OSRS Hardcore Worlds Guide: Death Rules, Reset or Transfer, vs HCIM

OSRS Hardcore Worlds: The Short Answer

Hardcore Worlds are a new Old School RuneScape game mode, opening on 4 November 2026, where a fresh character plays on separate worlds with full trading, the Grand Exchange and a single life. Jagex announced the mode at the RuneFest 2026 Summit on 3 October and set out the full death rules on 22 October in Hardcore Worlds Are Coming On November 4th.

A Hardcore Worlds character is effectively a hardcore main. A Hardcore Ironman (HCIM) is something else: an Ironman on the normal worlds, with no trading and no Grand Exchange apart from bonds, where one unsafe death turns the account into a regular Ironman.

Pick Hardcore Worlds if you want one-life stakes but still want to trade. It is stricter than HCIM: Jagex uses the Hardcore Group Ironman death rules and tells players to expect 99% of deaths to count, so the Fight Caves, the Inferno and the Nightmare Zone are all unsafe.

What Hardcore Worlds Are (Release Date: 4 November 2026)

Jagex first showed Hardcore Worlds as the opening section of the RuneFest 2026 Summit Overview on 3 October 2026 (RuneFest itself ran on 3 and 4 October, per the RuneFest page). The dedicated blog followed on 22 October, and the OSRS Wiki mirrors it at Update:Hardcore Worlds Are Coming On November 4th.

What Jagex has confirmed

1. 1

   A fresh character,

   started from Tutorial Island through a new NPC, Death's Delegate.

2. 2

   Main privileges for everyone:

   trading and the Grand Exchange, with no Ironman restrictions.

3. 3

   One life,

   judged by the Hardcore Group Ironman death rules. Jagex tells players to expect 99% of deaths to count.

4. 4

   A permanent economy at the main game's pace:

   no XP multipliers, drop rate modifiers or boosts of any kind, and deaths delete items and coins from it.

5. 5

   Reset or Transfer

   after a death: wipe the character and go again, or move it to the main game for good.

6. 6

   An escape crystal

   in every new character's inventory.

7. 7

   Broadcasts

   for World Firsts and major deaths, and an un-instanced Death's Office on all worlds as a shared hub.

Announced, not polled

Hardcore Worlds did not go to a vote. The Upcoming updates schedule lists it for 4 November as separate servers revolving around hardcore main accounts, with N/A in the poll column, and it was not one of the questions in the RuneFest 2026 Summit Poll. Jagex calls it a brand-new permanent experience. For where the mode sits among the other late-2026 releases, see our 2026 roadmap guide.

Starting a Hardcore Worlds Character: New Accounts Only

Jagex's 22 October post gives the route in. It begins on Tutorial Island, and there is no option to bring an existing account.

1. 1

   Make a fresh character.

   You start on Tutorial Island like any new account.

2. 2

   Find Death's Delegate,

   a small reaper standing near the Magic Instructor's house and Paul, the Ironman Tutor.

3. 3

   Go to Death's Office

   through the Delegate, speak to Death and accept his challenge.

4. 4

   Hop to a Hardcore World.

   You appear outside Lumbridge Castle with the usual starter gear, plus the escape crystal every Hardcore Worlds character starts with.

Death's Office is also where nearly every death sends you to choose between Reset and Transfer. You can walk back into it at any time, and from launch it is a shared room on every world rather than a private instance.

Can you turn an existing account into a Hardcore Worlds character?

No. Jagex's route starts with a fresh character on Tutorial Island, and no conversion has been announced. The existing hardcore modes work the same way: the Ironman Mode page says Ironman restrictions, Hardcore included, are set at the end of Tutorial Island by the Ironman tutor and cannot be added later, and Hardcore Group Ironman is picked with the same tutor (Group Ironman Mode).

Jagex still has not said whether you need a Jagex Account or membership, or whether free-to-play Hardcore Worlds exist. Leaving is one-way: the only route to the main game Jagex has described is a Transfer after a death, and a transferred character cannot come back.

