Hello, I am a long time Diablo IV enjoyer with over 1500 hours in D4 on Steam. 90% of it was spent in Hardcore (HC) mode.

Thank you for checking out my guide🐀 Whether you are new to HC, an experienced HC vet, or simply just want to try it out, I've got you covered!

In this guide I will go over 2 topics:

• Part I - Survival tips & tricks: Basic survival tips in Hardcore mode
  
• Part II - Hardcore achievements: What they are, their requirements, and the most efficient way to attempt them

• If you are making your first ever Hardcore character, you need to complete all renown for each region again.
  
• This allows you to claim extra skill points and extra paragon points, which are permanent and can be used across all characters, all seasons.
  
• Do tasks such as: getting all Lilith statues, exploring 100% of the map, doing side quests, etc. Hold off on clearing the Side Dungeons for now.
  
• To check your renown progress, open up your map with [Tab], then press [W]

• Then, from level 1 to 60, play in the difficulty that you are most comfortable in, ideally in Normal - Hard difficulty.
  
• If it takes you a long time to kill a low level mob, or a single mob hit takes away half of your HP, maybe it's a good idea to lower your difficulty level.

This is the first and most important stat to keep track of. In Softcore (SC), defence is often sacrificed for damage by a lot of people, because you can always just respawn. In Harcore (HC) however, 99% of your defence lies in your resistance & armor stats. Do NOT skip over this because you think the low level mobs won't get to you.

Whether you play in SC or Hardcore HC, to prevent damage to a large chunk of your HP or otherwise being 1-shotted, your armour and resistance should be above the minimum at all time. [very important!!!]

• This means these stats are green when you open the character menu (default keybind: C > stats & materials)
  
• There are a number of ways to increase or decrease your resistance & armor as needed, such as: using incense, gems, gear tempering, etc.
  
• I covered all of them in details in this guide here:

https://test1.login.steam.hlxgame.cc/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3558653627


World bosses (WB) can and will 1 shot you!

• Unless you have a skill that gives you incinvibility (such as sorcerer's flame shield), taking damage from world bosses more often than not will get you killed.
  
• As far as I know, there is no reward difference from doing a Torment 4 WB versus a Torment 1 WB, so play it safe and do the lowest torment level you can.
  
• You also don't have to actively fight the whole time. You just hit it once, then stand on the very edge of the arena. A lot of HC players do this, therefor your average HC WB arena often looks like this:

Now that you are protected from the mobs, let's get into protecting yourself from the players.

Unwanted player killing (PK) in HC happens more than you think. There really isn't an in-game report system where you can report those that wrongly got you killed. It's up to you to protect your own character.

How does PVP (Player vs. Player fights) in Diablo IV work?

• PVP can only be done in the PVP arena called Fields of Hatred. There are 2 of them in Dry Steppes.
  
• PVP can be initiated by a bloodmarked player against both non-bloodmarked & bloodmarked players.
  
• Bloodmarked players are visible on the map only to other bloodmarked players.

This applies for both players you know and players you don't know.

When you join a party, you are often prompted with "teleport to leader?". It's not a big deal in SC, but in HC, don't blindly click Yes.

• If the party leader is malicious, they'll already be standing at PVP-enabled zones. Once you teleport to them, they remove themself from the party, thus making them hostile, and you will be killed that way.
  
• Even if the party leader is not malicious, you often do not know what Torment (T) difficulty this party is in. If you're only playing in T1 and the party you join is playing at T4, and you teleport to the leader without knowing, you will be killed.

Instead, when you join a party (whether from the Party Finder feature, or just for trading), make sure of these things:

• Check where the party leader is. Make sure they aren't camping in a PVP zone.
  
• Check the Torment difficulty of the party. Make sure it is a difficulty you can handle.

Maybe you want some red dust (PVP currency) to redeem cool PVP cosmetics, maybe you want to farm rare mobs, etc. whatever the reason is where you need to roam the PVP zone.

I recommend marking yourself as Bloodmarked (can be done in action wheel, pictured below). Bloodmarked players are visible to each other in the PVP zone, as such, you can see other bloodmarked players from miles away and avoid them.

