Rules and punishments
Hardcore Factions rules fall into two categories that are often confused. Server rules are written, enforced by staff, and carry mutes, bans or blacklists. Etiquette is unwritten community expectation — breaking it damages a faction's reputation but carries no punishment, and whether a given behaviour is even wrong is frequently disputed.
Almost every serious argument in HCF happens because one side treats an etiquette question as a rules question.
Rules vary by network. Everything below describes common practice. The ruleset of the server you play on is the only one that matters — check it before assuming, particularly on ally limits and enchantment caps.
Server rules
Allying
Allying is prohibited unless the server explicitly permits it. This is the single most enforced rule in competitive HCF, because unrestricted allying destroys the format — a map where the three largest factions cooperate has no contest left in it.
Servers implement this in one of several ways:
| Model | Description |
|---|---|
| No allying | Any cooperation between factions is punishable. Common on competitive maps. |
| Capped allying | A faction may ally a fixed number of others, declared in-game and visible to everyone. |
| Ally-per-roster | Total combined roster across allied factions is capped, preventing large stacks. |
| Event-only | Cooperation permitted during KOTH or Citadel but not for raids or defence. |
Prohibited under a no-ally ruleset:
- Fighting alongside another faction against a third
- Sharing a base, claim or supply stash
- Coordinated raids planned between factions
- Deliberately not fighting a faction you encounter, by arrangement
- Feeding gear, potions or information to another faction
- Using a second faction as a gear or member reserve ("stash faction")
Enforcement usually rests on staff reviewing logs, screenshots or VODs. Because intent is hard to prove, most networks judge on observable behaviour rather than stated agreements.
Alt accounts
Using a second account to circumvent a deathban is banned everywhere and treated as one of the most serious offences, since it removes the format's defining cost. Related prohibitions include alts used to inflate a faction's power, scout while dead, or hold gear during a ban.
Client modifications
| Usually allowed | Usually banned |
|---|---|
| Minimap without entity radar | X-ray and cave finders |
| FPS and performance mods | Reach, killaura, aimbot |
| Cosmetic and HUD mods | Auto-clickers and macros |
| Toggle sprint (server-dependent) | Anything automating combat input |
Toggle sprint is the common grey area — permitted on some networks, banned on others. Check before using it.
Conduct
Standard chat rules apply: no harassment, no doxxing, no advertising rival servers, no impersonating staff. HCF chat is famously hostile, but networks generally enforce a line at real-world threats and personal information regardless of how normal trash talk is considered.
Exploits
Duplication glitches, claim-bypass methods, base glitching and any method of entering protected regions are bannable. Discovering an exploit and reporting it is expected; using it quietly and being found out later is treated as intentional.
Disputed etiquette
Nothing in this section is a server rule. These are conventions that some parts of the community treat as binding and others reject entirely.
Cleaning up
"Cleaning up" means attacking a faction immediately after it has finished fighting someone else, while it is still low on gear, potions and health. It is the most argued-about behaviour in HCF and has no settled answer.
The case against
- It produces a fight decided before it starts, which the community generally regards as low-quality.
- It discourages factions from engaging each other at all, since the winner expects to be picked off afterwards.
- It rewards passivity — waiting out a fight — over the willingness to take one.
- A faction that only cleans up is widely dismissed as having no real record of its own.
The case for
- HCF has no round structure and no neutral ground. Timing is part of the game, and choosing when to engage is a legitimate skill.
- No server rule prohibits it, and unenforceable conventions are not rules.
- Maintaining fighting strength across consecutive engagements is itself a demonstrated ability rather than an unfair advantage.
The Nightmare precedent
The argument most often cited in favour is a run during HCTeams Map 12, in which Nightmare made two factions raidable one after the other without refilling on gear in between.<ref>Layer, HCTeams Map 12, YouTube.</ref>
Supporters treat this as proof that back-to-back fighting rewards genuine skill: a faction able to win two engagements on depleted supplies was not exploiting weakness so much as demonstrating that it could operate under the same disadvantage it was accused of imposing on others. Opponents counter that a single exceptional run does not establish a norm, and that the argument is applied selectively by factions who could not repeat it.
Other disputed conventions
| Convention | Argument for | Argument against |
|---|---|---|
| Not raiding during an event | Splits attention away from the scheduled fight | Map is always live; events aren't truces |
| Honouring a "fair fight" call | Produces better fights and better VODs | Unenforceable; teams renege constantly |
| Not corner-camping a spawn | Denies opponents any chance to play | No rule protects players outside safezone |
| Returning gear after a mistake | Basic decency between rosters | Loot belongs to whoever holds the ground |
| Not stream-sniping | Streams grow the scene; punishing them shrinks it | Public broadcast is public information |
Each of these is enforced within some friend groups and rosters and ignored entirely by others. None is a server rule on any major network.
Reporting
Reports need evidence — clips, screenshots with timestamps, or VODs. Most networks provide a forum section or ticket system. Accusations without evidence are generally dismissed and, on some networks, punished as harassment if repeated.
References
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