Hardcore Worlds Rules: One Life, Trading and a Separate Economy

Every rule Jagex has confirmed, from the Summit Overview and the 22 October post, and what each one changes when you play:

Making money on Hardcore Worlds, and whether PvM is worth the risk

At RuneFest Jagex pitched the separate economy as a chance to strike it rich, naming a master craftsman or blacksmith as examples. The 22 October post adds why prices may differ from the main game: deaths delete items and coins, and Jagex suggests 1,000,000 GP may feel more like it did in 2007 than it does in the main game today. Every character starts fresh, so treat any GP-per-hour figures or bond prices quoted for Hardcore Worlds before launch with suspicion.

PvM trips carry the most item risk. A death loses everything outside Items Kept on Death for good, and on a reset plan it costs the whole character as well. So fight in gear you could buy again on the Hardcore Worlds Grand Exchange, and open View items kept on death before each trip to see exactly what a death would cost.

What Happens When You Die on Hardcore Worlds

Jagex's 22 October post splits a death into two stages. First the game processes it like a normal death: most deaths keep 3 items, or 4 with Protect Item, and a death to another player in the Wilderness follows the usual Wilderness rules. Then you choose between Reset and Transfer.

Either way, anything that would normally go to your gravestone is deleted. A Transfer can bring the bank because Hardcore Worlds use the same save profile as the main game. Jagex is still working out how resets handle a few one-off rewards, such as the coins in the Stronghold of Security, and says more will come before release.

Decide which option you would take before you need it. On a transfer plan, bank anything valuable before a risky trip, because the bank comes with you. On a reset plan, the bank is no safer than your inventory, and every risk is a risk to the whole character.

Items Kept on Death decides what survives

Stage one uses the usual Items Kept on Death rules, as the in-game interface shows them. Anything outside them is lost forever: it does not wait in a grave, and it does not come with you to the main game.

The kept items are your most valuable ones, by Grand Exchange value or, failing that, alchemy value. Jagex has not said how Grand Exchange values are set on Hardcore Worlds, so trust the interface over your own guess about which items rank highest.

A few items are always kept without using a slot, such as the Old school bond, and untradeables locked with a Trouver parchment are protected automatically. Others are never kept, such as a clue box, or a looting bag, whose contents count as unprotected items. Protect Item unlocks at 25 Prayer and cannot be used on high-risk worlds.

Check it before every risky trip: the View items kept on death button in the Worn Equipment tab opens the interface (Items Kept on Death (Interface)). The wiki flags two quirks. Food and potions it shows going to your gravestone are dropped as a supply pile by default, and if you carry several clue scrolls or caskets, only the bottom-right one is protected.

Nothing goes to a grave

On the normal worlds, a PvM death outside the Wilderness sends unkept items to a grave you can reclaim within 15 minutes of play (free for items worth under 100k, a fee above that), then to Death's Office, which charges 5% on items worth 100k or more (Item Recovery Fees). On Hardcore Worlds, Jagex says anything bound for the gravestone is gone for good. The post does not mention the item retrieval services some bosses use in place of a grave, so plan as if those items are lost too.

In the Wilderness, a death to another player works as it does in the main game: the killer gets the usual loot, and you still face Reset or Transfer afterwards. The Death page adds that most deaths in the game are unsafe; safe deaths are the exception, mostly in minigames.

Safe and Unsafe Deaths on Hardcore Worlds

Hardcore Worlds use the Hardcore Group Ironman rules for death, which Jagex calls much less forgiving than the usual Hardcore Ironman rules. The exceptions are few, and Jagex tells players to expect 99% of deaths to send them back to Death's Office. Its 22 October post lists every activity that is normally safe for a Hardcore Ironman but unsafe on Hardcore Worlds.

