I've been sticking with hardcore (dead is dead) recently.

I'm also still determined to find the bosses without activating a single vegvisir. Ironically, the only world where I have managed that (finding Eikthyr does not count) was a couple of days ago in a multiplayer world. We were searching for Moder vegvisirs, but found one of her altars instead.

(Naturally, I have no intention of trying to take either of these rules to multiplayer. Multiplayer is reserved for having a grand time with my friends, and I would never try to impose my single-player rules on them.)