How to start a Hardcore character

Hardcore is optional and nothing asks you about it. Read this whole page first: yes is final.

1. Create a new character. Characters made before Hardcore existed cannot choose it.
2. Do not trade, party, use a store or the Market, and do not pick up anyone else's loot (full list below). Any of those closes the choice.
3. Before level 20, talk to Tribune Maren (Trial/Class Master, in the towns) and open Hardcore, or type .hardcore anywhere.
4. Read the rules in the window, press Yes, then confirm. Your current buffs are removed and a red Hardcore title shows over your name for everyone to see.

Not sure? Close the window: nothing changes and you can ask again while the choice is open.

What closes the choice

Until you say yes you play with no limit at all. The first of these closes the choice for good, with a message on screen, and the action itself goes through:

• sending or accepting a trade;
• sending or accepting a party invite;
• opening or using a private store or workshop;
• opening the Market (.market);
• using the clan warehouse or freight;
• picking up loot that another player dropped, or that dropped for somebody else;
• dying to a monster;
• reaching level 20.

Buffs from other players do not close it, so nobody can spoil your choice by buffing you. That is why saying yes clears your buffs.

The rules while Hardcore

• No trade, in either direction, and no private stores or workshops, yours or other players'.
• No Market, no clan warehouse, no freight between your characters. Your own warehouse works.
• No party. You cannot invite or be invited, so private raid rooms are solo. The Dimensional Rift lets you in alone: you are your own leader, Anakazel included. Arena teams are made by the event and are fine.
• No help from other players' skills: buffs, heals and recharge do not land on you or your summon. The caster is told why. Resurrection works, and so does everything inside an Arena match.
• Gear of your level's grade. A Hardcore character never gets the reborn any-grade rule. After a Rebirth it may wear up to C grade from level 1; from level 40 the normal grade rule applies again (B at 52, A at 61, S at 76).
• You craft for yourself. Workshops are closed to you, so every Hardcore character gets Create Item for free, at the level a Warsmith of its level has, whatever its class: level 1 at 5, 2 at 20, 3 at 28, 4 at 36, 5 at 43, 6 at 49, 7 at 55, 8 at 62, 9 at 70 (C-grade Soulshots from 36, S-grade from 62). After a Rebirth it is level 9 from level 1. It is taken back when the Hardcore life ends; recipes you registered stay in the book but cannot be used.
• No Supporter or Legend rate bonuses (XP, adena, drop, spoil) and no Weekly Tasks, whose rewards belong to your whole account.

Loot

• Your own loot only. You cannot pick up an item another player dropped, or one that dropped for another player, even after its protection time ran out. Your pet follows the same rule. Trying it shows "A Hardcore character picks up only its own loot."
• That includes player kills. Gear a red (karma) player drops when you kill them counts as their drop: you cannot pick it up, anybody else can.
• Dropping is allowed. Nothing stops you dropping your own items, and other players can pick them up.
• Raid bosses are earned alone. Drops go to whoever dealt the most damage. If that is you, they are yours only when all other players together dealt at most 10% of the damage. Above that, the drops go to the strongest of the others and you are told.
• Ordinary monsters have no such rule: if somebody else hits your monster, the loot is still yours when you dealt the most.

What ends it

• A monster kills you, raid bosses and guards included, wherever you are, with auto-farm running or not.
• These deaths do not count: killed by another player or their summon, anything inside an Arena match, anything inside a siege zone, the Olympiad.
• Being killed by a player while monsters are on you does not count either. Those kills are logged: a friend who keeps finishing you off to save your run is against the spirit of it.

What works as usual

• The Buffer, NPC shops, the Teleporter, quests, crafting, bounties, auto-farm, your own warehouse, your own summons and pets.
• PvP, the Arena, the Olympiad, sieges and clans. Clan skills stay on.
• Talents and Rebirth: you stay Hardcore through every Rebirth.

What you get

• Your name on the Hardcore board, ranked by rebirths and level.
• Every Rebirth after the seventh pays three times the Bounty Coins: 900, or 3,000 for the first one of the week. The one-time milestone bonuses are not tripled.
• A red Hardcore title while you live, so everyone can see you play Hardcore. Your own title is kept and comes back after a fall; your name keeps its usual colour.
• Your Rebirth announcements carry the Hardcore tag.

If you fall

• You lose nothing: level, gear and coins stay, every limit is lifted at once, the name goes back to its normal colour, and the character plays on as a normal one.
• The board keeps the level and rebirth you fell at and what killed you.
• A fall at level 40 or higher, or after a Rebirth, is announced in game and on Discord. Earlier falls are quiet.
• A fallen character cannot become Hardcore again. A new character can.

Command

• .hardcore - the question while your choice is open, otherwise where the character stands and the rules. Tribune Maren shows the same window.