Kingdom Come Deliverance 2: Hardcore Mode Guide

Hardcore Mode is a new addition to Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, added via a patch on April 15, 2025. It adds 2 new trophies & achievements Hardcore Henry II and Against All Odds for which you must finish a full main story playthrough with ALL 10 negative perks enabled at the same time. Each perk makes it a little bit harder.

General Hardcore Changes

Regardless of what negative perks you pick, Hardcore Mode comes with some general changes that make the game more realistic and more difficult.

• No HUD interface, meaning no health or stamina bars and no compass at the top of the screen
• No fast travel
• A much smaller discovery radius, making exploration more demanding
• Your own location (character arrow) isn’t shown on the map, so you need perfect map knowledge to find your way
• No quest markers on the compass unless you’re very close to the objective

Prepare yourself for a very unforgiving experience. It’s highly recommended to have done at least one story playthrough beforehand to have better knowledge (since there are no waypoints in hardcore), and to be familiar with the toughest combat encounters already. This step by step guide will point out the toughest fights and general tips and tricks.

All Negative Perks in Hardcore Mode

1. Bad Back: You can carry 50% less, and whenever picking a herb or mushroom there’s a small chance you’ll strain your back and be left hobbling for a while.
2. Heavy-Footed: Your heavy steps cause your starting Noise level to be increased from 0 to 25. Your shoes wear down twice as fast.
3. Numbskull: You gain experience 40% slower.
4. Somnambulant: You lose Energy 40% faster and every time you sleep, there’s a chance your sleepwalking legs will take you somewhere else.
5. Hangry Henry: In addition to the usual effects of hunger, starving also reduces your Speech, Charisma, and Intimidation. Moreover, all food will fill you 50% less, and your digestion rate increases by 25%.
6. Sweaty: Your clothing gets dirtier 50% faster and smells. When you start to stink, you can be smelled from twice as far away, which makes stealth more difficult when dirty. Even perfume won’t hide the stench.
7. Picky Eater: Your pickiness causes all food in your inventory to spoil 25% faster. When gutting animals, you’re also pickier and get only a quarter of the meat and other items from animals.
8. Bashful: You can’t ask people for directions, so it’s more difficult to find your way around. Besides that, you’re too shy to speak to the girls at the bathhouse, so you can’t request their services. Since you’re not much of a talker, gaining Speech skill is also 20% slower.
9. Punchable Face: People who attack you are stronger, more aggressive and can withstand more damage. The effect is multiplied based on the combat skill of the opponent. The stronger the opponent, the bigger the buff they get. You also take 10% more damage.
10. Menace: Once you’re branded for a crime, the effect is permanent, and getting caught for any other serious crime will lead to your execution. What’s more, guards will punish you more severely, and the consequences of these punishments will be more intense. The chance of being randomly searched is also doubled.

To unlock the  Hardcore Henry II and  Against All Odds trophies, you need to complete the game in Hardcore Mode with ALL 10 negative perks active. It’s not worth trying to earn these trophies separately, better to combine them and go for both in a single Hardcore run. Plan in at least 20-30 hours, if you’ve already done a playthrough on Standard. If you’ve perfected the combat (especially Masterstrike), the difficulty is around a 7.5/10. It’s highly recommended you play through the story at least once beforehand, as Hardcore Mode assumes you already have a decent understanding of the world and quests. Because it removes quest markers, it relies heavily on map knowledge and navigation skills. If you get stuck or need guidance, you can always refer to our full Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Walkthrough. You can also check the video speedrun (which was captured on Standard difficulty but shows you where to go):

Step 1: Choose the right Skills for the beginning

Start a new game in Hardcore Mode with ALL 10 negative perks selected. When you reach Main Quest 2: Easy Riders, you’ll be asked to choose a starting skill set for leveling. Select the option “I’m an advisor to a nobleman and an envoy“. This is the best choice for Hardcore Mode, as it gives you a head start with some experience and a valuable early boost to Speech, which is one of the slowest skills to level. That early Speech bonus can really help you avoid dangerous encounters through dialogue rather than combat. During the prologue, there’s also a handy trick: you can store your money in the dice player’s cave, so it doesn’t get lost later. You can return and retrieve it once you’re in the open world, giving you a small money boost.

Step 2: Play until the Main Quest 8: Necessary Evil

Now the real grind begins. Your goal is to complete all main quests up to the first point of no return Main Quest 8: Necessary Evil. This stretch gives you plenty of opportunities to gain experience and prepare for your first real challenge: the ambush in the woods during Main Quest 9: For Victory, and the the 1v1 duel against Ziska.

As soon as you reach the open world at the start of Main Quest 5: Wedding Crashers, head to Semine to collect your horse (called “Pebbles”) from the horse trader. Riding will save you time and when going around the map and lets you escape danger quickly. Next, ride to the Nomad Camp to learn the “Masterstrike” skill from the combat teacher. Masterstrike is an essential combat technique and absolutely crucial for surviving Ziska’s duel and any other melee encounter. It allows you to counter enemy attacks with perfect timing, turning tough fights into manageable ones. If you don’t learn Masterstrike, every fight becomes significantly harder and longer. Perfecting this technique is the key to winning duels efficiently in Hardcore Mode. It’s important that you practice this technique until you’ve truly mastered it, so that you don’t get stuck in unavoidable fights.