If you accidentally disconnect from the D4 server, either due to your own internet or it's a server issue, having a scroll of escape in your inventory might save you! When that happens:

• The scroll will be automatically consumed
  
• You are automatically teleported to a safe town (usually Kyovashad)
  
• The next time you login, your character will have lost nothing other than the scroll

1. What are scrolls of escape?
   Scroll of escapes are a hardcore-only item that can quickly get you out of danger and teleports you to safety.
   
   
   
2. Where are scrolls of escape dropped?
   They naturally are dropped everywhere throughout Sanctuary: in the open world, in loot chests, pit rewards, etc. I personally find them the most in the Equipment chest in Infernal Horde.
   
   
3. How to use scrolls of escape
   - They can be consumed directly from your consumable inventory (default binding: right click), or you can bind them to your action wheel (default binding: R) for quick access.
   - They are scarced, so only use them when you absolutely need to (such as starting a boss fight you obviously aren't qualified for, sudden PVP encounter, etc)
   - Tip: Keep all of your escape scrolls in your storage, but have only 2 on your body at all time.
   

If you disconnect from D4 server mid-fight and you have no scroll of escape, there's a good chance you will lose that character.

Losing a character to death is okay! It is very common among HC players. Always happens at least once to almost everyone during a season.

Here's what you lose when your character dies:

• Your gears (including slotted gems & runes)
  
• Your paragon glyphs
  
• Your inventory content

and what your new character inherits:

• Your gold, masterwork resources, obols, etc
  
• Your paragon & skill points
  
• Seasonal currency & powers
  
• Aspects

So basically, you lose nothing but your equipped gears and paragon glyphs. Those are easy to get back. I recommend

• Keep a set of back up gears in your storage.
  
• Keep unopened whisper caches: Not only does opening them provide XP (not enough to level to 60, but I will get into this more in the next part), they also provide paragon glyphs! Definitely my most go-to way to get back my glyphs. There is always at least 1 glyph per whsiper cache.

It's possible to go from level 1 - 60 entirely from whisper caches alone, but you need like, 27 caches in total.

As you already know, your unspent paragon points are only usable once you are past level 60, which brings me to my next point: Make some friends while you play HC!
These internet randos can quickly powerlevel (PL) you back to level 60, and back to your paragon level so you can quickly set up your new character again. I will go over how this can be done in HC in the next part.

It's possible to be carried to level 60 (T1) quickly by playing the Pit.

• You (fresh character) cannot open a Pit yourself, but someone who carries you can.
  
• You, the leech, can sit safely at the entrance after the pit opens, while your carry progresses through it.
  
• After you join the pit portal, DO NOT CLICK ANYTHING. don't press any button. you are essentially invisible to the mobs. moving even just 1 inch may mark you as a target and get you killed. Alternatively, the carry can join first, clear all mobs at the entrance, and signal that it's safe for you to enter.
  
• After all mobs are cleared and the second portal opens, go through it. Don't hop in the boss room and keep a good distance away from it.

For T1 Lair Bosses, If you can comfortably survive & defeat T2's mobs, you are ready for Lair Bosses at T1. The same goes for T2 and T3
For T4 especially, if you can do at least 5 billion worth of damage, you are ready for Lair Bosses at T4

For T4 Belial, I recommend at least 20 billion damage minimum to comfortably fight him.


How do I see my damage number?
Go to Settings > Gameplay > Combat Text Options > Enabled. This will display your damage numbers. Then, go to a training room (there are 2 on the map, Kyovashad & Kurast.).



Your hits on the training dummy will show your damage number. Customize it to be an Elite dummy, boss Dummy, etc however you like.
You can even customize it to damage you. Be careful, you can die this way.

Picture this: you just logged in, and you are in T4. Your friend invites you to their party. You accept and teleport to them. They are in T1. So, you are playing in T1 with them

You go fight to the world boss (WB) together, at T1. World boss is dead in under a minute, yay! You pick up the loot cache gleefully. Still at the WB area, you open the party menu, click "leave party", because you obviously are done right? You want to go do other things.

