Summary
Earlier this year, Warhorse Studios announced that Hardcore mode would return toKingdom Come: Deliverance 2in the Spring update, releasing sometime in mid-April. However, it might be here sooner than we expected.
As pointed out by u/Billy_the_Breaker, there aretwo new achievements on Steam: “Hardcore Henry II” (a play on the movie of the same name and a follow-up to the original game’s achievement) and “Against All Odds”. These task you with beating the game in Hardcore mode and even beating it with all of the perks enabled, gruelling challenges for an already gruelling game.
“Against All Odds” was called “‘Tis but a scratch” in the original. And we’re unfortunately missing “Kingdom did not come”, a reward for dying in Hardcore.
And as we know, with playersgetting their hands on Hardcore mode early, it already exists in the game’s backend — you can even enable it right now with console commands if you want. Couple that with the new Steam achievements, and it certainly looks like Warhorse Studios is gearing up for the official update, and with April right around the corner, the timing lines up perfectly.
What To Expect From Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s Hardcore Mode
Hardcore mode isn’t just an arbitrary stat slider that boosts enemy health and makes you weaker. It completely overhauls how you approach the game, stripping away your navigation tools, like the compass and your map position, thus forcing you to be more in tune with your surroundings. You need to ask people for directions,look at the stars to figure out which way is north, and pay close attention to road signs.
To make things even harder, you’ll be stripped of fast travel, so you’ll need to carefully plan each route back and forth, making sure you’re well-stocked for the road ahead.
Then there are the perks, of which you’re forced to pick three (you can find them all listed here). These make the game harder in unique, distinct ways, from slower experience gain to food spoiling faster and less carry weight. Others, like Menace, even make being branded for a crime permanent, and Bashful, which makes you so shy that you’re incapable of asking for directions, makes explorationeven harder.
But for the trophy hunters out there, you’ll need to play with all of these perks enabled at once and miraculously beat the game to get 100 percent. Luckily, if you’re able to call it luck, you might get your chance soon enough.
