I have been forced to install mods to keep the game challenging during my recent Hardcore playthrough. I had used Blood and Iron during the early days of KC:D modding, but
Better Combat and Immersion Compilation seems to be the only one which was routinely updated to work with current patches, so I've gone with that and added
Modified Combat Overhaul - Directional Combat and Smarter AI to compliment it. I've also installed
Weather Overhaul to get rid of those frequent sun showers and add properly rainy days to the weather system. Haven't really tested the mods yet, apart from confirming that my groschen does indeed weigh something and that I can now carry less, but here are a few thoughts on the Hardcore mode:
1. Hardcore delays the player crossing the inevitable power threshold, but not by much. I'm using the Numbskull and Shakes debuffs, FYI. This is probably my biggest gripe, and I'd estimate that I became "OP" maybe only a few hours later than I would have in an entirely vanilla playthrough. I think that Hardcore encourages you to play it very safe in the early game and do plenty of combat practice with Bernard before you start doing the main quest, but it's maybe adding two relaxing hours of combat practice, sleeping to recover from injuries and scrounging for money to repair your gear and feed yourself. I probably didn't help matters by looting everything that wasn't nailed down in the tutorial/prologue section to ensure I had as much cash as possible once I was let out into the wild, but I thought Hardcore would be harder than it was and went a little bit overboard.
2. Related to the above, but the power threshold is still at the exact point in the game - you get a decent helmet and piece of plate armour, and at the same time, your stats have levelled up enough that basic bandits can't block your attacks and stronger ones aren't just hitting you with master strikes whenever you try to attack them.
3. Getting money is still too easy, even with the edits to the economy. I'm not sure about the minutiae of the edits, but it seems to me that you pay more for equipment and services such as repairs, and are paid less for equipment that you sell to merchants. This is fine, but it doesn't really fix the root issue which is oversupply. Running into a trio of Sasau Guard fighting some high level bandits is still all that's needed to net you a few thousand groschen worth of equipment, as well as high level plate armour that provides you with 20+ defence, and you don't even need to join in on the fight if you don't want to. That's not to mention the various encounters with Cumans and lower level bandits that give you a steady flow of income across the early game.
4. Combat is still a game of wailing on your opponent until they crumble, or sitting around trying to bait master strikes with almost no middle ground. If your opponent is weaker than you, you can usually just wail on them until they run out of stamina or even just bonk them on the head once and watch them die. If your opponent is stronger, attacking them at all often opens you up to a master strike, which means than your only real option is to sit around and bait them into making a mistake.
There you go. I'm not sure that the extra immersion/difficulty options (no map/GPS etc.) really make the game any more difficult or if they just introduce a little more tedium to the experience and make it all last slightly longer. I will say that having no fast travel made me spring for a new horse earlier than I otherwise would have, but even after spending 3,000+ groschen on a new horse and horseshoes to make it go
extra fast, you only need one or two encounters with bandits to make up for that money. I should also say that I've been trying not to go nuts with the treasure hunting, having only found stashes and also opting to sell any armour I found rather than equipping it in order to not be super OP early on. I'm pretty sure Hardcore edits the contents of treasure too, but it still seems ludicrously good. The treasure chests really need to have more difficult locks, because even with Shakes, unlocking an Easy level lock is zero issue even at the very beginning of the game. IDK, we'll see how things go now that I've added these mods. I maybe should have done this at the very beginning because of how familiar I am with the game and its systems, but I assumed that two or so years away from it and the extra difficult of Hardcore would sort of make up for it.
If you dont care about alchemy, its not that necessary