How hardcore works

A character is made hardcore when it is named, by ticking the box on the form, and only then: a character is never made hardcore later, and a hardcore one is never made ordinary. It wears a skull by its name wherever its name is drawn, in the world room, the arena, letters, profiles and the leaderboards.

It plays as any character does, with one difference while it stands: it trades with nobody. The auction house is closed to it, and no duel it fights has a wager, whichever side challenged. Whatever it wears, it gathered, made, hunted or bought from a vendor itself.

A hardcore character dies once. Killed by a monster, it does not wake at a tavern: it is dead, for good, and is never played again. It is kept as it was, where it died, with everything it wore, carried and banked; nothing passes to another character.

The world room is told, with its combat level and its experience across every skill. Its profile says what it died to and when, and what it wore and carried. Its places on the leaderboards stay, with "(dead)" by its name. Letters to it are refused.

Its player is shown how it died, and the ways on: the account's other character, or a new one. A dead character frees its place on the account, and Account lists it under Dead characters, where Delete removes it for good.

A death is told by a notification, if it is switched on under Your character dies on Account and nobody is looking at the game.

Ticking Avoid fights under Repeat, in any zone with monsters, takes away every Fight button until it is ticked off again, so a fight is never queued by a slip meant for something else. It is there for every character, and remembered by the browser.

An ordinary duel is a safe death for a hardcore character: its loser wakes at its tavern like anybody.

Two hardcore characters can fight a duel to the death instead, by ticking To the death on the challenge. Each side agrees by typing its own character's name. It cannot be fled, and its loser dies for good, as to a monster. One that reaches the round cap is a draw, and both still stand. The winner's record says it was a duel to the death.

Every leaderboard can be read for hardcore characters alone: Hardcore beside the week, the month and all time. The dead keep their places there too.