The Outer Worlds

If you plan to play on supernova difficulty, this *DOES* stack with it.

If you DONT, then understand that you cant swap TO supernova at anytime, you must start on it.

Enemies do a lot of damage on hard mode, so having companions use melee (outside of, say, a companion like Parvatis special attack), taking flaws that add a flat 25% damage increase, or not keeping up to date equipment is a bad idea.

Ideally, you want to go either the "good/combat" route (save Edgewater, broker peace on Monarch, help Cleo on Roseway) OR the "bad/dialogue temperment" route (help the board).
Trying to, say, go the board route to skip parts of the story (you can get to the Hope by level 14) leaves helping Rescue Phin impossible (Tartarus has lvl 25-26 enemies) until you backtrack A LOT.

Otherwise, hard really isn't differernt from an easy/normal playthrough.
It CAN help prepare you for supernova though I'd advise doing it solo. I didnt use companions in SN, they refuse to take cover.

Happy hunting (>*_*)>

I was neutral with The Board and most groups due to my character stealing everything. Maxed out skills on Long Guns, Engineering, and Stealth.

Before heading to Tartarus, used the recombo machine on The Reliable (think it was 500 bits) to re-assign skill points into Lie, Persuade, and Science.

At Tartarus, get Labyrinth ID for the Holographic Shroud. Enter 2nd floor where the large train-looking transports are and run ahead of the support troops so you are not associated with them. Those troops are the groups you've helped prior.

At the far end is a ladder which you climb to a wide door that you can open without needing to hack/lockpick. Pass speech check with Sophia Akande means NO fighting, at all.

The achievement unlocks when, playing on either Hard or Supernova difficulty, you reach the game’s point of no return and continue to finish the story. Your decisions prior to and after reaching the point of no return do not prevent you from popping the achievement.

To earn this achievement, you must not use Settings to lower the difficulty below Hard. You are allowed to lower it from Supernova to Hard but you will not get credit for the Supernova playthrough and the game will not allow you to change the mode back to supernova. You are permitted, however, to load a supernova save made prior to lowering the difficulty and continue getting credit for the Supernova playthrough.

The number of main quests, side quests, faction quests, or tasks you have performed is not relevant to the achievement. The only preconditions are that you must be playing on Hard or Supernova and advance the story to arrive on Tartarus. Doing so, puts you at the game’s point of no return. There, the game gives you the option to create a special save file that can’t be overwritten allowing you to return and mop up as you see fit.

When you reach the Hope, you have the option to skip it to Terra 2 or Tartarus. Having below average or minimum intelligence and choosing the option to skip the ship yourself will result in the Hope flying into the sun. Finishing the story in this manner does not count towards this achievement even though the end credits roll afterwards. The game does not consider this a legitimate end to the story and requires you to load back into the game and safely skip the Hope to Terra 2 or Tartarus.

Skipping the Hope yourself with high intelligence and science or letting ADA do it regardless of your intelligence and skills will result in a successful skip to the destination of your choice. Skipping it to Terra 2 puts you on the branch of the Phineas (good) ending. Skipping it to Tartarus puts you on the branch of of the Board (bad) ending. Pursuing either branch to its end, provided you have never lowered the difficulty of play below Hard, regardless of your choices along the way, will pop the achievement.

If this is your first time finishing the game’s story, you will also unlock:

If you are playing on Supernova to unlock this achievement, you will also unlock:

There are, thus, 3 achievements associated with finishing the story. Those pertaining to lower difficulties stack with those pertaining to higher difficulties. It is prudent to use a strategy that best suits your play style to unlock these three achievements. The following guide provides a detailed discussion of the main strategies and some recommendations as to how to cope on the hardest difficulties: Solution for Supernova In The Outer Worlds