Hardcore League
The Hardcore League is an experience that tests the skill of players with the ultimate penalty for failure - permadeath!
During the Hardcore League, goals are set for players, and progress is based on two factors, each with their own ladder: One tests the player’s ability to conquer as many quests as possible, and the other tests the player’s ability to survive in the hardest mode ever brought to the game.
The top 100 winners of the two ladders will be immortalized in the Hall of Heroes.
Once you reach a goal, speak to the Hardcore League NPC to collect your reward! The reward will be unlocked for your account, and can be accessed by any of your characters on any of the servers.
All players can access the Hardcore League server regardless of their account type! Standard account restrictions apply based on whether you are a VIP.
During each Season Transfers FROM the Hardcore server are available for FREE to other game worlds, and there will be a period of time to transfer your characters from the server for FREE when the season ends. It is not possible to transfer a character from another world to the Hardcore League.
If you die, you're dead, drawn away to the Land of Lost Souls. No Raise Dead, no self-raises, no res shrines, no res cakes, no Jibbers, no nothing, thank you for playing, this character is done on the Hardcore League server. Period.
- Deaths:
- Deaths from quest-specific mechanics (such as The Shroud part 4 death) and /death command do count.
- Death is Announced: World Broadcasts are sent to inform people what killed people at which level. (It doesn't announce the death of Level 1 characters.)
- Once your character is sent to the nether realm, they will not be able to access the shared bank on the Hardcore League server, thus cannot transfer any item that is in their possession to any character.
- Dead characters can't escape from the nether realm until a hardcore season ends, which means it prevents you playing these characters.
- Dead characters will be returned from the nether realm to arrange your inventory and your bank slots after the Season.
- Upon transferring your dead character to regular servers which stays in the nether realm still, It'll automatically bring you to Marketplace from there. You might want to transfer your character rather than to delete it if it has valuable items.
- Starting level:
- All characters start at level 1, even Iconics. Veteran Status will not help you.
- At level 15, iconic characters get their starting gear, as normal.
- Lockout:
- You cannot enter a dungeon if your level is more than 4 (2 in Season 6 and 8) levels higher than the base challenge rating.
- "Base" means the challenge rating on Normal difficulty.
- Hall of the Mark and Return to Delera's Tomb are exempt from the level lockout.
- Wildernesses are also exempt from the level lockout.
- Epic characters (i.e. character level 20 and higher) cannot enter heroic dungeons. The two level 20 heroic dungeons, Dreaming Dark and the ToD raid are exempt from this rule, but these are Base level 20, so should not be considered Heroic.
- Challenges also have a lockout. Starting with season 6, challenges are judged based on your chosen quest level and not the base level. So a level 15 can enter a challenge set to levels 13+. Level 12 would be too low.
- You cannot enter a dungeon if your level is more than 4 (2 in Season 6 and 8) levels higher than the base challenge rating.
- Transfer:
- You cannot transfer characters to this server, but you can transfer your characters (even dead ones) from the HCL server to any of the regular servers. This transfer is free.
- After the season, you are able to run around the world, do quests, etc, but it does not effect the season rewards.
- Items in a Shared Bank, Mail, and any/all Guild Ship storage are not transferred. Take them on a Character when that character is transferred, or leave them behind.
- Misc:
- Hirelings and the DDO Store are allowed. The goal is to be as close to live servers as possible.
- Festivals and other events (such as Treasure of Crystal Cove) are not available on the Hardcore Server.
Players can get exclusive cosmetic rewards for participating / meeting certain goals (favor, reaper XP, level). Note that the character that has unlocked a reward must speak to the Hardcore League NPC to unlock that reward. Only once that is done, then it can be claimed on any character on any server on that account once the season is over.
Each season has a different reward NPC, but they are always in the same spot, the Hall of Heroes.
On the Hardcore server, the NPC is already located in several other locations:
- Korthos Village - Near the Heyton's Rest quest
- Hall of Heroes - Forgotton Realms
You need to make sure you pick up your rewards at least once before you die or move off the server, otherwise the reward is lost.