Hardened

Hardened (also known as Hardcore) refers to an in-game difficulty associated with instances, raids, and dungeons. Hardened difficulty was added in Patch X-3: Elementia Reborn. It was a difficulty unlocked if at least one player unlocked all seven Raid Skulls which are no longer required. It is significantly harder than Master, as it features increased health, damage, and mechanics from bosses, and may feature one or more phases. Some loot only drops on Hardened mode, such as uber weapons from Death'kul. It is described as a "raiding experience for hardcore players".
It is also known to be referred to as "Standard+" and "Master+" because of the skulls adding bonuses that didn't change much of the fights, such as in the Bastion of Elementia raid which were later updated.
The A Legend's Legacy: Rise of Grimbane changed the Raid Skulls mechanic. While they can still be looted, all players have them immediately and can trigger the Hardened difficulty if they so wish. Hardened difficulty originally required all the skulls or could not be unlocked.
==See also==
*Standard
*Master
*Raid Skulls - The skulls which originally needed to be unlocked for the difficulty.