Let's start with the basics, specifically the resources to download the launcher for the compilation itself.



You can download the launcher for this mod compilation using the following link:
https://github.com/HardcoreSK/HSK-Launcher/releases

There are also old versions of the launcher:
http://hardcore-sk.ru/installer/HSK-Launcher-Setup.exe
Alternatively, there is an alternative link from Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jk8Rv1Vy30_aY1ZHNA9whCnFxyeW8eSU

After downloading and installing the launcher, you have two options:

• Play on version 1.4 of the game (Stable version in the launcher).
  
• Play on version 1.5 of the game (Development version in the launcher).

It may seem better to go with the second option, but each version has its own considerations:

• For version 1.4 of the game, the mod compilation has already been assembled and tested for functionality. Therefore, you are less likely to encounter various bugs and issues.
  
• For version 1.5, the mod compilation is still being updated with new mods, bug fixes, and adaptations for the new version. Updates are released almost every day. Currently, version 1.4 is in beta testing.

To switch between the Stable and Development versions, simply go to the options in the launcher and select the desired version.

For the proper functioning of the 1.4 version, you need to have the Royalty, Biotech and Ideology DLC for the game because these mods interact with these DLCs.

If you want to install the compilation on version 1.5, you will also need the Anomaly DLC too.

Also on the github of the project, you can find HSK versions for earlier versions of Rimworld.

For fans of rum and torrent

The HSK compilation works seamlessly even when obtained from other sources. Simply specify the game's path in the launcher and install the compilation.

In essence, HSK is a comprehensive modification that adds a plethora of content to the game and makes it more hardcore through the harmonious combination of mods. After playing this mod compilation for an extended period, playing Rimworld without mods may become less engaging due to the limited amount of content(At least that's how it felt to me).

Moreover, it would be challenging to gather such a vast collection of mods that cover various aspects of the game while maintaining a cohesive feel.

The main categories of improvements can be highlighted as follows:

• Enhanced visual components
  
• New in-game events
  
• Additional gameplay mechanics
  
• Revised balance
  
• New content

Although these elements are interconnected, I would like to delve into each category individually in the following sections.

In this mod compilation, the visual aspect of the game has been significantly improved, ranging from the appearance of trees to the design of workbenches and items. Overall, all the textures appear to be of high quality and blend seamlessly with the game, without being visually jarring.

Rather than describing it in detail, it would be best to show you. Let's consider an example of the same room in a temperate forest biome.



The first image showcases the regular RimWorld graphics, while the second image displays RimWorld with the HSK mod compilation.



Additionally, many improvements have been made to the user interface for convenience and to provide new content. The interface can be easily customized to suit your preferences, offering a more user-friendly experience compared to the base game's interface, and in some cases, it even provides more informative details.

P.S. Some textures were specifically designed for the HSK mod compilation, so you will find unique and high-quality textures that are unlikely to be found in other mods or mod compilations.

P.S.S. If you are not satisfied with the new textures for rocks and stones, you can disable them in the settings of the Minerals mod. However, If you don't like the new vegetation view, you can disable it in the vegetation mods settings.

It can be immediately said that there are significantly more events in this version compared to the regular version of RimWorld.

By the way, you can be so lucky that you may not even encounter some of these events even after playing for 1000 hours (and I'm not joking, I'm shocked myself).

I can confidently say that HSK has over 2.5 times more event variations compared to regular RimWorld.

Major Events
There are several major events that can greatly impact the game. For example, during a Geostorm, numerous natural disasters occur such as earthquakes, tornadoes, weather changes, and more. However, these events may not last very long. On the other hand, in the case of a Volcanic Winter event, you may have to endure the cold and darkness for an unknown period of time, ranging from a quarter to several years. It all depends on your luck.

These major events add complexity and nuances to the game, creating unique and amusing situations. Of course, there are also less significant events, like Heat Waves that make it very hot outside or Iron Rain where metallic debris falls from the sky.

I have listed only a small part as an example because the mod adds new unique events that make life much more colorful.

Raids
In general, raids remain the same, but with the addition of new content and factions, and the fact that they can occur during other events (e.g., during a Geostorm), each raid becomes unique, and unexpected situations can arise. Of course, there are also unusual events, such as the Passive darkness, where all pawns must stay in the light to avoid being attacked by aggressive dark-spawn creatures that can only exist in darkness. (P.S. Beware of open doorways, as the game considers them dark areas and spawns monsters in them!)

