any tips for hardcore S+?

[eepy83]

im trying to 100% this game after beating this game blindly for the first time

any guides and/or recommended playthroughs?

[LearnedAndVile]

At the moment I'm trying to figure out what a good time is when you reach the castle. I'm hoping there's a breakdown somewhere that lists the optimal time per chapter somewhere but I haven't been able to find anything of the sort.
I'm at the cabin fight and i'm around the 1h 30m mark and i'm not sure if I should go back to earlier chapters to tighten up my playtime.

[Frontier Psychiatrist]

The game seems to reward you for time more than anything so don't bother with certain sidequests, picking up all the treasures or doing the shooting gallery. Have a load out of weapons you're happy to stick with for most of the game and just focus on upgrading those. I'd recommend sticking with the original sniper rifle and having the exclusive upgrade on that to help you. Hardcore has autosave so you don't have to rely on manually saving between chapters and so on. Also, if you die, don't continue; it counts as a death. You should quit/load the game autosave file and go from there.

So basically, go as quick as you can, try not to save much and if you die restart from a clean load instead of clicking continue.

[Xengre]

Get used to using the Bolt Action Rifle is a really great way to have much better combat performance due to its insane dmg and ammo efficiency. A single round from it fully upgraded is better than the Killer 7 but rifle ammo is far more common. It can also penetrate targets meaning a single headshot can pierce wooden shields, multiple heads, and even groups of plaga (which are even easier to line up due to bing larger) killing them all in one bullet.

Most importantly if you haven't tried it use the Bolt-Action Rifle (commonly called BAR on here) WITHOUT a scope. It is much easier to handle at mid/close range this way. It can also trivialize encounters. For example if you upgrade it in a Pro S+ run with enough upgrades (not just dmg btw) it can beat the first El Gigante before the boss ever takes a single step. This requires enough dmg, naturally, but also enough ammo capacity and fast enough reload rate (reload makes a huge difference on weapons like this that reload one bullet at a time if not upgraded). Cabin? You can kill 2-4 enemies at a window or the stairs in a single bullet or obliterate the bull special enemy when it spawns for an easy cabin siege. Double Garrador fight? A single heavy grenade followed by 1 BAR (upgraded dmg and exclusive) round to the back plaga will kill them (aka 2 bullets, per per Garrador, and a single heavy grenade hitting and stunning both) for a easy win seconds after the boss fight starts. Etc.

Riot Gun, the shotgun, isn't just about doing good dmg. It is great for cutting time waasted on combat and avoiding having to actually kill targets. Simply get decent ammo capacity on it and you can run through rooms like the water room just shotgunning anything that gets near. The goal is to knock it away/down and run past IF it gets near you, otherwise obviously you are running past. You can kill stuff and still S+ but doing this makes some sections much easier than actually killing dozens of enemies and soaking up bullets, healing resources, etc.

Pistol? No. Toss it. Get the TMP (since LE 5 is so late in the game you can swap when you get it if you want, weapons sell for almost all the money they had spent on them) and use it as a pistol replacement. As long as you get used to not spamming too many bullets, aiming properly, and using it at proper ranges with the stock it can headshot as well as a pistol and be far more ammo efficient but stuns better and does more DPS. The core gain here is the ammo efficiency though as you pick up 30 bullets or craft 30 (+15 with bonus for 45) which maths out to making pistols look like trash. Aside from some preset static ammo placed around the game's world your enemies will drop ammo based on what you are holding so rather than dropping pistol ammo they would drop SMG, rifle, shotgun ammo if those are the three weapons you hold. If you feel confident though it is totally viable to just go shotgun + rifle only though.

Flashbangs are great for running through areas as are grenades. I recommend hording them and not using except when actually needed. I recommend gunpowder case. Further, I recommend NOT crafting stuff and stockpiling gunpowder/resources (except when you need space) so that you preferably get most of your ammo via direct drops on ground (mobs/boxes/barrels) as you get low. If you keep crafting then it spoils the RNG making ptas drop more than ammo that you want wasting gunpowders indirectly plus meaning you wont have the gunpowder for clutch ammo situations or better yet clutch grenade/flashbang situations.

Ashley Knight armor is nice to have but really not necessary. Mostly it just makes the knight armor section a breeze as you cannot die with it.

Skip exploring extra stuff you don't need because, again, resource drops are based on what you have and what you need so grabbing extra is only padding you slightly if already well of meanwhile if you need resources the game will favor dropping them anyways so no need to go overly out of your way.

