ANARCHY REIGNS

The mission The Old Man and the Desert is very difficult on the Hard difficulty since you have to defeat Douglas AND 6 Mutants AND 3 Super Mutants AND not fall into the quicksand, without dying more than twice.


Firstly, take two offensive items into the battle and make sure your rage gauge is fully charged.

Use up your killer move gauge, then blast Douglas with weapons to whittle his power down a bit, use up the rest of your killer move gauge that you've accumulated from weapon use, then go into rage mode and just punch him down. Remember that rage mode re-fills your killer move gauge, so you can land a few more killer moves after rage mode (hit-confirm these by doing light attacks first.)

So, now you've beaten Douglas without being hit. Great! He will become your ally during the mutant fights. Get out of the centre of the area, because it will turn to quicksand.
Douglas, if not attacking, will try to run up to you. Try not to put the quicksand between him and yourself, because if he takes too much damage and needs to be recovered but he's too close to the quicksand, you won't be able to recover him, and you'll just die if you try to get close.

Having Douglas do "the work" is vital to this mission. You should keep walking backwards and dodging BACKWARDS (not to the side) often... but not too often, because 3 consecutive dodges leaves you prone.

Stick out a light killer weapon or single heavy normal attack after you see a mutant attack, or while you see a mutant roaring without the gas cloud.

Eventually you'll build up your rage gauge again. Spam light killer weapon attacks if there are two mutants in range to distribute damage. Only use the rapid-fire kicks if there's only one mutant left.

When mutants drop weapons, use them right away so you don't die and lose them, or find yourself with too many weapons to carry.