Minimalist NG Hardcore/Pro?

[Denoloco]

Hey guys. So I just did my Hardcore No Merchant NG run and it was an amazing challenge...except Water Hall... f%$ Water Hall.

Now I want to keep doing interesting challenges and this minimalist achievement came up.
Obviously I could do this on assisted and cat ears, but where is the fun in that.
So my question is if someone did a minimalist run on a new game file hardcore or in professional and any tips will be very welcome.

[Agarillobob]

I agree ♥♥♥♥ waterhall
if you get hit at all reload save
make sure to not have red health on the speciem confinment as you can not make the door without lots of frustration or ditman charm

[Denoloco]

Originally posted by Agarillobob:

I agree ♥♥♥♥ waterhall
if you get hit at all reload save
make sure to not have red health on the speciem confinment as you can not make the door without lots of frustration or ditman charm

Oh, I think you mean the Frugalist achievement. Which is no healing.
Minimalist is only handguns and knives.

[Agarillobob]

Originally posted by Denoloco:

Originally posted by Agarillobob:

I agree ♥♥♥♥ waterhall
if you get hit at all reload save
make sure to not have red health on the speciem confinment as you can not make the door without lots of frustration or ditman charm

Oh, I think you mean the Frugalist achievement. Which is no healing.
Minimalist is only handguns and knives.

ahh I am sorry yea
for minimalist get Red9 for all porpuse
punisher for regeneradores fights and castle shilds
and if you have the ammo matilda for bosses but its only more DPS Red9 has bettar TDO
you can use the silver ghost as its crit multiplier stacks onto knifes

[Agarillobob]

knifes you can fully ignore, kitchen and boot is good enough, when you get krausers knife thats worth upgrading

[Agarillobob]

Originally posted by Agarillobob:

knifes you can fully ignore, kitchen and boot is good enough, when you get krausers knife thats worth upgrading

or obvs you can use primal knife if that doesnt destroy the challenge of NG for you

[Xengre]

A tip that I've seen others mention is Matilda and for a few reasons, one they did it for but also another less known one that most don't know they're benefiting from.

Note I did not use Matilda for my run but would have if I had known about the secret tip and not done it with Cat Ears, but I did use Cat Ears so its irrelevant.

First, it does great dmg and DPS, especially if you use a macro to save your mouse/fingers lol. Most importantly, apparently the way ammo drops is determined is based on ammo in your CASE. Loaded ammo does NOT count. This means the 60 rounds an upgraded Matilda can hold count as 0 ammo and only stacks of pistol ammo boxes in your case would count against you. This is a great way to inflate ammo drops further reducing ammo strain in a pistol only run.

Otherwise other options... (or you can use them in various situations since you WILL have spare money).

Either critical pistol. Why? For when you melee the crit EXCLUSIVE does effect melee, too. This brings your melee crit chance from 25% up to 50% or with the Emblem as well around 70%. Who doesn't love free crits? The dmg is 1.8 up to 3.0 scaling over the course of the game (it actually increases apparently to compensate being further in the game and enemy HP going up) and has a crit multiplier of 4x meaning it can do 7.2 up to 12 dmg (with wolf tail +50% so 10.8 ~ 18 dmg) killing most mobs in 1 swift AoE hit. You can simply swap to the pistol for when you melee as there is plenty of time with melee prompts then swap back to your preferred pistol.

Interestingly, I found the Punisher to be very subpar in that run... Feel free to try it yourself and decide, though.

Note that you CANNOT use eggs (throw that is, so no merchant quest and can't use on ramon), no grenades, no flashbang. You can use scope to check wrench in regenerator but cannot shoot the rifle/LE5.

The challenge does work in NG+ if you want to go that route.

[Denoloco]

Originally posted by Agarillobob:

Originally posted by Agarillobob:

knifes you can fully ignore, kitchen and boot is good enough, when you get krausers knife thats worth upgrading

or obvs you can use primal knife if that doesnt destroy the challenge of NG for you

Yeah, was thinking of just running the starter pistol for the exclusive and Red9 for boss fights and heavy damage. But now you made me think about the regenerators and the punisher. Plus it's very helpful for zealots with shields. Considering I will only have 3 pistols and a knife, I can probably carry and max all three without issues.

[Denoloco]

Originally posted by Xengre:

A tip that I've seen others mention is Matilda and for a few reasons, one they did it for but also another less known one that most don't know they're benefiting from.

Note I did not use Matilda for my run but would have if I had known about the secret tip and not done it with Cat Ears, but I did use Cat Ears so its irrelevant.

