The Hard Rules

The rules every character plays by, from slower recovery and the cost of walking to what death takes.

Rogue once let you choose a hard mode when you made a character. Since 7 November 2026 its rules apply to every character, old and new, and there is no other way to play. hardmode shows them in the game. The other system pages describe each rule where it belongs; this page puts them together.

Recovery#

• Resting heals half as fast: rest gives back 1 percent of each pool a second instead of 2, and sitting or sleeping adds less to natural recovery. Rest where a healer has laid out a bedroll and you recover at the full rate. See Vitals.
• Endurance comes back half as fast.

Endurance#

• Every step on foot costs endurance: 1 in a city, 2 indoors or underground outside one (the Aurin sewers, for example), and 3 out in the wilds.
• In a guild, the first swing of every round costs 1 endurance below level 10, 2 from level 10 and 3 from level 20. A guild fighting style doubles that. See Combat.

Death#

• Death takes all the experience you had gathered towards your next level. You keep your level. See Death.
• There is no retrievecorpse. Your body stays where you fell until you or someone else goes back for it.

Bosses and levels#

• A boss's first kill gives Bravery points, shown in your wealth: one for every ten levels of the boss, rounded up. Bosses never give a free level, and nothing else does either. help bosses lists them.

Companions#

• You are never given a hero. Heroes won before these rules came in stay with their owners.
• You may have one henchman in your hire, not two, and henchmen are a quarter weaker: they deal a quarter less damage and last three quarters as long in a fight.
• A group takes only one of each hero and one of each henchman. Join a group that already has yours out and yours goes home, its contract still standing. See Companions.

Other rules#

• There are no dps, dmgbreak or fightlog commands. The game keeps no count of a fight's numbers for you.
• recall takes 8 seconds to take hold and cannot be used in a fight.
• Players cannot found clans, though you can join one.
• Your clan's abode is entered only from its door, where the clan made its home. It is no way home from anywhere else.
• Marin Tideveil's potion shop in Aurin will not sell to you.

What the hard rules do not change#

Experience events run by staff count for everyone. The guilds take you on their usual terms; none is closed to you by these rules.