The second column comes from the wiki's escape crystal page, which lists four of the 13 among the places the crystal can teleport you out of. In the other nine it only helps where a normal teleport would work, so play them fully awake or skip them.

What stays safe

So a Fight Caves death is unsafe unless the Karamja Elite Diary resurrection catches it. The Zulrah page says the Elite Western Provinces Diary gives one free resurrection per day there, and only that resurrection counts as safe. Bounty Hunter and Last Man Standing are switched off at release so the early attention goes to the Wilderness; Jagex is open to adding them later.

Where Jagex's list differs from the wiki's HCGIM list

The wiki's Group Ironman Mode page is close to Jagex's list but not identical. Its unsafe list also has the PvM Arena, which Jagex leaves out, and its safe list adds Emir's Arena, the Galvek and Glough fight replays and Last Man Standing, which is switched off at release. Jagex's safe list, in turn, has the Karamja Elite Diary resurrection in the Fight Caves, which the wiki's HCGIM list does not. Until Jagex says otherwise, treat the PvM Arena, Emir's Arena and both replays as unsafe on Hardcore Worlds.

Rule of thumb: plan as if every PvM death counts. The only PvM deaths on the safe list are the last phase of the Koschei duel and the two diary resurrections. TzHaar-Ket-Rak's Challenges, a safe PvM activity on neither list, carries the HCGIM warning on the wiki, so treat it as unsafe too.

Unsafe for HCIM and HCGIM today, Wintertodt included

1. 1

   Wintertodt

   is a boss, so a death there is unsafe, and letting your warmth reach 0% kills you instantly.

2. 2

   Theatre of Blood

   is a dangerous death even if your team finishes the raid, and a disconnect or logout during a fight counts as a death. The exception is an escape crystal in your inventory: since 26 March 2025, logging out with one uses it up and puts you outside the raid when you log back in, with hardcore status kept (Poll 83 QoL Changes).

3. 3

   Tombs of Amascut

   is a dangerous death. A disconnect or logout outside a safe area such as the Nexus counts as one, failing to reconnect to your party afterwards always does, and the same escape crystal logout rule applies.

4. 4

   The Gauntlet

   is dangerous even though you take no items in. Escape crystals made inside let you teleport out instantly.

5. 5

   The Fortis Colosseum

   is classed as a dangerous activity.

6. 6

   The Wilderness:

   Jagex says PvP deaths follow the usual Wilderness rules, so a player killer takes the usual loot, and the death sends you to Death's Office like any other.

Escape Crystal on Hardcore Worlds: Free at the Start, Changes Planned

Every Hardcore Worlds character starts with an escape crystal in its inventory, according to Jagex's 22 October post. Jagex describes it as an escape option that helps prevent unfortunate deaths: it can fire on its own after a set time with no input, which helps if you disconnect or your device crashes.

The post also lists three changes Jagex would like to make in the main game and on Hardcore Worlds. They are plans with no release date, so until they ship the crystal works as the wiki describes it today.

Jagex wants to keep a price on purpose, because a free crystal would be a free teleport to your respawn point, and says 10,000 coins is low enough to buy one with the coins from the Stronghold of Security. Until that change is live a replacement costs 75,000 coins, so do not spend the starting crystal on a trip a normal teleport covers.

How to set it up

Configure the timer before your first risky trip. The auto-teleport fires when you take damage after the inactivity time you choose, up to 300 seconds, waits until you stop moving, and fires at once if you take damage just after logging in or hopping worlds. The wiki lists the activities it can teleport you out of: Barbarian Assault, Chambers of Xeric, the Inferno, Pest Control, Theatre of Blood, TzHaar-Ket-Rak's Challenges and Tombs of Amascut, plus the Gauntlet if the crystal was in your inventory when you went in. Elsewhere, Jagex's 2023 update notes say the inactivity teleport only works where you could teleport away normally, so not in deep Wilderness or under a Tele Block.

