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Dead Space 2 Hard Core Tips


SquaredSumo705
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Detonator is not really required, Stalkers are easily dealt with as they come one by one even if you don't use stasis (you need distance though). I used the Ripper during chapter 5, once, for the encounter with The Pack & I think that was it as it's laughably bad when not upgraded as all. You might have some problems with the Tripods in chapter 7 during the elevator fight but since you have the disc switch checkpoint, I'd just stick with the plasma cutter as the force gun is just a few minutes away.

 

Wouldn't know about DLC as I don't pay for things already on the disc.

Thanks for the info but how long did it take till the ripper needed to be upgraded to be more helpful or was it always helpful?

 

And would i need the ripper when i get the force gun or just sell it to upgrade the fg?

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  • 3 weeks later...
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All I have left is my Hard Core run, already tried 4 times and can't get off the first disc. I didn't even get angry because I know where I'm putting all 3 saves. I was just like 'whoa...damn' and SMDH at where I failed the 3rd time.

 

Failure 1: Puker spawned on top of me the laundry room in Chapter 2

The spawns seem random, wasn't sure which wall to stick to. Practised the room a few times and it seems sticking to the door you entered is the best place since no-one drops down on top of you.

 

Failure 2: The crypt on Chapter 5

Just before the powerball / zero-G section there's a room that spawns 6 necros in 4 separate points. Didn't know this as this was the first room I didn't practise before my HXC run, tried running straight for the exit, didn't make it.

 

Failure 3: You know the room in chapter 1 where you get statis for the first time? I missed the shot and got taken out. LOL.

 

Failure 4: End of chapter 3, where you've got to go through the lobby in front of the doors to The Church Of Unitology. Practised the shit out of this room before my first run but the spawns weren't the same so I really shat myself when a puker jumped out behind the first infector "This isn't meant to happen!!". Got distracted trying to take out a duo of an Infector and a Puker and an Exploder snuck up behind me and whispered 'hey sugar' into my ear. Ffffffffffff.

Tried this run using only the Plasma Cutter and spunked a whole load of my ammo taking out those swarmers in the hotel rooms before hand, leaving me with only 21 shots. I'll just try a practise run to see if running past them works. Gonna bring a Pulse Rifle like the first time since a grenade eliminates the infectors in one shot.

 

So my fuckups were because; Lack of practise, Lack of practise, being rubbish, casually walking around in a room with Exploders.

 

Fortunately, Attempt 5 went off wonderfully, putting the first save on Chapter 10, the Ishimura's Tram control room, at 3:50. Fully upgraded HP, all Stasis and Plasma Cutter nodes done.

 

Three close calls,

1. Chapter 2, end of the Tram sequence, the final Exploder got pretty damn close. Statis and some calm aiming saved my bacon.

 

2. Outside the Church doors in Chapter 3 again. Running in reverse circles like a tit, shooting anything that moved. Can't count on the spawns in this room being consistent.

 

3. Just before the Hydrogen Tricloride bit I got blasted by the last cyst in the corridor, thinking I'd already taken it out. Wouldn't that have been a pisser?

 

Doing it clean since I think cheats, exploits take away from the achievement. Paying for helpful weapons early on? Not my style.

 

Skipped the Security Suit entirely. Had to put a lot of medipacks in the safe, and even drop a few when a Semiconductor popped up. Avoiding schematics for useless stuff like the Seeker Rifle and Force Gun (I found it weak as hell in this game compared to the first. Fully upgraded, and it still needed 3 shots at point blank range? Whaaaaat?) even though I intentionally missed a few they still show up in the Store anyway (Detonator, Seeker Rifle)

 

Did use the pulse rifle on the Infectors this time, but sold it and switched to the Ripper shortly afterwards. Find the Ripper to be immediately useful, use statis on the Pregnants and blackened-morphs to grind them up in one blade.

 

I used to hate the Plasma Cutter since my aim is abysmal, but this game gives you more Statis than necessary, use it like it's going out of style. Stasis, cut the blades, and they float in mid air for your convenience, take advantage. Come across a lone necro, hit them with statis and unleash a melee beatdown.

 

Running in circles at the end of Chapter 7 (Transport Hub brawl) turns one of the most difficult fights into the simplest bits of the game.

 

Try throwing blunt objects at slow enemies whenever available, i.e. Wheelchairs in Chapter 1, it'll kill in several shots and might even break off a blade before that.

