Regale your hardcore efforts

[GraniteSnake]

3 hours ago, Buff_Cupcake said:

I noticed you got the 100%! Congrats, how did it go? Curious to see what your loadout was and save structure etc. The more examples I can get the better I can educate myself on my own attempts  

 

Hey, I made things as easy as possible for myself (I had access to all DLC as I bought the DS2 super bundle ages ago). My loadout was the Bloody Force Gun and the Forged Plasma Cutter for the entire game except the final boss - maxed out both of these as well as my Rig/Stasis using the chapter 1 duplication glitch - also equipped the Forged Engineering Suit at the first available shop (swapped this out with the Advanced Suit you get in Chapter 11). Bought and upgraded the Heavy Duty Contact Beam at the last shop in Chapter 14 and used that against the final boss. 

 

Save structure was the following: Chapter 2 (first save available after the duplication glitch, didn't want to risk dying having grinded out all of the nodes), the beginning of Chapter 10 and halfway through Chapter 13 - just before the room with the spinning lasers as I had died here twice previously during my Zealot run.

 

Two deaths total - the above mentioned spinning laser room (thank God for that save) and right at the very end during the short flying section after beating the final boss (wasn't even aware you could die here).

 

I see you want to do this mode legit so all of this will be pretty meaningless to you but I wish you the best of luck! If it proves too frustrating/difficult just do what I did and this mode becomes a walk in the park. The maxed out Bloody Force Gun is insanely OP!

[Buff_Cupcake]

14 hours ago, GraniteSnake said:

 

Hey, I made things as easy as possible for myself (I had access to all DLC as I bought the DS2 super bundle ages ago). My loadout was the Bloody Force Gun and the Forged Plasma Cutter for the entire game except the final boss - maxed out both of these as well as my Rig/Stasis using the chapter 1 duplication glitch - also equipped the Forged Engineering Suit at the first available shop (swapped this out with the Advanced Suit you get in Chapter 11). Bought and upgraded the Heavy Duty Contact Beam at the last shop in Chapter 14 and used that against the final boss. 

 

Save structure was the following: Chapter 2 (first save available after the duplication glitch, didn't want to risk dying having grinded out all of the nodes), the beginning of Chapter 10 and halfway through Chapter 13 - just before the room with the spinning lasers as I had died here twice previously during my Zealot run.

 

Two deaths total - the above mentioned spinning laser room (thank God for that save) and right at the very end during the short flying section after beating the final boss (wasn't even aware you could die here).

 

I see you want to do this mode legit so all of this will be pretty meaningless to you but I wish you the best of luck! If it proves too frustrating/difficult just do what I did and this mode becomes a walk in the park. The maxed out Bloody Force Gun is insanely OP!

 

Thanks for that write-up, this really helps. Yeah I raised my eyebrow at the laser room on my first playthrough as a place that will potentially give me grief in a hard core run. Glad to hear the Force Gun still holds up on a hard core run, I was a bit upset at the prospect of having to ditch it as it was such a good all round weapon on my regular run, especially with anxiety inducing swarms.

 

Tonight i'm going to make a start on Zealot difficulty, taking notes as I go and then get to chapter 5-7. Lock in the save, then maybe get a couple of practice runs in before doing the same on Hard Core. I'm curious to see how much progress I'll make this weekend. I think overall, i'm on track to getting it done before Dead Space Remake comes out at the end of the month.

[Buff_Cupcake]

1st Save Update - Through a couple of runs of practice, I managed a PB of Chapter 7 so I decided to lock my first save in there, right before the space lift sequence. So glad I don't have to do all of that again!

 

I'm not sure if I'm going to drop the second save in at Chapter 10 or push myself to 11 or 12 depending on practice. Either way, the final save is probably going to be before the infamous eye sequence.

 

So far the main things that have ended runs haven't been enemies, but environmental stuff, like decompression windows and traps. Also, cyst babies. My god, cyst babies.

[SavageToe_]

Just got this done 5 days after the remaster dropped. Didn't use any glitches for thew hardcore run just took it super slow.

 

Went with Pulse, detonator, Plasma and Contact beam...Last save was in Chapter 12 right before the meat grinder joy ride....took me a few goes to get it together thought  that last bit. Messed up the eye needle on one run ARGH!!

 

Used a speedrun to get though those last areas with the Black enemies and skipped fighting as much as i could..

 

 ?

