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My Hardcore play through and strategy.


Dombine
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Let me just say that Dead Space is my favourite franchise, ever! But as there's so many games I like to play and... life, I've only just come back to Dead Space 2 to go for the final play through on Hardcore.

 

For those who are panicking on how hard it is... Hardcore isn't hard. You can play it through with ease. The only difficulties that you need to take note is that ammo & health are scarce, the action scenes where you need to shoot a window latch or yellow spots in order to survive (because if you die then you start from your last save or the beginning), and the 3 saves.

 

I'm fine with playing this over and over, it's just the saves and this is what's stressing me out. I don't want to waste them but I don't want die and start from the beginning without saving it yet. I've personally, today, just played through until I got to Chapter 5 which is entering the Cryo Chambers of dead bodies. I got there and went a bit further because in this chapter you have to fight a Tripod boss in the actual church it's self.

I got to Chapter 5, went through the Cyro Chambers, un-stabalized gravity to go through the roof, stabalized it again and got to a room where it has a store, a Bench and a save point. It has a vent to progress tucked in the corner. THIS is where I saved the game for the FIRST time.

 

Straight after that save is the Tripod Boss and I didn't want to risk dying there and having to start from the very bloody beginning.

 

So for everyone starting Hardcore mode, I highly suggest playing to that point and saving it. Simply because there's the risk of getting every shot and I wasn't going to waste the 3 hours I've spent getting to that point.

 

I'm aiming to save the game every 5 chapters. So half way through Chapter 5, I'll play on until say Chapter 10 or maybe 11, and then I'll use my last save before the eye machine in Chapter 14?

 

That's the guide I'm going with and if anyone decides to follow it then I wish you the best of luck! (Let me know if you do use it) :)

 

Oh! Buy the DLC packs and use the Bloody Force Gun, the Forged Plasma Cutter and Forged Engineer Suit. These will help you greatly as you can get them for free at the very first Store in Chapter 2!! Don't forget to upgrade them! They are your friends!! :)

 

I'll post my Hardcore Progression as I get to Chapter 10 or 11.

 

Best of luck!

Edited by Dombine
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So today I got to my SECOND save point, after failing yesterday afternoon (such a ball ache!). I'll explain what happened yesterday and why I've saved a Chapter or two earlier then stated on my last post.

 

 

I decided to head on towards my SECOND save point yesterday morning, around 11am. I have to admit I did push myself a bit on it. Just to go that little bit further, which is a good thing, but the situation I ended up just completely fucked me over and, literally, split me in two :|

 

So I loaded my save, which was half way through Chapter 5, I then faced the Tripod in the church and back handed him around the face (or should I say her? as there's a yellow glowing baby you have to blast a few times?). That Tripod isn't as hard as it seems, it's a very short... boss? large necromorph you have to face, and the glowing part (the baby) took 4 blasts from my Plasma Cutter. I had 1 Damage upgrade on my Cutter but I'm using the Forged Plasma Cutter as I've bought all the DLCs for the title.

I'm supporting these games as best as I can as they are incredible. I can not wait for them to decide to make more titles. I know the titles were a trilogy but they haven't ruled out any new Dead Space titles. This was confirmed a few months ago, link is HERE.

 

Anyway, after that encounter, play on through and you'll reach the top of the church, Daina dies and you're thrown into another glowing yellow shot animation with quite a large brute. If you're too slow then you do die but it's really nothing to threat. Plus, if you're following my guide and saved where I saved, it's only 15 minutes away so it's easy to get back there.

The only difficult part, or the part people might forget about is when you're thrown into space and you're on the bottom of the gunship you jump upwards, the necromorph grabs you and there's another shot sequence you must successfully complete and that's the two floating explosive canisters. They're literally in your face so you shouldn't miss them. Shoot either one and you're thrown through space, through a window and you stand up to Chapter 6.

 

Chapter 6 is pretty straight forward and easy. Probably one of my favourite chapters and remember-able as it's the Play School. There's a couple of sections people might threat about but it's nothing to worry over.

