Is Permadeath / Hardcore doable on first playthrough?

[☆ Acacia ☆ - for Tiffany <3]

I'm playing the game for about 8 hours now, taking it slowly and safely because it's my first playthrough, and I'm playing with Hardcore / Permadeath cause it gives the best immersion.

I haven't entered the phase yet of any real predators I guess.

I'm wondering, is it doable to finish it on hardcore on the first playthrough? Or are the odds really high that I'll just die an insta-death when encountering my first real monster and my progress will be vanished cause of some instant 1000 % damage or something?

I finished the game Raft in a similar fashion and it was really worth it to finish it with Permadeath on a first playthrough.

[Simple Man]

Yea it is. I havent finished yet, but have always only played hardcore since minute one, have a few more hours than you (like 60), but staying alive is definitly possible.

Just take some precautions when diving deep(er) and don't do it in like a seamoth, just for the sake of safety, quite a few enemies can damage it badly and you don't wanna find yourself 700m deep and no vehicle. Also skip the cyclops completely, its a giant mouse trap, and you're the mouse.

Build your Prawn for long, deep dives, its a sturdy suit with enough storage to bring the rare materials back to your base safely, and use the seamoth for stuff in the 300 400m range, as an extra ya can put the defense mod on it, that will shock any big creature that tries to mess with it.

[PrimeSonic]

Playing Hardcore, you are more likely to lose your save file due to some unexpected bug than by the actual challenges of the game.

There's plenty of people who would recommend against playing Hardcore because of the many ways you can lose your entire run through no fault of your own.

[Simple Man]

Just read another user on a thread saying (s)he is on 250 hours and always played hardcore, never lost anything to bugs.

Having played 60 hours on hardcore, i can't say i found any sort of issue that would prevent a successful HC run. Perhaps there are some bugs that could jeopardize it, but if 60 hours don't expose them, they can't be that dangerous.

[GamingWithSilvertail]

Originally posted by 30 year old boomer:

Just read another user on a thread saying (s)he is on 250 hours and always played hardcore, never lost anything to bugs.

Having played 60 hours, i can't say i found any sort of issue that would prevent a successful hardcore run. Perhaps there are some bugs that could jeopardize it, but if 60 hours don't expose them, they can't be that dangerous.

Thats mostly dependand on PC setup and what. You have a monster PC? Good luck, you will find them less frequently. You have a mid range PC? You wil lfind them more frequently. And mid range I ment just above recommended.

[Fireball]

I might be lucky or not. My advice is. Just copy the save-file from time to time (like once an hour). Like this you will not hate yourself, if a bug will happen. (I died two times, cause of bugs and a dozent time, cause of stupidity all in hardcore games). Die two times by bug made me switch the mode. But you might be lucky and do not have any problems. So its up to u.

[☆ Acacia ☆ - for Tiffany <3]

Originally posted by Fireball:

I might be lucky or not. My advice is. Just copy the save-file from time to time (like once an hour). Like this you will not hate yourself, if a bug will happen. (I died two times, cause of bugs and a dozent time, cause of stupidity all in hardcore games). Die two times by bug made me switch the mode. But you might be lucky and do not have any problems. So its up to u.

This is really good advice, didn't thought of that. Will do so.

[BDK]

I would do hardcore AFTER playing the game for the first time. Chances are, you'll get eaten. More than once. Or choke to death in green goo. But hey, if perma death is your thing .. Go for it :)

[anguelwyvern]

i ve been playing mostly the game in hardcore (250hr :D )
my advice (that for me are the most "life saver" ~ "safe" route

1 : get water purificater ASAP (at least 2 if you dont wanna go crazy but i like to have 3) like this you always hasve some water ready and when you wanna go deep diving, you can bring few bottle with you, clearly save the day

2 : GET A CYCLOPS !!! ignore those that say cyclops is bad bla bla, no, in a good pilots hands a cyclops is amazing, few tips, you see a leviathan sea emperor or reaper ? go slow and use noise rig, youll be able to get past those pesky monster up to VERY close without them even touching you !

3 : prepare you cyclops PROPERLY, i like to set a locker in front of my cyclops engine with a good 6~10 spare power cells (because yes silent rig or shield are energy hungry), bu tthat is only when you dont have ion cells or thermal reactor (cyclops upgrade), because lets be honest thermal upgrade is so magic !