When you leave the party, you are no longer in T1. You are placed back in T4 the moment you left that party. So, you are transported right into the middle of the T4 WB arena, where the boss usually takes no less than 5 minuters to be killed. The WB crushes you in half a second. You die before your screen even finishes loading in.

(totally didn't happen to me once)

I'm not sure how to put this into words, so that is my personal anecdote to you. Always be aware of your surrounding, your difficulty tier, and if possible, teleport to town before leaving a party.

There are some mythic uniques that are otherwise useless in SC and in other setting, but can be swapped for in HC because of their amazing defensive stats.

If you happen to pick one up and don't have anything better to use for your build, they're pretty nice.

Tyraels Might:
+damage reduction, +resistance to elements. If you triple crit +dmg reduction at the blacksmith, this stat can reach +50%


Melted Heart of Selig:
+damage reduction. I also really love its unique perk


There are not many things in Diablo IV that can 1 shot you, especially after following all the safety tips I've mentioned.

I would advise that you be extremely cautious of the poison puddles (from poison enchanted mobs). I have had a handful of characters died due to them getting me from 100% - 1% health in a split second, even with full defense and what not. Don't stand in these puddles, get out of the way ASAP!


Additionally, as of the time of writing this guide (season 10), the only bosses I know that can 1 shot you are: belial, andariel, and duriel. The other bosses do not have 1 shot mechanics, but you still need to kill them fast enough so they don't go into invincible mode.

I am very biased, so I of course recommend my favourite class, Necromancer, specifically the Minion Mage build (from season 9). Here is a guide to it. [maxroll.gg]

I love it because it is so effortless. No button mashing. No click spamming. All you have to do is move around, and your minions kill everything for you. Especially in HC and in the open world, I go AFK a lot and have never died due to my minions killing everything automatically.
(I'll update with new build links if this one is depreciated in future seasons)

Hardcore achievements (challenges) for Diablo IV are not included in the 35 achievements you see on Steam.



Instead, they are only in-game and are accessible by opening the Escape menu > Collections > Challenges > Hardcore. As of November 2025, there are a total of 25 Hardcore challenges, divided in three subcategories: 11 in General, 8 in Enemies, and 6 in Progression.

The following achievements are mostly story related and unmissable.

• If you start a new character just to go through the story mode, I recommend playing in the Normal difficulty for the best experience.
  
• A lot of these bosses are different from their Lair Boss counterparts. They should die very easily and do not have multiple invincible phases.

These achievements are all obtained automatically as you play the game and reach certain level.



The grindiest achievement "Courageous Paragon: Reach Paragon 300 (P300)" can be done through multiple seasons.

• When a season ends, your character in the seasonal realm is transferred to the non-seasonal realm, making it become a non-seasonal character.
  
• Over mutlple seasons, the XP you gain on your seasonal character adds up in the non-seasonal realm, eventually reaching P300

Keep in mind, the amount of XP it takes to reach P300 is enormous.


As you can see, the amount of XP it takes to go from P1 to P243 is the same as leveling from P298 to P300. Therefor, it is recommended that you don't attempt the Courageous Paragon achievement in a singular season's time (2 - 3 months).

Additionally, the XP grinding meta changes every season, so check out Youtube and various D4 content creators for the current best XP leveling methods.

This is the only Hardcore achievement that's not in the Hardcore category.

• Category: Citadel
  
• Subcategory: First Khazra Citadel
  
• Title: Khazra Warrior
  
• Description: Complete the Rise of the Khazra, Dark Citadel, in Hardcore

This achievement cannot be completed solo. Because of the nature of Dark Citadel (DC) dungeons, you need a party of at least 2 to 4 members, who all are familiar with DC's one shot mechanics.

I understand it is very difficult to LFG for this mode, especially in HC, so if you need someone to run it with you, feel free to add me.

Otherwise, I suggest finding someone in the Diablo IV Discussion Forum.

I hope this guide covers everything basic you wanted to know about Hardcore mode in Diablo IV. If I'm missing something or I got something wrong, feel free to comment down below!

Check out my other Diablo IV guide:
https://test1.login.steam.hlxgame.cc/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3558653627