The first is near the end of the Play School. You enter a basketball/stage hall room. As soon as you walk through you have 3 Pack necromorphs jumping over a bench. They're not the threat. One shot each with a Plasma or 1 shot with the Bloody Force Gun. As you're walking around this hall, stomp on all of the dead corpses of humans. Not necromorphs, humans as there is one Infector (the Bat/Manta Ray looking things that infect dead humans). If you stomp on the bodies to remove the limbs, Infectors CAN NOT infect the bodies. ALWAYS stomp on dead human bodies just in-case one of these comes along.

Doing that makes the basketball court swarm a lot easier. Go around the displays on stage, hack the console and get your Force Gun out. Stay on the stage and if you can wait until you've got a group of enemies in front of you so you take a bunch out in one blast. Remember to upgrade the Force Gun as much as you can, being reasonable with other upgrades. The damage upgrades are worth it!

You'll only have the Force Gun this early if you buy the DLCs. The Bloody Force Gun is your friend and possibly one of the best guns to use for the Hardcore difficulty.

 

After that, just play on through and you'll end up meeting Ellie & Stross. This is the second part that could kill you easily. You're discussing lining the Solar Ray panels, then necromorphs attack Ellie & Stross. You're then left to deal with a Brute. There is one Stasis canister in this large room on the left next to where you walked in. When the Brute jumps down, launch that at him and blast away at his two yellow shoulders. There are a couple of white glowing objects you can launch at him like spears, if you're running low on ammo. With the Stasis canister, and the two Stasis shots you have (unless you've been upgrading Stasis. I personally haven't upgraded Stasis at all in this next chunk of Chapters to my SECOND save. I will soon though).

 

After this, you'll reach Chapter 7. Now here there is a very useful... Glitch if you want to call it which is easy to use and not a lot of people notice.

Reaching the elevator which takes you to Chapter 7 and requires Disc 2 of the title. So add disc 2 and from here you can relax a bit as this disc change over is actually a TEMPORARY Save.

If you happen to die after the disc change, the game will ask you to carry on from your last save. If you say NO, the game takes you back to the main menu and you have to pick your FIRST save file. If you say YES, it takes you back to the beginning of Chapter 7, so you don't have to go all the way back from Chapter 5.

Now this is only TEMPORARY. It will keep sending you back to Chapter 7, if you say YES when you die, until you save next. If you turn off your console without saving then it looses everything you've done and you'll have to load your last Saved Game (Chapter 5). DO NOT TURN YOUR XBOX OFF UNTIL YOU NEXT SAVE.

 

Chapter 7 is pretty straight forward. I died once on the elevator sequence with all the Tripods. I ran out of Force Gun ammo and then two Tripods attacked me one after another and killed me. Thanks to the Disc change over save glitch, I only had 10 minutes of gameplay to get back there, instead of starting from my last save (Chapter 5).

I hope this hasn't confused any of you. Please say if it has and I'll make a new post on here and re-word it all.

 

After this there is room which once you travel over to the middle of the room, two Detonator beams appear in front and behind of you. Necromorphs flood the room and when they hit the beams, a window gets blown out and you need to shoot the latch in order to shut it. If you fail then you head back to the Chapter 7 and you'll have to start over.

 

Everything is pretty straight forward after this. The only other part you need to worry about is after you aline the Solar Ray beams to their panels, you then have to head back to the elevator you took to get there, get in a chair and you get blasted through space heading towards the city you were once in.

Now you have to dodge debris floating around. If you don't know where to head towards you could die so be careful. This is probably one of my fabourites parts. I love the ending once you reach the bottom and the stance you're in. You look like a badass :')

This is then the start of Chapter 8.

 

Chapter 8 is pretty easy and straight forward. The only part which could be challenging depends on your Zero Gravity flying skills. Then shooting a blob looking thing which shoots out homing dart things :p

After that, this Chapter is easy.

The end of Chapter 8 is where I saved the game for the SECOND time.

