To start hard Conquest, must I achieve 495 Conquest keycards in normal mode?

I am asking this as the last 2 Conquest's I have met the requirement for galactic power, and have completed normal mode (in terms of battles, not keycards).

495 keycards isn't really possible for me, and I can't see it being very possible for many people, with the range of feats to earn the required keycards.