Worn in ring-of-life mode, it also saves you at low Hitpoints like a ring of life, which suits open-world training. It can then no longer teleport you out of those activities, so take it off before you go into one.

Hardcore Worlds vs Hardcore Ironman (HCIM)

Both modes give you one life. The differences are trading, which worlds you play on, what a death does to the account, and which deaths count: 13 activities that are safe for an HCIM are unsafe on Hardcore Worlds.

Verdict: pick Hardcore Worlds if you want one-life stakes and a market to trade in, and you are happy to start from nothing on new worlds. Pick Hardcore Ironman if you want to be self-sufficient on the normal worlds and keep the Fight Caves, the Inferno and the Nightmare Zone as safe deaths. Pick Hardcore Group Ironman if you have one to four friends to share lives with.

How HCIM and HCGIM work today

A Hardcore Ironman has one life on top of the normal Ironman restrictions (Ironman Mode). After an unsafe death the account becomes a regular Ironman, its experience and total level on the Hardcore Ironman HiScores are locked, and the name is shown struck through.

Hardcore Group Ironman shares one life per player across a group of 2 to 5: a group of three has three lives, and one player can lose several of them. Hardcore groups must also keep prestige, so they cannot do Chambers of Xeric, Theatre of Blood, Tombs of Amascut, the Fractured Archive, The Nightmare, Nex, the Royal Titans or Yama with players outside the group. Jagex says Hardcore Worlds use the HCGIM rule set for death; nothing in either post ties shared lives or prestige limits to the new mode. Our Group Ironman guide covers how groups run day to day.

Hardcore Worlds vs a Normal Main, and Who It Suits

Rate for rate, a Hardcore Worlds character plays like a normal main. The differences are where you play, who you trade with and what a death costs.

Who it suits

1. 1

   Main players who want stakes.

   You keep trading and the Grand Exchange, but nearly any death ends the run.

2. 2

   Players who like markets.

   An economy that loses items to deaths rewards people who gather and make what others need.

3. 3

   Hardcore Ironmen thinking of switching.

   Hardcore Worlds characters have main privileges rather than Ironman restrictions, and 13 of your safe deaths become unsafe. If self-sufficiency is the part you enjoy, stay on HCIM.

4. 4

   Groups.

   No group mode has been announced. Death's Office will be a place to find a clan for Hardcore Worlds players, but each character still has its own life. If you want shared lives with friends, Hardcore Group Ironman exists today.

5. 5

   Not for you if

   you want faster XP or better drops. Jagex rules out XP multipliers, drop rate modifiers and boosts of any kind.

World First Broadcasts and the Shared Death's Office

Hardcore Worlds get their own broadcasts. Jagex will announce each World First once, and major deaths above a threshold it has not published, with how and where the player died when that is possible. The full World First list comes later; the 22 October post gives four examples:

• First completion of the Fractured Archive, the fourth raid.
• First completion of the TzHaar Fight Caves.
• First completion of the Grandmaster Combat Achievements.
• First death on Hardcore Worlds.

Of the three completion firsts, the Fight Caves needs the least progress, and a death there is unsafe unless the Karamja Elite Diary resurrection catches it, so the first Hardcore Worlds fire cape will come from someone willing to risk the character. Everyone on these worlds has only progressed there, at the same pace, so every World First is a race on equal terms.

Death's Office becomes a shared hub

For the first time, Death's Office will be un-instanced on all worlds, so you will see other players around Death's desk. It is where new characters arrive from Tutorial Island, where you come back to choose Reset or Transfer after a death, and a place to find a clan for Hardcore Worlds players. You can still walk in at any time: on the normal worlds its entrances sit by the major respawn points, such as the Lumbridge graveyard by the church (Death's Office).

World Switcher Changes Coming at the End of November

Jagex is reworking the World Switcher for the new world type, but not for launch day: it is aiming to ship the changes with an engine update towards the end of November. What the post lists:

1. 1

   Login screen:

   the World Switcher box shows the selected world's type and region.