Throwing objects at The Pack (The kids that first appear in Chapter 3) seems to kill them 75% of the time. Throwing dead members of The Pack (even if it's just an arm) also works against these little shits.

 

<3 this game. Will pick up Severed when I'm 1000G, no doubt.

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Part 2: Skillz to ride the Drillz

 

5th attempt: Got hit by both Brutes immediately after the Ishimura tram room and I thought, sod it, let's just reload.

 

6th attempt: Got sloppy in the Stalker/Puker room, the final room of the Ishimura. I was being a mong on trying to hit the Stalkers with Kenesis and PC shots without using Stasis first. Found out that a body shot with a fully noded PC doesn't cut 'em down like a shot to the legs.

Did I learn my lesson and use the abundance of Statis to my advantage in the next two attempts? Did I fuck. Still throw poles at fully charging Stalkers cuz I'm in the danger zone :uzi:

 

7th attempt: Got allllll the way to the final lift of Chapter 11 (The mines) but my decision to buy a Flamethrower backfired (NODE SURPLUS, might as well us 'em) when using the alt fire on the lift, even thoughy the corpses are laying on the floor, they flame canisters clip some hit detection trigger when flying over them and burst into flame, engulfing Isaac too. This doesn't hurt too much, but it leaves you vulnerable for too long and the Flamethrower's alt fire needs a reload immediately afterwards unlike the Pulse Rifle which I used as my 3rd weapon in my 8th attempt:

 

8th attempt: Got to chapter 12 and made my 2nd save, but thought 'let's see if I've got this Drill Ride down'. Far from perfect much I don't get my arse kicked as much anymore. Went pretty smooth. The Earthgov entrance door is really my final difficult room of the game and I made it in with one attempt (Used a load of Health though) so it was all smooth sailing until outside the Stalker/Battery switch room the game froze for the first time ever.

 

And I ain't even mad. :) Getting past both the Drill Lift and the Earthgov entrance has put my mind at ease, if I can do both of those one after the other then I can plant my third save at the end of Chapter 13 no problem. And my heart isn't racing when I reach a difficult bit anymore since it's not that far between intended save points anymore.

 

It's no longer a matter of if, it's when.

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FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC did this as my 5th playthrough and still had a raised heartbeat knowing that one bad room could end it all.

Did a Survivalist 1st Round dry run beforehand and staggered my saves so I could replay all the tough rooms again, perfecting them before doing this for realz.

 

If you plant your first save as deep into the game a possible then the rest of it is a sinch, knowing a death will only set you back 30-90 mins instead of a few hours. Maybe I'll do another one and blow all my saves early, y'know, for the thrill.

 

In this run the saves were

Save 1: Ishimura Tram room

Save 2: Just before starting the Drill Lift

Save 3: Before the Needle machine/Ubermorph gauntlet

 

Lots of people are suggesting using only one weapon the whole game, but I had 3 fully noded as well as my Suit (HP and TK) and Stasis and no shortage of ammo by the game's end. Very thorough playthrough, picking up every Power Node laying around, back tracking to Stores and Benchs to clean out my inventory and upgrade ASAP and spending most of my money on Power Nodes too. If you don't have space, just try dragging the items you want with you using TK so you don't have to backtrack too far.

 

Skipped the Security Suit, just put a couple of Medikits in the safe to have space in your inventory.

 

You can skip the schematics and you'll still get those weapons/ammo about a chapter or two later. but do try and grab the ones that you want immediately.

 

The ones I wanted (That I can remember) were:

Pulse Rifle - Beginning of Chapter 3, in the corner of the warehouse where the tram crashes

Ripper - Chapter 5, by the gravity power ball

Pulse Ammo - To the right of where you first meet Ellie, Chapter 6

Flamethrower - In the back of the classroom after the Auditorium fight in Chapter 6

Flame Fuel - Chapter 9, after the Decompression window room and before the Wall Necro.

 

You'll have more Stasis than you'll know what to do with so use it all the time, it really is a life saver.

 

I'm still trying to figure out how to do the entrance to EarthGov without taking loads of damage. Too many damn Lurkers to keep track of!

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I'd saying using stasis and Kinesis to would be very important for beating it. I'm going through on Zealot an Kinesis seems to be a one hit kill most of the time when you grab necromorphs stabbing things.

I find that kinesis isn't helpful at all, it takes too long to turn the camera after picking something up so in a sticky situation its only going to get you grabbed and killed...

