Hard West 2 Ultimate Beginner’s Guide: Essential Tips and Tricks to Get You Started

by Falagar / Game Guides, General Guides / 05 May 2022

We’ll go over Hard West 2 tips and tricks in this beginner’s guide. Here’s a collection of random tips and tricks that we hope you’ll find useful.

Each Posse member has four statistics: HP, Luck, Speed, and Bullseye chance – those stats are shown as icons in the character customization screen. These stats can be improved by equipping new weapons, Trinkets and also through the temporary buffs provided by some Consumable items.

Each character’s Skill Tree is also displayed in the Inventory menu, right below the stat bar. It’s possible to check each Trait/Skill upgrade requirement by hovering the mouse pointer over it. There are several types of Traits available to unlock for each character: Weapon Proficiencies, Statuses Resistances, Traits that trigger buffs in certain situations (eg. when a character is hurt, X posse members die, 100 points of Luck accumulated, etc…) and some unique Traits too, such as Bill’s Post-Mortem, which will give him +1 weapon damage if his HP is lower than 25% at the start of the turn.

Some Traits can only be unlocked by reaching the indicated Loyalty level with the specific character, while others will only be unlocked by equipping the right combination of Cards from the Deck of Haunts.

As the name suggests, Chance to Hit measures the chance to hit when shooting. Shots have thresholds: 0% (impossible shot), 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% (sure shot). If the enemies are too far away or simply impossible to hit, there’ll be either a text saying “Out of View” or “0% chances to Hit”. This is where careful planning and maneuvering come into play. Move your Posse from cover to cover to get to a vantage point, see the CtH increase as you achieve better positioning and then take your shot. Note that the CtH will constantly be displayed above the enemies’ heads and it will change depending on where the cursor is placed: This will give you a heads-up of how CtH can improve if the shot was taken from the position of the cursor. Moreover, all the ricochet objects that can be used (by you or your enemies) will be highlighted.

Luck is a passive mechanic that works “behind the curtains”, giving your character a better chance to hit your targets (for example, taking a shot from 50% to a perfect 100% chance to hit). The character gains Luck every time they miss a shot or whenever they are hit. Some items and Skills can increase the Luck gained or sometimes even decrease it.

You can use Luck with a more tactical approach by toggling “Lucky Shot” on and off. By default, it is set to “on”. This way, you will use the Luck Points you have accumulated and guarantee that your character will nail a shot that would have a low probability to hit otherwise. You can check the percentage of success of an attack as you hover the mouse over an enemy.

As you progress through the game, your characters will gain access to new weapons and items, but what will really make them “stronger” is the Deck of Haunts. The Deck of Haunts is a unique character progression system that will allow you to strengthen your Posse by providing buffs to their base stats. Each character can be equipped with up to five Cards from the Deck and equipped Cards will give a bonus to either HP, Speed, Luck, or Bullseye chance. Moreover, by equipping your characters with Poker hands with a point value, you’ll be able to unlock and upgrade their unique Skills and several Traits.

Each character can be equipped with two weapons, and it’ll be possible to switch between them during the Tactical Combat phase, depending on the situation you face. Apart from Weapons, there are two more types of items that can be equipped: Consumables and Trinkets.

The Inventory can be accessed by clicking on the icon on the upper part of the screen while navigating the World Map. Here you can check your characters’ loadout, their Skills and Traits, the Deck of Haunts, and their Loyalty level. The character loadout needs to be made before entering a Tactical Combat, so check your options carefully and don’t be afraid of trying new setups: this is often the key to completing some particularly hard encounters.

Completing a primary quest will allow you to progress through the main plot while completing secondary quests is especially important for gaining new weapons, Trinkets, Cards and even triggering Loyalty events. Some quests will not start until you’ll talk with a specific character or visit a specific location on the World Map, so make sure to explore every nook and cranny of the wildlands before taking on the
main quests.

If you ever get lost during your exploration, don’t panic. Just click on the title of the quest displayed in the upper left corner and the Map will be centered on the location of the selected quest. Provided you already found it, of course. Some quests will require you to follow a trail to your destination and will trigger a series of waypoints. When reaching the first waypoint, you’ll be provided with clues to reach the next one, and so on. It’s important to read each clue carefully to be able to reach your next waypoint and complete the quest.

As the leader of the Posse, you will have to carefully manage the loyalty of those who you have chosen to follow you into battle. During dialogue options, you will be presented with the choice to listen to the council of specific Posse members or to issue them commands. Accepting counsel or entrusting a task to one Posse member over the others will reward that member with special Loyalty Points.

Loyalty unlocks additional dialogue options and additional tactical Traits, making loyal Posse members even more effective in combat. Loyal Laughing Deer, for example, will be able to patch up his wounds if his HP goes lower than 25%, while Old Man Bill will start dealing more damage when hurt. With more dialogue options come better opportunities to score a high reward in subsequent dialogue encounters.

You don’t have to worry – your characters are determined to get the Ghost Train and won’t abandon that mission. There is no way to lose Loyalty Points, you only decide who should get a Loyalty Point. Loyalty events will trigger during secondary quests or encounters. During these events, you’ll be given the opportunity to choose from different dialogue options which will increase a given character’s Loyalty. These events will often provide rewards in the form of gold, new weapons or Trinkets.

As the game progresses, you’ll find out that some quests can have different outcomes depending on the Loyalty level reached with specific characters. Some of your decisions, along with the Loyalty level of your Posse members, will open up new possibilities and often set you up for better rewards.

This is everything you need to know about the world of Hard West 2 to make the most out of your adventure. Keep to the rules above and who knows… maybe you will live long enough to make the devil bleed.

Hard West 2 PC Keyboard Controls Guide

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.
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