New Vegas, Hardcore

[6_Qubed]

So after much deliberation I have decided to stop playing Fallout: New Vegas like LEETLE GIRL CHILD and step up to the Hardcore Mode plate. However, I am still unsure as to what sort of character I should start "Macho Mandy" out as. I had assumed that this would be the playthrough where I would kick my crossplaying habit.

HAHAHA nope.

My paranoia of the thirst/hunger meters makes me want to tag Survival right out of the gate. On the other hand, I tended to enjoy the hunt for fine cuisine even when my life didn't depend on it, and would put extra points into Survival anyway. Maybe tag Melee? Also planning on tagging Repair (which is a good all-rounder skill) and Guns (because guns).

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. and Traits are a tad trickier. In normal playthroughs I'd probably take a build minmaxed for INT and AGL, with Small Frame for the agility boost, but getting crippled seems as though it has a bigger impact now that I can't just instantly un-fuck whatever got crippled. Combining Good-Natured with Skilled seems promising; The object of Hardcore mode seems less about "killing" and more about "not dying" so a ten-point head start to all of my "not dying" skills seems too good to pass up.

Well that's mostly just traits, but stats? I'm not sure if I should play for immediate survival or maybe try for the long game. I'm tempted to throw like 3 or so points at END just for the stat-boosting implants later, but the hit to my other stats might make that trickier than it has to be.

Equipment. As I alluded to up there, I've got full DLC support, including Courier's Stash. No sense playing fair; a fair fight is merely an indicator of poor tactics. Most of the armor's too heavy to give a second thought to, so I'm just gonna go with the ten-pound suit and be done with it. I like the choice of weapons, if only because having a 10mm pistol and grenade launcher from the word go feels like the best kind of cheating.

Now as for perks down the line, I've heard Cannibal is actually pretty damn good in hardcore mode, if only because it heals automatically and the undiscerning gourmet can find within the Mohave Wasteland an abundance of sustenance (i.e. raiders).

Well, that's what I've figured out on my own. Any suggestions, my fellow Escapists?

 

[DazZ.]

Honestly, standard hardcore isn't going to cause you to die. At all. The bars go down so slowly you could likely just play the game as you would normally and it would just flash at you once or twice.

I had a mod that doubled the needs bars and it still didn't really matter.

What is annoying is the ammo weight, but once you get a house to store your stuff in that's fine, but I'd take some extra strength so you can loot more.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I honestly played Hardcore exactly the same as I played the regular game. Food and water are ridiculously common to the point where I usually didn't even bother carrying it, and you need sleep so rarely that it's not much of an issue. Anyway... this is the way I played my hardcore character:

Strength: 5
Perception: 5
Endurance: 6
Charisma: 1
Intelligence: 9
Agility: 5
Luck: 9

Trait #1: Skilled
Trait #2: Good Natured

Tag Skill #1: Guns
Tag Skill #2: Lockpick
Tag Skill #3: Science

As soon as the game begins I made a beeline straight for New Vegas before doing any of the Goodsprings quests (I followed the train tracks so I wouldn't have to deal with Deathclaws). Once there I sold off all the junk I looted along the way and gambled for cash (the high luck makes it very easy). Then I went to get the implants for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. Then I went back to Goodsprings and played the game as normal.

I focused on using handguns for close quarters ("A Light in Shining Darkness" from the Lonely Hearts DLC being my personal favorite) and sniper rifles for long-range ("Ratslayer" is amazing in the early game, but I eventually move on to bigger guns like the GRA Anti-Materiel Rifle). I wore Boone's beret (+5% crit chance) and Joshua Graham's armor (light, high DT, +3% crit chance) until I could get Ulysses' Duster (light, high DT, +5% crit chance).

After getting the implants, I now have high enough SPECIAL attributes to pick up all of the perks I'd want for a Guns-based sniper. Stuff like Black Widow/Confirmed Bachelor (+10% damage to male NPCs, which are easily the most common), Comprehension (double magazine bonus, extra skill points from books), Educated (+2 skill points per level), Finesse (+5% crit chance), Better Criticals (+50% crit damage), Weapon Handling (+2 STR for the purpose of using weapons, needed for the Anti-Materiel Rifle), Light Touch (+5% chance to crit and -25% chance to be crit when wearing Light armor), and Grunt (+25% damage with the .45ACP sidearm I like).

