Hardcore Achievement in 5 hours (playing time)

[BlaZiN cdn]

I posted this on PS3T.org, and thought it might be useful for an easy way to get the Hardcore achievement with little to no effort. (I did this on PS3, so that's why it says 'trophy' instead of achievement):


I finished the game on hardcore last night, it took me 5-7 hours of playing, so I thought people might want to know what I did to knock out this trophy really early (as well as a few other story trophies). This will contain certain spoilers, so if you don't want to spoil 1 ending to the game, don't read on...

Before I start, I'll mention how I had my character set (I was only level 13 when I finished)

- Level up your speech skill to at least 90
- Level up your lockpick and sneak to about 45
- Use perks and your points for Intelligence, Strength ect. for the skills that will enhance those settings.


Tips to Survive:

- Always look in boxes for food and water.
- The Water at Casinos is rad-free, so drink that when you're there
- You'll need at least 2000 caps to get into New Vegas, so save your money at the beginning, but once you get in, buy a lot of stimpaks, doctor's bags, and food.
- Alcohol dehydrates you, so don't binge drink.
- Always look in the Fridges
- BUY AS MANY STIMPAKS AND AS MUCH FOOD AS YOU CAN!!!
- If you have the Vault 13 canteen, you don't have to worry about H2O as much, which makes it a lot easier.


Now for the story path to follow, when you start the game, do the missions with Sunny Smiles, and make sure to save the girl who is getting attacked by geckos, she gives you 3 purified waters.

Go to Prim, talk to the NCR Lieutenant, and clear out the town, and save deputy Beagle, Talk to Hayes(NRC LT.) about running the town, and got to the outpost to get reinforcements. When you're done, talk to the 2 rangers there (Ghost and the guy with the moustache:P) do the male ranger's mission first to get the food, service rifle, and armor piercing rounds. Now for ghost's mission, head to Nipton, when the guy tells you he won the lottery, shoot him and take the ticket, talk to the Legion leader there, and he'll tell you to spread their message. Go back and tell ghost what you saw, then talk to the sergeant at the front and spread the word of the legion.

Now head towards Novac, if it's night when you get there, talk to Boone in the dinosaur, and agree to help him, then go to Manny Vargas' room tell him to go to the dinosaur, and have him killed, take his weapon and ammo (it's a good rifle). When he leaves the room, read his terminal, it will say the khans that tried to kill you went to boulder city, go there and you'll be directed to New Vegas.

Go to new vegas, and accept Mr. House's proposition, go talk to Benny in Tops Casino, he'll agree to meet you in the presidential suite, so go there, take a nap, and go to the intercom by the entrance, he'll tell you he's going to skip town and kill you, use your high speech to talk him out of killing you.

You should get invited to Caesar's fort, so make your way there, and talk to Caesar, he'll give you the chip, and send you to a building to destroy it, instead listen to Mr. House, and activate the generators. Go back to Lucky 38, and start the "The House always Wins" Quests, I think there are 8 in total, most of which are really easy, only 2 are harder, so here are some tips:

- When you try to get the Boomer's help, to avoid the artillery, go up the hill and start running to the houses on the left, and make your way to the fence, run along the fence until you meet a boomer, and you'll be escorted in, once you meet pearl, shoot her and kill her. Mission done, now go talk to House.

- When you need to destroy the Brotherhood of Steel's secret bunker, do their initiation mission and talk to the NCR Ranger, and get him to leave, once you're done, go back to the Brotherhood's bunker, pickpocket the Head Scribe, The "Overseer'' and Chief Hardin, to get their key cards, once you get those, initiate the override, and run like hell to the exit, you should be able to get out without much damage (I had to use 1 Stimpak)

After this, you should get the opportunity to assault hoover damn with the help of House's Super-Bots. Make sure your speech is at least 90 before leaving!!! so you don't have to fight Caesar's Legate, he gets annoying. A few things to remember here is:

- Let the bots do the work, let them go ahead and clear out the enemies, they won't have a problem.
- Pick up as much ammo as you can carry, there are lots of enemies, so that shouldn't be hard.

Once you get to the Legion camp, you'll have to fight at least 3 guards, they have melee weapons so use a gun and keep your distance (sniper rifle and anti-matter rifle are the best)

Talk to the Legate and use your speech to get him to surrender, and then do the same for the NCR general, although, I shot him in the head with a pistol and let House's bots do the rest:P

Talk to House who has taken control of a bot, and the game will end, giving you 2 trophies, 1 for hardcore, and 1 for beating the House ending mission.

This is just a draft right now, if you need help, just mention what it is, and I'll do my best to help you.

[BoooZe]

This is amazing dude, thanks alot My friend was looking for a hardcore, since he screwed up his first playthrough.

Thumbs up!

[GhOsT SLaYeR]

seems like a good route but u can get counterfeit passport for 500 at a store in freeside (name escapes me atm) and if u get stealthboys u can run through the damn level/sneak at parts without taking much damage... and u fight very little enemies.

[yippy smalz]

Would doing caesers missions instead of house's be just as fast and easy?

[StillTIPPIN187]

Just gonna add that you can get clean water from the doctors bathroom in goodsprings as well. (i know cuz thats where i got mine from in hardcore =] )

[artphobia]

You an actually skip all of going to Boulder City and just head straight for The Tops vegas. Assuming you know roughly where you are going having played the game already, just throw down a waypoint marker and start walking.

[Riverpatrol]

That helped loads, cheers

[snipingheadshot]

Great guide! I'll use this today, but the speech check for the Legate at the end is 100, unless it is different on hardcore.

[guillermo316]

Honeslty i found Hardcore mode to be extremly easy but the load times when you sleep or go out of your way for food and water is a bother.

