Every class has two sides: the normal side you already play, and a Hardcore side that starts at level 1 with one life. A Hardcore run is one class with one life on that side: you play it exactly as you would any other class, and the first time it falls where a death costs you something, the run is over.

Beginning a run

• Open the class picker. Beneath any class you will see ☠ Begin a Hardcore run. Confirm, and the class loads on its Hardcore side: level 1, no EXP, the stats a new character starts with. Your normal side waits exactly as you left it.
• Only that side is on the run. Your other classes, the normal side of this one, and everything your account owns are untouched.
• Guest accounts cannot begin a run, and a class on a run cannot begin another until it has fallen.

Switching sides

• A class with two sides offers both on the class picker: Play the normal side or Play the Hardcore side. Each side keeps its own level, EXP and class stats. A switch is a class change: buffs end and you enter at full health.
• Both sides share everything else: the class’s choices (its paths, stances and locker) and all your account owns — gold, items, titles, professions.
• A Hardcore side fights alone: it cannot take a Support Class, and the Wandering Path (the Support Class quest) is closed to it — no accepting, no Sigils from its kills, no turn-in. The normal side keeps the Support Class it has.
• A run can only fall while you are playing the Hardcore side, so sides switch only out of harm’s way: not inside a dungeon, a raid or a duel, and not within a minute of a fight.

What ends a run

• Falling in the overworld, a dungeon or a raid — the deaths that already cost you your carried gold and 20% of your EXP.
• The Labyrinth, guild raids, the echo arena and PvP duels are safe: the game treats those as non-deaths, so nobody can be duelled out of a run.
• A Last Resort that saves you is not a death. Any blow that leaves you standing leaves the run standing.

When a run falls

• The class returns to level 1 on its Hardcore side: that side’s level, EXP and class stats go back to their starting values, and the usual cost of that death still applies. The normal side is untouched.
• What the Hardcore side gained while you played it is destroyed: the loot, drops, crafts and purchases made on that side, wherever they sit — bag, worn, Vault, locker, or listed at the auction house. A stack loses only the units it gained there. What you owned before the run, and what your normal side or any other class gained, stays exactly as it was; an item the run gave away, sold or mailed belongs to its new owner.
• Your gold, titles, and everything you bought or chose for that class before the run stay. You may begin a new run on the class afterwards, or switch back to its normal side.
• The run keeps its place in the Hall of Legends, struck through: the level it reached, what felled it, where, and how long it lived.

Milestones

A living run earns a title, once, as it reaches each of these levels. The titles stay yours whatever happens afterwards.

While a run lives and you are playing its side, a ☠ skull stands beside your name in chat, on the online list and on your profile, and the Hall of Legends ranks every living run by its level.