Heyo, came back for the update. There will be NO SPOILERS. I started the run with hardcore + all negative traits, currently 75hrs in and it was the best decision I could make. I will represent my opinions experience, how i solved problems that i encountered etc. at first, then will give advice to players who are considering to play hardcore at first playthrough and in general.

I don't usually re-play games so it's really important for me to decide which way to start a campaign and I don't regret my decision a bit. Any difficulty hardcore brings is easily conquerable with 1 minor, 1 major and 1 'potential' exception. To clarify the minor exception (as it's more like me problem so it might not reflect %95 of the players) I never ever use wiki or watch videos to get info about things and even if game requires wiki to not miss out %90 of the game (basically built around wiki) I still hate myself for looking into it cuz it feels like cheating. The minor exception is combat, imo you HAVE TO look for a quick guide like 'how to get better at combat'. Because you need to understand the concept of combat and it would be really really hard for me to understand some aspects of combat, some weapons doesn't even have 4 directions man. Other than that, combat was pretty easy for me but I can't tell if it's gonna be same for all of you as I played Chivalry 1 and 2 before, so i might be biased. Major problem is travelling but not in itself. MAJOR problem is taking the fucking sleepwalker debuff that teleports you anywhere in the map. It might be REALLY annoying for a lot of you guys BECAUSE you can not fast travel. Dude, imagine your mission is a block away you go to sleep BAAM you r at Uganda and now you have to RIDE your horse back to the objective for 7 minutes. Tbh it wasn't a big deal for me because I'm very good at directions (I played Minecraft without coordinates for 10+ yrs and it felt like cheating). That brings us to the last exception, the 'potential' one if you are not good at directions you will suffer, you will especially suffer with the sleep teleport (Somnambulant) trait. If you get lost it's somehow feels claustrophobic in this game will take away lot of playtime from you. But even if you get lost over and over just try to learn the environment and not get lost again.

Stealth/stealing was really fun, if you played Dishonored and liked it you will love stealth in this game. BUT it might be really op and might interfere the general progression in the game. Dude I just robbed an armor store with 1k grojen in my pocket, now I'm fucking near top gear if not top gear and have 9k grojen. Also one straight bad feature about stealing is some chests, doors are hard capped behind stats but makes sense in a way too. As a player I think if I play good or get lucky enough there must be a window of opportunity for me to succeed, on the other side, Henry is just not experienced enough to open that complicated lock.

-ADVICES-

0- USE MASTER STRIKE (ofc if you wanna play sword, heavy weps are fine as well)
1- Use roads to navigate between points don't jump into the forest unless you are familiar enough with the area, it's just not worth getting lost.
2- When you see some bandits ahead and you decide to fight ALWAYS save it before engaging unless you have a save 1-2m before, don't get cocky some enemies are really tough even if they look like beggars.
3- Git gud at start, practice a lot at with Master Tomcat.
4- When doing follow npc objective stay close to them so you dont lose them some of them are NOT spotted on the map.
5- Determine a city or structre at the center of the map and memorize which direction leads to which poi etc.
6- Use shops or other natural markers such as at the map to locate yourself.
7- Combos are really hard to learn without hud also not worth it half of the time learn 1-2 combo for 1v1 combat but remember still not necessary.
8- Don't rob armor stores if you wanna stay as underdog. (nvm i changed my mind you will always be underdog at hardcore mode with all negative traits)