Harbinger Difficulty Setting: The Ultimate Challenge

[conanjaguar]

This suggestion popped into my head for no reason last night while I was sleeping… I literally dreamt (dreamed 🤷‍♂️?) something along these lines. It did not go well, to put it mildly.

What is this suggestion, you ask?

Harbinger Difficulty

“It’s not just that you’re not part of Nature’s plan. You are an annoying stain that she is trying to wring out of a dishcloth.”

Starting Gear: None. No clothes, no can, no nothing.

Loot Distribution: 10 packs of matches in the world, maximum. Aside from that, no more than a dozen man made items (food, clothing, meds, etc.) will spawn per region. There will be ONE bedroll, ONE lantern, ONE cooking pot, ONE heavy hammer, ONE prybar, ONE hacksaw, ONE mag lens, ONE firestriker, and ONE toolbox spawning across the entire world.

Natural Resources: Each rose hip bush, acorn patch, reishi mushroom, piece of birch bark, and cattail has a 1/10 chance of spawning. Sticks, branches, limbs, and stones with also be cut by at least half. Each sapling has a 1/6 chance of spawning.

Wildlife: Deer spawn with the rarity of moose. Each rabbit grove will have one rabbit. Replace all normal wolves with Timberwolves, which will be everywhere, with aggression, damage, and spotting range even higher than the maximum the settings currently allow. There will always be an aurora-juiced bear on the map you are in. Not just any bear… the Old Bear. Fishing effectiveness is drastically decreased.

Weather: Blizzards and fog all day, every day. Temperatures never rise above -20C. The only time you will get clear skies is with -50C windchill. At night. During an aurora. Oh, and did I mention the glimmer fog? Enjoy .

Stats: All meters drain at one arrow above normal (so four-arrows down cold is a possibility). Condition damage due to hunger, thirst, cold, and fatigue is doubled or even tripled. Hypothermia pretty means death in a few seconds. A full 10 hours sleep is impossible because of the accelerated hunger and thirst, so the most condition you can get back per night is about 10%. No condition recovery while awake.

[FlamingFuball]

I think this is a bit extreme for an in-game difficulty level, to be honest. Play with mods to adjust the mechanics you want to and give yourself personal challenges if you want this level of difficulty, like playing NOGOA or Outerloper.