Hardcore Combat Only

The entire gameplay consists of fighting enemies in different areas, and trying to reach end-game bosses, without ever touching any of the non-combat skills, or ever dying.

There's also a Google Sheet with highscores and some number crunching made by the community of the various players who play this gamemode. Hit up mazunki [they/them]#3247 on Discord if you want to join or view it. Similarly, 8992#7954 has made a completion log script to hide unavailable items, which you can find at GreasyFork.

There is a guide for this gamemode available at HCCO/Guide and feel free to DM Username#7620 on Discord with questions.

Differences

Since we're playing Hardcore, there are some important parts to keep in mind:

No natural HP regeneration/s.
We start with 12 bank slots, capped to 108 (+ slots gained from Bank Slot Tokens after hitting 108 cap).
Harder penalties for being on the weak corner of Combat Triangle.
Permanent death

To regain

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Hitpoints

, our choices are very limited:

Consuming food, gained from monster loot:
- Potatoes from Plant
- Salmon, Lobster, and Shark from Sweaty Monster, Wet Monster, and Moist Monster
- Trout from Raging Horned Elite
Ancient Sword with its 25% chance for Life Leech (25% healing from damage dealt)
Warlock Amulet with its 20% healing from damage done from spells
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Slayer Shop

Known alternatives and history

Note: This may not 100% accurate, and should be revised.

While HCCO is believed to have been created by CoolRox, they never played this game mode themselves. From the recorded history, it is not entirely known who was the first player who took this challenge seriously, although it's possible it was bad_name_2009#6633. Regardless, some honorable mentions are 8992#7954, JHawk55#8345, Nomeru#4261 who all played a non-official hardcore version of this gamemode (where regen applied).

After Hardcore was introduced, the only way to actually start a character in this game mode was by doing one of the following:

Spam Lemonade from the Easter egg.
Fight the Confused Pirate, and flee before they hit you (since they have a slower attack time a player with a Bronze Battleaxe would have).
Infinite Birthday Cakes can be gotten if one had completed the Birthday Event, but since the birthday event required non-combat skills, this method would not be possible.

After seeing that HCCO was feasibly possible, Aurora Aquir#4272 joked about a "hardcore 12 bank slots combat only btw" and Drboomtown#0982 was the first to actually try it along with others such as JHawk55#8345, and created what eventually became a trend amongst the challenger-community. There are a few noteworthy players including IzzyYSN#0220, and Hashtronomy#9283, Ynotman#8267, and Username#7620.