Hardcore mode is effectively a mode of the game where your character dies permanently, but you may spend accumulated Prestige Points to give acquired items to another, non-Hardcore character.

Currently created characters can not be used in Hardcore. You will have to create a New Character to play Hardcore.

In Hardcore mode, you have no access to:

• The Auction House
• The Energy Exchange
• The Energy Depot
• Krogmo's Coliseum
• Hall of Heroes
• The "Return to Haven" Feature
• Costumes and Accessories
• Punch and Vise

You may whisper non-HC characters and join their instances of Haven, however they can not join your instances of Haven and you still cannot access any of the functions you normally wouldn't be able to in HC. Non-HC characters cannot trade HC characters at all. Or send them Mail.

This means you have to earn all of your items by reaching Basil, or buying the generic recipes Vatel offers.

You might ask: "How do you get energy to craft without the Exchange?"

And the answer is simple, you use prestige to craft.
And if you're wondering how this will all work, it's fairly simple.

Your prestige total would display next to your prestige current.
So say you have 26,000 Prestige but you crafted a few things.
It would appear as 24,000/26,000 Prestige where Energy on the UI is typically displayed.
Your total is still the only one displayed when people inspect you.

Elevators cost nothing, but you can only run certain missions once a day or once a week.
If you need to farm for Crowns, you have to go to the Clockworks.

The Clockworks, however, have a higher chance of experiencing 'power distortions' the more you run them.
Power distortions effectively make all enemies stronger, or you much weaker. Remember that if you die, your character is gone forever.
So playing it safe and not running more than a few times a day, doing a few missions, is preferable.
You can risk it and get much increased rewards from fighting power distorted enemies, but for the most part you will end up dying horribly.
Completing Clockworks levels effectively awards you Depth x 10 Prestige as well.
You also cannot summon people into your instance, unless you're at a Terminal or Lobby.

If your character is knocked unconscious in a group, the usual methods of reviving on the spot or going to the elevator will bring them back to life. So whether you're revived or not you will still live as long as everyone else does.
However, if everyone dies, you're almost out of luck.
You can use an SOS beacon to summon other Knights down to your level to rescue you, like a Player Generated Mission (Or White Soapstone). This awards them Prestige according to how difficult the level is and gives you both an Escape Rope to leave the dungeon with.
However they cost quite a lot of Prestige and may not be feasible for all characters.
Escape Ropes are also purchasable with Prestige, but they too are expensive.

Escape Ropes let you leave a dungeon before you reach the elevator.
If you leave a dungeon before you reach the elevator, your character will be dead the next time you log-in unless they had an escape rope in their arsenal.

I'm tossing around the idea of a self-revive that you can't use in non-Power Distorted areas, that is allocated to you on all of your runs. However you can only use ONE self-revive per day. You can purchase additional slots (account bound) that replenish each day at 12:00AM server time for real money, but that's it.

Now you might be wondering: "What's the point to all this? It sounds like you just want features removed to make the game harder and I don't like the game being hard" and well, one part of it is that I want the game to be a bit more like it was during the beta.
However, the other part of it is pretty simple. Legacy items can also have Legacy UVs attached to them. Characters with very high prestige can give their non-HC counterparts excellent equipment at no real cost to the player. Legacy items cannot be unbound, however.

There will be a Prestige Ladder for LIVING characters, based on amount earned that week, and a ladder for DECEASED characters based on overall prestige earned during their lifetime. There will also be a small graveyard area in which you can visit the graves of the top-ranked HC players as well as your own and your friend's deceased HC characters in both HC and non-HC Havens. These player's graves could feature in certain Missions as well as Graveyards.
Imagine running past a Headstone that read your HC character's name with a statue of their likeness atop it, while being chased by a Phantom. It's positively delightful, isn't it?

It also gives people who are tired of the LD/Dress Up portion of the game, something to do. And requires you to have some skill rather than your mommy's credit card to thrive.

Anyway I've probably missed stuff that I wanted to put in this thread, but I've been writing it up for a while.
Hopefully you'll have at least gone past the title and first two lines of the thread before posting like the poop flinging baboons you are.