@Reton8 it's a bit tricky but you can do in 1.. i just did in 2 also..
At the end the return the first quest will probably unlock when earned the last one.. at the end you need to use your wings to get back..
Died a sticky death...Just learnt transmutation, cast it on a bunch of must keep items...got to the wizard...cut him down to the last sliver of health, and had no pots left.
The way I look at the Quests labeled 'Hard' is to grind for good items with enchanting attached, max out the entire skill tree and then go for the final boss... we'll see when we get there!
If you die in the cave and enter again, it is possible to obtain the quest. Complete the game in one run without using the escape wings.Or it has to be obtained in the first run the game, without they kill you not once.
Completing the hardcore caver quest requires that you do it without ever using escape wings in a save file(e.g. start from floor 1 at level 1, and kill the final boss). You are awarded the quest upon killing the boss; afterwards, usage of wings is acceptable(especially to fill out collection).
There's really about four challenging spots:
1. The beginning. First, you have to carefully grind out your gear. I went with an offense build for the entire game, which works better in the beginning. It gets a little easier after you get the mage helm(buy at level 10 if you don't get it as a drop). First five levels(or so) go to attack; the next goes to getting heal. This part is brutal, but relatively short in terms of grind time.
2. Boss #1(spider). This one's fairly tough, especially if you went defensive. Have a lot of potions prepped, and it really reflects how well you did in the previous 24 levels.
3. Surprisingly, the next 5-10 levels after the spider are as tough as any. The enemies are painful, and you're low on potions. Ultimately, what saves you is the fact that the equipment spikes in quality(going from ~8 defense to 20+ defense) . If you make it here, you're pretty close to safe, and the next few levels almost become trivial as you slaughter every monster.
4. The final levels are nasty, starting around lvl 65. Start avoiding battles as your potion stock requires, and start mining your way around the nastiest enemies. My advice, especially if you're quest-oriented, is to just run for the exit in the last 5-10 levels(killing whatever you can kill for mana/hp, which are generally forest spirits). The boss is fairly tough, plus has three minions, insta-death/assassin style builds kind of do decently against his minions(as well as bleedomatic+decimate).
I put every free point into attack, maxed out the melee tree first(aside from getting heal around floor 7-8), then plinked some points into the other trees. You may want to get transmute around lvl 50 if you want to have an effective run.
Oh god... *facepalms* ...save your game people and above all... be patient!!!
I had a nice loot buildup from scavenging a run starting from floor 30 through 40 and saw a new enemy at floor 41. Out of curiosity what its stats were I clicked and held down on it to read them, but instead... started attacking him!! And when you have really low health and mana... it spells a certain death!!!
All of the progress gone (3 character levels), all loot gone (a dozen yellow gear) and all stat boosts gone (about 15 +1's for different stats) with one impatient moment...
@nichodemus They hinted about such things at the start of the game... pretty much 'find out by yourself' style. Other people in town have hints, tips and sometimes tasks you can help them with. But the first task I took was unfinished as the chap who asked me had dissapeared after my return to the town... heh...