This guide focuses purely on considerations that only really matter in hardcore. Some optional quests just plain aren't worth doing, and lack of the mall means you have to think ahead a bit on some quests (and WAY ahead on the sorc quest).
Council Quests
1. Mt. Noob - The main thing here is to look at your gems. If you aren't using it this run, ditch it for meat. 500 meat at the start of an HC run is going to be worth a lot more to you than 5000 at the end of one.
2. Mosquito - Nothing really changes here.
3. Tavern - This can be a bit tricky due to not having much real gear yet, although your astral item should pull you through. Try to finish this quest on day 1 if you can - the reward booze and the tavern beer are both a large help early on. Don't forget the cheap-ass 24 meat town market items if you need a slight boost. Also, make sure you get the shiny ring. It's going to be a loooooooooooong time in HC until you have 3 good accessories, so this is a good thing to use until then.
4. Bat Cave - If you can't get stench protection via skill, you're going to have to get it via gear (either asshat or pine freshener.) The addition of the pine freshener to the game makes this far less of an issue than it used to be.
Boss bat bodyguards are a great source of meat. It *may* be worth running from the boss bat a couple of times to build up an early stash.
5. Knob Goblin King - If you don't have saucepots, this guy can be a pain in the ass. Muscle classes have enough HP to just power through it. The others don't, but the helm is crap vs. your epic hat, and it's only 2000 meat. None of the first 10 council quests (maybe even the first 12) care if you've done any of the previous ones. Don't be afraid to file this in the "deal with it later category". You can just wait a few levels and 1 shot him.
6. Friars - Nothing really changes in the quest itself, but there's a few things to consider:
-Get a ruby W before you close the gate, or you'll be stuck fighting all of the imps together for one later.
-Those +food and +booze drop buffs can be VERY helpful in HC... don't forget to use them. Also, remember that goat cheese is food, so besides the obvious uses for these buffs, you can also speed up the level 8 quest with +food.
-The steel margarita takes way too many turns to get, and you don't even get the capacity it offers on the day you use it. It generally isn't worth your time, unless you know you're going to be doing something major like a hobo run after killing the sorc.
7. Cyrpt - You'll often have to choose amongst free stats, bonus meat, and finishing the quest faster. While you're usually going to want to just speed run it, this is where you get a chance to fix an abnormally bad leveling or meat gain run, so don't be afraid to use it if necessary.
8. Mt. McLargeHuge - This is really a series of seperate mini-quests, so I'll treat it as such.
Getting the mining gear - Try to have some +item for this, but as you can get it from noncom adventures, don't worry if you don't.
Mining - You have no choice but to actually mine the ore, so make sure you know how the mine works. Remember that the same type of ore is always found in an adjacent cluster of 4, so once you find one piece, the rest is easy. Also, it's always towards the back of the mine. Last but not least, you only need 1 hit point to mine, so if you get whacked, either use a weak heal or pay the town doctor 10 meat to keep going. Don't bother fixing beaten up or getting your HP back until you're done mining.
Goat cheese - USE THE FRIARS' +FOOD BUFF! Anything else that gives +food (or +items in general) is a huge help here.
Cold Protection - Hopefully, you have a skill for this. If you don't, it's basically a second round of the mining gear.
9. The Orc Chasm - Again, +item is generally the key to this. If you're willing to burn a semi, remember that you also have the option of getting a full gates scroll and a free shirt. In either case, you'll have to decide if the benefits of a 31337 scroll are worth the extra time involved. Don't forget to sell your dictionary - that's a LOT of meat to a hardcore player.
10. Giant Castle - This is really 2 quests.
Airship - You may want to spend a bit of extra time in here. The consumables here are very powerful, and having a stash of them will definitely make the rest of the run easier. Of course, as with all such decisions, the price is extra time spent farming the items, so you'll have to decide if that's worth it, and if so, how long it stays worth it.
Giant Castle - Make sure you know the wheel order, and how to get it back to your stat after doing the 2 quests here. You'll likely be back after the L11 quest to kick yourself to 12 here, and if you can pass your prime stat on the way to sending the procrastication giant to the back door, you can get some free xp to that stat.
