Hardcore characters are exactly the same as regular characters, except that they are mortal. When they die, they stay dead. Forever. No restarting in town; no restarting anywhere.
Dead hardcore characters in Diablo 2 are able to log back onto the Battle.net chat channels, but they can not join or create games. It's not known how this aspect of things will be handled in Diablo III.
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D3 Hardcore Confirmed
After months of "probably" type comments, Hardcore was confirmed as a Diablo 3 feature in August, 2010. Here's a brief timeline of official statements on the subject.
D3 Hardcore Characters Will Look Special
How HC chars will differ isn't yet known, but the D3 Team has repeatedly said they'll be set apart from regular characters in some obvious fashion. [1]
- Will hardcore characters be more powerful than normal? --Spectrusv
- No intent, no. But they’ll definitely have more prestige and flashy things to show off for being so awesome. --Diablo
June 2008
From the Diablo 3 Design Fundamentals panel, at the 2008 WWI event:
- Q: Will there be Hardcore mode?
- A: We haven't decided yet, but I don't see why we wouldn't. It’s not a decision we need to make yet. We probably will, though.
- Q: Will there be Hardcore mode?
April 2009
Bashiok in a forum post.[2]
- Question: Has anymore thought been put into Hardcore? Are any features decided-upon?
- Bashiok: I think the last thing I heard from Jay on it in public was something along the lines of “Ok fine we’ll just commit to a hardcore mode here and now” outside of that no details have been released.
- Question: Has anymore thought been put into Hardcore? Are any features decided-upon?
August 2010
In an interview with GameSpot AU, Jay Wilson confirmed that Hardcore is definitely returning to Diablo III.[3]
- Hardcore is definitely returning to Diablo III, but we haven’t decided what sort of special Battle.net features we’ll enable with it. We want to make sure that if you see a HC char on B.net, you’ll know they’re HC. It’s a status symbol, and it’s only one if you know. We’re looking for ways to reward players, and we’re sure we’ll have a set of HC achievements also.
Paying to Resurrect Hardcore Characters?
This concept was initially floated in a forum post by Blizzard's Diablo 3 Community Manager Bashiok, in July 2009. [4]. Reaction from the Hardcore community was fairly outraged and almost entirely negative[5], and when the issue came up again in April 2010, Bashiok said it had been pretty much ruled out.[6]
- Paying to bring back a fallen hardcore character was something I read someone here post once, and I simply repeated it to say I thought it was an interesting idea. I’m not a designer. Things I find interesting doesn’t mean they’re being implemented. I have though heard Jay (who is lead designer) say that paying to bring back hardcore is pretty much a horrible idea.
PvP
At Blizzcon 2010's Open Q&A panel, fans repeatedly asked whether there would be any sort of hardcore PvP support in Diablo III. Jay Wilson revealed that to a hardcore character, death is always permanent, including PvP. This probably negates the Arena component of Diablo III entirely for hardcore players.
Additional HC Content
- You can read more about the Hardcore Mode of Diablo II in DiabloWiki Hardcore Mode
- Hardcore D3 Forum
- Hardcore D2 Forum
- D2 Hardcore Graveyard Image Gallery