In regards to the game crashing/save wiping stuff, check the bottom of the solution.
There seems to be some confusion about this, I'll clear this up. Hardcore mode is 6 levels (pay attention to the 3rd point) with lower visibility, make sure you're playing on easy, you also need to rest more often and feed your team as both sanity and hunger drains faster.
1) You won't unlock hardcore mode until you defeat the dragon boss, which is pure RNG. I've had him spawn in the Lava and Void levels on Level 5 of a normal run, it's sheer RNG.
2) You will need to do a full playthrough to get the dragon boss again if you've played it before. Hardcore mode isn't unlocked by default at this time if you've played before the title update.
3) DO NOT CHOOSE THE OPTION OF A HARDER OR MORE CHALLENGING TRAIL (fighting the bunny boss and slime boss in an encounter giving you the 7th ending). IT WILL NOT UNLOCK THIS ACHIEVEMENT EARLY OR END A RUN FASTER UNLOCKING HARDCORE MODE. YOU NEED THE DRAGON ENDING TO UNLOCK THE MODE AND NEED TO FULLY FINISH THE 6 LEVELS IN HARDCORE MODE.
NEVER EVER CHOOSE THIS UNLESS AN ACHIEVEMENT REQUIRES THIS.
NOTE: there has been reports of the game being unstable and wiping save data, I played it on a series X and almost always it would crash on Level 3 or while selecting Hardcore mode. To counter this save and quit after defeating a boss then quit your game and reload it and select continue.
EDIT: it seems playing on an Xbox One/Xbox One X may nullify the crashing/saves wiping more consistently than saving and fully quitting the game now or using a specific team set up (check the comments for more information regarding this)
49 Comments
+1 for going offline, thanks ProfessorPluto
By corpirate on 12 Nov 2023 23:47
if you got to this point you'd still be using the same set up as base game? I guess common sense is sparse.
By TheAaronLad on 30 Aug 2023 12:29
Just like with the last two comments, saving and quitting between floors, then exiting Nexoria, followed by starting up another game on my Series X kept me from having the issues others were experiencing. Thanks everyone for the heads up!
By Zatosan on 02 Feb 2022 18:31
If you can, play it on computer. After multiple crashes on Series S, I played it on PC and had not a single problem.
By SoniMail on 30 Aug 2023 18:46
By KILLING5PR33 on 10 Jul 2021 11:33
I'm not sure either, maybe try beating it again?
By TheAaronLad on 11 Jul 2021 17:27
- Good guide, +1
- Buena guía, +1
By InviernoCero2 on 13 Jul 2021 11:54
Buggy mess. Constantly crashes the game and deleted save file. Doesn't matter if I save and quit or not. Even happened when on the level 6 boss. Frustrating as hell. Had it happen 7 times now 6 on Series X and once on X1
By Yurgi Windu on 18 Jul 2021 19:27
yeah it's bad no idea what actually would help with that, saving and quitting has helped people apparently I only crashed on level 3 twice iirc
By TheAaronLad on 18 Jul 2021 20:04
Almost impossible to do, since the game crashed everytime... Garbage game.
By Ebizu on 19 Jul 2021 12:30
Just to clarify the above guide. Even if you save and quit after a boss then completely close and restart the game, if it crashes the save data wipes regardless. Basically for me if the game crashes at any point the save is gone no matter what I do and I need to restart from level 1 again. For me it is impossible to finish level 6 without it crashing somewhere which is completely random.
By Yurgi Windu on 19 Jul 2021 17:39
I save and quit and quit game on xbox home screen after each boss and it unlocked 4 me thanks all
Finally got it, one thing I did differently this time was after quitting and closing the game, I booted up another xbox game for a couple of minutes then loaded this back up. Never crashed thankfully.
By Yurgi Windu on 27 Jul 2021 21:29
Thanks for the tip @TheWelshBear , it stoped crashing and i was finally able to beat it without crashing
By WolframX25 on 20 Aug 2021 14:23
Thanks, @TheWelshBear, it works!
By Whipllasher on 22 Aug 2021 18:11
Just to clarify, how do you unlock or play hardware mode? I’ve already faced the dragon
By RiIey on 24 Aug 2021 19:09
you beat the dragon and finish that playthrough, then when selecting new game it'll be an option to select hardcore mode with the dungeons and different modes screen.
By TheAaronLad on 24 Aug 2021 19:30
Beating the dragon in the abyss does not unlock hardcore mode as you can’t finish the run
By PsYKloNiK on 15 Dec 2021 22:09
After two freezes, got lucky on Level 3 and found a hole you can crawl through to Floor 4. Phew!
By Big Ell on 18 Dec 2021 19:40
Agreed with some folks above - even saving & quitting after each boss doesn't help. If you crash it seems your save game is wiped out. Good luck getting through a run without a crash, farthest I made it was the 4th area (Ice Palace) my patience has worn out.
By JORAX on 18 Jan 2022 22:42
Saving and quitting plus booting another game worked for me.
Just quitting and restarting right away didn't.
By Loyal Catalyst on 21 Jan 2022 02:51
Starting up another game between floors worked for me first try too
By Funky Monkee on 25 Jan 2022 18:20
When You arę offline the game isbnot crashing. Thx for the tip
By Malttikettu on 03 Sep 2023 23:23
I second VictimOfDesire. Multiple times crashed whenever used anyone other than warrior, defender, healer, assassin. When I switched to them only and just spammed attack ( no magic) unlocked first try. Didn't exit level either, just did it in one sitting.