4 prawn in battle mode = stasis in left and repulsor in the right hand ammo crashfish (youll thank me when youll see a leviathan monster fish) just take 2 egg make a 2~4 high containement tank, and let them reproduce indefinitly as you use them :D

5 this is more a personal opinion, i recommend you to set a base in front of the lost river entrance (not inside the lost river) just in front of the cave (wher eyou still can dive to the surface)

because in the lost river you get near to all ressource in the game and there is almost no mob in that location (you got sometime a crabsquid (emp dude) that come sometime but with a prawn suit in battle mod e(3) youll kill it in 2~3 shot

those are my advice as a player that play nearly all in hardcore

[Cougarific]

Originally posted by Alexstratos:

Playing Hardcore, you are more likely to lose your save file due to some unexpected bug than by the actual challenges of the game.

Yeah I glitched through the wall of the Neptune rocket and died right as I was about to leave the planet.

You don't want that to happen to you on a Hardcore run.

There's an automatic save file backup program available on the Nexus (more than one actually) if you want to be safe.

[Voca]

Depends. If you play hardcore and die, and then restart does it still count as first playthrough? If yes then yes it is possible.

I do not believe anyone here who claim to to play hardcore without experiencing the first death, and complete tthe game.

[☆ Acacia ☆ - for Tiffany <3]

Originally posted by Voca:

Depends. If you play hardcore and die, and then restart does it still count as first playthrough? If yes then yes it is possible.

I do not believe anyone here who claim to to play hardcore without experiencing the first death, and complete tthe game.

I'm on my 2nd attempt. My first (and so far only) death came very early, after about 40 minutes in the game, I got killed by the yellow goo stuff. I didn't realize it was deadly.

In my current playthrough, I ran out of oxygen 2 times but the game allowed me to live just a few seconds longer in which I could still make the surface just in time.

As I said, I'm taking everything nice and slowly, not going too deep. There is so much stuff to do in shallow waters, and so much to build, I guess it'll still take a while until I have to go to more dangerous territory. I guess by that time, I'll also have better equipment to keep me safe.

Oh, and I've also just now invented the Radar / Scanner room so I'll be using these drone cameras a lot to scout first to see what's out there.

[believor in Prawn]

Originally posted by ╰☆╮Acacia╰☆╮:

I'm playing the game for about 8 hours now, taking it slowly and safely because it's my first playthrough, and I'm playing with Hardcore / Permadeath cause it gives the best immersion.

I haven't entered the phase yet of any real predators I guess.

I'm wondering, is it doable to finish it on hardcore on the first playthrough? Or are the odds really high that I'll just die an insta-death when encountering my first real monster and my progress will be vanished cause of some instant 1000 % damage or something?

I finished the game Raft in a similar fashion and it was really worth it to finish it with Permadeath on a first playthrough.

do normal
a lot of bugs can ruin your run

but you dont get like any reward for finishing it before so yes you can

[Voca]

Originally posted by ╰☆╮Acacia╰☆╮:

Originally posted by Voca:

Depends. If you play hardcore and die, and then restart does it still count as first playthrough? If yes then yes it is possible.

I do not believe anyone here who claim to to play hardcore without experiencing the first death, and complete tthe game.

I'm on my 2nd attempt. My first (and so far only) death came very early, after about 40 minutes in the game, I got killed by the yellow goo stuff. I didn't realize it was deadly.

In my current playthrough, I ran out of oxygen 2 times but the game allowed me to live just a few seconds longer in which I could still make the surface just in time.

As I said, I'm taking everything nice and slowly, not going too deep. There is so much stuff to do in shallow waters, and so much to build, I guess it'll still take a while until I have to go to more dangerous territory. I guess by that time, I'll also have better equipment to keep me safe.

Oh, and I've also just now invented the Radar / Scanner room so I'll be using these drone cameras a lot to scout first to see what's out there.

All the best to your playthrough. It will be very rewarding I am sure.

As you probably already know from your experience, the ones that mostly kill you will be oxygen and food/water, not the sea creatures.

Therefore for first time players, death is certain. Cos we may be really smart and cautious when approaching unknown alien life, but things like how much O2 left in our tank allow us to explore how deep and how many bottles of water/food should we bring to our next exploration all these comes only with experience and most probably death.

Thats why anyone who would try to claim never experienced death and complete the game is definitely BS.