Simply because the beginning of Chapter 9 there is a room which a Black Slasher and an Exploder, and on the first attempt (yesterday) I got to this point and the Exploder was quite close to a breakable window. He exploded, took the window out and as it's quite a small room, I got sucked out with in a second and the blast window shut up on me. Splitting me in half.

 

It was such a ball ache and I couldn't be bothered to start from Chapter 7 again as I already spent 3+ hours playing. I couldn't sit through it again.

I did state in my last post that I would head for Chapter 10 or 11, but after failing on my first attempt I didn't want to go through it all again to fail. So saving at the end of Chapter 8 to start on Chapter 9 seems like the best place to do so. Plus, you have 1 more save for around Chapter 13 or 14. I might even save before then and aim for Chapter 12. I will be heading for the Eye Machine for my last save. Saving just before then, incase I mess up on the machine.

I hope this slight walk through helps any of you, and I'll post my progression as I reach the next point :)

Edited by Dombine
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Right, I have taken the time to take another shot at getting further through in Hardcore. I originally set out to make my Saves every 5 Chapters which could of left me with 1 last save, or using it before the last 1 or 2 Chapters. I've changed my aims of progression now simply because as you get further in the game, the Chapters get longer, there's more enemies, there's more to do and so on. So I've spread them out and saving every 3 Chapters (after Chapter 5) as the game isn't hard. It's just enemies, if they catch you they can kill you quickly and you loose 3+ hours of gameplay. It's annoying and stressful, so by playing through to Chapter 5, then save every 3 Chapters. All you'll need to do is play the last 3 Chapters in one play through which isn't hard at all.

 

My last save was the end of Chapter 8, stepping into Chapter 9. Today I loaded my game, walked through a door and began Chapter 9.

The only thing you have to worry about in Chapter 9 is a window which can be blown out only giving you a second to shoot the latch. If you run into the and turn right to the corner, take out the black Slasher (next to the Power Node box) which will then lead the Exploder away from the window, Stasis him and shoot his swollen yellow arm.

The rest of the Chapter is easy. Once you pick up Ellie and Stross in the tram, you will have to get out again due to a tentacle in the way. This room is easy. You have to launch canisters to heat up some containers. The last one you have to destroy you have a infinite amount of Tripods attack you, but one at a time. All you have to do is get your Plasma out, Stasis the Tripod (by here I had just started upgrading my Stasis), shoot a limb or kill the Tripod and the launch the Explosive canisters at the container, before another Tripod comes. You need around 6 - 8 canisters. I had to kill two Tripods and then run to the lift as the room is catching fire and exploding.

 

Once you get in the tram, it's just sit back and watch until you have to leave and take a tour through the USG Ishimura. This is Chapter 10, and it's all in the Ishimura. It's dark, creepy and isolated for so far. You then get attacked by a Brute behind boxes. That hall will then fill with necromorphs in front and from behind so be careful.

Chapter 10 is another remember-able chapter in the game. It's great going back to where it all started, reminiscing with the sections of the ship and things. One of my favourites Chapter.

There's nothing hard in this chapter so take your time, check everything, collect everything if you can. I did everything I possibly good and the end of Chapter 10 I had completely upgraded my Stasis. I had upgraded my RIG completely in Chapter 8 and 9. The weapons had been done Chapters 6 and 7, so now I don't have to spend any more money on Power Nodes to upgrade anything as I'm only using a Forged Plasma Cutter and Bloody Force Gun.

If you want to attach another weapon and start upgrading it then go for it. I'm not planning on doing so but if I did, I'd get the Pulse Rifle out for easy pickings and the grenade launcher for multiple clearings.

Oh and also, I managed to rack up no end of Medium Health packs in Chapter 10 & 11. I have 20 Mediums in my Safe, 3 Large, 8 Mediums and 3 Smalls in my inventory!! I'm sorted, and you guys following my guide shouldn't threat. I'm sure it'll be the same for you, or round abouts. Depends if you guys are any good ;)

 

Chapter 11. You've crashed landed into the rock supporting the Sprawl. This rock is being mined out and you have to venture into it. Not a hard Chapter, but it's one you have to be careful and expect a lot of Black Necromorphs. The first main area is after your encounter with Stalkers. You will have to just walk around picking off Necromorphs as you make your way to change a electric power cube. You're then track down Stross. You do get launched into space but that isn't hard. There's a big blob shooting homing tarts at you. Take that out and watch your 02.