At the Nomad Camp, you can also learn all the other combat techniques, and you should take the time to do so to earn some extra experience. During each training fight, you can practice dodging to gain even more XP, though be aware, this method can be very time-consuming. If you struggle to master the Masterstrike, then it’s a good idea to grind XP through training fights to earn more skill points and become better prepared for tougher battles. For a Hardcore run, I recommend using the Longsword. It’s the most powerful weapon type in combination with Masterstrike, making fights more manageable and efficient.

Here are some additional tips to help you level up quickly before reaching Main Quest 8, in case you want to gain a bit more XP early on:

• Carry more than the inventory capacity to passively train your Strength: Walking long distances on foot while overencumbered is a great way to grind this stat naturally, even though it makes you walk slowly it will pay off in later battles when you have higher strength stat.
• Pick every herb you see along the way: It’s an easy way to gain bonus XP.
• Talk to every NPC you meet and exhaust all dialogue options: This will gradually increase your Speech skill, helping you avoid future combat situations. Each line of unique dialogue gives Speech XP (repeating the same dialogues doesn’t increase it).
• Avoid bandit encounters whenever possible: If you spot bandits, turn back or only engage if you’re confident you can win.
• Save often: Save often. Hardcore Mode has autosaves, but manual saving is also crucial (in pause menu “Save & Quit” to make free saves). Save before risky encounters or whenever you sense a fight is coming, so you can reload if needed.
• Buy lodging early: This gives you access to your personal storage chest, and you can sleep there for the rest of the game without having to pay for each night individually, so it’s cheaper in the long run.
• Use alchemy benches to brew Fox potions: You can craft “Fox potions”, which temporarily boost XP gain. This step is optional, but highly recommended to speed up XP farming ahead of difficult encounters. See All Alchemy Recipes (you can brew them even if you don’t own the recipe, by just following the correct steps).

During the ambush in the woods of Main Quest 9: For Victory, stay close to your team and let them do most of the work. Then against Zizka remember to use Masterstrikes.

Step 3: Play until the Main Quest 14: Speak of the Devil

In Main Quest 14: Speak of the Devil, you’ll face a tough enemy encounter. It’s the second big fight in the game that involves a large group of enemies. This encounter is unavoidable, so you have to fight. As soon as the encounter starts, you begin with the Pistole. Your first priority is to take out the Black Knight quickly. He’s wearing full armor and a helmet, so make sure to shoot him down with the Pistole as fast as possible! If you fail, reload your autosave immediately. Once the Black Knight is dead, switch to your Longsword and focus on attacking the enemies that are already fighting your friends. Stick close to your team to support them, so they don’t get knocked unconscious, otherwise, you’ll be forced to fight all the remaining enemies alone. It’s important to use your Masterstrike to deal heavy damage, but regular attacks can also work. Fighting together with your team is the key to success here.

Step 4: Play until the Main Quest 18: Taking French Leave

In Main Quest 18: Taking French Leave, you need to rescue Sir Hans. The quest isn’t super hard but can be a bit tricky if you cause an alarm. Try to complete it as stealthily as possible to avoid a big fight, the challenge here being that the “Sweaty” perks makes enemies smell you from afar. One approach is to kill every enemy with a dagger from behind to thin out their numbers (but must be quick, or else they turn around when they smell you). Then if you get spotted later you don’t have to fight as many enemies. Save often so you don’t have to redo too much if you get spotted. Once almost all enemies are down, you can move on to rescuing Capon. Here, make sure to grab a weapon for Capon and Vauquelin. You can try to get to the stables in stealth, but if that fails and the enemies at the end of the fort see you, try if you can open the gate to escape, if not then use the help of Hans and Vauquelin to defeat everyone.

Step 5: Play until the Main Quest 21: Exodus

In Main Quest 21: Exodus, there’s a big fight at the synagogue. There’s a simple trick besides using the Masterstrike: you can quickly run back along the wall as the battle starts. Sometimes, enemies won’t follow you there, so you can stand still for about 5 minutes until the cutscene triggers. If that doesn’t work, you have two other options: either take out any enemy that follows you or parry all attacks for around 5 minutes until the cutscene begins. After you survived long enough the cutscene triggers automatically, it’s entirely time-based.

Step 6: Play until the Main Quest 22: The Lions Den

In Main Quest 22: The Lion’s Den, you’ll have to fight another large group of enemies at the end. It’s important to fight together with your team so you can take down the enemies quickly. This is the toughest encounter in the game. The key to success is to work step-by-step with your group to eliminate all enemies together. If you pull enemies alone, your teammates will die and you want to avoid that. Stick together because the NPCs are stronger than you are. By fighting as a team, you can win this battle.

Step 7: Play until the Main Quest 32: Judgement Day and finish the Game

In the final quest, you’ll face one last tough fight right after you climb the ladder up to the castle wall. It’s essential to use a Pistole here for instakills. Once you open the gate, an enemy will charge in, shoot him immediately to take him down fast, then can switch to your melee weapon for the remaining enemies.

For more guides check out our Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Wiki.