Drowning or mauled by yetis: The 5 worst ways to die in WoW Hardcore

Azeroth is a dangerous place. Whether you’re a level one noob that only just broke free from the Lich King’s grasp, or a champion of the Horde adorned with medals from Thrall himself, the odds of dying in World of Warcraft Hardcore are always greater than you think.

You might drown while reaching for a treasure chest at the bottom of the sea, or you could be ambushed by a pack of murlocs seeking vengeance for the hundreds of murlocs you slaughtered on your journey. No one gets plot armor in WoW Classic Hardcore, and anyone can die at any given moment, even with a not-so-epic death.

The core mechanic of WoW Classic Hardcore is permadeath. In simple terms, you can’t die, unless you want to start fresh and lose all your gold, items, and progress. This means you always need to keep one eye on your health bar while roaming the lands of Azeroth. In most cases, this should be enough—but we all get greedy and do reckless things at times, like risking your life just to save a couple of minutes of walking, especially on the way out of Ironforge. 

I know most of you won’t listen to me, and you’ll be reckless anyway, but if you want those sweet bragging rights—that you got to level 60 in WoW Hardcore without ever seeing the Spirit Healer—you simply can’t be careless. Above all, you’ll want to avoid the five worst ways to die in WoW Hardcore.

Explorers should never go into caves alone

A lone explorer should never venture alone into a cave filled with mobs, even if there’s precious loot in there that makes your eyes glisten with joy. Whether we’re talking about the caves at the beginning of your questing journey or the caves in Winterspring, the risk of losing your life is too high, especially if you’re hunting for a special quest item deep behind enemy lines.

Mobs in caves respawn dangerously quickly, and unless you’re eager to die to a ferocious yeti, you’ll wait for other players before going cave exploring.

You’re asking for the worst if you go AFK in a questing area

Imagine this scenario: You just picked up all those juicy quests from Hemet Nesingwary in Stranglethorn Vale. You’ve donned your hunting hat, and you’re in the middle of chasing down tigers, panthers, and raptors—but all of a sudden, your pizza just arrived, or your cat decided to start playing with your internet cables. 

Related: Best classes in World of Warcraft Classic Hardcore: Definitive tier list

What do you do now?

Would you just leave your character in the midst of the jungle all by themself, surrounded by wild beasts and blood-hungry Trolls, or would you walk all the way back to camp before grabbing your pizza? 

If your WoW Hardcore character is precious to you, then you’d do the latter, because they only get one life in Azeroth. 

You think you can fly, but don’t have wings

In WoW Classic Hardcore, when you’re not slaying helpless boars in Elwynn Forest, you’re either strolling back to your questing hub, or hiking across two zones to get to your next destination. In both cases, you’re ready to show the enemy the definition of a ruthless killing machine. I won’t lie to you— there’s a quite a bit of walking in WoW Classic, and you don’t get your mount until at least level 40, if you can afford it.

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We all like to take shortcuts, but sometimes being lazy doesn’t pay off, and you can end your entire run just by falling to your death. Don’t be that guy—don’t risk your precious life by jumping off ledges or falling off Orgrimmar’s flight path tower. You might think you have a plan, but WoW’s physics can be quite wonky, and a rock that should break your fall might just be a visual asset with no collision.

You won’t find Atlantis at the bottom of the ocean

WoW Classic Hardcore NPCs don’t know your story, and they don’t know that you’re actually trying your hardest not to die. Or maybe they do? It would make sense—maybe that’s why they keep sending you to the bottom of the ocean to loot quest items surrounded by elite murlocs. You can’t just run in, grab the items and escape, but you also can’t fight murlocs in their territory because of your limited breath.

Blizzard Entertainment was fairly generous by allowing you to last one or two minutes without air, but if you don’t have any movement abilities that work underwater, please, craft or buy a couple of underwater breathing potions. If you think you can manage without a potion, watch over your breath bar like a hawk, because there isn’t a special treasure or Atlantis to find at the bottom of the ocean—only a quick trip back to the character creation screen.

Mobs are like The Walking Dead zombies, and they can easily overrun you

In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo embarked on his quest with the Fellowship at his side. Like Frodo, if you don’t have a group of friends at your back while you’re questing, you can easily be overrun by mobs. In WoW Classic Hardcore, every pull matters, and if you pull more than you intended and don’t have friends to back you up, there’s no way you’ll see Molten Core, let alone Kel’Thuzad.

Don’t ever get cocky in WoW Classic Hardcore, and always take it slow—don’t engage with more mobs than you can handle, eat and drink after challenging pulls, and only lurk at the edges of questing zones so you can easily escape sticky situations.