After finding Stross, you'll come across the Advanced Suit schematic and you come up to a big spacious lift. This is the next part of the chapter you have to be careful with. Start the lift, get your Force Gun out and get in a corner. Necromorphs drop down two at a time. Sit this lift ride out and you're just about to finish this chapter.

I changed my Forged Engineer Suit for the Advanced Suit as it has a 25 Inventory cap and 20% extra armor. Equip that and upgrade your equipment on the bench, and past the next door you meet up with Ellie next to a big mobile drill and the start of Chapter 12.

 

This is where I saved for my THIRD and LAST time, the door before Chapter 12.

 

I now have to play from Chapter 12 - 15 and that won't be a problem. I've got everything upgraded, tones of health and a good suit. I just need to be quick, watch my ammo and not mess up on the Eye Machine.

I've been playing every 3 Chapters so this should be no harder. If I die and mess up it's no big problem as I'll just attempt another day. It'll be no different to dying on any of the other 3 Chapter saves I've made.

 

I'll post my final addition to my Hardcore playthrough when I've done it. It'll be so nice to finish this game after so long of putting it aside. I then have the Served DLC to do and I'm really looking forward to that. The new story will be nice, and the new suit looks pretty cool. I love the Orange and single eye feature.

 

Good luck to those if you're following my guide. I hope it helps.

Let me know if you are and if you need any help :)

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Hello, this will be my final post for my walkthrough as yesterday morning I finished my Hardcore playthrough! *screams* *cheers* *champagne bottles popping*

 

Firstly, I'll start by saying these last three Chapters are really short. The two chapters, 14 & 15, can be rather lengthy if you stick around to kill every Necromorph and pick up everything.

 

So continuing from my last save, I saved right at the very end of Chapter 11 which is next to a Bench and a Store station. I just had to open a giant door to start Chapter 12 and meet Ellie next to a big drivable drill.

Go through the door, smash some boxes, look over the edges for ammo and things, walk on down the pathway to activate a scene will Ellie.

After she climbs the drill, collect the other power cell and then head off looking for a new circuit board.

Once you've installed the new circuit board, head back up the pathway to where the lift/converbelt is and just sit in the corner facing the pathway. A horde of Pack Necromorphs come after you but very slowly and... split up. It's like you get little waves of them. They take one shot with your Plasma Cutter.

I'll point here that at this point I had EVERYTHING upgraded. My RIG, Stasis, Forged Plasma Cutter & my Bloody Force Gun.

I did point out that you could get a new gun and start upgrading that and you can do, if you want to. If you do, I suggest the Pulse Rifle because it'll be very usually full for the very last boss fight.

 

After the Pack, just head back to the Drill. Walk on the lift and you'll be put on top of the drill as Ellie drives.

This next part as you've moving along isn't hard. Necromorphs climb the sides of the drill so keep checking the sides frequently, and then you have Lurkers sitting on the high ledges of the tunnels you've drilling through.

All you have to do is keep an eye out, use Stasis if you have to and if you have time, pick up the items sitting on the ledges with the Lurkers.

I used the Force Gun at this point on everything and I didn't bother about the items sitting around or the ones dropped by the Necromorphs. I only got them if they were ammo for my Force Gun.

Remember, the closer you are with the Force Gun, the better the damage and less ammo is used.

 

Chapter 13 starts as soon as you get up from being thrown off top of the drill. There is nothing hard in this Chapter at all. Just walk through and say goodbye to Ellie, head down to the Large doors you have to open to get into the Marker Chamber and hack the terminall. Now here I killed a few necromorphs, put a few in Stasis and then hacked the terminal rather quickly. You can stand there and kill them all but it's upto you. That's possibly the safest bet. Clarke did say they'd be coming up the large tunnel Ellie just dug out with the drill so after you've killed the wave of Necromorphs go to the terminal and hack it as more will be with you shortly.

