So i decided I am going to give hardcoe a shot and as well as start using Survival and campfires. I wanted to know what are the plants and items I should be looking out for that I could use to make the best food, medicine, etc out in the wasteland.

Lock picking and Hacking: I didn't find lock picking to be that useful in New Vegas but maybe I am wrong. I only raised it to 100 in order to get the Gobi which wasn't that much of a big deal. I never liked Hacking since I found it to be a pain but I am thinking of giving it a try. Is there a certain level that I should reach for these or maybe stick to one?

Speech and Barter: I see barter has a little of two worlds in this Fallout. Convincing people as much as speech as well as better prices at merchants and such. Which one has more of an effect in the game?
I did a little research and it seems people are saying speech owns this game but I do not see why.

Any other Hints and Tips for a Guns/Sniper build will be highly appreciated.

Thanks guys.

Get your Survival skill up to at least 25 ASAP as that will allow you to make Gecko steaks, you can survive on them and only them for the rest of the game really. More skill points into Survival after that is mostly a matter of taste, as you can use Medicine for healing via stimpacks instead although some of the bonuses like a Bighorner steak's (50 Survival required) +1/+2 to Strength is nice to have when you need to carry a lot of loot around to a merchant. I took Survival up into the 90s on one character and you can heal a ton of damage from eating a simple Gecko steak at those levels but to be honest it was kinda excessive and a waste. Beyond 50 I don't see much point in adding more skill points.



If you're a explorer type of person who wanders around the Wasteland just to see what quests and dungeons/caves you can find you'll use Lockpick FAR more often than Science in regards to unlocking things. I had a better than 10:1 ratio on my skill usage for most of my game when I played such a character, as there just aren't anywhere near as many active terminals as compared to physically locked things.

The caveat is if you're planing to use Energy Weapons, as in that case a high Science is a recommended for the ammo crafting/conversion/recycling that goes along with it. For skill levels, get Lockpick up to at least 75 ASAP as that will get you into most of the locked things in the game as there aren't many Very Hard locks around. Get Science up to at least 50 I'd say and higher if using Energy Weapons, after those levels are reached it's again personal preference. Science is used in crafting when it comes to many of the better Chem and Aid items as well btw if you care about that aspect of the game, I don't use them much myself.



Speech is used far more often than Barter and to greater effect in almost every quest. Not to say Barter isn't used often as it certainly is, just that it's about demanding higher rewards in caps or equipment for the most part. Nothing wrong with that, just be aware that money shouldn't be much of an issue in this game past the mid-teen levels.



There are numerous threads in this forum and in General regarding making a Guns Sniper character, peruse them to get some ideas on SPECIAL stats and skill and perk choices. It's one of the most popular and easiest character builds going around these days.

Hope this helped you out, good luck.

A minor tip, but a effective one. Try to use one gun and use a melee weapon as a secondary. Since ammo has weight in HC, it's better to use one gun and a melee weapon then have multiple guns and ammo types weighing you down.

Correction, one gun period. Scoped Trail carbine makes a fine endgame weapon capable of both sniping and close quarters combat. Taking melee means taking skill points off other skills, and in HC you already have to invest into an extra skill (survival).

You don't really need Medicine in HC so Melee replaces it.

Melee/Unarmed out damage guns, really. But it depends how much of a warhoc you are.

HC isn't really any harder.

Stimpacks don't heal instantly, so don't wait until you are almost dead to use them.
5lbs of water and 3lbs of food is plenty to carry before you go exploring.
20lbs of ammo should be plenty for most weapons.
Watch out for land mines, that's the only thing that makes limb crippling harder in HC mode.

You can pick the survival skill if you want, but it is by no means essential in HC mode.

Survival is the biggest waste since George W. Bush.

All my characters use hardcoe mode and I haven't really needed a Survival skill of more than about 50-60, however I usually heal with stimpacks and use food for the hardcoe needs, so I don't need large values per item.

All characters subsequent to the one I am currently playing will heal exclusively with food items, though, so having a high Survival score will be more important (I plan to max it, even though that's probably excessive). I will probably still use Rad-X and Rad-away, though, since there are no foods with comparable effects.

One thing to keep in mind is that the H2O meter will rise significantly faster than the FOD and SLP ones, so any free water source you find you may want to drink from, even if it gives a little radiation. That will allow you to conserve bottled water and/or hydrating foods for use during prolonged stays in waterless areas, of which there are quite a few.

Some recommended food items:

Gecko Kebab- requires 60 Survival, provides both FOD and H2O
Caravan Lunch- 30 Survival, provides lots of FOD
Atomic Cocktail- 25 Science, provides SLP, increased dehydration, Fire resistance, and Energy resistance
Desert Salad- 55 Survival, provides FOD and H2O
Cactus Water- 30 Survival, provides H2O (note: you get Purified Water when you make this)
Antivenom- 40 Survival, cures poisons; difficult to make at low levels as one of the components is Nightstalker Blood and you have to kill them to get it

One of these (I forget which atm) also reduces your RAD level, however it doesn't remove all that much of it per dose unless you have a really high Survival skill.

One of the components of the Atomic Cocktail is Nuka Cola Victory, which is rare unless you have the Nuka Chemist perk and can make them (3 regular Nukas--->1 Victory); said perk is not available until L22, however there are plenty of free beds all over the place which will allow you to conserve your supply of Cocktails if you so choose. They can also be found in refrigerators, however it's a random chance.

You can also make some fairly potent drugs and poisons with a high Survival skill, however the latter can only be used on melee or unarmed weapons and are one use per dose. The only drug I use regularly is Slasher- 50 Survival, gives +25% DAM and +25% DR, and is fairly easy to make since all the ingredients are common.

I just (almost) completed a hardcoe playthrough with the NCR (it was deleted right after i had dealt with the BoS). I found hardcoe to be very tedious, and i don't look forward to having to go through all that nonsense again for the stupid trophy. I never died from H2O, Food, or Sleep sickness, and it was very boring to have to keep fast traveling to merchant just to keep my food and water supply up to par. More power to you if you enjoy it, it just wasn't my thing. My advice: sell your stimpacks for food/ drink items, as they take care of your extra conditions and provide health.