two to see the remaining endings look like.

7. did you vat a lot more than a normal game? Not really. I use VATS a decent amount whatever the case.

8. were any skills or attributes more important in the HC game than a normal game? I think it's more like some skills become more useful in hardcoe, but nothing becomes more essential. Like, Survival is only of limited use in non-hardcoe because all it does there is set how much health or stat bonus you get from food and drink. In hardcoe, it also determines how well these things sustain you on the Food/H20 meters. Medicine is less useful in hardcoe if you don't put points in it because Stimpacks work so slowly in a fight, but with more points in it, it can almost negate the slowed healing effect of hardcoe mode. And the Barter perks (Pack Rat, Long Haul) seem explicitly designed for hardcoe, as you're much more likely to be weighed down by ammo.

9. did you use companions? if so who? Yes. Any and all of them, at some point or another.

1. Yes, I particularly like the healing over time.

2. Yes, in fact I think I'll use it from now on.

3. Hard for my Guns character, Normal for my Energy Weapons character.

4. Hard core isn't all that hard. You just have to manage your inventory more carefully, and pay attention to your healing/eating/drinking/sleeping.

5. My characters live on Gecko Steaks and Purified Water. I only needed to raise my Survival Skill to 25 to do that. This means that I don't have to specialize in survival to play hardcoe, if my character concept doesn't revolve around being a survivalist type. I would also avoid getting Gunslinger and Sniper with my next sniper character. I only end up using VATS in emergency situations, like when I'm about to be overrun, and when they're that close, the % to hit isn't an issue. Weapons are far more accurate at-range in NV than in Fallout 3. With a scope, if I can see it, I have a good chance to hit it. And kill it, long before it gets close.

6. I still haven't finished the game. 1st character (softcoe)- 91 hours. 2nd character- 87 hours. 3rd character- 64 hours. I'm in no hurry.

7. Rarely, and only when things go completely to hell. Most creatures never get that close, even with my EW character.

8. Survival to 25, but other than that, not really. In general, I've found Speech, Sneak and a primary weapon skill to be the most useful, but that applies to soft as well as hardcoe.

9. My Guns character is a loner. My EW character has ED-E. For a sniper character, companions still mess up my mojo.

1. Yes very much!!
2. I already did.
3. Normal
4. No, it was straghtforward
5. Sidw with a different faction
6. Exploring
7. No, iron sights are way to awesome.
8. Not really. If your planning on doing a Survival char to live off the land you need at least a 55 survival. Anything more is a waste. Medicine is just always generally helpful no matter what diff or harcore mode or not.
9. Nope.

1. yes
2. yes, I don't believe you should have a choice to play in this mode, hardcoe mode should just be how the game plays
3. Normal
4. Yes, do not fast travel, I've just started my second playthrough and have decided not to fast travel, this way I've come across a lot of ingredients to make food with, a lot more combat (obviously) and finding a lot more to explore. Also make sure you're not just carrying random ammo for the sake of it, especially energy weapon ammo (if you're not using energy weapons) as the weight eventually adds up.
5. See above
6. A mix, I didn't go directly for the end game but I missed out A LOT of stuff, kind of did it intentionally because I wanted to get a feel for the game before I did a proper playthrough
7. No, I use VATS a lot to scout an area mainly
8. Survival possibly, if you plan on living off the land, otherwise the game mechanics don't really change that much. Although I'd say hi strength is essential due to the fact that the majority of items weigh something
9. Boone first time round, I've got Ed-E at the moment but I'm only on my way to Nipton, I use them for their perks and side quests more than anything.

1. did you enjoy it ? yes
2. would you do it again? i did for a bit but got bored
3. what difficulty did you use? normal
4. are there things you wish you knew before you started? surivial skill being useless
5. if you did it over again you would ____________be even more bored, i've already played 120 hours
6. did you primarily go for the end game or did you do a lot of exploring and questing? first run through on normal was just a little looking about but stuck to storyline. my first hardcoe run through i did more exploring sorta.
7. did you vat a lot more than a normal game? nope, maybe if i was desperate at point blank range (buys me time to think)
8. were any skills or attributes more important in the HC game than a normal game?hard to say, but strength is nice as is perk for extra carry capacity. I know you can use companions as pack animals but i do that as well and it's not enough for what i need. as i like to kit out the companion (it being hardcoe their first death is their only one). i try to resist using saves after things go wrong unless it's out of my hands (ie game crash, bug etc)
9. did you use companions? if so who? I used cass first time on normal, but she's a pain and i've spent many times shooting her in the head.
boone is a little quieter but still has the annoying "let me aim that for you next time" when i make a headshot in one go. like O.o.
In my newer playthrough i've got veronica, i like her but she's a bit overpowered. so i think i'll dump her at some point.

companions are nice to have, but they're a bit roughly done. ie their mechanics like pathfinding can be atrocious at times. But for a first time playthrough they make the game a little easier, as enemies go for them rather than you. however it does mean the immersion is broken a bit with their random and snide comments.

I'm impressed that every single one of you enojoyed it and continue to do HC as your normal playstyle. In the beginning I feared it to be more of a micromanagement than a real HC.


Thanks to all that answered!

"hardcoe mode" should have been named "Annoy mode", because to me, that is what it was, more annoyance than enjoyment.

1. did you enjoy it ?
Yes

2. would you do it again?
I did another run for a second plat trophy, but probably won't again.

3. what difficulty did you use?
Normal on the first time, Hard on the second.

4. are there things you wish you knew before you started?
Survival Skill is pointless.

5. if you did it over again you would ____________
Put survival to 25 and leave it. Gekko Steaks is enough campfire work for me.

6. did you primarily go for the end game or did you do a lot of exploring and questing?
I always explore, even if I start out to just do the quicker run through. Still ended up 125+hours.

7. did you vat a lot more than a normal game?
The same really.

8. were any skills or attributes more important in the HC game than a normal game?
No.

9. did you use companions? if so who?
I like them to carry loot. Any of them is fine, I always have them wait at the exit into every load area when questing. Like vaults.



P.S. hardcoe is named wrong imop. It leads people to think it's harder. It's not. It just adds micro managing to the game. It's no harder at all in any way, other than ammo being so heavy to carry and having to actually keep track of water and food to a point. As I mentioned, just kill gekkos and make steaks and drink water whenever you are in towns or camps and you will never have to even think about it.

I did actually like hardcoe, but the weight of ammo is why I would probably not play again after the two times I've done it now. Just nice to not have to worry about what ammo you are carrying.

I'm on my third time playing F:NV and I'm using hardcoe mode. It really isn't that bad. The only downsides that I've found are these:

Companion characters are no longer immortal.

Having to heal crippled limbs with a Doctor's Bag or going to a doctor.

Stimpaks healing over time rather than immediately.


Outside of that, hardcoe mode isn't bad at all. The whole Food, Water and Sleep aspects of it work just like the RADs meter. I've only suffered minor dehydration on occasion , with no sleep or food deprivation.