Hard West 2 Basic Guide for Beginner

Hard West 2 is a hard game, which you probably have noticed by now. A unique aspect (at least new to me) to this game is that it promotes an aggressive approach to combat, as you will get your action points back whenever you kill an enemy.

This means high risk will give a high reward. But it will also be _very_ punishing when you fail. Use your save and load files often.

If you fail a mission, you can use Retry to start it over. Use this to your advantage if you feel you could have performed better by the end of a mission. Being persistent and succeeding with side objectives will reward you with better gear and loot which will be helpful for future missions. Take advantage!

And also note that there is no shame in learning the game on the Easy level, as you will get better with practice and if you stop playing because it’s not fun anymore, the only one losing out on entertainment is you. 🙂

You don’t get your life restored after combat. There are no healer characters, which means that you will start the next encounter in a really bad spot unless you restore your life. Doing so without consumables will cost you money.

Do side-missions! They will give you rewards such as better equipment and consumables. You’ll need these for the challenges coming up.

Consider which characters to befriend first. A higher level of relationship will open up new conversation options, and eventually new combat skills on the higher levels (Ally and Friend).

Look for quest items in the stores. They will help you access spots on the map, which will give you access to items or improve your relationship level with your possy.

As you can only have 4 people in any combat, choose them wisely. Consider how you can use their skills to benefit each other. Save before you enter a combat zone, so you can switch the possy if the chosen characters didn’t end up being a good fit.

Some characters need certain playing cards to access their special combat skills, i.e. a pair for Old Man Bill. Consider which character needs the cards the most before you go into combat. Characters that aren’t taking part in the mission don’t need any cards wasted on them.

Make sure every character has two weapons and don’t forget to use them. The rifle will consume 3AP but if you make a kill, you get them back from the Bravado!-trigger.

Riflemen have only 5HP, which means that you can kill them with a revolver (if you hit). Use 1AP to move and then get all AP back with the Bravado!-trigger from killing a Rifleman. This extends your speed of traversing the map.

Consumables that restore HP are things such as whiskey, bandages and different kind of food. You don’t get a lot of HP from them though, so preferably avoid taking damage in the first place. Use the automatic loads to recover from poor decisions.

Dynamite is useful in combat as it does area damage, but it will also give access to hidden locations and special options in conversation, so don’t use them all up!

Splitter bombs will cause bleeding, but some characters are resistant (e.g. Revenants).

Note: If you’ve just started playing, there are some spoilers ahead about upcoming characters!

Gin is the leader of the gang. He is a rifleman and can use a revolver as a backup weapon.
Skill: Shadow Barrage – Shoots through any protection.

Flynn grew up in an orphanage and she has knowledge of the dark arts. She is a bit weaker than other characters and will do well with a shotgun for close encounters.
Skill: Shadow Swap – Swaps position with another character, friendly or enemy, at the cost of -1HP.

Bill is a revenant, woken up from the dead. He is good with revolvers and has a very powerful combat skill that drains life from all enemies in sight. The lower HP he has, the more damage he does. Use this to soften up enemies for the rest of the possy to kill.

With a brutal and mostly unknown background, Laughing Deer clearly has no problem beating people to death when they have it coming. And as he says “a lot of people have it coming”. Don’t forget to give him an alternative weapon to complement his melee weapon.

Cla’lish is armed with a rifle and once you befriend her enough, she will hunt provisions for you. Don’t forget to give her a revolver, so she has a weapon to use when she’s on the move.

Lazarus is a priest. His purification skill removes any of his debuffs.