What are Hardcore Worlds?

Hardcore Worlds are a set of Old School RuneScape worlds where every character has one life. They opened on 4 November 2026, with their own hiscores and their own economy: the Grand Exchange there only trades between Hardcore Worlds players. Experience and drop rates are the same as the main game; what changes is that a death on these worlds ends the character's Hardcore run.

If you die, you choose

Reset wipes the character completely: levels, quests and every item. Transfer moves it to the main game for good, keeping your bank and the items you protected. Either way, anything that would go to your gravestone is deleted. Player Support will not restore hardcore status.

Not every death counts. Hardcore Worlds use the stricter Hardcore Group Ironman rules, so some minigames that are safe elsewhere are not safe here. Hardcore safety lists every safe and unsafe activity, the stats to have before risky content, and how hard each monster hits.

Your escape crystal

Every character starts with one, and more cost 10,000 coins from Death, Rick at the Wizards' Tower or the Mysterious Stranger. It does not save you everywhere. Its teleport, and the auto-teleport when you take damage after being idle for the time you set under Configure, only work in Barbarian Assault, Chambers of Xeric, the Inferno, Pest Control, Theatre of Blood, Tombs of Amascut and TzHaar-Ket-Rak's Challenges. It never triggers while you are moving, and right after you log in or hop it fires on the first hit. Out in the world, wear it and toggle it to act like a ring of life instead, but in that mode it stops working in the activities above. Its teleport works up to level 30 Wilderness, where most teleports stop at 20.

Wilderness = PvP

Wilderness deaths follow normal PvP rules and other players can attack you. Every guide step that enters the Wilderness is flagged. Go in with a teleport that works at that depth, on a quiet world, carrying nothing you need.

At sea

If your boat capsizes you wash up at the last gangplank you sailed from with your inventory — that is safe. Reaching 0 HP while on the boat is a real death. Teleporting off your boat at sea loses courier cargo and salvage.

A separate economy

Items and coins from the main game don't carry over, so Hardcore Worlds prices are their own: main-game price guides don't apply. The Hardcore Worlds Grand Exchange tracker works only with Hardcore trades, and money making lists methods by how risky they are.

The worlds

There are 32 Hardcore Worlds, hosted in US East, US, US West, UK, Australia, Brazil, Singapore. Shooting stars and implings appear on them as on any other world, and Stars & implings tracks them on these worlds only.

Where to start

The Hardcore Worlds route guide takes a new character from level 3, straight off Tutorial Island, to endgame, in walking-order bank trips with every dangerous step marked. Its first chapter covers setting up your account safely.

Rules checked against the OSRS Wiki's Hardcore Worlds page. Jagex can change them; the wiki has the latest.

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