Game Preparation
Hardcore starts at level 1 with nothing. When the hero dies that’s it, no resurrection, nothing. Anything he or she has on them or in their pack is gone. The followers and their gear are gone. However, that’s not everything.
When you start the next HARDCORE whatever was in the stash in town will still be there. That means gear, gems, craftsman skills, etc. The gear will retain their Required Level (RL) for use, but if it was a good piece you were saving for a rainy day or for another follower, it will be there waiting for you to reach that level again. Save a decent set of gear at RL 1 to 3 so next time you have good gear to start with.
You’ll have your gems, too, to use as soon as you have slots. If you’re using Leoric’s Crown with a Ruby consider replacing it with a high valued crown just before going into battle against a Boss or Guardian. The double bonus you lose is a small price to pay to have that crown and gem available if you die and have to start another Hardcore Hero.
Keep backup gear and have a gear strategy. The best play is to store any amazing loot you get until you have a respectable backup. Then you can load the best piece while the respectable backup remain a ready backup. It’s wiser to play with it in the stash to protect it for next time than equip it and lose it in the next few minutes.
During the first 6 to 10 level you’ll pick up level 1 gear. Your priority for such gear is:
- Save the good for your next time.
- Sell it for cash. Cash is King! Most gear is replaced by pickup within a few levels until you are in the 40s and 50s.
- Do the same thing with level 1-3, 15-20, 35-40, and 60 gear (+/- 1 RL). It’s better to have a full decent set of gear for each level next time you reach that level than to be searching for decent pieces while you’re vulnerable.
The #1 recommended tip from all sources = Patience is Paramount! After your 3rd or 4th restart you’ll want to run to the next goal ASAP. Don’t. The monster life builds deceptively even within the same level. You need that progression of trash points to stay just ahead of the death curve. If you find a tough fight, when it’s over, go back through the onscreen maps to pick up experience by destroying trash. The time is well worth staying at a killing level when you need it.
When you know the goal is just around the next corner but you have to race through trash and past a couple of elites to get to it consider this - What do you do if you’re suddenly met by a whole group of extra elites, jailers, wallers, and unknown obstacles you hadn’t seen? Will your health hold out as you try to run back through the mob you ignored? Was it a mistake (possibly stupid) to NOT clear the area as you went through it? For me, I’ll race past a few trash and maybe one elite, but anything that would take some time and effort to kill is definitely worth the effort versus the option of starting over with a level 1 hero.
Until you reach L70 you are restricted to Campaign Mode. Once at L70 new heros can start in Adventure Mode. One tip repeated several times was to leave the game and go back to kill a boss over and over again. In hardcore you will be warned that your progress will be set back. It is. It’s faster and much more point productive to simply leave the game and redo one of the crowd areas. I ran a small test. With quests you have to start at it’s beginning and go through several areas to get to the boss again. The Skeleton King and Butcher gave about 25k to 30k points, while rerunning only half of Dahlgur Oasis and the Forgotten Ruins gave me 670k.
When redoing a map for points make sure you do it BEFORE you go to the next act. Unlike softcore, you can NOT go back to a previous act to redo anything. Make sure you feel strong enough and have done all the extra bonus point accumulation you can BEFORE you go to the next act.
When you take the time to strengthen your hero with extra runs, work on mastering massacre bonus scores. Grotesques (blob monsters) explode and kill other monsters in their vicinity. Bat Nests, Demon Hell Bearer, Maggot Broods, and other spawning monsters produce lots of scoring opportunities. You may not feel the trash mobs are worth much, but with massacre bonuses you get the same bonuses on elites and high score baddies, too. Try for a lot of trash mixed in with high elites.