Am I missing something in the fact that is appears the Exocortex as written in the HH gives you EITHER combat bonus or a knowledge/skill bonus.
"Choose whether the artificial intelligence in your exocortex enhances your combat effectiveness or your knowledge and skills."
This does not seem to even appear in the Core book.
I understand HH is a simplified version or the rules, but this seems to be completely different. Am I missing something?
It's a simplified and slightly different take on the rules ?
Also : untrue. Exocortex comes with a 1/day recall knowledge reroll, and a changeable Skill Focus, neither of which can be used while Combat Tracking is active.
Without having looked at it, I'm guessing the beginner box makes you choose between the options once and forever, rather than having to deal with two conditional alternative features.
Your post title has the answer. The hero handbook is not the core rulebook. They don't agree, and are not designed to.
If the beginner box is supposed to be an introduction, it seems misleading to present the game one-way, then another way entirely when they play actual Starfinder games.
Agreed that was part of my issue. There are some significant rule "changes", not just simplifications. It's like giving you 2 of the 4 rules, but the 2 you get don't even exist in the full game.
It’s stripped down rules for beginners that you can pick up quick, rather than having to immediately digest a 500+ page rulebook.
I think this is what I had assumed it was, and while true to an extent, its not like you can necessarily use the beginner box and then move into the core book with fluid motion.