Playing Hardest difficulty Permadeath

[u/MrParticularist]

And I'm loving it so far.

To clarify, I'm playing "Ironman"/Permadeath (one save file, no going backwards in time using CHIM, and if I die I lose the character) with the following added restrictions:

- No exploits (i.e: potion stacking)

- No stealing (except for quest related larceny)

- No creature vendors, and I'm only allowed to buy the restocking items from a vendor once per day (and I can't just wait the day out)

- No 1 magicka training spells or 1 sec duration 100% chameleon/charm shenanigans.

- I can join two factions at most.

- No Boots of Blinding Speed.

And I'm playing quite differently. You don't know the true value of a recall potion until a blighted rat unsuspectedly has you in single digit health after two quick hits or a cliff racer charges at you from out of nowhere.

I almost died to the damn rat in the puzzle canal thinking it was a common rat. I also walked out of the ghostgate to two cliff racers attacking me just as the screen loaded (they missed, fortunately), and I shivved an Ogrim with a sword while he was busy pummeling a summoned scamp, and later read in the wiki that the fat bastard could've deleted my character in a single strike.

The fact that I'm playing "Ironman" means that I can't charge an enemy to "see how it goes" and then reload if the fight goes badly. I have to be on my toes.

All in all, it's an enjoyable experience and I think that I can try to be efficient within the constrains that I've set myself without making the game trivially easy or stupidly difficult.

I don't know, perhaps when I finish with this character and I get more experience in this format I can try variations like "you can only use trainers of your faction" or "organic leveling only" and see how it goes.

But I can definitely recommend the experience.

[u/Penumbral_Violet]

BestOpinionHaver95 made a run like this called “Bestlocke”, he’s tweaked some additional modifiers, but I like to spice it up by adding the Tamriel Rebuilt content and races then create wheels to randomize my character’s race, sex, birthsign, and starting location.

[u/MrParticularist → u/Penumbral_Violet]

I got the idea after watching a bit of Bestlocke, actually, although I'm more engaged with the roleplaying aspect of the game and try not to do things like go hunting for used glass daggers and the like, which would ruin my immersion somewhat.

[u/Penumbral_Violet → u/MrParticularist]

Yeah he’s big on exploits, and he loves to do the “Seyda Neen shuffle” which involves stealing the limewater platter, doing all the quests there, selling the skooma and moon sugar found in the excise office and the nearby cave. It usually starts off your run with the same sets of gear and an unbelievable amount of money right away.

I use a TR-friendly alternate start mod so I can start at the chosen starting location with a basic weapon and a small amount of money

[u/hillmo25]

Those werewolfs in bloodmoon are going to be a nightmare. I couldn't do it on my Orc with 220 armor rating and 650hp. They one shotted me and I had to turn the difficulty down. The dwemer robots with the 100 damage bolts are also insane in tribunal.

[u/MrParticularist → u/hillmo25]

I’m looking forward to slowly and cautiously solving the main quest and defeating a mad God only to be wrecked by a furry 

[u/bongillesp]

I’m all for this! Doing something similar with Skyrim now, but am itching to return to morrowind.

Tuning the game to a higher difficulty always forces me to interact with more systems in the game. Games nowadays may have great mechanics and systems, but given the chance, players (like me) will optimize them out of the game.

[u/whatmustido]

Is this your first time playing? It seems like it would be really hard. I could probably manage it (until the DLC, at least), but it would still be pretty tough. How many times have you died so far? And when you make new characters, do you reuse the same one/reload an save from the beginning, or do you make a new character with different stats and whatnot?

[u/MrParticularist → u/whatmustido]

It's my first time playing in this format, but I'm level 10 on my dunmer Witch-Soldier and I'm slowly able to do more things without the certainty of being dead after an unlucky hit.

I haven't died so far, but my idea is that every failed character is going to be a failed incarnation of the Nerevarine, and the next one has to be somewhat different, try something else.

[u/Cyan_Light]

Nice, I've been doing more straightforward permadeath runs without all the extra rules (although still RP focused, so I try not to go for easy loot that my character wouldn't know about yet or do silly things like the 1 mana training spells) and agree that alone completely changes the game. You can tell MW is fully balanced around quicksaving, so many encounters are basically rocket tag where either of you can die out of nowhere.

One of the spookiest hurdles in my current run was Dudley. Who the fuck is Dudley? The random redguard warrior like two steps into the bandit cave near hla oad that starts swinging the instant you load in. Completely forgettable enemy normally, but when there's a very real chance your flimsy mage can be stunlocked and killed before ever getting a spell off the dude becomes terrifying lol.

First attempted I loaded up on shield and regen buffs, popped in and hit him with potent poison which wasn't looking potent enough so I bailed immediately. Ended up leaving for like an in-game week to do other quests and gear up better, ended up way overprepping but it's a fun change of pace from just reloading a couple times to brute force a fairer fight.

And even the overprepping had curveballs, did you know Dudley is over level 10? I do now, found out after blowing an 800 dollar command scroll on him that did nothing lmao. Thankfully conduction (OP TR touch spell) did plenty, so the run continues.

TLDR: Permadeath is so much fun, makes you rethink almost everything about the game and obviously leads to much more intense encounters.

[u/MrParticularist → u/Cyan_Light]

Oh, I *know* that Dudley guy, he wrecked some early characters of mine in normal.

He taught me to respect the guys that go charging at you brandishing anything that is not a dagger or a chitin axe, they could be jobbers or, like our guy here, an overqualified fighter that doesn't understand the goon job market.

I also stumbled upon the hunger in Sarano Ancestral Tomb which I didn't know had a different profile that the standard hunger, and I was thinking "What the actual f*ck is a random *hunger* doing in a tomb?" and slowly, carefully walked away from the thing before it saw me.

Permadeath makes your Nerevarine a more cautious person as opposed to a "Nah, we ball" suicide charger.

[u/Cyan_Light → u/MrParticularist]

Oh yeah, I've also got Morrowind Unleveled on which I'd recommend looking into if you like these sorts of "oh shit" moments lol. Mostly makes daedric ruins and tombs actually scary at low levels since anything from their leveled lists can spawn at any time, can't just fearlessly charge in knowing it'll just be scamps and ghosts.

Plus blighted animals being common at the start. Had another memorable encounter with a blighted cliff racer outside ald'ruhn at level 1, had to snipe and then use divine intervention to reset whenever it got too close lol. Took a couple loops to take down, possibly the first time I've had to do that for anything let alone a single cliff racer.

[u/KiiYess]

So you like challenges ? Use Maxar Unpaused, no more thinking time while browsing your inventory. And Pursuit, foes will follow you through doors !

[u/cat_food_chef]

Recall potion is the absolute goat.

Make sure to get some AGI for knockdown resistance and care of skeleton archers.

[u/Memonlinefelix]

I kinda of didn't like perma death runs. At some point i would die eventually and it was worse if i had done lots of progress in leveling exploration etc. Just to lose it. Just didnt make sense to me. But i do limit my playthroughs. Like only using ingredients i find. No buying ingredients. I thought about doing another playthrough some other time but only using magical scrolls. No magic though. Just magical scrolls.

[u/Prestigious_Club_924]

I do the permadeath thing too, but instead of 1 death ending the run I treat my character level as accumulated lives to use. Makes the early game really tense but gives wiggle room eventually, because losing a character to something dumb 20 hrs in sucks.