Most new players should choose the regular Runes of Aldur league without Hardcore or Solo Self-Found. It has the current league mechanic, a fresh economy, trading, and parties. Choose Standard when you specifically want to continue an older or migrated character. Return of the Ancients is the name of Content Update 0.5.0, not a league. Fate of the Vaal was the previous challenge league and its characters migrated to Standard or Hardcore when it ended.
Choose your priorities
3 points- Decide whether you are starting a new character or continuing an existing one.
- Decide whether you want to trade and join parties.
- Enable Hardcore only when you accept that death moves the character out of Hardcore.
Return of the Ancients is the name of Content Update 0.5.0. Runes of Aldur is the temporary challenge league introduced with that update. Fate of the Vaal was the previous challenge league and is no longer a selectable current league. Its mechanic moved into the core game, but that does not make Fate of the Vaal a current character league.
- Select Runes of Aldur when you want the current challenge league.
- Do not look for a Return of the Ancients league option.
- Treat Fate of the Vaal content and the ended Fate of the Vaal league as different things.
MechanicReview Remnants, Runeshapes, Verisium, Runeforging, Fluxes, Alloys, and league progression.
Choose the regular softcore, trade-enabled Runes of Aldur league when you want the current league mechanic, league challenges, a fresh economy, trading, and parties. This is the simplest recommendation for a new player who does not deliberately want an extra restriction.
- Leave Hardcore unchecked.
- Leave Solo Self-Found unchecked.
- Create a new character in Runes of Aldur.
MechanicSee the content and rewards available in the current challenge league.
MechanicUnderstand the exchange available to trade-enabled characters.
MechanicReview party rules and multiplayer scaling.
Standard is the permanent league. Choose it when you want to keep playing an older character or use items and progress that migrated from an ended challenge league. Standard does not normally include content that remains exclusive to the active challenge league, and its economy is not a fresh league-start economy.
- Use Standard for an existing migrated character.
- Expect a long-running economy and accumulated items.
- Check whether a current league feature is exclusive before planning around it.
DirectoryReview the base classes before creating another character.
MechanicCheck the current mechanic before choosing Standard instead.
Hardcore gives the character one life within the Hardcore league. In Hardcore Runes of Aldur, death moves the character to the corresponding softcore Runes of Aldur league, where it can continue. Items left in the Hardcore stash do not move with that character, so do not treat the mode as a temporary difficulty toggle.
- Expect death to remove the character from the Hardcore economy.
- Keep spare equipment in mind because the Hardcore stash remains separate.
- Use regular softcore when you mainly want to learn bosses and mechanics.
MechanicCompare ordinary softcore death penalties with Hardcore migration.
Solo Self-Found, usually shortened to SSF, disables trading, parties, and other player-market interfaces. It grants no extra item drops or rewards. You can migrate an SSF character to its trade-enabled parent league, but that choice cannot be reversed, so SSF is best treated as a deliberate progression restriction.
- Do not select SSF when you expect to play with friends.
- Expect to acquire and craft every required item yourself.
- Use the regular trade league when you are unsure.
MechanicReview the multiplayer features unavailable in SSF.
ToolPlan item crafting when upgrades cannot be bought.
A new challenge league requires a new characterAn existing Standard character cannot enter Runes of Aldur. Create a new character for the challenge league and its fresh economy.
An ended league does not delete the characterWhen Fate of the Vaal ended, its characters and items migrated to the corresponding Standard or Hardcore Early Access league. Grinding Gear Games stated that there was no wipe.
League-exclusive content can change laterA mechanic may stay exclusive during its challenge league, move into the core game later, or return in a changed form. Check the current patch and league page rather than assuming every previous league rule still applies.
MechanicCheck the current mechanic before choosing Standard instead.
DirectoryReview the base classes before creating another character.
MechanicReview the multiplayer features unavailable in SSF.
MechanicUnderstand the exchange available to trade-enabled characters.
MechanicCompare ordinary softcore death penalties with Hardcore migration.
ToolPlan item crafting when upgrades cannot be bought.