Faction Events
Interactions with factions have increased significantly. Allies or friendly factions can be very useful to you in various ways. Additionally, you can build your own hotel, earn money from hosting guests, and simultaneously recruit new members while improving relations with the faction through warm hospitality.

Minor Events
These are the big part of events that have been added to the game. Here you can encounter diseases, the arrival of different pawns and animals on the map, parties, meteorites, crashed pods with dead or alive pawns, and even surprising encounters with living pawns.(You will be extremely surprised.)

Indeed, this mod compilation also encompasses significant changes to the gameplay mechanics, which play a crucial role in shaping the overall gaming experience. Each mechanic affects the gameplay process to a varying extent.

Now, tools are required for performing various tasks. For example, if you need to construct a wall, your pawn will build it much slower without the necessary tool due to a penalty for not having the right tool.

Miners will take a long time to dig without a pickaxe, builders will struggle to assemble walls without a hammer, and gardeners will have a hard time chopping down trees with hands.
(Unfortunately, earning the achievement "Chop Wood" is not as easy as before.)

Consequently, tools will now be necessary for many specialized tasks and will come in multiple variations. For convenience, you can create a multitool that allows you to perform all tasks with just one tool.

The efficiency of a tool will depend on its quality and material. Poor-quality tools are less effective, while excellent tools are more efficient. Additionally, certain materials are better suited for mining, while others are more suitable for tree felling.

This means that if you use a high-quality tool, your pawns will work much more efficiently compared to working without any tools, and even more efficiently than in the original game.

For hardcore enthusiasts, it is possible to restrict specialized work without tools and even increase the rate of tool wear and tear.

What did we used to have?
You give your pawn a machine gun and all you had to decide was where to put the pawn and when to shoot.

What do we have now?
In addition to what has gone before now we will need to decide:

1)What rate of fire should we keep?
Here is a conditional aggressive hare running at us and we realize that one bullet from a large-caliber machine gun will easily kill him (yes, yes, we are majors and kill hares with machine guns), and we don't want to put a machine gun burst into him, because ammunition is not infinite. This is where we have the opportunity to control the rate of fire:

• Single - the pawn makes only one shot.
  
• Burst - the pawn fires a short burst (the number of bullets fired in a short burst depends on the weapon used).
  
• Auto - the pawn makes a long queue (also depends on the weapon used).

2)Which aiming mode to use?.
When the enemy is far away, it makes sense to hit him as many times as possible due to the good accuracy of shooting and thus kill him before he has time to run up and put his knife in your liver, and when he is already a couple of steps away from you, it makes sense to stuff him with lead as quickly as possible, because the closer - the higher the chance to hit.
That's why we have these functions:

• Aiming - aiming time is long, accuracy is high.
  
• Rapid - the aiming time is half as long, but the shooting accuracy is also lower.
  
• Suppression - all the same as in shooting mode Rapid, but the aiming is not disrupted when the target disappears from sight.

3)What position to use?.
Here you can pre-assign certain positions on the map, where the pawn will only go at the press of a button.

4)Where to shoot?.
If your pawn has a sufficient level of ranged combat, it will be able to shoot at a specific area of your opponent's body.

For example, you see that your opponent has an unprotected head, but powerfularmor on his torso, and you only have a pistol in your hand. In this case it makes sense not to waste bullets on armor, but try to hit the head and quickly eliminate the enemy.

Or, for example, your slaves have once again decided to escape, but you don't want to accidentally cause them critical injuries or accidentally blow off half of their face. In such a case it makes sense to try to shoot at their legs, in order to put them into pain shock without huge risks.(just watch the damage and don't accidentally shoot their legs off!).

Melee combat has not been overlooked in the mod compilation. New mechanics have been introduced, including:

• Parrying: Pawns have the ability to partially absorb damage dealt to them and, in certain cases, retaliate with a counterattack.
  
  
• Critical Strikes: Critical strikes can apply additional effects to the attack, such as stunning or armor penetration, depending on the type of weapon used.

These effects are influenced by the pawn's attributes, the weapon being used, and their equipment.

Just as with ranged combat, a pawn with sufficient skill can target specific areas or parts of the opponent's body.