Fish from the fountain and lake are great free chunks of health you can horde that take hardly any time to gather at the expense of inventory space.

Gold egg trick for Salazar Ramon.

Magnum sucks. Buy rockets instead. Preferably at least 1 rocket for Vergudo (he must be frozen for it to kill him, so first time he comes out freeze and rocket him skipping that entire section's combat) and 1 for Saddler. If you can spare the money then buy one for Krauser's 3rd form, too.

If you want when you do Pro you can also get the Chicago Sweeper with its infinite ammo and really trivialize the run.

There are some tricks to save time such as the scope skip bypassing first Garrador and related segment and the crane section and related segment (otherwise grenades on the wall will break it asap instead of using crane ball). Throwing grenades for the red guys who chant can trivialize their sections like if thrown as you run across the bridge and timed right you will prevent the bridge from dropping skipping that mini section or for doing high dmg to the one with the bug room. Then snipe it or run up and shotgun it real fast. There is a mine trick with the bolt gun (if dmg and other stats are upgraded high enough) that will instantly kill the chainsaw sisters and mendez then you can sell the bolt gun after for almost all your money back just make sure to have enough resources to craft the mines/bolts in advance.

Cutscenes don't count against timer but you can skip them if you want. However, do NOT load your game from during a run or death screen as this adds time to your timer. Exit to main menu to perform ANY LOAD game action.

[Xengre]

Originally posted by LearnedAndVile:

At the moment I'm trying to figure out what a good time is when you reach the castle. I'm hoping there's a breakdown somewhere that lists the optimal time per chapter somewhere but I haven't been able to find anything of the sort.
I'm at the cabin fight and i'm around the 1h 30m mark and i'm not sure if I should go back to earlier chapters to tighten up my playtime.

Ideally, you should be at the castle by around 50 mins to 1 hour and 15 mins. However, you can make it on your current time as long as you don't waste too much time going forward. You aren't stretched for time cutting it close or anything at 1.5 hours unless you royally mess up later.

[Explodium]

Originally posted by LearnedAndVile:

At the moment I'm trying to figure out what a good time is when you reach the castle. I'm hoping there's a breakdown somewhere that lists the optimal time per chapter somewhere but I haven't been able to find anything of the sort.
I'm at the cabin fight and i'm around the 1h 30m mark and i'm not sure if I should go back to earlier chapters to tighten up my playtime.

When I did my pro S+ run I think I was about 2 hours in when I reached the castle, though I cleaned the place out for money. There was much less faffing about in the other areas.

[B]

Skip all sidequests unless they are easy to do and already on the main story path (graveyard twins quest). Focus all upgrades on specific individual weapons like the rifles or magnum. Run past enemies. Always.

From there it's just a matter of grabbing certain treatures and individual strategies for forced fights.

[LearnedAndVile]

Well, i'm now almost at the 3 hour mark and I just hit chapter 10, Am I going at a decent pace?

[Lilith]

Learn the double door skip glitch with a scoped weapon, that'll shave hours off your time, plus you can skip Mendez boss fight with an autosave bug, Defeat Ramon in seconds by throwing a golden egg at him, RPG to 1 hit kill bosses like the Verdugo and Saddler, RPG the TNT in the mines to skip an entire section. Using those gave me a 2hr 54 minute run.

[LearnedAndVile]

Originally posted by Switch:

Learn the double door skip glitch with a scoped weapon, that'll shave hours off your time, plus you can skip Mendez boss fight with an autosave bug, Defeat Ramon in seconds by throwing a golden egg at him, RPG to 1 hit kill bosses like the Verdugo and Saddler, RPG the TNT in the mines to skip an entire section. Using those gave me a 2hr 54 minute run.

Alot of those door skips seemed to have been patched out. It doesn't specify which ones but I just tried the Garrador skip and I couldn't get it to work.

https://mp1st.com/title-updates-and-patches/re4-update-1-005-howls-out-for-april-23

[SoKrates]

Play the game a lot in other difficulties, or Watch some speedruns to learn the game, what to get and what not in order to save time. Door skips may be helpful but i think without them you can do it anyways.

[Platapoop]

Easiest is to watch a speedrunner. Just picked the one with the shortest time on speedrun.com enjoy in the NMG (no major glitches) category! (in chinese). Picked the Pro one since that time is faster than the fastest hardcore

https://www.speedrun.com/re4r?h=NMG-PC-Professional&x=02qw4x72-rn1jrq1n.1w4vyovq-38dm71z8.1py39o81
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Wa4y1K7bR/