PSA: Hardcore Permadeath Workaround

[Burgins]

If you've looked at the steam forums for this game, you might've seen this mentioned, but I figure it's worth mentioning on here too to help some folks out

 

You don't need to back up your saves or anything like that when going for your Hardcore run. You just need to have beaten the game once already to unlock level select. If you die, you can just use the level select to quickly clear a level (it does not matter what level you pick, so the very first one in the first episode works fine) and once you clear it, you'll be able to select "Continue" and continue your Hardcore run. Make sure you don't select New Game or else you'll lose your game.

 

Also, buy the Student perk as quickly as possible because it gives you free stats for literally just playing the game. 

 

After you get the Student perk, you can use the same trick as above but for grinding instead. If you select a single level like the very first level for example, you can go pick up Upgrade Points and get all kinds of Exp. and it'll be retained in your playthrough if you finish the level. The very first level takes no time at all to complete once you're used to it, and if you go into the one secret that has an Upgrade Point, you can net 2 Upgrade Points per run. 

 

So if you ever want to buy a weapon upgrade but don't have enough Points, you can go spend a few minutes grinding the first level and get it.

[Pistol_WhippedXG]

Thanks for posting this! Just managed Hardcore difficulty on Xbox with this trick. I died 4 times, twice near the end. I would have hated to have to redo everything! Great game, but that achievement would be sadistic without this work around. Some of the ambushes are brutal. Thanks again! 

[Ancestral_Spirit]

So what difficulty rating would you guys give this game with and without the workaround?

 

Don't get me wrong, i like a good challenge, but every now and then you find those games that are 11/10 difficulty and are nigh on impossible for most of us mere mortals  >.<

[Burgins]

It's not too bad. If you don't have experience with shooters, it might take some caution and a pretty decent batch of attempts to clear some of the levels, and the final boss may give you some trouble (though if you keep taking a wide circle around the boss arena and taking shots on the boss and his spawned enemies when you can, it's mostly just tedious and not really all that troublesome). I'd say with shooter experience around a 3 or 4/10 and without, maybe a 6/10.