 

After you head through the doors, they close behind you so you're safe, for time being. Head down the stairs and you're greeted by EarthGov Security Soldiers.

Do what you have to do (remove the power cell) and look out the window. You'll see the big ugly looking Necromorph called The Ubermorph. Now he is a highly evolved Necromorph and just like The Hunter from Dead Space (first title). The Hunter was biologically engineered by Challus Mercer, and the only way you could stop/slow down the Hunter was dismembering his limbs and putting him in Stasis so you got some time to escape.

You have to do the exact same with the Ubermorph. Now you don't have to face him until after the Eye Machine so you're alright for now. Just leave the control room, head down stairs and wait in the corner. If you wait, a few necromorphs will jump in vents and come into the room where you are. Kill them and then head into the room where all the Security Soldiers were just standing. There's a few more to kill, and then head on through.

 

Just make your way through the game killing everything, collecting everything... make sure to get the Audio Logs. I loved these, they're good to listen to. They're a nice little part of the game which explains things, what's happening, what's happened... history, all sorts that you don't find out playing the game. Bioshock is a perfect example of a game which also has the Audio Logs.

 

Gradually you'll come to a room with flesh tissue all over the floor, big container boxes, a power cell hanging up high aaaaaaand... Stalkers.

All I did was walk through the door, used TK on the power cell and launched it to the other side of the room. I then walked around the right side of the room to about half way, then ran back to the door I came through and hid in the corner. There's a certain distance you need to reach before the Stalkers trigger.

Just stick to the corner and pick them off, be patient. They'll stop coming once you can't hear any more noises.

 

After this you then come up to a room with long red lasers which easily kill you, instantly! The best method is to stay in the little outer rooms picking off the necromorphs as they come in the rooms. Then once you have killed them all and picked up the items. Wait for the a set of red lasers to pass and run straight after them to the right (in the direction they are spinning). I used Stasis on the set of lasers passing by so it slowed down. In theory this should help because by using Stasis on one set of red lasers, this should slow down the rest as they're in sync. They can't overlap one another. As soon as you enter the next little room, more Necromorphs will spawn in and out of the room. Pick them off and repeat the process of moving around the room.

 

After that room, you come up to a series of floors (labs), stacked on top of one another. I found these floors to be the hardest part of the Chapter as they just fill with necromorphs. Use Stasis, get your Force Gun out and just stick to a corner. That's the best thing to do really. Using TK is good as well. Kill a slasher, use TK on his body to grab his blades to launch at other Necromorphs. I'm hoping you've been using this method throughout the game as it is a good way to save ammo. You upgrade the TK in the RIG section when you visit a Bench. They're the Red DMG upgrades.

 

Right at the bottom of these floors is a empty room and a big sealed door which you have to hack. As soon as you reach the big door, turn around and pick up the large Stasis canister with TK. You'll see a big Brute jump down. Launch that at him when you can see and shoot his Yellow shoulders, and blast away with your Plasma Cutter. Or, if you have a Detonator and upgraded all the way, 5 shots with that in the head kills it pretty easily, saving you quite a bit of ammo.

Remember: Brutes twitch when they die (after dropping their item) so don't get close. Pop a shot in him and his body will jump. It's then safe to grab his item.

 

After this, make your way through the rooms, there's more Audio Logs laying around, a Store, a Bench, etc. At this store I just bought... no end of Force Gun ammo. I had say 80 shots with the Plasma Cutter (which is needed for the Giant Yellow Spot parts in the final boss) and I had 120 shots with the Force Gun.

So as I have the Advanced Suit on, I had the two lines of my Inventory filled with Health and a set of 3 Stasis fillers. One line of Plasma Cutter Ammo, and the rest was filled with Force Gun Ammo.

Leave the store, and head up the elevator. Follower the path and you'll come up to the Marker Chamber and you'll be looking at the Marker you created. This is the Eye Machine part and the end of Chapter 13.