[Quickdraw]

thought it be alot harder and longer than it was, very very quick just one more left unarmed dmg joy.

[Cooljoe]

Thank you very much man. Your tips on where to go and what to do helped me. The only change I made was doing the Yes Man quests instead. They were easier and faster. Now I can start a new playthrough and play Fallout the way I remember! With no SIMULATING!!!

[Ray5555]

This is very easy. All you need is 25 survival skill and your set for hardcore mode. You can easily get 16 gekko meat from the beginning of the game. With 25 survival skill you can make them into steaks, and thus never have to worry about food again. Then you can use the cap glitch at primm, and the exp glitch at helios one to get max out level, caps, doctorbags, and stimpacks. If you need water or healed just use Goodsprings as you can easily get healed and lowere your dehydration level very easily in doc mitchel's house.

All in all it took me 7 hours and 49 minutes.

[PenderPowguin]

I ran through in 5 hours but I did Wild Card (Independent) missions.

I had my speech to 100 and my endurance to 10.

I did all of the said quests until the final battle.

On the final battle I just ran the entire time, never fighting anyone. I had Veronica as a follower (she's too easy, just talk to her and she comes along and she's pretty strong.)

Speech challenged the two bosses and beat it at lvl 9.

I never bought a passport I already had 2000 caps before I hit vegas.

I never completed They Went that Away the 'legit' way I just went to vegas and completed Ring a ding and that quest completed itself.

All in all, super easy, just avoid fights and talk your way out.

[Kaspanova]

Trying to follow this, but i'm getting ruined in Mojave desert by ghouls.

trying to do Ghost's missions, but i'm level 3 and it's a bit hard travelling.

[hydroxyde]

Originally Posted by snipingheadshot

Great guide! I'll use this today, but the speech check for the Legate at the end is 100, unless it is different on hardcore.

No, the speech check is still 100 on Hardcore. There are 3 or 4 that are less than 100 building up to the final checks.

[Thunderhorse31]

Originally Posted by hydroxyde

No, the speech check is still 100 on Hardcore. There are 3 or 4 that are less than 100 building up to the final checks.

I assume he said 90 so you can wear the Naughty Nightwear (+10 Speech, +1 Luck) that you get in Freeside, though he neglected to mention that in the original post. A 90 in speech is enough, but not without that nightwear.

[Kaspanova]

Originally Posted by GhOsT SLaYeR

seems like a good route but u can get counterfeit passport for 500 at a store in freeside (name escapes me atm) and if u get stealthboys u can run through the damn level/sneak at parts without taking much damage... and u fight very little enemies.

It's Mick & Ralphs

[bigbear2face]

Originally Posted by Thunderhorse31

I assume he said 90 so you can wear the Naughty Nightwear (+10 Speech, +1 Luck) that you get in Freeside, though he neglected to mention that in the original post. A 90 in speech is enough, but not without that nightwear.

Or you could have real armor and carry a "Meeting People" then use it right before you walk up the hill to the Legate.

[Semon HD]

This was amazing guys thanks for the help!

[antwaan]

I also got the counterfeit pass from mick and ralph's. I had like 300 caps then sold 200 caps worth of stuff to them to get the pass. The only thing that was hard for me when I did my run through last night was the final boss at the end of the yes man tree. I only had 92 speech and died a few times before I won. I just ran up behind him and my MK II or whatever they are called blasted him with a rocket while I chainsawed him from behind. I was level 9 also. Rest of the run through was easy. With 100 speech you can pretty much do the whole finale to yes man without fighting anyone.

[Scotty]

this was probably the most useful info ive read in a while, cheers for this, just got my cheevo last night following this, although it actually took me just under 10 hours, but that was my own moticulous fault.

[Joel2211]

Great guide thanks, almost done with my hardcore play through using your guide.

[Justaname86]

Thanks, this guide helped tons. Managed to complete it in just over 5 hours gametime (one sitting :P), and at level 12, having used Here and Now at level 10.

[ofay]

where do I find The "Overseer''

I am assuming he is elder macnamara?

[Scotty]

Originally Posted by ofay

where do I find The "Overseer''

I am assuming he is elder macnamara?

thats correct.

[Joel2211]

Got my achievement last night and I will be recommending this thread to my buddies on live, thanks again.

[Fynn]

Just one thing I want to correct about the first post: you don't need to have 2000 caps to get into the strip, you can access it by taking the monorail from camp mcarran.

[McGoogles]

I just got the achievement (my last one too ) and it took me around 5 hours and 30 minutes. It wasn't as hard as it sounded and I got it done without any major problems.

I did the main quest for Yes Man and ignored all of the factions (except for the Brotherhood of Steel, which I destroyed). I carried mostly weapons and leveled up my speech skill to 100, as well as sneak.

Originally Posted by Ray5555

This is very easy. All you need is 25 survival skill and your set for hardcore mode. You can easily get 16 gekko meat from the beginning of the game. With 25 survival skill you can make them into steaks, and thus never have to worry about food again.

This was also very useful.

[HorsemanOfWar16]

Just want to say thx dude for making this. been a great help - completed it in 7 hours !
- Much Appreciated M8.

[Ethereal235]

Originally Posted by artphobia

You an actually skip all of going to Boulder City and just head straight for The Tops vegas. Assuming you know roughly where you are going having played the game already, just throw down a waypoint marker and start walking.

And sneak to avoid the deathclaws and super-mutants. With deathclaws, even if you're spotted, if you're on higher ground they'll just run around because their AI is stupid. This is what I did so I could get to Vegas and pick up the 'Intelligence' implant at level 2, so I didn't lose out on a single potential skill point.