Old School RuneScape’s Hardcore Worlds are now live. The new permanent worlds run at the same pace as the main game, with no XP boosts or drop rate changes. The twist is that Death is watching and many of your usual safety nets are gone.
Getting in
You’ll need a brand-new character that hasn’t finished Tutorial Island yet. Near Paul the Iron Tutor there’s a new NPC, Death’s Delegate. Tell her you want to take part, then finish the island with the Magic Instructor. From then on, Home Teleport takes you to Death’s Office instead of Lumbridge Castle, and Death will tell you to hop to one of the Hardcore Worlds.
There are 30 Hardcore Worlds spread across the US, Germany, the UK, Australia, Brazil and Singapore. Most are standard worlds, but some are set aside for specific activities: Barbarian Assault, Blast Furnace, Forestry, Group PvM, Guardians of the Rift, Pest Control, Tempoross and Wintertodt.
Death’s Office has a few useful features before you set off:
- Escape Crystals cost 10,000 coins from Death, and every new Hardcore character gets one free.
- A mirror in the room opens the new Death Report, an overview of your character’s progress and notable achievements.
- The office is no longer instanced, so you’ll see newcomers and recently deceased players alike. You can’t trade there, but it’s the only place where you can hop between Hardcore Worlds and the main game to meet friends, join a clan or gift membership.
Trading, death rules and second chances
This isn’t an Ironman mode. Players can trade freely and use the Grand Exchange, but Hardcore Worlds have a completely separate economy, so items can’t move between them and the main game.
Deaths follow the Hardcore Group Ironman rules, so a number of places that are normally safe will now end your run. These include Barbarian Assault, the Chambers of Xeric, the Inferno, the TzHaar Fight Cave, Nightmare Zone, Pest Control, the Magic Training Arena, Fishing Trawler, Rogues’ Den, Random Events and your own player-owned house. Castle Wars, Clan Wars, Soul Wars and the TzHaar Fight Pit stay safe, as do a few narrow cases such as the Koschei duel in The Fremennik Trials and the diary Resurrection rewards for the Fight Caves and Zulrah. Last Man Standing and Bounty Hunter aren’t available at all.
When you die, you choose between two options:
- Reset wipes everything on the character, including quests, items and stats, as if you’d just left Tutorial Island. Your Bank PIN and settings stay. Resets are unlimited, and Stronghold of Security gold has a 3-day cooldown so it can’t be farmed.
- Transfer moves the character to the main game for good. You keep your 3 or 4 protected items plus everything in your bank and other storage.
Either way, whatever would have gone to your gravestone is lost permanently.
Hardcore Worlds players can also enter Death’s Reaper’s Raffle throughout November by completing tasks. The prize draw takes place on a livestream on December 8th, with official merch, a custom Death statue and a Starforge PC bundle among the prizes.
Source: Old School RuneScape official news.