[hopeseinberg]

Got my first save really early, right at the start of chapter 4 as I managed to get there first try and would rather practice and get better runs at actual combat encounters rather than to rewatch the opening sequence and to play the tutorial. I sort of regretted it as 4-5-6 posed no trouble but had my first death at chapter 7, as I was trying to telekinesis an explosive tank it hit the laser trap on the way causing a window the explode and suck me into space as I stressed out and choked while aiming at the lock.

Next time I managed to get there I shot the window before entering the room and wasted a chance to get 7-8 free kills in trade of the run's safety. Second save was at the start of chapter 8, did some combat and backtracked to a save spot as I didn't want to risk the iron-man flying section, which ended up being a smart move as I got my second death at the spinning blades, I suggest waiting the call to end there since the video feed blocks your view a bit. 

Managed to get to the start of the drill ride (chapter 12) first run, had one close call at the room with 2 exploders and 2 enhanced slashers but a liberal use of statis saved me. Got my final save at the start of chapter 12, wasn't the most optimal but I wanted to play it safe then sorry. Got my third and final death at the first encounter of 13, I played it too campy and ended up missing some statis shots and ended up cornered, could've spammed health kits but then the red rooms would be near impossible anyway, with only few healing items.

The final run went smoother than I expected besides tanking some hits at the red rooms, the spinning drill has a margin of starting a bit late if you just don't stop running and take a short linear path to the next opening and the eye machine is just about waiting for Isaac to center his eyeball around at 2.0 distance left and slowly tapping x at the moments his eyeball is centered, that way even a shaky hand got it done. Before chapter 14 I had to respec one of my guns for nodes and upgraded the beam's alt fire and sold the other 2 for beam ammo and health kits. Besides shooting the regenerator's legs I only spammed the maxed out beam alt fire that also meant (nearly)unlimited statis, I mostly ran for it until the final fight besides getting some lucky kills with the alt fire, last boss was a joke with the beam, spammed main fire on Nicole and the marker, had to use alt fire few times as the kids overwhelmed me as well but nothing crazy happened overall at 14-15 and managed to get my platinum. Overall, one of the most stressful things I have ever done for a platinum and am relieved it's over.

 

Edited April 13, 2023 by hopeseinberg

[MikeMan54]

i didn't find it too difficult. I watched someone else's play through and copied as best i could. 

It still took me the weekend and a dozen deaths, but it was manageable. 

 

Honourable mention to the literal end of the game flying to catch the ship and hitting debris.  I would have been furious if it wasn't so hilarious to fail at the 99.9% mark

Edited May 21, 2023 by MikeMan54

[LC-Fraggers]

Died twice in the very first chapter when I couldn't TK the metal poles into the Necros at point blank range. I had literally never missed a shot with them in my Normal/Zealot playthroughs.

After that, it was smooth-ish sailing. I died one more time in the freefall section after the fixing the solar panels because I was half asleep and tried to go around one of the tunnels instead of through it but I was close to my first save anyway.

Very nearly died (1-2 points of health left) trying to be clever in the Tormentor fight with the exploding canisters and then got inexplicably trapped in a corner with no stasis left against the Ubermorph after the eye-poke machine. Hands were sweaty, mom's spaghetti, etc. ?

[raphi_boss67]

Oh my god guys !!! I finaly did it ?

 

I found this challenge very hard, my heart beat was so high when I was near a save point ?

 

I chose to save at chapter 5, 9 and 13.

 

The nodes duplication glitch save me. With my plasma cutter fully upgraded I was just invincible ?.

 

I died many times. The most horrible thing was my death after the final boss during the last cutscene ?

 

This is my 100th platinum ?

[dieselmanchild]

So I’ve done a few similar types of challenges now, and I bought 2 of the DLCs to have the Forged Engineering Suit + Bloody Force Gun from the start of the game, so I really didn’t think Hardcore was going to all that Hard or Core. But as usual with these kinds of high stakes challenges I ended up finding some extremely stupid ways to die! 😫
 

Dead Space 2 - Hardcore Deaths:

 

1) Chapter 2

Never died here before in previous runs. Got to the part after the train ride where you’re hanging upside down and blasted through it with my Force Gun, but when the Brute showed up I was spamming my alt-fire at his yellow patches and nothing was happening. After a few seconds I realized the alt-fire beam must not work when you’re upside down, so I quickly tried switching to the Plasma Cutter but it was already too late. QTE failed, train squashed me.

 

2) Chapter 2

 

Same spot. But this time I’m bored and rushing, and decide to get fancy while hanging upside down and use kinesis on the first few guys instead of my trusty Force Gun. This allowed an enemy to get close and hit me (literally for the first time ever) and this is where I discovered that if that happens you start swinging wildly all over the place like a Piñata at a toddler’s birthday party. This caused me to panic and get annihilated and mobbed while hopelessly shooting air. Damn.

