=RequirementsLimitations= [[Image:Hardcore-creation.jpg|frame]]In order to create a hardcore character, check the Hardcore box on the character creation screen. This option only becomes available once one of your characters has beaten the game on normal difficulty, (on that particular account, if you are playing Realm characters.) Beating the game means killing Diablo in D2C, or Baal in D2X. This requirement is annoying for Hardcore players on Battle.net who wish to start a new account to make more mules or more regular characters, and who don't want to waste time making a new character just to rush through the game on softcore first. A few hacks have been created that will instantly enable a new account to create hardcore characters, but as with all 3rd party programs, be very cautious who you download from and what you install, so you don't give your computer viruses, trojans, key loggers, etc. Hardcore characters can never interact with softcore characters in any way. HC and SC chars can not join the same games, and the economies are kept entirely separate. There are separate ladders for HC and SC, and perhaps surprisingly, the top characters on the HC ladder are generally as high or higher level than SC chars, at least in the early rush to level 99. (This is partially because the experience penalty for dying at the highest levels is crippling enough to knock a softcore character out of the level 99 race, albeit not as permanently as it would a HC character.)