Hardcore

Hardcore is a difficulty setting in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which can be selected when starting a new game.

Description

Hardcore mode can be brutal even to experienced players. Although the changes to actual gameplay are few, some will greatly impact the way that players must approach the game.

Upon starting a new hardcore playthrough, there is a 90% chance of dying in the menu screen, followed by a short text describing how it occurred. Upon "surviving" these odds, the player is prompted to select at least two negative perks, which will stay throughout the entire playthrough.

Changes

Changes are as followed:

• The chests of the non DLC Treasure maps will be missing the high end gear like St. George's sword or Augsburg plate chausses. The player will still have access to the remaining contents of the chests though.
• Auto-saves from quests are disabled; saving must be done by drinking Saviour Schnapps, sleeping, going to a Bathhouse to heal, or saving and quitting.
• Combat is much deadlier for both the player and NPCs.
• Health potions take much more time to take effect.
• Items purchased from traders are much more expensive.
• Repair kits and repairing at vendors will cost significantly more.
• Eating from communal pots of food only provides 5 Nourishment.
• Fast travel is disabled except in certain scripted situations.
• Henry's current position is not visible on the world map. Instead, the player must deduce his location from landmarks.
• The top bar loses its compass indicators, though the background texture is unique to each cardinal direction and the player may still use the sun or moon to orient.
• Points of interest such as vendors or quest markers will only appear once the player is close.
• Some perks now have different effects:
  • The Thickblooded perk now reduces the rate of wounding by 20% as opposed to reducing bleeding rate by 50%.
  • The Revenant perk no longer regenerates health slowly at any given time, but only speeds up health gain during sleep.
  • The Ascetic perk is half as effective, reducing Nourishment decay by 15% instead of 30%.
  • The Insomniac perk is less effective, reducing Energy decay by 10% instead of 25%. The description mistakenly lists this as 15%.
  • The Contemplative perk is not available.
• The bar in the bottom screen is removed, so the player cannot directly measure the following stats. Instead, they must be estimated with visual effects:
  • HP - This can still be checked in the Inventory tab. Lower health is indicated by blood splatters and a red visual filter on screen.
  • Stamina - The current value can still be checked in the Player tab, though this is much less useful than checking HP. Lower stamina is indicated by Henry panting and a pale blue visual filter on screen.
  • Enemy HP - Only rough indications are available. If the Sadist perk is activated, the enemy is bleeding and likely low on health. Additionally, their armor will appear more visually damaged at lower durability.
  • Horse Stamina - Lower horse stamina is indicated by the horse neighing and warning to throw Henry off. It may also start panting shortly before this threshold.
• When engaging in combat, the combat "star" which displays Henry's current stance is invisible. The player must instead pay attention to the visual queues of his arms.
  • Additionally, the green shield for Perfect Blocks is no longer shown during combat. The player must instead learn timings by watching their opponent's animations.
• Runt is equipped with an Italian Bacinet, Mail Coif, Padded Coif, and Short Noble Hauberk on top of his normal armor during his and Henry's duel in Baptism of Fire. This prevents him from being cheesed by targeting his unprotected head.

Negative perks list

Below is the list of the perks and a brief description; you will be "forced" to take at least two:

• Nightmares - After awakening from sleep, all stats are debuffed by -2 for 2 hours.
  Main Article: Nightmares.
• Claustrophobia - Wearing a face-plated helmet makes the player's attacks 15% weaker.
  Main Article: Claustrophobia.
• Haemophilia - The player bleeds out twice as quickly.
  Main Article: Haemophilia.
• Numbskull - All experience gain is lowered by 40%.
  Main Article: Numbskull.
• Consumption - Stamina regenerates 15% slower.
  Main Article: Consumption.
• Shakes - Archery, Lockpicking and Pickpocketing are harder to succeed at, with sway during archery increased by 60%.
  Main Article: Shakes.
• Tapeworm - Nourishment depletes 50% faster.
  Main Article: Tapeworm.
• Somnambulant - Sleeping has a small chance of causing Henry to awake in a completely different place.
  Main Article: Somnambulant.
• Brittle Bones - Fall damage is increased by 20%.
  Main Article: Brittle Bones.

Gallery

• 

  You Died screen.
• 

  You Survived screen.
• 

  Tutorial screen upon leaving Henry's house.