First, it does great dmg and DPS, especially if you use a macro to save your mouse/fingers lol. Most importantly, apparently the way ammo drops is determined is based on ammo in your CASE. Loaded ammo does NOT count. This means the 60 rounds an upgraded Matilda can hold count as 0 ammo and only stacks of pistol ammo boxes in your case would count against you. This is a great way to inflate ammo drops further reducing ammo strain in a pistol only run.

Otherwise other options... (or you can use them in various situations since you WILL have spare money).

Either critical pistol. Why? For when you melee the crit EXCLUSIVE does effect melee, too. This brings your melee crit chance from 25% up to 50% or with the Emblem as well around 70%. Who doesn't love free crits? The dmg is 1.8 up to 3.0 scaling over the course of the game (it actually increases apparently to compensate being further in the game and enemy HP going up) and has a crit multiplier of 4x meaning it can do 7.2 up to 12 dmg (with wolf tail +50% so 10.8 ~ 18 dmg) killing most mobs in 1 swift AoE hit. You can simply swap to the pistol for when you melee as there is plenty of time with melee prompts then swap back to your preferred pistol.

Interestingly, I found the Punisher to be very subpar in that run... Feel free to try it yourself and decide, though.

Note that you CANNOT use eggs (throw that is, so no merchant quest and can't use on ramon), no grenades, no flashbang. You can use scope to check wrench in regenerator but cannot shoot the rifle/LE5.

The challenge does work in NG+ if you want to go that route.

Interesting about the Matilda. In my 5 runs I've never even touched it due the ammo consumption but keeping the mag full and no ammo in case now makes big sense.
Surprised you didn't find the Punisher that good, especially for shielded dues but I guess you can always find a limb to shoot at.

[Agarillobob]

Originally posted by Denoloco:

Originally posted by Agarillobob:

or obvs you can use primal knife if that doesnt destroy the challenge of NG for you

Yeah, was thinking of just running the starter pistol for the exclusive and Red9 for boss fights and heavy damage. But now you made me think about the regenerators and the punisher. Plus it's very helpful for zealots with shields. Considering I will only have 3 pistols and a knife, I can probably carry and max all three without issues.

the thing is you will have the money when you enter the island depending on how many treasures you get
for castle shields its only so many shields 10-20 you encounter and base level punisher is free and does that with 5 shots
so when regeneradores come up I just put the acess money in the punisher specifically only for regeneradores and iron maiden.

[Jalir]

It's worth noting that the Matilda can be single fired, even with the stock equipped. It doesn't seem to force the burst all at once like in other games. A quick tap will (most of the time) give you single shots. I didn't think the Matilda was worth using without infinite ammo, but it really is an amazing pistol. Definitely a contender for your boss killer, at the very least. The allure of the dmg from Red9 as a boss killer is strong surely, but I found the reload/fire rate was just lacking for true DPS purposes.

[Denoloco]

Originally posted by Jalir:

It's worth noting that the Matilda can be single fired, even with the stock equipped. It doesn't seem to force the burst all at once like in other games. A quick tap will (most of the time) give you single shots. I didn't think the Matilda was worth using without infinite ammo, but it really is an amazing pistol. Definitely a contender for your boss killer, at the very least. The allure of the dmg from Red9 as a boss killer is strong surely, but I found the reload/fire rate was just lacking for true DPS purposes.

Damn, I just went to the Remake with the mentality it's only burst or nothing, like OG. Good to know.

[Agarillobob]

Originally posted by Jalir:

It's worth noting that the Matilda can be single fired, even with the stock equipped. It doesn't seem to force the burst all at once like in other games. A quick tap will (most of the time) give you single shots. I didn't think the Matilda was worth using without infinite ammo, but it really is an amazing pistol. Definitely a contender for your boss killer, at the very least. The allure of the dmg from Red9 as a boss killer is strong surely, but I found the reload/fire rate was just lacking for true DPS purposes.

yea matilda is DPS and red 9 is TDO
TDO being total damage output so more bang for each round absically
on enemies like el gigante and bitores and salazar I recomment matilda because you want that DPS
on garrador, verdugo(if you fight it) I def recommend red 9
Krauser knife and red9 and sdaller def only red9 as matilda will waste shotz

[lackesis]

Originally posted by Denoloco:

Hey guys. So I just did my Hardcore No Merchant NG run and it was an amazing challenge...except Water Hall... f%$ Water Hall.

Now I want to keep doing interesting challenges and this minimalist achievement came up.
Obviously I could do this on assisted and cat ears, but where is the fun in that.
So my question is if someone did a minimalist run on a new game file hardcore or in professional and any tips will be very welcome.

Just kill them all? Use door trick or just run to B1, the enemies in B1 will ignore you as long as you don't get close to them. when the enemies on 1F jump down to B1, you can kill them one by one. you can check my videos.