Armor now has specific characteristics related to its protection against blunt and sharp damage, while weapons have armor penetration values. Armor can either fully absorb damage or partially reduce it, depending on the strength of the attack.

Pawns now have a new suppression mechanic, represented by a suppression level. When a pawn is under enemy fire, each ranged attack against them increases their suppression level. Successful hits on the pawn will increase the suppression level at a faster rate, depending on the damage received.

At a certain level of suppression, the pawn will seek the nearest cover to avoid enemy fire. At extremely high suppression levels, the pawn will lie on the ground, reducing the chances of getting hit by projectiles. Pawns in this state will be less responsive to player commands, so it is advisable not to expose them to open areas without proper protection.

The level of suppression experienced by a pawn is determined by their equipment. A naked pawn will be highly susceptible to suppression, while a pawn wearing heavy power armor and wielding a machine gun will almost ignore suppression.

For self-defense or aggressive attacks, various types of turrets, grenade launchers, and even cannons can be placed. Pawns will be assigned to operate and fire these weapons. It is essential to ensure an adequate supply of ammunition and easy access to these supplies to prevent pawns from running to the other end of the colony to restock.

Each projectile is now a tangible object that will physically reach its intended target. Previously, when a pawn fired, the game calculated the hit success, and if successful, showed the bullet flying straight into the target.

Now, when a pawn fires, the bullet follows a trajectory based on the pawn's accuracy. The bullet can fly directly towards the intended target or deviate from the intended path. Then, the bullet either hits the target's hitbox or passes by it.

Interesting Features:

• Cover Mechanics: Depending on the height of the cover, certain parts of the pawn's body will be protected. Higher cover can shield vulnerable areas, so you don't have to worry about a bullet hitting a pawn's kidney when they are safely behind taller cover that still allows them to shoot.
  
  
• Internal Organ Damage: It is no secret that when a projectile hits the torso, internal organs can be affected. If a pawn is hit from the side, the bullet can penetrate not only the torso but also both lungs. This means that hits now have a more realistic impact and consequences.

Let's discuss the new hygiene mechanic. Now, pawns will have additional needs: the need to relieve themselves and the need to maintain their cleanliness. Ignoring these needs and letting them go unattended will result in mood penalties and even illnesses for the pawns. Therefore, when planning your settlement, you'll need to address this aspect as well.

With the right approach, your pawns will not only exist but also receive mood and health bonuses as a result of proper hygiene management.

As a result, your settlement can make progress from a basic bucket for washing to a fully functional sanitation system, where everyone has their own personal jacuzzi and "golden" toilet, leaving your pawns feeling delighted.

Jacuzzis or even saunas can also be used as a form of recreation for your pawns and can greatly enhance the aesthetic appeal of individual rooms or dedicated areas.

If desired, you can also enable another need in the settings: thirst. This means you will need to provide a water source and ensure your pawns have access to clean drinking water (preferably clear water).

Another notable mechanic to highlight is the Poison system. Now, certain weapons and creatures can inflict poisonous wounds. Once a pawn is wounded by a poisonous weapon, they will gradually suffer from the effects of the poison. Unless the wound is treated, the poison will have a detrimental effect on the pawn's body, and at critical levels of poison concentration, the pawn will die. Therefore, it is essential to monitor these wounds carefully to prevent your pawn from unexpectedly dying from a seemingly minor cut.

To handle such emergencies, it would be wise to keep a few vials of antidote in your inventory or have a skilled doctor who can amputate the affected body part if necessary.


In the past, your pawn could only use equipped weapons and items and carry a limited number of items. However, now everything has become more flexible.

Your pawn now intelligently utilizes its available inventory space and carrying capacity to carry as many items as it can, not just in its hands. This saves a lot of time and effort when it comes to items transportation.

Additionally, your pawn can now use multiple items directly from its inventory. For example, if you have given your fighter a rifle and a sword, with just one button press, you can switch the active weapon in the pawn's hands based on the situation. The pawn itself can also automatically switch between active items depending on the situation.

Imagine your pawn standing and shooting at aggressive bears approaching your settlement, and one bear manages to get close. Instead of hitting the bear with the rifle butt, the pawn will draw their plasma sword(themself or on your comand).
(unless, of course, it's a horribly low-quality bronze sword that even the rifle butt would be more effective than).

