Recently, after playing the game in regular mode, I decided to give hardcoe mode a try. Survival is pretty much a necessity and because of weight restrictions, you can only carry so much before becoming encumbered. That said, I wrote a database for items necessary for the three crafting locations - one for the Workbench, one for Reloading and one for Campfire.

In this database, specifically for Campfire, I included the necessities to make the recipes (Survival requirement and components). It took awhile to enter and print out ALL the recipes, but now I find that it was worth the effort. Why should I pick up a heavy toaster, iron, or whatever, when the only use such items have is to sell. These non-essential items have no other use and are best left behind, unless you enjoy being a pack mule.

Anyway, I came across 3 recipes that have exactly the same ingredients in the exact same proportion. They are: MOTHER DARKNESS, SILVER STING, and TREMBLE. The differences between these 3 recipes are the effects and the required Survival skill needed to make them. So what I'm wondering is, if after a time, you happen to acquire the maximum Survival skill level to create all of these recipes, do you have a choice as to which one you want to make?

If anyone wants my database, I'd be only to happy to share it with you. The only thing it does NOT include is the WGT and VAL, though in retrospect, I suppose I should include them just in case. I'll work on that!!

Well each item is still there so after you reached the highest level necessary to create all three, the first one would still be available if you wanted to still make that one...

Do you really find survival and crafting at the campfire essential with hardcoe? I play with hardcoe and hard difficulty and I've only bothered a bit with making food and stuff (like if I have a bunch of brahmin meat I'll cook em up) but I find plenty of food and water in the world. I'd really like it if survival was essential. That's what I thought hardcoe mode would provide, but it just doesn't.

By the way isn't it cool you can apply poison to your melee weapon? I didn't even know you could do that.

Survial skill books are EXTREMELY easy to find early in the game, that's extra 16 points. It's easier to feed your character at sane values of Survival. I typically stop pumping it at 50-ish or so until later levels (need 45 for Travel Light early, then 60 for the .44 magnum ammo check). I typically make myself 20-25 standard foods and buy lots of purified water in Freeside, carry 5 of each (10 for v34 and other mazes) and just go with it. I don't bother with Cannibal (lame and unnecessary) and I typically can buy more food than I need.

Survival is hugely unfinished. And I don't get why they made it an option - it's not like it's a problem at all to cope with it.

I completed hardcoe very hard level w/o needing survival/campfire skills.

Also, http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas_recipes

Me too
However on my 2nd hardcoe play though, I did find it a bit easier with a Survival of 30 (+ Lads Life to Make 50). Allows a lot of Bighorn steaks.

It isn't essential in hardcoe, but it certainly helps. Especially if you do a lot of exploring (you'll be using a lot of water). I'm using a mod that allows you to make Cactus Water using all 3 of the empty soda bottles (nuka, sarsparilla, and regular empty soda bottles) instead of only the plain "empty soda bottles." I will definitely keep using survival in the future with hardcoe, but I can't see myself pumping it up past 60.. and probably not even that high.

I play on hardcoe, gecko kebabs wtf... they deal with thirst as well as hunger!

i didn't pay too much attention to the actual effects, but recently i just put my spare points from higher levels to it just for fun, and man, some of these recipes have HUGE effects then.
currently, my survival is at 75.
now a wasteland omelet replenishes 9 hit points per second for a whole minute. pair that with a fiend stew (4hp/1min) before going into a huge battle, and you're at 13hp/second of constant healing already.
all the food items stack, as long as they are different. this is a hidden god mode.
also, a nuka victory is +25AP then(guess it will be 30 at 100 skill), sugar bombs +12AP, etc.
survival is truly a powerful skill, hands down.

Holy [censored], I know what i'm using as a substitute for Stimpacks.

I went with Survival 70 in order to get rad child, which stacks very nicely with consumables like wasteland omelet and fiend stew. Rad Child provides constant +6HP/sec (critical rad poisoning) or +8HP/sec (deadly rad poisoning) if you can handle the SPECIAL penalties.

making cactus water is not a wise decision. it's just 3 prickly pears in a bottle, with 1lb weight.
now if you just leave these 3 pears as they are, you get the same hydration effect, but a prickly pear is just 0.07lb...

This is very intriguing. I haven't tried hardcoe. Does the promo canteen make a lot of difference? Does it even count towards your health?

i don't have it. but i think it's an endless water supply. water healing is not affected by survival, though.

for anyone considering hardcoe mode, I highly recommend the "Harder hardcoe Rates" mod. This is not very realistic, but it makes the game a lot more balanced, as it results in more frequent buildup of SLP, H20 and FOD. Since there is so much food and water and you don't need to sleep very often in vanilla hardcoe, if you install this mod you actually get challenged sometimes as you will run out of water and food (and sometimes need to sleep but there is no bed nearby). Huge improvement over vanilla hardcoe mode.

Here is a link:
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34954

Wait a min, a prickly pear gives -30 H20?

edit: Nevermind -10 Food and -15 H2O. Still, it beats out carrying water around at .42 weight with -60 food and -90 H2O.. Good tip.

i think it's done pretty well in vanilla, and corresponds in a believable way with the actual day-night cycle.
but i'll give it a try. next year, though, when i have a suitable rig

what's your survival skill? the better, the better are the effects

For someone considering hardcoe mode who cares in a hardcoe way about their companions not dying, what level of game difficulty would you suggest? Would Easy matter in that or would Normal be ok too?

I've been looking at these recipes and the Skill requirements to make them. Since I can't play my current game, I can build my character for the next one. Thanks.

To avoid my companions dying, I just keep them in the area where they were originally found. So, I just use them for their perks and only take them with me to complete their quests and special dialogue options. Cass and ED-E seem to provide the best perks IMO. if you bring them into fights, it's very hard to keep them from running into battle and getting themselves killed.

After a long time, I eventually get a message indicating they have gone back to their home, at which point I just go back and add them again.

there are also some mods or console commands to make your companions "essential" or invincible.

Thanks. So hardcoe is more of a loner thing? It's hard enough to keep yourself alive without worrying about a companion?

And in keeping with the topic, which one Campfire Recipe is the most important? Thanks again.

hardcoe mode is not necessarily a loner thing. Companions are quite resilient and if you save often having to reload a save because they have died isn't much of an inconvenience.
Oh and my favorite recipe is the Desert Salad

That's great to hear because I love having companions. I don't mind reloading either and do it all the time if someone dies so they can live again. ha. Desert Salad sounds yummy and with HP +9, it looks even better; it probably should be served with a Bloatfly Slider. Thanks...now I'll work on thinking of a name and a bit of a history.

no, it isn't. i play on normal, hardcoe, and the companions kick serious butt. yes, in some extreme situation they can die, but that doesn't happen too often.

desert salad (55 skill), gecko kebab (60) and bloatfly sliders make very good, as they all weigh around 0.25lb and are good against hunger and thirst.
cook-cook fiend stew (75, recipe needs to be aquired from cook-cook, or let's say you find it at the place where you kill him) and wasteland omelet (65, recipe needs to be aquired from jas in sloane by giving her a deathclaw egg) give you hp over a long period, making them superb 'combat food'




don't forget to pimp your survival. at 75 skill, the desert salad gives you 16hp over 15sec, not 9
all the effects, hp, fod, h2o, ap, strength bonus, etc increase with your skill value

on hardcoe + very hard, the companions are quickly killed in any challenging combat situation, regardless of what sort of armor, weapons, etc. I give them.

In fights that are relatively easy, the companions kill the enemy before I get a chance to do anything, so personally I prefer not to travel with companions except when completing their quests.