Hardcore

[Syrin]

Anyone else tried this mode? For me it's impossible. You start off 7 levels below the average mob with crap gear, and nothing drops to improve your gear so you are constantly running back for healing. The levels don't re-pop, so going down one more level is suicide. Almost every other game I've ever played made hardcore the same difficulty as the regular game, not harder.

[aaaa bob burger]

hint:from what i can remember (not sure if this is only in the first game)
its like were you press crtl+tab, shift+tab,or even shift+~
but its something like that...
and pretty much it can spawn enemies and even level you up
ex: "god"=leveling up

[Hamstermancer]

Try fishing in the starting town. In the original Fate, you could get sellable items, legendaries, fish for transforming or selling...it was quite easy to get gear and gold if you were patient.

[The Great Awakening]

Gotta agree with runehamster, you need some patience if playing hardcore. Hardcore is the only way I'll play as I want that extreme challenge. At the start of the game I'll fish enough to get my pet a few strong transforms. If I'm lucky I'll get an artifact to use or sell. I will "scum" the gambler also. Just save and exit and reload and everyone will have new stock. I noticed this will sometimes repop levels as well. I have gotten the first level to repop a few times. I usually die before 3rd level so I can't say for sure how this repopping the dungeon is working. But I know it is possible without any kind of exploit or such.

Kiting will keep you alive and I don't even mean shooting stuff with ranged or spell while running away. Just run away around a corner and try to let your transformed pet kill stuff with you out of view. You can also literally run circles around a tough enemy while your pet just pecks at it, this will cause the pet to eventually pull aggro then you can go to town on the enemy while your pet tanks. I found a fishmonger on level 1 and he sold me a perma fiery mustang fish for my pet so that helps a lot.

[Hamstermancer]

Also, drop a town portal before ANY hard fight (buy up books using the money from your fishing). If things go badly you have an escape route, and teleport scrolls/books aren't THAT expensive.

[The Great Awakening]

Yep, quick town portal drops save my butt constantly. This is also a good strat to use. Know that there is no shame in constantly town portaling for the heals!

[Hamstermancer]

Oh, and keep reloading the spell vendor 'til you see the Knockback spell offered. I can't imagine playing without this in regular mode, and in Hardcore it would be a must to keep from being overrun.

[xufet]

I've played down to level 20s on hardcore mode before getting one shot by the mages. I dont think a melee type character will have anyway to survive after you get far down on hardcore unless you stack dungeon levels over and over again until you level past them. I've done it twice with two different character setups each and every time ended by getting one shotted by the mages.

[UnderToten]

ive gotten pretty far in hardcore mode, but i have 20% damage taken reduced so i barley take any damage from enemys 20+ levels higher than me.

[rbd11235]

Its impossible to use cheats in hardcore mode, i've tried.