• Ammunition runs out? - pawn will switch to a weapon with available ammunition.
  
• Enemies get too close? - pawn will select the most effective item for close combat.
  
• Pawn has a tool in hand and spots an enemy in range? - pawn will switch to a ranged weapon and start shooting.

And these are just some of the mechanics that have been given attention to.

The Hardcore SK mod compilation brings numerous improvements that make the game much richer and more diverse, which may initially overwhelm you and take some time to fully comprehend.

One notable change is the extensive variety of materials. Previously, when crafting a sword, you could choose from only a few types of materials, with the sword's quality being the main determining factor. However, now the material used to craft the weapon holds significant importance. The mod compilation introduces a wide range of alloys, metals, and other materials, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. As a result, an excellent sword made of lead will be inferior to a normal sword made of titanium.

Additionally, each item can have enchantments (modifications) that further modify its properties. Enchantments are applied with a certain chance during item creation, and some items may already be sold with pre-applied enchantments.

Enchantments have varying rarity and provide different bonuses based on their rarity. Some enchantments affect the item's characteristics (improving or worsening durability, armor, shooting efficiency), while others affect the wielder (increasing or decreasing walking speed, immunity, work speed).

Furthermore, a single item can have multiple enchantments, but its cost will be significantly higher, as the value of enchantments increases the item's price.

Another notable aspect is the updated combat system. Merely acquiring long-range weapons is no longer enough; you also need to ensure a steady supply of ammunition and choose the appropriate type of ammunition, each with its own unique characteristics. Additionally, the improved AI makes enemy raids more unpredictable, and each raider may have their own role within the raiding party.
It's important to note that HSK brings changes to the enemy AI, making killboxes no longer effective.

The cherry on top, in terms of balancing, is the inclusion of additional storytellers. In addition to the three main storytellers, four new ones are introduced, allowing you to experience a personalized hellish challenge or a peaceful and quiet life for your pawns. Some storytellers emphasize raids, while others focus on global events, and some simply do their own thing without much regard for the player's preferences.

Whether you're a hardcore player who cranks up the difficulty to the maximum or a novice who enjoys a more relaxed pace, the Hardcore SK mod compilation provides an engaging experience tailored to your level of expertise.

In addition to what has been mentioned above, it is essential to discuss another significant part of the content.
The most apparent indicator of the content can be observed through the Technology tab within the game. Each research project unlocks new possibilities for your colonists. These can include new buildings, production recipes, or additional capabilities. While the base version of RimWorld with DLC offers around 100 research projects, in RimWorld with HSK, the number can reach almost 400.



Here is a fragment from the technology tree to provide a visual representation.

Here are some features of the new content:

• New factions: You'll encounter around 30 factions on your planet, each with their own ideologies, level of development, and varying attitudes towards your faction (Not all factions can be fully interacted with).
  
  
• New races, creatures, and plants: You can now come across androids, ratkins, orrasans, azari, and even terminators. And that's not even mentioning all of them. The fauna has also been expanded with various rodents and mythical creatures. New crops and plants have been added to bring diversity to the surrounding biomes.
  
  
• New buildings and production objects: There are numerous new workbenches designed for various purposes, a wide variety of decor items, and useful structures for defense and daily needs.
  
  
• New production recipes: From various dishes and beverages to unique materials, components, and exotic devices, the new recipes provide expanded options for production.
  
  
• New weapons, clothing, and armor: The arsenal includes weapons for every taste, ranging from clubs and swords to crossbows and futuristic firearms. Clothing options range from rags to versatile jumpsuits, and armor includes everything from makeshift wooden armor to exoskeleton suits.
  
  
• New materials and resources: A wealth of new resources are available, each with its own characteristics, which need to be mined or crafted using various methods. These resources are used in crafting items with unique properties.
  
  
• New implants: Various prosthetics allow for upgrading or replacing limbs and organs, while brain chips offer different enhancements for pawns. There are even prosthetics for your tamed thrumbos, so they can take down the next group of raiders.
  Just make sure your surgeon doesn't accidentally kill your pawn with too many implants while putting a bandage on their eye.

If something is missing or doesn't suit your preferences in this mod pack, you can always add your own mods (which likely won't conflict with the mods in the pack) or disable mods that don't align with your preferences. Most modifications can be customized to suit your tastes through the game's settings.

