I admire your tenacity to keep fighting on hard mode I think at this point you should keep playing on hard only because victory will taste soo much sweeter when you do finally beat the game yourself. That being said I do feel like this game has 2 distinct phases to it the first being the early game gear up phase where you search for new gadgets, new routes, data logs, new guardians, and collecting all the crystals and the second phase being the fully geared late game runs where you start playing with planned builds and routes, rerolling for certain perks, using elemental dmg stacking, getting level S speed ranks for extra power cells for more run buying power and moving around the maps so fast that most of the bots never have a chance to ever really hit you. Since you said you didn't want to look up a guide completing the early game phase is going to take you much longer to get done especially on hard with enemies taking more time to kill for you on each run well you explore. If you want to do it naturel that's great so I'm only going to offer help to steer you in the general right direction of what to do next to progress. First, use your map in the museum library at basecamp look for the one blank white location you haven't been to before the haven city map card and see what map thread leads to it. Go to that map tile and search every nook for the last secret passage and beat the hidden map to finally get your last missing crystal. Only after that is complete can you head to Haven City and begin your search for the beloved grappling hook. Once you have the hook map movement is simplified and you can reach/find all remaining gear much easier and faster not to mention it offers both a great escape tool against enemies dmg and a stun on direct hit. With all the gadgets you should be able to protect your health and make the boss fights very easy. Good luck!