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  • 3 weeks later...
I'd saying using stasis and Kinesis to would be very important for beating it. I'm going through on Zealot an Kinesis seems to be a one hit kill most of the time when you grab necromorphs stabbing things.

 

I find that kinesis isn't helpful at all, it takes too long to turn the camera after picking something up so in a sticky situation its only going to get you grabbed and killed...

 

If you know EXACTLY where the next enemies are coming from, then kinesis can help you save some ammo (I ran out of ammo at the end of chapter 11, about 10 enemies away from the save point I was going to use), so kinesis saved my life.

 

Other than that, I completely agree with you CFC CiaranM CFC. balance13 was playing on zealot, where dying isn't a big deal. It's too risky to use kinesis regularly on hardcore unless you're a real pro (which most people, including me, are not).

Edited by PhilAvery
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The main advice I would give about hardcore is to watch a youtube video whilst you're playing and keep pausing the game and watch the next room on the video, so you know what's coming up next.

 

Also, in terms of the saves, I saved Chapter 7 (before solar array), Chapter 11 (before lift ride at the end) and chapter 13 (before the eye poke machine). The 6 times I died/restarted were all between my first and second saves between the tripod nest (end of chapter 9) and the main fight room in chapter 11 (with the battery that needs replacing). Because of this, I would recommend people to use one of their saves just before the tripod nest and another at the start of chapter 11 to break this hard run up a bit.

 

Your other save isn't so important as the rest of the game was easy enough. Just use it either mid-to-late disc 1 to break the game up a bit more evenly or use it in the later chapters, so you don't have to do chapter 11 again if something goes wrong late game (although from the lift ride on chapter 11 to the end of the game was much easier than I was expecting, so it is probably better to break up the first disc with a save).

 

Just use the force gun or contact beam (I used the force gun) for the chapter 11 lift and the drill ride (stand still near the middle of the cab and ignore the guys shooting you. They will all miss if you stand still due to the movement of the platform you are on), stasis-and-run through the red rooms and do alot of stasis-and-run from the eye poke machine to the end of the game.

Edited by PhilAvery
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I honestly think this achievement would only be half as bad if the devs. had used common sense and let us skip cutscenes. My first run through HC, I made the huge mistake of using my third save at the very beginning of Chapter 13, forgetting that A) there's a very long cutscene right after and B) you get a store and save station right after those.

 

Every frustrating and fatal mistake meant sitting through 30+ minutes of cutscenes AGAIN.

 

I enjoyed the challenge besides that, and would have liked to see Hard to the Core 2.0 if DS3 didn't look so....forgettable.

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  • 9 months later...

This is a pig of a Cheevo.. Not because of the neceomorphs but the silly things :(.. Fitting thru gaps and stupid mistakes.. Anyone attempting this please, please, please take your time and do not rush into situations.. If you find yourself struggling with upgrading your rig, weapons etc there are a few glitches you can utilise to you advantage.. I used them (not ashamed after my 4th play through)..

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Great tutorial bro, I'm trying to zero in hardcore for a while now, I guess now I can, (the first attempt died in the first meeting with the necros hehehe). Anyway I'm a fan of the saga, just missing taking time hehehe, thanks a lot for the tutorial

 

 

 

 

http://card.josh-m.com/live/deluxe/PabloRoyalTX.png

Edited by PabloRoyalTX
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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

I'll try to keep this brief cos I feel I could write loads after countless hours and cups of coffee trying and finally succeeding in getting this.

It is a tough achievement,i don't care what anyone says-they are either lying or massaging their own ego if they say otherwise!

 

1-Know each chapter and its tough spots well,this will help you plan your saves.

2-Be persistent and patient,you will die or fail but as long as you learn from it,you will be better prepared next time round.

3-The weapon/suit dlcs are useful in getting better kit from the start.I never rated the Force gun but after this I love it-a life saver-also the Contact beam and its Stasis special fire is awesome,it kills the final marker boss in 3 shots!I had the Plasma cutter too,went with 3 guns over 2-just felt more comfortable that way.

4-Use a walkthrough/guide in text/video but stick to your play style as blindly following a guide could do more harm than good.I started with one but on my 3rd and ultimately successful attempt I didn't use it at all and honestly was better for it.

5-Finally,this is always said,try to get through disc1 without saving or at least aim to have 2 saves left at the start of chaptr 10- Ishimura.This made the difference for me,it really did!

 

Good luck!!

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