2. 2

   Filters

   for game modes, regions, and members and free-to-play worlds. Hardcore Worlds sit under the "Show game modes" filter.

3. 3

   Activities

   shown on each world, so you no longer hover over a world to find the right one for a grind.

4. 4

   Mobile

   gets the same filters and features.

5. 5

   Compact view

   on desktop squeezes the list back towards the old size, with your filters still applied.

So for the first few weeks after 4 November, expect the current World Switcher. Jagex has not said how Hardcore Worlds are marked in it before the update lands.

HiScores, Membership, F2P and What Is Not Announced Yet

The 22 October post settled the death rules, but Jagex has not yet announced any of the following.

1. 1

   Launch time

   on 4 November.

2. 2

   Membership and accounts:

   whether you need membership or a Jagex Account, and whether free-to-play Hardcore Worlds exist.

3. 3

   World list:

   how many Hardcore Worlds there are, their numbers and where they are hosted.

4. 4

   HiScores:

   whether Hardcore Worlds get their own, and what happens to an entry after a reset or a transfer. On the normal worlds, a fallen HCIM's entry is locked and struck through.

5. 5

   Rewards:

   any armour, chat badge or title. Hardcore Ironmen have their own armour and chat badge on the normal worlds.

6. 6

   Groups:

   any group play or shared lives, as Hardcore Group Ironman has.

7. 7

   Reset edge cases:

   how one-off rewards such as the Stronghold of Security coins work after a reset. Jagex says more is coming before release.

8. 8

   Item retrieval services:

   the post covers the gravestone only, not the bosses and raids that hold items in a retrieval service instead.

9. 9

   Broadcasts:

   the death threshold for a broadcast, and the full World First list.

10. 10

    Escape crystal timing:

    whether the planned price, seller and status-effect changes arrive on 4 November or later.

11. 11

    Disconnects:

    any rule beyond the escape crystal. Player Support will not restore status, so treat a disconnect death as final.

Some sites already quote bond prices, membership rules or ways to swap GP to a main. None of that is in Jagex's posts: the only confirmed link to the main game is a Transfer after a death, which moves the character itself.

Staying Alive: Tools and Habits for a One-Life Character

Hardcore accounts lean on three items and one prayer: the ring of life, the phoenix necklace, the escape crystal and Protect Item. Hardcore Worlds hand you the escape crystal at the start. Jagex has said nothing different about the other two, so read the table as main-game behaviour. All three items are members items on the normal worlds.

Ring of life, phoenix necklace and escape crystal

Wear the necklace and the ring together. The necklace fires first, which gives you one more chance to eat or teleport before the ring pulls you out. Check the ring is still on after every trip, because it crumbles after one use.

Disconnects and logouts

Jagex's answer to disconnects and crashes is the escape crystal, and its post says Player Support will not restore hardcore status on an individual basis for any reason; only an issue that hits many players at once gets a team review. On the normal worlds, a disconnect inside the Theatre of Blood or Tombs of Amascut can count as a death unless an escape crystal is in your inventory (see the list above). Outside its listed activities the timer only fires where a normal teleport would work, so it cannot save you in deep Wilderness or under a Tele Block; wear a ring of life as a second layer.

In the TzHaar Fight Cave you can request a logout mid-wave: the cave pauses after that wave and the next one starts when you log back in, which gives your Hitpoints time to recover. Logging out fully during a wave restarts that wave instead.

Easy deaths to miss

1. 1

   Wintertodt warmth.

   A ring of life fires when warmth drops below 10%, and a phoenix necklace at 20% or less restores warmth. Our Wintertodt guide covers food and warm clothing.

2. 2

   Low-Hitpoints skilling.

   The wiki's Death page lists failed Agility shortcuts and obstacles, Thieving traps, nettles picked without gloves and beehives without protective gear among sources of lethal damage.

3. 3

   Other players' monsters.

