Just playing on standard difficulty,Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2is already a hard enough game, especially in its early hours. However, compared to the first Kingdom Come: Deliverance, the sequel is a little easier. If you’re looking for a challenge that gets rid of any semblance of hand-holding, then it’s worth trying out Hardcore Mode.
Hardcore Mode drastically alters the gameplay compared to the default difficulty. With a whole array of negative perks that you’re forced to choose from, and multiple adjustments to the gameplay to make the experience even more realistic, it’s worth going into this mode with a few tips and tricks to keep in mind.
10Pay Attention To The Sun And Moon
Nature’s Compass
While there are still some navigational features in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s Hardcore Mode, they have all been pared back significantly. One of the clearest examples of this is the lack of any cardinal directions at the top of the screen to help you track your position.
While this method won’t work indoors or during certain weather conditions, a good method to get track of the different directions is to follow the movements of the sun and the moon. With the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, you can use this, or alternatively the direction of Henry’s shadow, to get a grip on which way is which.
9Choose Perks Strategically
Know Your Playstyle
Each of the negative perksyou have to choose at the beginning of Hardcore Mode will make different activities and options more difficult. However, if you look through the options, some are easier to avoid than others.
Which perks you may avoid triggering will depend on your playstyle. For example, if you don’t talk to NPCs that often, Bashful will be less bothersome, or if you’re a mostly law-abiding citizen, then the hypothetical permanent branding of the Menace perk should be easy to avoid.
8Pay Attention To Enemy Body Language
Find The Weakest Link
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s combat is tricky enough to get to grips with at the default difficulty, but Hardcore Mode turns up the challenge by removing almost all the UI clues and tips that appear during fights.
One of the most annoying features of this is not being able to see how much health different enemies have left. This makes getting through larger groups of enemies tougher, since it’s harder to tell who will go down easiest. However, weaker enemies have tells, like their body language slumping, and slower movements. If you target these enemies first, you’ll have an easier time thinning the crowd.
7Listen For Complaints
Rabbit UI Is Hibernating
If you loved the adorable rabbit UI from the default difficulty, which displayed how different NPCs perceive Henry, Hardcore Mode will be a bit of a disappointment since it removes the rabbit.
This icon would let you know if you’ve been spotted where you shouldn’t be, if guards are after you, or if you’re about to start a fight. However, just because it’s missing doesn’t mean you can’t heed these warnings. NPCs will make obvious statements about what they think about Henry, or if they’ve spotted him, so if you play with the volume high enough, you should be able to hear these signifiers and adapt accordingly.
6Practice Your Defensive Skills
Alternatively Match Their Energy
While it is one of the more subtle changes made in Hardcore Mode, and you might not even notice it if it’s been a while since playing through the standard difficulty, enemies are much more aggressive and will deal a bit more damage to Henry as well.
The best way to counter this, especially when against groups of enemies, is to master defensive skills. This ensures that you avoid taking damage and don’t waste your energy, which makes you more vulnerable. If you’re more confident in your combat prowess, you could alternatively go for a more aggressive approach to match their energy, but this is much riskier.
5Prepare For Everything To Take Longer
The Map Suddenly Feels A Lot Bigger
In an effort to make Hardcore Mode feel even more immersive compared to the standard Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 experience, a lot of the quality of life and efficiency features of the sequel have been removed.
One of the most notable examples of this is the lack of fast travel. Henry will no longer be able to speed along pathways to reach destinations he’s previously traveled to, and you’ll have to do all of your journeys naturally. This means that you’ll want to get a horse as soon as possible at the start of a playthrough. Even with this, you’ll also just need to slow down the pace of your gameplay and learn to appreciate the sights.
4Three Perks Is Only A Minimum
Optimize Achievement Hunting
At the start of the run, you need to pick at least three negative perks available. This will likely automatically get you thinking about which will be the least trouble to deal with, but if you’re a completionist, it might be worth biting the bullet and choosing all of them.
Of course, this will make your run much harder, especially at the beginning, but it will also give you a fast-pass to getting the Against All Odds achievement. This achievement only unlocks if you beat Hardcore Mode with all negative perks activated. So, if you want to get all the achievements as fast as possible, this is worth attempting.
3Study Your Surroundings
Landmarks And Contours
While you still have access to a map in Hardcore Mode, it’s a lot less useful than it was in the default difficulty. Even though landmarks are still marked out, and you can see where quest locations are, what you can’t see is Henry himself.
However, if you’re familiar with the map of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, then this shouldn’t be too difficult to adapt to, but even if you aren’t, there are some tricks to help you find your bearings. New points of interest you discover will appear on the map, so you can use these to work out where you are, and if you pay attention to the shapes of roads, rivers, and lakes, then it’s a little easier to find Henry’s precise location.
2Stealth And Ranged Are Even More Viable
Not As Nerfed
While melee combat is made significantly more tricky thanks to the minimized HUD and enemies being more aggressive,stealth and ranged combatremain mostly unchanged. Even though there are some negative perks that might make Henry’s skills in these areas a bit worse for wear, otherwise, they are just as good as they were in the standard difficulty.
If you avoided using ranged weapons in your first playthrough, or if you didn’t try taking the stealthy approach as often as you could, then Hardcore Mode is the perfect excuse to try out these skills.
1Ideally, Don’t Make This Your First Run
Experience Is Key
Even though there are more specific tips that make Hardcore Mode easier to deal with, the best piece of advice is for thisnot tobe your first experiencewith the game. If you’ve already finished it once, you’ll have a better understanding of both the map and the combat, and this makes dealing with the simplified systems in Hardcore Mode much easier.
Of course, if you’re looking for the toughest challenge possible, then going into Hardcore Mode completely blind will be an incredibly tricky experience. However, dealing with constantly getting lost, combat having an even steeper learning curve than usual, and NPCs generally not liking you, will likely make a first playthrough more painful than it needs to be.
