Guide for Hardcore Mode?

[Brotjer]

I have no idea how to survive Hardcore Mode. Moving as fast and as carefully as I can still leads to crises going out of control within the first 30 turns.

[Imran Khan]

I beat it my first try using the same strategy everyone uses. Build a couple of windmills and remove 20th Century Industry. Then I played 3-4 more times and lost every time. I think this needs to be done well before the first tipping point. You need 6 food to get out of one of the crises, and your red and blue will be suppressed to zero, so maybe it makes sense to build some population. My first try all I could do was build food, and it worked and the crises ended. My other attempts, I had world starvation, maybe ocean death before I could do it. Maybe I just got lucky my first try, but I think eliminating the 20th Century Industry as early as possible was probably the key.

[kitty healslut (♂)]

Really? I beat it <80 turns for the achievement and i didn't touch the 20th century industry (removing it spawns more bad events)

[Brotjer]

Removing 20th Century Industry is definitely a given from my attempts. Getting past tipping points only makes the crises pile on harder and faster. I couldn't imagine resolving everything with it still churning out pollution. That said, if someone has a way to reliably win while keeping it on Hardcore, I'd be happy to hear about it.

[Valguris]

Removing Industry 20th Century makes the game much easier (pollution seems to affect crisis generation), but it shouldn't be done too soon. If you do it before the first tipping point, you probably won't be able to resolve the crises that will be generated. I usually remove Industry 20th Century somewhen between the 2nd and 3rd tipping points.

At the start I recommend getting a few cards from Science and Ecosystems sectors. People sector cards are dangerous, because generating people takes money and you may end up generating too little money for random crises. Industry sector improvements will greatly increase pollution generation, since adding even eco-friendly industry like wind farms increases the rate the entire sector ticks, which in particular increases the rate at which 20 pollution is generated (this mechanic is counterintuitive).

However, don't delay improving People sector too much, since a bunch of early game events require People to resolve. It's a good idea to improve Industry right after you get the first People card, since that's cheap money making when you need it. Once you get 4-6 arrows in Industry sector not counting Industry 20th Century card, you should be able to burn Industry 20th Century.

Here's some example gameplay on Hardcore: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1892827756
Note that I was aiming for winning as fast as possible in most of the runs, rather than optimizing for the win chance. If I was optimizing for the win chance, I'd probably aim to get a few more cheap Industry cards after Renewables and Wind Farms, like basic Fossil Power and Gas Power Plant and remove Industry 20th Century right after it finishes Fossil Power. Fossil Power seems bad given it's yet another dirty card, but the pollution it generates is very manageable if you don't have Industry 20th Century. A few Emission Cleaning/Carbon Capture cards along with some cards in Ecosystems and People sectors should get you to net 0 emissions. Or, once you get some extra money generation (Like Gas Power Plants), you can remove the Fossil Power card as well.

Instead of getting Fossil Power to help me when removing Industry 20th Century, I usually just wait for Fossil Backed Dezinfo crisis which gives me Fracking card if left unresolved. This usually marks the time when I remove Industry 20th Century; I just replace it with the Fracking card which has much more manageable pollution and generates only 0.2 money per turn less than Industry 20th Century. This is not a reliable way to win, since the event may not appear for a long time. If you want a reliable way to win, I recommend getting Fossil Power after a couple renewable power cards and just before removing Industry 20th Century.

[Blue_Skies]

Only science at the start is a pretty sure win for me so far.

It doesn't say it but the Incubator gives a free money token (not sure if all the science cards do that) which really helps at the start.

The 400s Eco card isn't worth it and usually the Event card will give a free Eco card anyway. I think I have 4 or 5 Science cards before I buy an Eco.

[Brotjer]

Thank you all for the advice.

[Imran Khan]

I can beat the game every time now on hardcore. Fund research and build 2 windmills, then do whatever you want until you've saved up 6 yellow/people. Don't spend those. Once you have 6 people saved up, you can destroy the 20th century industry, and mitigate the food crisis and world starvation. If you can save up 5 red and 5 blue at the same time, that will take care of the crumbling infrastructure crisis, which is not as urgent. If you hit the first tipping point, take care of that before the infrastructure. Once you mitigate those, it's smooth sailing from then on.