Hardcore

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

Description[]

Hardcore mode is brutal for even the experienced players because although the changes to actual gameplay are few, as they are mostly stat tweaks, there are some changes that severely impact the way that players will actually have to play it.

Funnily enough upon starting a new hardcore playthrough, you have a 90% chance of dying in the menu screen, which is followed by a small text describing how it occurred. Upon "surviving" these odds, you are prompted to select at least two negative perks, which will stay throughout your entire playthrough, without hope of relinquishing them.

Changes[]

The 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. You will still have access to the remaining contents of the chests though (St. George's sword can still be found in the chest of Treasure map VII).
Auto-saves from quests are disabled; saving only occurs if you drink Saviour Schnapps, sleep, go to a Bathhouse to heal, or save and quit.
Combat is much deadlier for both you and enemies.
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.
You cannot fast travel.
You cannot see where you are from the world map, you must deduce your location from what you see around you.
The top bar loses its compass indicators, though the background texture is unique to each cardinal direction which allows for navigation with enough practice.
Points of interest such as vendors or quest markers will only appear once you get close enough.
Some perks now have different functionalities:
- The Thickblooded perk now reduces the chance of bleeding from a foe's strike as opposed to reducing bleeding rate.
- The Revenant perk no longer regenerates health slowly at any given time, but only speeds up health gain during sleep.
- The Contemplative perk is not available.
The bar in the bottom screen is removed, as such, you can never tell how high or how low are the following:
- HP (Can still be seen in the Inventory tab)
- Stamina
- Enemy HP
- Horse Stamina
When engaging in combat, the combat "star" that displays where your attacks are directed will never be visible, therefore you must be able to tell according to visual queues of your arms when holding weapons.
- Additionally, the green shield for Perfect Blocks are no longer shown during combat.
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.

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 a short while.
- More annoying than bad, though it can prove inconvenient for timing in certain quests or for reliably meeting weapon requirements in the early game.
- The debuff lasts about 2 hours in-game, so consider this when planning Henry's sleep schedule.
Claustrophobia- Wearing a face-plated helmet makes your attacks much weaker due to anxiety.
- Will make combat somewhat harder and put you at a minor disadvantage.
- On the flipside, enemies usually do not stab at the face and open helmets do not obstruct your vision. This perk therefore may not prove too harmful unless dealing with archers.
- The most protective helmet in the game without a face plate is the Bell-shaped kettle hat.
Haemophilia- You bleed out faster and it is much harder to staunch the wounds you take.
- At the beginning of the game this will make you very vulnerable. However, it largely becomes a nonissue once the player obtains some decent armor, much like without the perk.
Numbskull- All experience gained is lowered.
- A perk that can be taken by those who thought leveling up was too fast in the normal progression of the game. However, it can make passing stat checks more difficult without careful planning of side quests or consuming Bard potions.
Consumption- Stamina regenerates slowly.
- Will make combat somewhat harder, but stops being very noticeable once the player's Vitality is at a decent level.
Shakes- Archery, Lockpicking and Pickpocketing are harder to succeed at.
- More annoying than bad, though it can be a big issue when these skills are at low levels. Consider being more liberal with saving before risky activities.
- Fortunately, the shakes will begin to reduce drastically when reaching level 5 in the relevant skill. Reaching level 10 and above will make them almost unnoticeable.
Tapeworm- Nourishment goes down much faster.
- It may be rather detrimental to the player's survival at the beginning, but having Nourishment going down faster means that you will be able to down more potions and alcoholic drinks.
- It is, however, very problematic for the perk Balanced Diet especially if you go to sleep without eating, but overall negatable with the Ascetic perk. Just make sure to keep an eye on the effects data more when sleeping to avoid waking up hungry.
Somnambulant- Sleeping has a set chance of causing you to awake in a completely different place.
- This is a wildcard type of perk, as it can go either way. You may spawn in the middle of the woods while you were sleeping in your bed, or the opposite may happen. The chances, however, are not too high.
- The perk ignores if your exit doors are closed or even locked. While normally of no consequences, this can have amusing (or dire) implications for A Needle in a Haystack.
Brittle Bones- Falls cause greater injury.
- More annoying than bad, it will make it so you can't save time jumping down ladders or even modest ledges without severe damage.
- The effect is largely negated by Featherweight, though the player should still be wary of large jumps while on horseback.

Gallery[]

Tips[]

Economy[]

It is much better to buy repair kits than to ask vendors to repair them, especially because when it comes to high quality items. Their repair cost is tremendously high even when you yourself can repair it easily.
Because you can never repair items below 50% durability, it is important to pay attention to your item health and avoid fights if 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. Conversely, 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.
- If you don't mind the grind, utilizing the prologue (Unexpected Visit) to gather ALL herbs in the Skalitz area and selling to the middle trader can net you up to 240 coins (more, if you barter for goods that you sell to grocers or at the inn). Even with the numbskull negative perk, you can reach level 10 (even 13) of Herbalism on Skalitz herbs alone, allowing you to boost your Charisma (+2 from the Flower Power) and Vitality (+2 once you collect 100 Nettles for the Resistance perk).
- During Unexpected Visit, Fritz's lockpicks will prove their money's worth by allowing you to unlock a surprising number of doors and chests even with no grinding. If you don't mind the treachery, 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 guard in both Unexpected Visit and Run! which can be choked out and looted with relatively low risk. The one in Unexpected Visit is located nearby Kunesh's house, while the one in Run! will be found on the battlements during the Talmberg night watch. In both cases, it is highly recommended to save right before attempting a stealth takedown as success is not guaranteed with Henry's low stats - additionally, it may 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 if you no longer need to sell it. 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.
- After you have access to the open world, you may rush to loot the Cuman's stash from Lost in Translation at any time. You do 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, doesn't require lockpicking, and doesn't involve crime.

Gameplay[]

It is very important to obtain a horse as soon as possible due to the fact that players do not have access to 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 doesn't 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.
- With the Hunt skill for Mutt, players will hardly ever starve, or have lack of coin.
- With the Sic! skill, players will stand a better chance in combat, as he will distract enemies for you.
- With the Alarm skill, players will have a much easier time avoiding ambushes even when there are 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 repair all your equipped clothing items for free periodically. While she can't repair armor, this will still allow you to fix your gambesons even if they are reduced to 0% durability.

Navigation[]

Opening up the time-skipping menu to see what time it is can be useful to tell on which side the sun currently is, and thus indicating a better notion of where to go.
- noon is at 13:00, at which point the sun points south, the bottom of the map.
- If it is before noon, then the sun points to east. The left side of the map. It is exactly east at 8:00.
- If it is past noon, then the sun poinst to west. The right side of the map. It is exactly west at 18:00.

The moon between 21:00-22:30 points to the south, the bottom side of the map. At midnight, it points to the southwest.
Neither the Sun nor Moon is visible between 2:00 and 5:00. The star sphere doesn't rotate around the North star. If you're outside lost at these hours, just wait it out.
Players should be using the main roads almost exclusively, as those have often Conciliation crosses, Shrines, and sometimes Accidents. These markers will show on your map and help you garner a better idea of where you might be. The exception 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 might just be what allows a player to get his bearings, should they get lost.
Should you get super lost, you can always go downhill until you see water. Every stream flows to the Sasau river, where it should be easier to get your bearings.
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 listening or reading to their dialogue.

Notes[]

The menu screen death starts out with a 90% of death, then upon trying again it goes down to only 60%, and then if death occurs once more, then it goes further down into only 20%, and stays as such, until you survive.
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.