Old School RuneScape opens Hardcore Worlds
Old School RuneScape’s Hardcore Worlds opened on November 4 at 11:00 UTC. Jagex describes it as a brand-new, permanent game mode built around a single idea: survive Death’s challenge, at the same pace as the main game.
Crucially for anyone expecting a shortcut, the worlds carry no XP boosts and no drop-rate modifiers of any kind. This is the ordinary game made deadlier, not an accelerated one.
How you get in
Hardcore Worlds need a brand-new character — one that has not yet finished Tutorial Island. On the island, a new NPC, Death’s Delegate, points you to the Magic Instructor to finalise your start. From then on, Home Teleport drops you into Death’s Office rather than outside Lumbridge Castle, and from there you hop to a Hardcore World to begin.
What makes it “hardcore”
It is not an Ironman mode — trading and the Grand Exchange are fully available, but on a completely separate economy: items bought or sold on Hardcore Worlds stay on Hardcore Worlds. The mode borrows the death rules from Hardcore Group Ironman, which means several places players treat as “safe” deaths — the Inferno, the TzHaar Fight Cave, Barbarian Assault, Pest Control, the Nightmare Zone and more — are not safe here. A handful of minigames remain safe, among them Castle Wars, Clan Wars and Soul Wars.
Death’s Office also sells Escape Crystals for 10,000 coins (you start with one free), carries a “Death Report” mirror that summarises your progress, and is un-instanced so you can see other players.
When you die
A death is not necessarily the end. You choose Reset or Transfer:
- Reset wipes the character back to just-off-Tutorial-Island — quests, items and stats all gone — with unlimited resets allowed. Bank PIN and settings are kept.
- Transfer moves the character to the Main Game permanently, keeping your bank, other storage and any protected items, but removing it from Hardcore Worlds for good.
Either way, anything that would normally go to your Gravestone is lost.
There are 30 Hardcore Worlds in total, spread across US, UK, German, Australian, Brazilian and Singaporean regions, with some worlds dedicated to specific activities (Barbarian Assault, Wintertodt, Group PvM and others).
The Reaper’s Raffle
Running through November, the Reaper’s Raffle rewards Hardcore Worlds play with entries toward a prize draw — Jagex frames the tasks as things you would be doing anyway — culminating in a December 8 livestream where the prizes are drawn.
What changes on this site
Nothing on our Old School RuneScape pages changes. Hardcore Worlds are a separate mode on a separate economy and do not alter the main game’s reset timers or daily/weekly checklist, which is what this site tracks for OSRS.