   Under the HCGIM rules, the wiki warns about minigames where other players can provoke monsters that detonate next to you, such as splatters in Pest Control.

4. 4

   Nightmare Zone exits.

   If you use it at all, leave by drinking one of the wake potions on the north or south side of the arena instead of letting a dream end in death (Nightmare Zone).

Preparing for Launch: An Early-Game Plan

No tested route for Hardcore Worlds exists yet, because nobody has played it. These steps rest on the confirmed rules and on how the game's mechanics work today.

1. 1

   Pick your death plan before 4 November.

   On a transfer plan, keep valuables in the bank, because a transfer brings the bank and every storage with it. On a reset plan, the bank is wiped with everything else, so weigh each risky trip against the hours of progress it puts on the line.

2. 2

   Set up the starting escape crystal on day one.

   Configure the inactivity timer, and wear it in ring-of-life mode while you train in the open world. Save it for real danger: a replacement costs 75,000 coins until the planned 10,000-coin price goes live.

3. 3

   Get 25 Prayer early

   for Protect Item, which lifts your kept items from three to four.

4. 4

   Carry only what you keep.

   Before any fight, open View items kept on death and bank the rest. Stay unskulled: a skull drops your kept items to zero, or one with Protect Item.

5. 5

   Make your safety jewellery.

   A phoenix necklace and a ring of life each take Lvl-4 Enchant at 57 Magic on a diamond necklace or ring. Both are members items, and membership on Hardcore Worlds is not confirmed yet.

6. 6

   Train away from the unsafe list.

   The Nightmare Zone, Pest Control, Barbarian Assault and the Magic Training Arena are common training spots on normal accounts, and all four are on Jagex's unsafe list for Hardcore Worlds.

7. 7

   Plan Wintertodt and Wilderness trips like boss trips.

   A Wintertodt death is unsafe. Above level 20 Wilderness most teleports stop working, so bring food and a ring of life, which works up to level 30, and remember that a player killer takes the usual loot.

8. 8

   Train one production skill early if you want to trade.

   Jagex's own examples of striking it rich are a master craftsman or blacksmith, and an economy that loses items to deaths keeps needing new gear.

Common Mistakes

1. 1

   Bringing your best gear.

   Unskulled with Protect Item you keep your 4 most valuable items plus anything the interface marks as always kept. Everything else you carry is deleted on death, even if you choose Transfer.

2. 2

   Using the HCIM safe list.

   Jagex lists 13 activities that are safe for a Hardcore Ironman but unsafe here, including the Fight Caves, the Inferno, the Nightmare Zone, Pest Control and Barbarian Assault.

3. 3

   Following the wiki's HCGIM safe list.

   Emir's Arena and the Galvek and Glough replays are on the wiki's list but not on Jagex's, and Last Man Standing is switched off at release. Go by Jagex's seven safe entries instead, where Zulrah and the Fight Caves count only through their diary resurrections.

4. 4

   Choosing Reset or Transfer in the moment.

   Reset wipes the bank along with everything else, and Transfer is one-way. Settle it before your first risky trip, because it decides whether banking your valuables protects them.

5. 5

   Counting on Player Support after a disconnect.

   Jagex will not restore hardcore status on an individual basis for any reason. Configure the escape crystal and wear a ring of life instead of trusting your connection.

Where Paid Help Fits

We take Hardcore Ironman and Hardcore Group Ironman orders, and the team plays by hand to avoid any death. A sudden internet or power cut can still cause one. That is rare and never on purpose, but our terms do not cover a lost Hardcore status, so ordering on a hardcore account means accepting that risk; tell us on the ticket that the account is hardcore.

If you want resources gathered on an HCIM while you handle the dangerous parts yourself, our ironman gathering service covers that. For a Hardcore Worlds character, ask on the ticket before ordering: the mode opens on 4 November, and Jagex has said Player Support will not restore hardcore status there after a death, the same as for a Hardcore Ironman.

FAQ

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