What happens when you finish the game?

[D Scriptus]

I'm looking at the hardcore achievement and wondering what exactly is needed. Do you just have to NOT DIE for the whole game, or is having the difficulty on hardcore/realistic and finishing the game enough?

Because I've done the game twice now in two different saves on hardcore/realistic and still no achievement. (hardcore changes this game, gives every decision weight because you can't spam save - awesome mode for anyone but fresh players)

I have two hardcore saves on the go, one is a much more successful run that is ready to finish the final mission - but I don't want to lose all my stuff. What's going to happen to me when I finish this? Will the profile be usable? Can I start in the zone again with harder enemies and wilth my loot intact? That would be my ideal.

What happened the last two times, I came back to the zone with no gear in my bunk. That makes no sense to me, but whatever - I kept going.
But why no achievement?

I guess what I need to have confirmed is if you die once in a hardcore run does that exclude you from getting the achievement? Or is it if you use the autosave feature that seems to be part of the difficulty settings to reload|? If that's the case, the autosave shouldn't be there - I should just have to go back in and get my stuff - which I'm down with.