Tips

Economy

• It is much better to buy repair kits than to ask vendors to repair the player's items, especially for higher quality ones which are proportionately more expensive to repair.
  • Even with repair kits, more valuable items will be more difficult to repair. Additionally, Henry's overall efficiency at conducting repairs depends on his Maintenance skill.
  • Because the player can never repair items below 50% durability, it is important to pay attention to item health when close to this threshold.
• Since everything is more expensive, stealing, pickpocketing, and lockpicking are much more enticing, as players will have a definite need for better equipment and more money. Even so, much like in Normal mode, this becomes less of a problem past the mid game.
• Consider prioritizing side quests which give valuable items for free, such as Talmberg Horse Race or Rattay Tourney.
  • By comparison, hunting or petty crime activities such as Beggars' Feast tend to not be worth the payoff (though they remain useful for gaining experience.)
• Several "cheesier" options are available for easy early game groschen - while these also apply to Normal mode, they can make a bigger difference in Hardcore. Resort to these at your own discretion as they may significantly reduce the challenge altogether.
  • During Unexpected Visit, Fritz's lockpicks will prove their money's worth by allowing the player to unlock a surprising number of doors and chests, even with no grinding.
    • One of the best candidates is Bianca's tavern - the bedroom in the upper level has a couple chests with modest amounts of groschen, though the real prize is a merchant's chest in her cellar which only has an easy lock.
    • While you will not be able to make off with all the loot without being overencumbered, you can at least rob the Saviour Schnapps, groschen, and whatever other items you fancy the most.
    • Due to the length of the prologue, it is recommended to prioritize the alcohol due to its infinite durability - you may either drink this yourself or sell it off later.
  • There is a particularly weak Skalitz guard in Unexpected Visit located at the gate nearby Kunesh's house. He can be choked out with a stealth takedown and looted with low risk.
    • It is extremely rare for other NPCs to patrol close enough to view this crime. Kunesh is a notable exception and should be choked out first.
    • It is highly recommended to save right before attempting a stealth takedown on the guard as success is not guaranteed with Henry's low stats.
    • It may also be worth taking both starting points in Strength to maximize the odds.
  • After awakening in Rattay and accessing the open world, the lowest risk way of easy money is selling off potions brewed with alchemy.
    • Potions can be successfully brewed with one mistake, and it is not required to own the recipe or even be literate to brew them properly. Because of this, some recipes can be brewed without applying heat - the most notable and recommended one is Marigold decoction, which uses very common ingredients and remains generally useful even when no longer needed to be sold.
    • Do note that the money earned from potions will mainly be useful for very early investments, as it is not time efficient for purchasing highly valuable items like armor or horse tack.
  • Another option after accessing the open world is to rush to loot the Cuman's stash from Lost in Translation.
    • The player does not need to initiate this quest to actually find the stash, and it contains a very hefty 800 groschen along with two Saviour Schnapps as a bonus.
    • Various other treasure locations may also be looted, though this one is especially low risk, does not require lockpicking, and does not involve crime.

Gameplay

• It is very important to obtain a horse as soon as possible since the player cannot fast travel. This also makes the Racehorse perk much more enticing than Heavy Duty Pony.
  • Because of this, players could either rush the main quest until they acquire Pebbles, or purchase a tier 1 horse shortly after waking in Rattay. The two best contenders are Rocinante, the cheapest horse in the game, and Boxer, who is slightly more expensive but closer to the Rattay mill.
    • While it has unremarkable stats and very poor courage, Pebbles is free and comes with free horse tack. This is not included with any horses purchased before The Hunt Begins. Additionally, this is the most straightforward option since the main quests required to obtain it can be completed quickly with minimal combat and no running around to scrounge groschen.
    • Rocinante is the cheapest horse and has very high courage. This makes it by far the best bang-for-buck option to allow Henry to defeat high level enemies early game - not even large groups of well armored bandits will scare Rocinante into throwing him off. The main drawbacks are the very long walk to Uzhitz (which may pass through ambush points) and the fact its other stats are terrible.
    • Boxer is only slightly more expensive than Rocinante and is found at Neuhof, which is much closer to Rattay and has no ambush points along the way. It has superior stats to both Pebbles and Rocinante in everything except courage in Rocinante's case, so if the player does not mind saving a bit more groschen it can be a worthwhile investment. The main drawbacks are of course the upfront cost (which can still be hefty for an early game Henry) and the fact that Boxer's courage is still low enough to be a potential problem if ambushed.
• Having the A Woman's Lot DLC will make Hardcore mode much more bearable by providing a more developed relationship with Theresa and a new companion in Mutt. Mutt's effectiveness may be increased by developing the Houndmaster skill.
  • With the Hunt skill, players can effortlessly kill rabbits for food or extra coin.
  • With the Sic! skill, players will stand a better chance in combat, as Mutt can be used to distract enemies.
  • With the Alarm skill, players will have a much easier time avoiding ambushes even with no obstacles on the road to indicate them. Conversely, Sniffer is entirely useless in this mode and should be ignored completely.
  • If Henry fully develops his relationship with Theresa, she can periodically repair all equipped clothing items for free.
    • While Theresa cannot repair armor, this will still allow the player to fix gambesons and jupons reduced to 0% durability. They may also repair valuable damaged clothes looted from corpses to improve their resale value.

Navigation

• Opening up the time-skipping menu to check the time can be useful when combined with the orientation of the sun.
  • If it is before noon, then the sun points to East, the right side of the map.
  • If it is past noon, then the sun points to West, the left side of the map.
• Players should be using the main roads almost exclusively, as those have often Conciliation crosses, Shrines, and sometimes Accidents. These markers will show on the map and help with orientation.
  • Even without markers, the player can always pay attention to forks in the road to check which way to go.
  • An exception for traveling along roads would be around areas where random ambushes may occur - these are not marked, but can be easily remembered after a few unfortunate incidents.
• Should players enter the woodland areas of the province, they should have their eyes peeled for everything that surrounds them, as the roads are often not represented in the map. Noticing potential Marker locations, Interesting Sites, or Hunting Spots can make a difference if the player gets lost.
• Most quests which involve navigation have the NPC give verbal directions which are quite accurate and easy to follow. Some of these will be logged in Henry's journal, but others will not. It may therefore be worthwhile to spend a bit extra time reading or listening to their dialogue.

Notes

• The menu screen death starts out with a 90% of death. Upon trying again it decreases to 60%, and if death occurs once more, it further decreases to 20%. The chance of death will stay here until Henry survives.
• Players can choose to play Hardcore mode with more than two negative perks selected. If all negative perks are selected, the player can attain the achievement 'Tis but a scratch upon beating the game.
• The Hardcore achievement 'Tis but a scratch is a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It is listed as an Easter egg.