 

The Eye Machine isn't hard at all. Climb in use the left analog stick to aim and only go down when the light is Blue. DON'T go down extremely fast, just keep lowering it down in little baby steps. If you go down straight away and fast, your heart rate increases and then this makes it hard to get the needle in the eye and causing death.

Take it slow and easy, lower the needle when the light is Blue, and baby steps, watch the heart rate. If it's over 100, slow down.

 

Thus, the start of Chapter 14.

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(I used too many characters in that last post).

 

Chapter 14, and 15, are both the Chapters where I just ran through. Simply because you have the Ubermorph chasing you and you can't kill him. All you can do is Stasis him, shoot his limbs off and run.

 

So to start Chapter 14 off, you're out of the Eye Machine and the Ubermorph jumps out of a vent. Get close, Stasis him and use the Force Gun on him until all of his limbs have come off, then Stasis him again. Run to the door and hack the terminal to open it. Once you've done that you might have to attack the Ubermorph again so just repeat the steps and move on.

 

There's a series of rooms you have to go through in order to get to the end. One of them is a room where you need someones body to open the door. This is can be annoying as you've got Necromorphs coming left right and center, and the Ubermorph. There's a counter or a working station with a dead human body on it. Kill the Necromorphs, Stasis and shoot the Ubermorph and grab the dead body off the counter with TK and hold him up to the door in order to walk through.

 

Whilst walking through these Chapters you can stick around to kill the Necromorphs as they do drop stuff, which I did, you just have to deal with the Ubermorph behind you all the time.

There's a corridor which has S bend in it with an elevator at the end. Load the elevator and just watch out for the Ubermorph. He can attack you here. After this there is a room you have to shoot a circuit you to get through a door. The Ubermorph will come through a vent in here to so be quick and kill all the Necromorphs before he gets in there. You've got about 20 seconds? Maybe less?

You then enter a Zero Gravity room. Fly around, Stasis the giant moving mechanics and dodge the fire shooting out of the walls. There is a giant blob Necromorph shooting homing darts at you (I don't know what this Necromorph is called). Shoot his three glowing balls and you can pass on by reaching the other side.

 

After this you find the Power Node door which is the room where you can do the Power Node Glitch, but as we can only save the game three times, you shouldn't be worrying about this.

Again you find another Bench and Store station so take this point to do your last purchases or weapon upgrades. This is where I bought a tone more Force Gun ammo. I had over 100 Plasma Cutter & Force Gun ammo.

After this door is where you head out into the actual chamber of the Marker. There's Necromorphs everywhere. You can sit around, picking everything up and killing all the Necromorphs but I just ran and shot the ones in my way as you have the Ubermorph after you, again -.-

 

You'll come up to a dark and slightly redish purple looking room. It has a circuit you must shoot out to open a door and then another to close the other end. The Ubermorph can attack you in this room and this is where you loose him.

After that you face Tiedman with some A tapping sequences and then the final boss, and you're entering your own mind and brain. DO NOT LET NICOLE GET CLOSE. If Nicole gets close and touches you, it is INSTANT DEATH and a bit of a creepy death animation.

Simply shoot Nicole continuously until she disappears. You can then shoot a BIG Yellow spot in your brain. Whip out your Plasma Cutter and blast away. You have Packs surrounding you so this is where the Force Gun comes in handy. The Alternative Fire on the Force Gun is good for taking Nicole out too. Nicole comes back after you've blasted the Yellow nerve a handful of times and you just have to repeat the stages. You have to do this three times.

 

After that, you sit down ready to die when Ellie comes back. You're flying through the air, you have to dodge some debris which isn't hard and then when prompted, continuously press A.

 

That's it!! Congratulations on passing Dead Space 2 on Hardcore!!

 

 

If anyone has been following this guide then please please PLEASE leave a comment letting me know if this has helped in anyway!

I'd love to here back from everyone using it.

 

I'm now playing the game through again using New Game+ and using the Hand Canon weapon I've unlocked.

It's far to easy but it's hilarious :')

 

Thank you for reading and I hope this helps those who are following my guide! :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

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