Hardcore No Merchant

[Denoloco]

Anyone attempted this? Going for my third play-through after doing Pro and I thought why not raise the challenge. If you have any tips regarding no merchant on this difficulty, or even on Pro (mad lads) I'll gladly take any advice.

[dethtrain]

This sounds like a pain in the ass if done on a new game. No body armor, no upgraded weapons, no recipes.

[Kawaii Mercenary]

Your goal should be the cqb rifle you can get from the library. Most of your early gunpowder and large resources should go to making rifle ammo for when you get it.

Make sure you get at least one of the golden eggs, preferably both for Salazar.

The smg you can pick up at the end of the game isn't worth it. Discard any smg ammo you might get and just ignore it.

Run past enemies, and use the shotgun to blast them off of you if you need to.

If you don't mind using speedrun tech/glitches, it might be helpful to learn some door clips. You can skip most of chapter 14 with one, only need to do the Krauser fight.

[Xengre]

I assume it can be done in NG+ since I see no modifier stating otherwise meaning you can go in with everything already upgraded. Seems non-issue tbh.

[Glorious Comrade]

Just upgrade all your weapons or the ones you want to use on the previous play through. Or buy the infinite rocket launcher then you dont need to talk to the merchant on your next NG+

[dethtrain]

Originally posted by Xengre:

I assume it can be done in NG+ since I see no modifier stating otherwise meaning you can go in with everything already upgraded. Seems non-issue tbh.

Thats exactly how I did it lol. And on assisted as well. The run I hated the most was not using recovery items

[Xengre]

Originally posted by dethtrain:

Originally posted by Xengre:

I assume it can be done in NG+ since I see no modifier stating otherwise meaning you can go in with everything already upgraded. Seems non-issue tbh.

Thats exactly how I did it lol. And on assisted as well. The run I hated the most was not using recovery items

I'm doing the minimalist (pistol+knife only) + Silent Stranger (no merchant) + Frugalist (no recovery items) on my first ever assisted run with my cat ears.

Not looting a single thing at all and running around with pistols against hilariously weak enemies compared to all the pro runs is surprisingly therapeutic.

[Snoof]

Im about to do a fresh Pro run without talking to merchant or using herbs and using pistol and knife only so I will let you know when im done

[Platapoop]

There are people who did Pro no merchant (no glitches, no dlc, no outfits, no anything), so hardcore no merchant should be doable.

Shouldn't be that bad hardcore, but once you get a rifle, on sections where you can run and kill very few enemies, I would run around with just your rifle weapon in your inventory to collect some extra ammo for bosses (can get up to 100 in inventory if that's your only weapon). Same with shotgun, but to a lesser degree.

[TyresTyco]

Saw Distortion doing a pro no merchant run. Looks like it's manageable and fun. BUT.. Saddler .. Saddler looks like pain. He was a huge pain in my ass in my minimalist, silent stranger, herbalist, assisted run.

[Denoloco]

Thanks for your replies boys. Should have specified I want to do this no ng+ and no bonus/deluxe weapons. Saw the guy doint it on Pro and I think I can very much do this, provided I'm smart with the encounters I choose. Though as mentioned above, I'm slightly worried about Saddler.

[ggAkatsukiP]

Originally posted by Xengre:

Originally posted by Denoloco:

Thanks for your replies boys. Should have specified I want to do this no ng+ and no bonus/deluxe weapons. Saw the guy doint it on Pro and I think I can very much do this, provided I'm smart with the encounters I choose. Though as mentioned above, I'm slightly worried about Saddler.

Realistically you will need Broken Butterfly and as much magnum ammo as you can craft saved for him to make it less miserable. If you do this it should be fine. I'd think you would want at least 30+ bullets though.

In no merchant run, the only reusable weapons are firearms, SG09R / W870 / CQBR / LE5

Fighting knife can be saved for Saddler but the knife prompt on its weakness doesn't actually do too much damage with 1.0 attack power.

[Denoloco]

Originally posted by Xengre:

Originally posted by Denoloco:

Thanks for your replies boys. Should have specified I want to do this no ng+ and no bonus/deluxe weapons. Saw the guy doint it on Pro and I think I can very much do this, provided I'm smart with the encounters I choose. Though as mentioned above, I'm slightly worried about Saddler.

Realistically you will need Broken Butterfly and as much magnum ammo as you can craft saved for him to make it less miserable. If you do this it should be fine. I'd think you would want at least 30+ bullets though.

