After playing for awhile I noticed that the most efficient way to take down multiple enemies without getting horribly maimed or even hit is the following combo: sneak-demolition-mines.

Even if you are super good at aiming or shooting there is no way you can take down many enemies which you often encounter in buildings without getting shot or killed, and there is so much explosives and you can always make more!
Plus isn't blowing your enemies the best visually appealing way, all the shaking, smoke, limbs blowing, bodies thrown about, it really is the most realistic aspect of Fallout, visually speaking.

i, uh, well that is er...

moving along

so clarify what it is that you do. Did you tag explosives? If so, what else? Do you stay stealthy and set up mines and then open fire and let them rush into your trap? Or something else? I would be interested to know, in FO3 I loved setting traps with mines and then opening fire with some sneak crits and let the mines do the rest of the work after I lost the element of surprise but have been unable to have that kind of gameplay in FONV

Having plenty of laxatives is how I always finish a hardcoe game fastest

Yes, tagged demolition and sneak, you just place mines or powder charges and let them come at you, it's very funny how they say those lines when they are coming to get you and you just hear explosions and then silence. It's been outstanding so far in NCRCF and Primm casino.
Also in Fallout 3 using bottlecap mine was the only way to kill those ghoul bosses without getting hurt/killed or swamped by other ghouls and I can't really see now how you could kill deathclaws without the bottlecap mines. With demolition you don't need to worry about any enemy being too tough.

And demolition is the only skill that you can get up to 60% extra damage via perks, that on top of already high damage and consistent criticals on all limbs when blowing up.

Or use Turbo.

Turbo solves everything.

interesting, again that's something i've liked to try but just havent yet

do you use any other types of weapons or just explosives? Also, as far as placing mines, do you find that you "lose" damage when placing mines too close together since one is setting the others off or does all that damage stack (ie three mines on top of one another create three times the damage?)

I did that too. You ....and me, are no longer to do that in fonv because of broken sneak skill. Often the enemies will detect you through the walls, or not even on the same floor. Sometimes you can kill an enemy in vats with several loud shots and the guy next to him wouldnt even notice and you remaind hidden. Sometimes you fire a shot in hidden mode, but still donot score a critical (not talkin about slow projectile weapons like plasma) and get attacked.

I think the reason is the same as you still have subterranean enemies in the game despite the developers best efforts. I doubt it can be fixed. Its beyond their control.

As for the OP. The key to victory in Very hard difficulty hardcoe mode is to take hand loader perk. It will give you heavy fire power very early on with custom built ammunition. 10mm JSP rounds for example are nasty. AND you need to stock up on buffouts. In hard situations, you can use buffout and gain instant 60 health. very useful. You will also need to rely on chems more often. Especially turbo. And bring your science skill up so you can get slasher. Slasher along with Med - x give you 50% DR. But remember to use them as little as possible. And i dont know how far you have built your character, i will advice you to make a criticals heavy character and get energy weapons. Though energy ammo is unfairly heavy.

Or starting shots hit weapons and arms/or leg.

get cover

shoot legs/arms

get cover reload

shots at chest or head ftw as they running away mostly.

if you use anything but rifle or pistol or explosive unless specc'd energy you are noob.

Its funny you are assuming the only enemies he is going to face are humans. And dont go around calling people noobs. I dont think its possible to be a noob in a single player game.

Some people like FONV because it is fun to play. I've always felt min/maxers ruin multiplayer games and I have a sneaking suspicion that they also manage to ruin singleplayer games, if only for themselves

regardless, I hear Unarmed is incredibly powerful given enough points and weapons like the Displacer Glove or Ballistic Fist. And even if Unarmed wasn't powerful, some people like to play that way

Unarmed IS incredibly powerful! Played my whole hardcoe hard playthrough using unarmed, no shots fired at all. With the right perks and weps everything dies insanely fast! Ballistic fist is almost unfair most of the time and even with simple boxing gloves u can knock out a deathclaw and he's helpless for 30 seconds. Unarmed ftw! Very fun way to play indeed.

LOL

Exactly, nothing to see here, Move along


I like making a Kung Fu Monk character in most all my games but the Ballistic fist is so OP. it needs to use ammo it really does

High survival and medicine skill helps