11. This is a bunch of subquests as well.
Black market - Not much changes here. You may want to consider the 10x blackberry option, but it's generally only needed if you're on an especially difficult run. (I used it for kittycore, but that's it so far.) Of course, if you have enough +food (pastamancers are particularly good at this), you may be able to force it to happen fast, so consider the option.
Hidden temple - Have the wiki open so you don't waste extra turns getting the stuff to unlock this. As for the temple itself, remember that you only need 1 HP to continue, so like with mining, consider the 10 meat to the doctor option.
Hidden city - There's nothing you can really do to speed this up. Make sure you have elemental damage for the specters though (or AFUE scrolls if you want to go that route).
Pirates - Try to have most of this done in advance... you'll probably have a couple of times at earlier levels where the other quests are done, but you haven't leveled yet.
Palindome - There isn't much you can do here, but try to +item the Whitey's Grove part.
Desert - There's lots of good food and booze here, this is a good time to make use of the Friar buffs.
Pyramid - The tomb rachets aren't terribly useful, so stick to the wheel. You can likely also score a hammock from this.
Ed - He's not a very hard boss, even in HC. You may want to consider turning his level up to boost all 7 of those shots of xp he gives you.
12. The war
Starting it is mostly the same (although note that you can earn a hippy disguise, or at least part of one, on the white castle quest). During the war itself, there are 3 main things to consider:
- Learn how to make use of the windchimes/PADL phone, and the stuff you can buy with nickels and times (especially the nets and rags). This can speed up the war, and those nets and rags are quite powerful, even vs. the sorc.
- With each sidequest, figure out how many turns you're going to save, and whether it's worth your time. For the meat one, the answer is almost always "no, don't bother." Of course, you'll likely want to do all 6 on each side once to get the medals though.
- Scented Massage Oil can make the boss much easier, as can various stun items.
13. The sorceress tower
The main thing here is to make sure you've prepared long before you actually get here. If you're well set up, you can clear this in 30-50 turns, assuming the RNG doesn't hate you this run. If you're not, it could take DAYS to run this. Here's what to consider for each part:
- Cave Part 1: The main thing here is to have the Dungeons of Doom unlocked, as you're going to need one of the potions. If you don't know what the pots do yet, try to get in here with less than 14 drunkenness, as finding out which pot is +1 drunkenness the hard way can really, really, suck otherwise. Also, if you find stuff that can be used here, but might not be (like a wussiness potion), make sure you don't sell your last one.
- Cave Part 2: There's a good chance you got the 3 instruments without trying, and if you didn't, there's plenty of options to fix that. The main things here are to have your keys pre-made (digital, star, and 2 of the 3 daily dungeon keys - get the 3rd by zapping one of the other 2, this is guaranteed to work), your star gear, and a spare clobyr for that damn skeleton.
- Courtyard: You don't really need to prep for this. You're probably strong enough thanks to nemesis gear by this point that the golems are easy. If they're massively undergeared, it's still not a huge issue, as you generally only need to kill 3-5 of them, so just treat them as minibosses and buff accordingly.
- Tower: There's way too many monsters for pre-acquiring all of the items to be worth it, and as a result, this is where you tend to pray to the RNG. That being said, be careful when autoselling for meat... make sure you keep at least 1 of any of these items you DO happen to find in the normal course of a run.
- Shadow: You'll likely need 4 red pixel pots, but you can easily get those while getting your digital key anyway... just don't forget to do it.
- Familiars: The key is to be able to get familiars to 20 ASAP. Ideally, you'll want 2 sources of +5, so you can get to 20 with a real level of 5 and the gear from the arena. Whether this requires advance prep depends on your class (TTs are always ready for this), what you have permed, and whether or not you have access to stuff like snowcones. If you have no +weight stuff, don't forget the irradiated pet snacks semirare option. Also of note: If you haven't used your daily Friar buff, the familiar one DOES work in the arena.
- Sorc: You can't use buffs anyway, and you're probably in nemesis gear, so she's really only slightly harder in HC. If you're having trouble, intentionally lose 4 times to lower her skill and item block rate from 50% to 30%, and you should then have very little trouble. Don't forget to build the wand before you fight her though!
