Hero Siege Hardcore and Co-op Guide: Permadeath and Multiplayer (S10)

What Does the Hardcore Checkbox Change?

One checkbox at character creation decides whether your next hundred hours are reversible. Hardcore changes exactly one rule — death stops being an inconvenience and becomes a deletion — and because every other system stays the same, the checkbox quietly re-prices every decision you make afterwards. Same monsters, same items, same drop rates, same difficulty ladder; the only variable that moved is what dying costs.

How Bad Is a Softcore Death?

The comparison is the whole argument for and against Hardcore, so here it is side by side. Death penalties are community-documented and have changed across patches — treat the details below as the current consensus, not a spec sheet:

Note the asymmetry in the softcore column: even the “cheap” death is not free. Losing the relics gathered during a run stings precisely because relic progress is the season’s slowest currency — the relics guide explains why that particular loss compounds. And in the Hardcore column, everything the character owned or earned is part of the deletion.

Can Hardcore Characters Party With Everyone Else?

No, and the restriction is stricter than most players expect: in multiplayer, Hardcore characters can only join other Hardcore characters. A permadeath character and a respawning one are not exposed to the same risk, so the game will not seat them at the same table. Practically, this means a Hardcore character’s social planning starts on day one — your couch partner either rolls Hardcore too, or you are playing the online channel separately.

How Do You Set Up Co-op?

Two channels exist, and they do not mix:

• Local split-screen — plug in a controller and press Start on the join screen. Couch co-op is fully supported and needs no online setup at all.
• Online rooms — one player uses Create Game to choose the difficulty and set an optional password; everyone else uses Join Game and enters that password.

The room creator holds more power than the menu suggests. Beyond picking the tier, the host can adjust the in-tier difficulty slider, and harder settings pay more rewards and experience to everyone in the room — so a group that wants to sweat together can tune the session upward without changing difficulties.

Should You Tick the Box?

Honest answer: not on your first character. Hardcore’s price is real, and it lands on exactly the things the game asks you to accumulate — gear, materials, relic progress — all at once. Learn the campaign on softcore first, where a death costs this run’s relics and some progress rather than the entire ledger. The beginner guide covers that first climb, and the Season 10 overview explains what a season asks of a character before its systems start paying out.

Tick it when the stakes are the point — when you know the game well enough that permanent consequences are the fun part. And if you do lose one: the rebuild goes faster the second time, because what you know about builds, routes and gold income survives the character that died for it.

Hardcore and Co-op FAQ

Is there Hardcore-specific loot in Hero Siege?

No — content parity is the design. Hardcore characters fight the same monsters, find the same items at the same drop rates, and climb the same four-tier ladder. What differs is the price of failure, which is exactly why the multiplayer pool is separated.

Does the difficulty slider work in multiplayer?

Yes, and it belongs to the room. The player who creates the game sets the difficulty tier and can adjust the slider, with harder settings paying more rewards and experience to everyone in the session. Joiners inherit the host’s settings rather than bringing their own.

Can I switch a softcore character to Hardcore later?

There is no documented way to convert a character between the two modes — the checkbox is a character-creation decision, and the two pools stay separate in multiplayer. If you want Hardcore stakes, you start a Hardcore character; nothing else carries one across.