With this build I had no trouble with any enemies, I gained skill points fast enough that I ended up with all of the important skills maxed out, I had a good deal of perk flexibility, and my SPECIAL allocation felt quite strong.

 

[LetalisK]

It's really not that much different, depending on how you play. I'm a stealthy sniper, so I'm generally not carrying around a lot of ammo and rarely broke bones. Scavenged food was plentiful enough that I didn't need Survival at all. If you're a meleer, I suspect it's going to be significantly harder.

 

[w9496]

If you go the melee route, I'd suggest a lot of Endurance. Your limbs are going to get crippled often, and Endurance keeps that away for a while longer.

For guns, I'd suggest a sneaky sniper playthrough. Probably the safest and easiest way to go, but it will work.

Explosives would be rough, though. can't think of how that would work.

 

[Redingold]

If you have all the DLC, I would recommend getting J.E. Sawyer's personal mod. He was one of the lead designers for Fallout: New Vegas, and his mod makes survival mode a bit more hardcore. You'll get hungry and thirsty quicker, stimpacks are rarer, and everything has less health, including you. I have it on every playthrough. It might sound too difficult, but I assure you it isn't.

You can download it here: http://twofoldsilence.diogenes-lamp.info/2012/09/jsawyeresp-v5.html

 

[Tom_green_day]

I chose hardcore... except I didn't realise until about 30 hours in. (I don't look at the HUD much) there is barely any difference in play style once you get used to it.

 

[Legion]

Honestly, standard hardcore isn't going to cause you to die. At all. The bars go down so slowly you could likely just play the game as you would normally and it would just flash at you once or twice.

This.

I have always played FNV on Hardcore since I bought the game and you really don't need to worry about the levels very much. Water and food are plentiful as are sleeping locations. Slower stimpacks and doctors bags are the only real changes, and even they aren't that difficult to counter.

Unless you are planning on doing a survivalist character who only gets food and drink from natural sources like plants, animals, lakes etc. and only sleeps in camps and so on, it honestly doesn't matter at all what kind of character or perks you choose.

 

[Norrdicus]

If you have all the DLC, I would recommend getting J.E. Sawyer's personal mod. He was one of the lead designers for Fallout: New Vegas, and his mod makes survival mode a bit more hardcore.

You can simply tell how Sawyer loves this particular game, it's not often that you see the director trying to improve his project post-launch for free

 

[VladG]

I played Hardcore on my first playthrough. It doesn't really bump up the difficulty (at least I don't think so).

 

[Gnmish]

For real challenge with Hardcore mode, don't run Survival and carry around Big Guns - Missile Launchers, Miniguns, Anti-Materiel Rifles. Really limits your ammo and means you can't carry anywhere near enough supplies, so it makes it far more 'survivalist' than playing an actual survivalist.

I was going to suggest the exact same thing, I play HC mode everytime, but also like to carry a nice selection of death dealing, so you really have to make a choice. Anti materiel rifle may seem like a great primary weapon, but you can't carry 200 rounds of ammo and expect to hold much else. Provided you are addicted to nukes, antitank ammo and missiles , you really do have to make a choice between food/water or weapons/ammo. Life or Death

 

[Fayathon]

I run Project Nevada on top of the Hardcore setting just because it makes the game a shitton harder/easier overall.

Major changes that it does that I really like are as follows:

1) Food/drink do not heal. At all. You need to sleep/stim to heal, and stims make you thirsty.

2) SPECIAL stats hard set your abilities ie Endurance sets your health total, not how much you earn a level up, this applies to all characters and enemies, I got to level 50 and still only had 150 HP.

3) All scoped weapons have multiple zoom settings. This is especially nice on weapons like the AM rifles.

4) Headshots on targets (including yourself, get a goddamn helmet) without a headpiece that gives armor do full crit damage. Period. Learned that the hard way with a Legion Assassin squad, assholes shot once and killed me when I was just using the 1st Recon beret, like I usually did.

5) HUD upgrades based on the helmet you are wearing, and an overlay is added. The more techy the helm the cooler the things it adds, like thermal and night vision, and NPC scanning features. These usually need fusion batteries to run and the game will tell you how much power you have for them.

6) It allows you to use partial charges on stealth boys. Sounds OP, but if you're within about six feet of anything even a stealth boy will not hide you, stealth is massively nerfed.

7) All implants are allocated to different parts of the body, and can be installed regardless of endurance, special perks can be taken to allow more implants, and some implants have upgrades.