 

3) Chapter 5

 

Another silly one. In Ch. 5 there’s a part where you have to disable the gravity on the bottom floor and then float up to the roof and float through a little circular door in the ceiling. As I went to move through the hole, I clipped the side of the coffin thing coming down and couldn’t move. It only lasted a second or two before I corrected and continued upwards, but this slight delay was just enough to see me brutally crushed by the door as it closed. Ha. I had no idea that could even happen.

 

4) Chapter 9 

 

This one was sooo dumb. At the start of Ch. 9 there’s a cramped room with one of those glass decompression windows. I killed the 2 enemies without breaking the window and was about to cross the room and exit when I suddenly got paranoid another enemy might jump out and startle me near the exit (as the game loves to do), causing me to accidentally break the window. I decided on the genius move of “safely” decompressing the room before leaving just in case. Rather than do it from the back of the room, I instead returned to the elevator and shot it out from inside as the angle is so sharp that I didn’t possibly think I could get sucked out. Imagine my surprise when that’s exactly what happened. I was way too close to the window to get a shot off so instead I watched myself die, crushed in the door alongside my spirit, my soul, and my will to play the game.

 

5) Chapter 9

 

Right after the decompression room you ride an elevator up and get immediately ambushed by a pregnant and a couple necros. They took me by surprise and took a big chunk of my health off, even though I survived. My rig was now red. I had a med kit in my inventory and one on the shelf inside the room, but for reasons unknown I did not heal right away. I decided to do the puzzle first and then heal up before leaving, only I completely forgot that one of those stupid squid skull creatures pops out from underneath the wheel when you pick it up. I didn’t even hear him coming. As I was placing the wheel, I was suddenly strangled from behind and murdered. At least I got to see a cool new death animation though. The squid literally curls around Isaac’s neck, pops his head off, stuffs it’s tentacles down his bloody stump, and places it’s skull right where Isaac’s head used to be. Isaac’s dead body shuffles off like a zombie as the screen goes dark. Lol.

 

6) Chapter 12

 

No funny story here, I simply got overwhelmed and annihilated fair and square during the drill ride. I hadn’t really had any problems there before so I ended up embarking on the ride woefully underprepared with only a few small med kits. The necros climbing up the side were no problem but I completely underestimated how devastating the Lurker damage is if you don’t take them all out quickly.

Edited October 17, 2023 by dieselmanchild

[Ovatsug09]

Finally did the Harcore Mode! Following the thread, I would like to point some strategies for saves/weapons and my deaths.

 

Overall, the mode was not that bad. Your biggest enemy is... yourself. Panic strikes every now and then and you make mistakes, specially when you are nearing a save point that you will use.

 

Saves that I used:

- Beginning of Chapter 6 --> I choose to save here because this chapter is HARD, starting right with the first fight. The previous 5 chapters I believe are okay, so just risked it and it worked!

- Beginning of Chapter 10 --> Aside from chapter 15, I think this is the hardest chapter. So many enemies, the decompression section, the corridor. Its worth a save, trust me.

- Middle of Chapter 13 --> Here I saved just after the fight with the stalkers. Its very risk, because there are a couple sections that are difficulty and if you die... well, back to chapter 10. But after this save, its really fast to get to the final boss.

 

Weapons that I like:

- Plasma Cutter -> dont even gonna comment on this one. Just focus on upgrading damage and getting the "special" damage over time upgrade ASAP.

- Pulse Rifle -> I used this weapon exclusively as crowd control with its alt-fire (R2). The grenade does a decent damage up to chapter 10~11, so I think its worth it. But dont upgrade this weapon at all, please.

- Detonator -> A strange choice that I like very much. This weapon is a great damage dealer on direct impact and its mines can help take down enemies like the Brute. I also used it to destroy the Cysts and dealing with large groups of enemies that came from one direction. Again, dont upgrade it and stored it by chapter 11.

- Contact Beam -> The GOAT of Dead Space 2. This weapon has no damage upgrades, so the maximum power is presented from the beggining. Very good for every occasion, specially when you have time to take down a powerfull enemy. Also, shooting the arms of Brutes can take them down in 2 shots.

 

Deaths: 5 -> Elevador at Chapter 7 | 2x Basic Enemies Chapter 10 | Pistons at the end of Chapter 14 | Lasers at the middle of Chapter 13

 

And thats it! I hope everyone manage to try and conquer this amazing challenge

 

Cross your heart, hope (not) to die!