The world of Fallout: New Vegas can be very unforgiving if one is not prepared. In a region teeming with super mutants, radioactive zombies, and giant roaches, players need to be prepared for just about anything outside of the vault. That same unforgiving nature persists even more in the Hardcore Mode.
Fallout: New Vegas's Hardcore Mode adds many new features and challenges that players will face. In Hardcore Mode, players will have to make sure they don't dehydrate, starve, or even suffer from the effects of sleep deprivation, along with everything else they have to maintain. With these challenges, players will need new techniques, perks, weapons, and general tools at their disposal to survive the Mojave Wasteland in the Hardcore Mode of Fallout: New Vegas.
10 The Guns Skill
The Fallout series has always had a plethora of skills to choose from to enhance the player's character. One such skill is the Guns skill. This skill is pretty self-explanatory; it determines the damage, accuracy, and overall performance of the player with conventional firearms such as pistols, rifles, and miniguns. Increasing this skill allows for players to gain the upper hand should they find themselves in a gunfight. The way to increase this skill is by finding the Guns and Bullets books or Milsurp Review magazines for a temporary boost.
9 The Survival Skill
The Survival skill is unique because it only makes an appearance in Fallout: New Vegas. This skill is useful in the game's Hardcore Mode because it directly affects campfires' resourcefulness around the Mojave Wasteland.
The Survival skill allows players to make food, drinks, and chems like Stimpaks using natural ingredients as well as improving their positive properties as the skill increases. Like Guns and Bullets for the Guns skill, The Wasteland Survival Guide books increase the Survival skill, and The Lad's Life increases it temporarily.
8 The Speech Skill
The Speech skill is one of the most far-reaching skills in Fallout: New Vegas. The Speech skill grants players the opportunity to avoid fights and confrontations altogether. Players that increase this ability can convince enemies not to fight, see them as friends, or even walk away from the situation. In Hardcore Mode, avoiding fights will progress players further than engaging in violence a lot of the time. As with every other skill and their corresponding book and magazine in Fallout: New Vegas, the Lying, Congressional Style books permanently increase the Speech skill, and the Meeting People magazines temporarily increase it.
7 Wasteland Threads
Along with books and magazines being used to improve a player's skills, clothing and armor also provide boosts and improvements to one's skills. These boosts will persist with the player as long as they continue to wear them, however, once that piece of clothing or armor is removed, so is the effect that came with it. For example, Recon Armor grants the player a +5 to their Sneak skill. Another example is Grimy Pre-War Businesswear, which gives an additional +5 to a player's Speech skill.
6 General Perks
There are many different perks for players to choose from when progressing through Fallout: New Vegas. Each perk serves a different purpose, such as improving the player's damage against mutated bugs, increasing accuracy with one-handed weapons, and many other examples.
For a Hardcore Mode build, one example of a perk that would be very helpful is Intense Training, which gives players one point to apply to any of their S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes. Another example of a perk someone could consider is Better Criticals which grants an additional 50% damage to critical hits.
5 Skill-Based Perks
Amidst the vast array of perks at the player's disposal in Fallout: New Vegas, there are some perks that become available to the player upon the increase of certain skills. These perks grant improvements and advancements to the player based on the skill it comes from. For example, Terrifying Presence, based on the Speech skill, allows players to intimidate enemies through dialogue and even cause them to flee. Another example is Animal Friend, based on the Survival skill, which makes hostile animals friendly, and sometimes they even aid the player in fights.
4 DLC Perks
Fallout: New Vegas's DLCs provide not only new stories and weapons but also new perks that players can acquire right from the beginning of the game.
Like the ones found in the base game, some of these perks are based on skills, while others are not. One example is Home On The Range from the Honest Hearts DLC, which allows the player to sleep at a campfire and gain the benefits that sleep brings. Another example is Junk Rounds from the Dead Money DLC, which allows the player to craft ammunition from scrap metal and tin cans.
3 Friendly With The NCR
While there are quite a few factions for players with which to side in Fallout: New Vegas, NCR is most likely the best option for a Hardcore Mode build.
The NCR occupies most of the map in the game which means that being on their good side creates fewer hazards and enemies when traversing the Mojave Wasteland. Being friendly with the NCR also means that if an NCR patrol is nearby when you are engaged in a fight, they will most likely jump in to assist.
2 Long-Range Weapons
There are a variety of weapons for players to use to defend themselves against the dangers of the Mojave Wasteland. From sledgehammers made from fire hydrants to a shoulder-mounted, miniature, nuclear bomb launcher, the possibilities are virtually endless. A type of weapon that may prove the most useful for a Hardcore Mode build is long-range weapons. Rifles, launchers, and machineguns would work best because they will be able to keep enemies of all kinds at a distance.
1 Implants That Enhance Abilities
Sometimes natural adaptation, learning, and clothes just aren't enough. In Fallout: New Vegas, there are implants that players can purchase to enhance their attributes and abilities. Players can purchase all of the implants in the Mojave Wasteland at the New Vegas Medical Clinic. While getting there from the start of the game may not be an easy task, the benefits that players gain from them will be well worth the journey. For example, there is an implant that improves each of the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes. There is also an implant that allows the player to regenerate health every few seconds.