hardcore mode

[crazy_ivan]

so I'm more making this as a warning for anyone wondering before they start a hardcore run. there are a lot of things they don't tell you about this mode;
hydration drops much faster, reapers do MUCH more damage (doing 85 damage on average to a seamoth), all aggressive creatures have a larger detection range are more aggressive and hit harder. (had a sea dragon that was just barely in render range immediately turn to look at me and went full psyco, circling around the lava castle entrance i used for about 5 minutes before returning to its patrol). this has happened multiple times across multiple hardcore saves so fair warning.

[Whacha Slaya]

-One thing you forgot to mention - It makes you feel badass.

[dreamrider]

??? Ignis ???

Is this true? Or perception?
Because in years of involvement and thousands of pages of reviewer and fan commentary read, this is the first time I have ever seen anyone state that Hardcore had any functional or value differences.
Just that there was one save file that was only saved on exit, and therefore one life.

[Astra Militarum]

Originally posted by dreamrider:

??? Ignis ???

Is this true? Or perception?
Because in years of involvement and thousands of pages of reviewer and fan commentary read, this is the first time I have ever seen anyone state that Hardcore had any functional or value differences.
Just that there was one save file that was only saved on exit, and therefore one life.

One thing that I can confirm is that the reaper causes 85 damage to seamoth. I was in my seamoth when a Reaper grabbed it and from 100 it went to 15 and I managed to escape in PANIK

[crazy_ivan]

Originally posted by EXbadsun:

Originally posted by dreamrider:

??? Ignis ???

Is this true? Or perception?
Because in years of involvement and thousands of pages of reviewer and fan commentary read, this is the first time I have ever seen anyone state that Hardcore had any functional or value differences.
Just that there was one save file that was only saved on exit, and therefore one life.

One thing that I can confirm is that the reaper causes 85 damage to seamoth. I was in my seamoth when a Reaper grabbed it and from 100 it went to 15 and I managed to escape in PANIK

same thing happened to me so just to make sure i tried 9 more times. also like whacha slaya said it makes you feel badass

[DrBonifarz]

Originally posted by dreamrider:

Is this true? Or perception?

Would be nice to have those differences confirmed (or maybe extracted from decompiled runtime libs). I also assumed the main reason to play hardcore is to prevent cheap fast travel by suicide XD

[Daitengu]

I'd like to add some things will insta kill you even if they don't normally do much damage in survival.
example:
the hanging pink glowing cave plants.
Your cyclops. Like I've had it rammed by reavers before and knock into me and do no damage in survival, but it insta gibbed me in hardcore.

[DrBonifarz]

Mhm, I think those examples are quite variable in terms of damage. E.g. the hanging stinger nettles deal some 25 recoverable damage when I touch them on HC difficulty. But if you keep in touch for a second or two without stepping back, it can drain your full health. Did not see any difference.
Just to be sure: You did not use the console command to scale damage, right?

[admiral1018]

Nothing on hardcore deals extra damage or becomes more aggressive. The only differences are one-death limit and no oxygen warnings.

[Khavarum]

Went through entire HC mode and didn't notice any difference between Survi and HC (I used to play on Survi before), then again I haven't really checked if there's any difference aside from the description.

[Silverborn]

The true enemy in Hardcore are bugs. I've attempted Hardcore on 6 runs, i've died 5 times to bugs. The final time I knew how to avoid said bugs, but it was close on two encounters near the end.

Do NOT build a base + Cyclopse near Reefback area's. If they move towards your parked Cyclopse, and you are in it, and they turn? You get killed instantly.

Do NOT push your vehicles to go down into area's where you shouldn't be. Clipping through ceilings is a real thing, and if your vehicle cannot be reached again, your oxygen sources goes as well.

Do NOT try and use your vehicles near 3D objects that fill environments. Similar to the last tip, first "mushroom cave" is an area I died three times in because vehicles clipped through stalactites.

If the environment has trouble loading in LOD objects: SLOW DOWN. Getting instantly killed by crashing into things...

Do NOT leave your vehicle while it is moving. The momentum of the vehicle will instantly kill you when you get out.

Do NOT try and get creative by jumping/diving into area's you should be in. They can kill you.

I pushed my final playthrough on Hardcore and it was one of the best experiences I've had in my entire life. Truly, Subnautica has to be played on Hardcore to enjoy the (lacking) challenge. Not dying over the duration of an entire playthrough, more so if you haven't finished it yet? Let me keep it simple. The second to last area, where lava meets a dragon..? Houses a little surprise that might end your game there and then if unprepared. However... I had the bright idea to make sure that if "anything" happened, I could build an emergency base. Let's keep it short and say that it was a difference of 2 seconds of oxygen, or my 60+ hour game ended there and then.

I also learned that if you abuse the Cyclopse shield, you can pull a Reaper Leviathan from its living area and pull it towards you base in a "wrong biome". I had to build my rocket, with a Leviathan looming right under it. The thing was actually swimming around my base. Nothing will beat those memories. And it was a single difficulty (and multiple bug-death) attempt that did the trick.

[Just Chill]

@Silverborn
To be honest, I never got that much into the game, until I started to play hardcore mode.
It's one of the few games where I use a permadeath option.

Far Cry Primal was another one, as the immersion is simply outstanding when playing this game on expert with permadeath and survival on.


Similar as for Subnautica. While it is basically a piece of cake, the knowledge that it's over after one death makes you very careful and caring.
Every journey away from your base is an adventure.

I'm still in the Shallows, nearby the little volcano. This is the FIRST time I dared myself to put 2 thermal power plants down there.
Reinforced diving suit and Prawn where a big help.
The enrgy conversion seems nice. One of them has 84°C and the other 81°C.
I either planted 3 power transmitters that move the energy to my base.

Together with my 4 solar panels on top of the stacked large rooms (they are outside the water. I always end up building weird constructs to be able to get on top of the large rooms and plant some panels there. ^^), I've solid 800 power on day and 500 at night.
Even though I normally overshoot the power, I rather stick with this value as it should be fairly enough.

[Silverborn]

Originally posted by Just Chill:

@Silverborn
To be honest, I never got that much into the game, until I started to play hardcore mode.
It's one of the few games where I use a permadeath option.

Far Cry Primal was another one, as the immersion is simply outstanding when playing this game on expert with permadeath and survival on.


Similar as for Subnautica. While it is basically a piece of cake, the knowledge that it's over after one death makes you very careful and caring.
Every journey away from your base is an adventure.

I'm still in the Shallows, nearby the little volcano. This is the FIRST time I dared myself to put 2 thermal power plants down there.
Reinforced diving suit and Prawn where a big help.
The enrgy conversion seems nice. One of them has 84°C and the other 81°C.
I either planted 3 power transmitters that move the energy to my base.

Together with my 4 solar panels on top of the stacked large rooms (they are outside the water. I always end up building weird constructs to be able to get on top of the large rooms and plant some panels there. ^^), I've solid 800 power on day and 500 at night.
Even though I normally overshoot the power, I rather stick with this value as it should be fairly enough.

Just take my note on it: Bring mats on your cyclopse for a thermal base + moonpool. Once you hit the vulcano biome with a water dragon swimming around... You'll be happy you remembered. It saved me my hardcore save.

I'm not talking about your main base, this is more of a deep outpost.