I think it would be appropriate to make some tips for beginners here. So below I will give some, which can be especially useful in the beginning of life of your settlement.
Of course, some of the tips are relevant and for the vanilla version of the game.

• When choosing a starting location (besides biome, landscape and temperatures) pay attention to the presence of caves and types of rocks.
  In the case of rocks, you can favor more durable or attractive (slate, marble, basalt), and if, for example, there are three types of rocks, making stone blocks of one type will become more difficult.
  In the case of caves, you risk getting neighbors in the form of cave bugs from the first minutes. It's up to you to decide whether this is a problem for your settlement or a help in destroying all living things..
  
  
• When arriving at your location, it makes sense to assess what and where it is. I'm not talking about a convenient place to start a base, but about items, buildings and local fauna. Buildings can be deconstructed or made into temporary shelters, various items can be looted for storage, and debris in general can help a lot with obtaining metals, components and wires.
  When you first start, you will have an unconfigured minimap in the top corner of the screen. Click on the gear and customize it to your preference. In this case, it will be appropriate to enable the display of wildlife and delect a convenient color under them.
  So in the beginning you can comfortably watch what is happening on the map and avoid unnecessary problems.(if you are not hardcore player and did not set the opening minimap with the research of a particular technology).
  
  
• Since production has become more complex and the construction of some objects began to require new materials if compared to the vanilla version of the game, there are two options at the beginning.
  
  The first - to get the missing materials at any cost (disassembling things, finding things, robbing caravans ( or a lucky coincidence, where the caravan was killed by a meteorite or a pack of hungry suricats decided to bite Mufalo with the stuff, which eventually did not have time to leave your location and died of blood loss, leaving all the loot to you that he was carrying), the quests rewards or trade).
  
  The second is to craft everything. For example, to get planks and primitive components, you need to create carpenter's table, and it is already made from wood.
  Next, you can create a stone-cutting workbench from boards, on which you can make stone blocks. The stone blocks themselves are a good replacement for wood in construction, as well as various workbenches made of stone can be more efficient than workbenches made of wood (when building something, look at how the material affects the characteristics of the building).
  
  
• Since there is a need for hygiene, it is worth taking care of this at the very beginning. Build in a convenient place wood toilet for pawns and bucket for water. Toilet should be placed so that no one did not see, as a pawn to do his need. If the pawn does notice that someone has seen it, it will immediately unhappy by it.
  Bucket will eventually need to be filled with new water. To do this, the pawns will go to the nearest water source and refill the water in it (they can also bathe in these water sources).
  For comfort and safety, it is worth having a water source nearby or building a well for this purpose (Otherwise, there are risks that a hiker will go hiking for water and instead of it will come a snow leopard that will ask for more).
  
  
• Since pawns inventory has become more functional, it makes sense for pawns to carry food, maybe some stimulators, medicines to treat the wounded or edged weapons, to switch to it from firearms (This only works if your melee weapon will do more damage than the normal butt of your rifle).
  
  
• In the modification there are many different storages to store all types of items as well as specialized items (food, rocks, ammo). If you want longer and compact storage food - build pots or more advanced variants, because they allow longer food storage and save your space.
  The warehouse can be furnished with pallets, chests and shelvs to save a lot of space, keep order, sort things and make your production more productive (for example, you can store chests with raw materials right next to the workbenches, so that pawns can immediately take their materials).
  It is also convenient to equip your combat positions with ammunition, armor for pawns and medicines, so that everything will be at hand and you won't have to gather for a long time to fight or carry it all with you.

If you have any comments or tips, please add them in the comments, then I can make changes here.

I hope this guide has been helpful to you and that I have been able to cover different aspects and nuances of the Hardcore SK mod compilation for Rimworld. If you have any comments regarding wording, grammar errors, or any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments. It would also be great to hear your suggestions on what else you would like to see in this guide and how it can be improved.

Here is the link to the project's Discord server, which has English-speaking community: https://discord.gg/vTJ6fnAeyA

There, you can find answers to many questions and access a wealth of useful and entertaining information shared by other community members.

Lastly, don't forget to appreciate my efforts/creativity. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

I decided to include here some artwork of a colony that beautifully showcases the realities of this wonderful game)
Please note that these artworks are not mine, so when possible, please appreciate the creativity of the user @No_Tables.