Sadly, the Broken Butterfly is only an obtainable weapon in the original. In the remake AFAIK you can only get it from the Merchant. That leaves me with starter pistil, Red9, main village shotgun, the library assault rifle and the carbine on the island, which is dog poo.

[Xengre]

Originally posted by Denoloco:

Thanks for your replies boys. Should have specified I want to do this no ng+ and no bonus/deluxe weapons. Saw the guy doint it on Pro and I think I can very much do this, provided I'm smart with the encounters I choose. Though as mentioned above, I'm slightly worried about Saddler.

Perhaps Combat rifle due to having highest dmg when weakpoints involved at no upgrades? They also have solid accuracy. Also worth testing if heavy grenades work on him, or at least perhaps his big eye if anything when he is knocked down.

Edit: I know no Broken Butterfly. That is why I deleted my post before your posts but you guys sniped it in less than 5 seconds of posting lol... I had mixed it up with finding it in a chest in the original game and then was like wait... both magnums are from merchant in remake not just killer 7... oops.

EDIT again: and now I remember heavy grenade recipe is from shop too... so you would have to horde the ones you find to test in a situation that it might not even help in. Oof.

[ggAkatsukiP]

Originally posted by Denoloco:

Originally posted by Xengre:

Realistically you will need Broken Butterfly and as much magnum ammo as you can craft saved for him to make it less miserable. If you do this it should be fine. I'd think you would want at least 30+ bullets though.

Sadly, the Broken Butterfly is only an obtainable weapon in the original. In the remake AFAIK you can only get it from the Merchant. That leaves me with starter pistil, Red9, main village shotgun, the library assault rifle and the carbine on the island, which is dog poo.

I forgot about Red9
Btw are you allowed to use storage box? Some runners also include to ban using storage box.

Due to low inventory space, being able to use storage box is helpful give you option to store SG09R as handgun sniper for certain section, interchange large space weapons like W870/CQBR/LE5. and also take out fighting knife later for Saddler

This also include to ban using deluxe weapons / bonus weapons, so you won't be touching those

[Jalir]

I just recently did a fresh NG Pro run with no merchant. I didn't use any bonus items/unlocks EXCEPT I did use the Sentinel 9/Skullshaker, and really the Skullshaker made a huge difference with the space savings. The most important thing to remember, is you need to save your Combat Knife. I honestly would recommend storing it into your typewriter and forgetting you have it until you're coming up around the Krauser fight(s). I tried to focus on saving my knives as long as possible, and would even regularly just eat a grab rather than stab and lose a knife depending on how much healing I had.

Early game, you will have little problems running past most everything, so take advantage of the village section to really build up your supplies. As there's lots of un-avoidable combat situations in castle/island, they will begin to deplete fast from ch7 and on. Get BOTH Golden Eggs, since you won't need the spinels from selling one (or even able to sell one, period) you can dump them both on Salazar for an EZ win. As for weapons, you won't have much room to carry more than pistol/shotgun/cqbr, and even then, without the skullshaker as your shotgun you might find it hard to keep the cqbr on hand at all times. The good news is that the CQBR will be all you need in terms of power weapons, it does incredible dmg at base stats compared to your other guns, and you'll likely have a few stacks of guaranteed rifle ammo you've picked up by the time you get it. Try to also focus all your gunpowder/L resources into rifle ammo as well, since you won't be able to craft flash/heavy grenades on this run, rifle ammo is your best bet.

Otherwise, honestly, the game plays pretty normally to a standard fresh pro run other than the fact that you will absolutely notice no combat vest, and monsters will feel very tanky compared to what you're used to. Don't be too stubborn to re-load sections a few times to find a route that works that allows you to hit certain item pickups/avoid enemies until you get a run that gains you supplies rather than lose them, especially if it's not a scripted major combat event.

Honestly, the hardest part for me was remembering to not instinctively buy a RL and blast Saddler in the face instantly in ch16 ...

E- Also to add, might be wrong on this, not sure as I haven't run the actual math on it, but at base values the SG/Sent9 is the pistol you'll wanna use on boss fights/mini bosses if you feel the need to pull out the pistol. I tried using the Red9 as my main pistol as soon as I got it, but it really felt like the DPS was significantly lower than the stock pistols, due to the firing/reload rate. Red 9 is still great for normal enemies, however.