Epic Gear Quests
Basic Epic Weapon - The low levels are a breeze once you make this, so try to get it ASAP. Do remember that you need 10 in your mainstat to actually use it though, so make sure you aren't losing your only weapon when you build this!
Clowns - If you have the SC or TT craft skills, this will go MUCH faster due to being able to get 2 of your 4 clownosity points from a clownskin whip or buckler. If not, try to +item this as much as possible (it's a good idea to do that regardless actually). Don't forget to save your crafted item if you are an SC or TT as you'll need it for your hat. The boss himself is weak, so you likely just need your full HP to beat him.
The cave - Try to have the 1st and 3rd items pre-made for this. The burrito may seem like a pain in the ass due to the spices requirement, but it's not. The spooky forest has a choice adventurer to get starting stuff for a class. Pick sauceror, and there's your spices. This will also land you a saucepan in case you're planning on using any sauce buffs while not actually a sauceror.
The minions - These tend to be slightly stronger than what you're otherwise fighting, so it's a good idea to avoid redlining your HP while these are active. Try to be near max when it's almost time to fight the final minion.
The island - This ranges from pretty easy (Pastamancer) to absolutely freaking ridiculous (Seal Clubber). Definitely read and plan ahead. You need a lot of buff items saved as an SC (this may actually be physically impossible with no non-SC skills), you need to save your summons as a Pastamancer, etc.
The final nemesis fight - Check the wiki, and make sure you understand *exactly* how your nemesis works. It's different for every class, and you get very, very little room for error in HC with this.
Guild Quests
Meatcar - Remember that empty meat tanks only come from toolboxes, so don't forget to open them. It IS generally worth it to build a second meat engine so you can get a meat maid soon after.
Fernswarthy's - Because you can usually finish your meat maid while doing this, and get bonus xp from the manual for finishing, this IS usually worth doing. If you find you're leveling particularly fast though, skipping it is always an option.
White Castle - If you can't craft good food yet, you'll almost certainly want to do this for access to White Castle itself. The accessory can be good as well in a bunch of places. It can take a good chunk of turns to finish this though, so if you don't need White Castle itself, you may decide that the accessory isn't worth your time.
The dwarf thing - It's a free 1k, but it's late enough that meat probably isn't tight anymore, and the rest of the quest takes way too long for way too little return. I recommend skipping this.
Other quests you may want to look into (in no particular order)
Spookyraven Manor Quest - You need to do the overwhelming majority of this for the level 11 quest anyway, so it's not a bad idea to 1) do that early and 2) do the last bit and claim your skill. While none of the spooky skills are amazing, they can help a bit, and they don't use meat like other skills, so you may as well grab them while you're in there. The bedroom can also be a good a source of both meat and xp when you're not up to giant castle yet (or are but can't run it easily yet), so that's another good reason to get in there earlier than required.
The gourd - You need something from your starting area anyway (for your epic hat), there's generally a couple of other things in here, and the early shot of xp can be quite helpful. I don't recommend doing multiple gourd runs, but the first is generally quite worth it.
The pretentious artist - It's a fast quest, and it allows you to cash in your rat whiskers for bonus meat.
The untinkerer - This isn't optional since you need to untinker an abridged dictionary, but I recommend doing it very early on, since you can easily get the screwdriver while you make your meatcar, ensuring that this takes only a single turn to complete.
The miniquests in the starter regions - Don't go out of your way to find them, but if they come up naturally, they're worth the 0-1 turns they take to finish.
The bugbear moon sign quests - Elemental faeries are nice to have, and the 5-6x awesome booze certainly doesn't hurt. You may want to skip these if you already have all of the faeries though.
Pagoda - This one's iffy, as you get it rather late in the game. You get most of the stuff naturally though, so especially if you get the guitar while you're getting the gaudy keys, this can be a nice thing to have.
Zap Wand - This lets you spend less time in the daily dungeon, zapping other stuff can pay off if you're lucky, and you need to do all but the last step of this anyway to get the potions for the sorc gates.
Cell 37 - It's a decent regen item for before you have the Heart of the Volcano, although the monsters are abnormally difficult for the level this is aimed at. If you can handle them though, you may want to consider a detour in here. (Of course, if you really don't need the regen, skip it regardless.)