By DRUNKEN G1MP on 13 Mar 2022 12:57
I can confirm the party of warrior, defender, healer and assassin helps. I played the whole game using this party and never had any bug or crash during my hardcore run.
By Cookie Kenku on 01 Apr 2022 14:22
For those struggling like me, the party mentioned above didn't stop the freezing and quitting the game, starting another, and returning didn't Save my file.
I got it with a party of Archer, Healer, Assassin and Defender. I continued instead of saving and quitting at each Boss. And on level 3, where it kept freezing, I got lucky enough to find a hole to skip it after one fight.
One of these, at least, solved the problem for me. Hopefully if someone else is struggling something I did will work for them too.
By Bonkekook on 06 May 2022 20:30
I got to 5th level thinking it had been fixed and was on the boss there when I get a "there are too many cards on the hand to pull another card from the deck" killed 3 of my team but then just doesn't stop.
I've now had this happen on random fight in level 6 abyss mode.
By Sgt Al Powel on 07 May 2022 18:18
Yeah I just get hit with the too many cards nonsense. Had about ten goes now.
By GEARFACE on 13 May 2022 17:39
Tried all methods and game keep crashing. No saved data, too
By PROGRESYWNY on 05 Jun 2022 08:31
Finally was able to get it no crashing, but also was able to win every battle instantly with RT, does anyone know why that works?
By xCENAxMOD on 31 Aug 2022 00:09
Crashing on my SeriesX all the time, but didn't crashed once on my old Xbox One Elite.
By Sonderfall on 10 Sep 2022 01:16
Using the save and quit method didn't seem to work for me. I chose warrior, healer, defender and assassin the used RT to win every battle, also in one sitting.
By death metal jay on 13 Sep 2022 01:10
Crashed and deleted saved data on PC and Series X, got to the last stage boss fight and it crashed again...
By ThievishRain on 08 Oct 2022 00:25
The same thing that worked for Sonderfall worked for me. I swapped over to my Xbox One X and it did not crash. It could have been that I was just lucky. These games are unfinished ass. Either way it seems like the newer consoles could be causing this game to crash.
By Hexa Fox on 10 Oct 2022 20:05
I have tried all of the above but no luck. What a joke this game is. I’ve given up with just this achievement left, my sanity has certainly dropped to 0%
By NatorDom on 18 Dec 2022 00:17
I’ve tried on the Xbox SX, Xbox one X, pc and original Xbox one and they all crash before I can finish Hardcore.
By Randomnutta on 02 Jan 2023 04:23
I'd suggest using one of the team set ups provided above, assuming the save then quitting the game method doesn't work. there's actually no 100% way to get around it, the game is super quirky like that.
By TheAaronLad on 02 Jan 2023 05:00
Spent an 2 hours on this with constant crashing. Furthest I got was the Void level 6 before it crashed grrrr!
By Lordacris on 04 Apr 2023 00:32
There is no update for this problem
By NaR3uTo on 14 Apr 2023 01:46
Fyi: I got this on my PC today. On Xbox Series X it crashed all the time, but on PC it ran fine.
By Rusty Nail zh on 24 Apr 2023 13:28
I saw a suggestion on another of Ternox games which crashes like crazy (bullet beat) so I decided to try it on this game. I went in to settings and selected:
General -> Network Settings -> Go Offline
With the game offline I was able to complete play the hardcore mode to the final boss twice in a row, no crashing. This was series X. I had the same issue noted above when I was one hit away from beating the boss the first time where there are too many cards in the hand and I wiped. Previously I was not able to get past the 4th floor without crashing.
Once I went back to settings and went online, I booted up the game and about 30 seconds later the achievement popped.
By ProfessorPluto on 01 May 2023 05:50
Telling people how to unlock it and not how to complete it makes for a pretty fucking shit guide.
By HoggyBear08 on 15 May 2023 20:17
LMAO what? how to unlock it is how to complete the game is super simple to understand.
By TheAaronLad on 16 May 2023 00:36
I just got it I played the game all through without crashing. 💪 I played on Xbox series x but took 5 attempts cause the game kept crashing.
By memito234 on 15 Jun 2023 00:54
I used healer, warrior, paladin and wizard as my class for the achievement. Thanks guys.
By memito234 on 15 Jun 2023 00:55
This constant crashing is giving me AIDs. Have zero issue getting to level 4 or 5 and then wouldnt ya know! CRASH!
By Kind Kenny on 23 Aug 2023 20:17
Downvote from me
1. No explanation as to what characters to use
2. No explanation on each boss
No tips or strategies at all just guidance on preventing crashing
By OL1V3RSUDDEN on 30 Aug 2023 10:12
Saving and quitting between floors, quitting the game, launching a new game, quitting that game, re-launching the game, and I've STILL crashed three times. Twice on Floor 4 and once on Floor 5. Crashed another 6 times prior to reading the comments. This game is fucking atrocious.
By VictimOfDesire on 02 Mar 2022 04:38
Finally managed to get through it without crashing. On most of my crashed attempts, I was using Warrior, Assassin, Fire Sorceress, and Explosion Girl in my party. The moment I swapped out Fire Sorceress and Explosion Girl for Healer and Defender, I got it without crashing. Not sure if it's a coincidence or not, but it's the only thing I did differently between my attempts. It might be one (or both) of those characters causing the Hardcore Mode crashes.
By VictimOfDesire on 02 Mar 2022 06:24
TheAaronLad
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