New WoW Classic Hardcore Self-Found Mode With No Player Trading Now Live

What’s harder than an Ironman MMORPG run? Doing an Ironman MMORPG run with literally no outside help. If you’re up for that challenge in an old-school setting, World of Warcraft Classic has you covered, with its Self-Found mode launching on Leap Day. 

The Ironman in WoW Classic, called a “Hardmode” run and available on those designated realms, is fairly simple: you start from level one and work your way up as high as possible with zero deaths. One death, and that’s it. However, in Self-Found mode, you’re essentially cut off from any player assistance, period, as you can’t send nor receive mail, trade, or buy anything on marketboards. 

It’s not uncommon to tap into player assistance for Ironman modes, especially as it allows you to get better armor for better stats and, therefore, better survivability. The Self-Found mode means that players are entirely reliant on drops and NPC sales, though, meaning quite a bit more grinding will be necessary to be viable throughout the playthrough. 

As explained in a blog post, those who are interested in this challenge can do so by finding the option in the Character Creation mode, assuming they’re on the Hardcode servers. They’ll receive an indicator “buff” in the game, as well as an icon in Character Selection. 

Self-Found mode is now live simultaneously on all WoW Classic Hardcore servers today.