That's all I can remember off the top of my head. It's a bit wonky to get running, but holy hell it makes the game a lot more interesting to play through.

EDIT: Linking PN for anyone that wants it- http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/mods/40040/

 

[xShredd]

When I first bought and started playing the game, I was like what the hell, I am such a badass that I will start playing with the hardcore mode from the beginning. I was a little disappointed actually.

Hardcore mode doesn't put up much of a challenge for the player, it just reminds you to drink or eat from time to time, but it nearly didn't cause me a issue mainly because I've always been a player who has used food often in Fallout 3. And plus the achievement you get from completing the game from hardcore, it's basically a win-win.

 

[6_Qubed]

For real challenge with Hardcore mode, don't run Survival and carry around Big Guns - Missile Launchers, Miniguns, Anti-Materiel Rifles. Really limits your ammo and means you can't carry anywhere near enough supplies, so it makes it far more 'survivalist' than playing an actual survivalist.

I was going to suggest the exact same thing, I play HC mode everytime, but also like to carry a nice selection of death dealing, so you really have to make a choice. Anti materiel rifle may seem like a great primary weapon, but you can't carry 200 rounds of ammo and expect to hold much else. Provided you are addicted to nukes, antitank ammo and missiles , you really do have to make a choice between food/water or weapons/ammo. Life or Death

Right now, I'm at about 140/200 and I can't figure out why, though I can damn sure guess. The biggest offender right now is the DLC grenade rifle, between the gun and the ammo it weighs the most of any weapon I have right now, but House help me I love having the "blow the fuckers to Hell" option in a firefight, even though I keep getting hit with splash damage. (Perhaps consider Hit The Deck perk?) My Explosives skill is fairly decent even though I didn't tag it, just because at character creation I added three points to END, two to INT and just didn't touch the rest.

Also, I tend to hoard Weapon Repair Kit parts, so that may have something to do with the extra weight as well.

YARP YARP

Hardcore means three things:

1) Need for food

2) Need for drink

3) Ammo carrying becomes troublesome

1. Food is turning out to be less of a problem than originally forecast. Them gecko's good eatin'. :9

2. Again, less of a problem, especially since they modified the "Mass Purify Water" recipe from 30 to 4 and it lets you reuse your "boiling kit", which is quite handy.

3. Problem. The worst habit to kick that I'm gonna have is the "right tool for the job" mentality I tend to have with weapons. I've got this awesome Caravan Shotgun, the afore-mentioned grenade rifle, 10mm handgun, 9mm handgun with a scope (stupid random-ass Goodsprings vendor) the .357 revolver from Trudy's bar, a shovel (not for fighting), the Broad Machete, a Silenced .22, and finally a partially-modded GRA Laser Pistol with OC Energy Cells, for use on harder targets that don't warrant getting blown the fuck up. The .357 is easily the weakest link in my arsenal, because the 10-mil does comparable damage at a faster rate of speed, but eventually I see a Cowboy Repeater down the line, and I love me some Repeater action, and IIRC they share ammo. The caravan shotgun, eeeehhhh... I'm not loving it, because the ironsights aiming is atrocious, but this thing holds its own in a fight, so I don't wanna go without. Now the .22 on the other hand, I might just end up selling this little bastard off and breaking down the ammo. It's done fuck-all to help me that my scoped 9-mil couldn't also do, even if it's stealthier. The 9-mil is currently my only scoped weapon, so I've been doing most all of my sniping with that. Weep for my pitiful sniping. WEEP.

And I have a Pressure Cooker. Why the hell do I have this again? Eh.

Most of my weight is 1lp-and-under junk, so Pack Rat is starting to look better all the time.

Oh, and everyone else; I probably should've mentioned this at the top, but I'm on console, XBox specifically. I pulled my laptop out of the bed of an old boss's pickup truck, and it's literally held together with gorilla tape. The fucker chugs if I have Firefox, and VLC going at the same time, so PC gaming is right out.

For now. I'll upgrade someday, and by God it'll be glorious: Big-breast and child-killing mods clear to the horizon... @ o@

(I'm kidding, of course. Maybe.)

 

[Risingblade]

Hardcore isn't actually hard at all, it's just annoying and tedious.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

The only tough part of Hardcore is in regards to companions, where they they all have a sudden suicidal urge when shit hits the fan. God, they become an incredible liability in the cazador infested areas, especially back when there was a bug that caused companions to drop dead if they were given a stimpak while poisoned.