What Does Softlock and Hardlock Mean in Video Games?

You may not have even realized you've encountered softlocks or hardlocks. Here's exactly what they are, and how they affect your game.

If you’ve been playing games for a while or browsing the internet, you’ve probably heard the terms softlock and hardlock. Both terms are pretty straightforward and easy to understand, but it's unlikely that you'll find them in the dictionary. Don't worry, though; here's everything you need to know.

What Is a Softlock?

A Softlock is a situation in video games where the player gets stuck in a place inside a game. This means that the player can’t keep moving forward or going back, and is unable to do anything about it. However, at its core, the game is still playable.

You become softlocked when you can’t return to a previous safe state in the game and can’t make progress either. It usually happens because of a glitch inside a game or because of the old reliable bad game design.

For instance, imagine you save right before you die in a game, and every time you come back to life, you automatically die again, making it pretty much impossible for you to make progress. Technically, the game’s still playable, but you’re pretty much stuck.

What’s a Hardlock?

On the other hand, a hardlock is a bit more serious than a softlock. This occurs when a game becomes stuck and completely unresponsive because of a glitch. A hardlock can be so bad that it basically makes it impossible to keep playing a game entirely.

Meaning that no matter what you do, there’s no way to keep playing on the same saved file, and you’ll need to start a new one.

A Great Softlock and Hardlock Example

Both terms have become increasingly popular in the last decades, but there have been softlock and hardlock issues in video games since the retro gaming era.

Even in more modern games, there are countless examples of softlocks and hardlocks.

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For instance, there's the possibility of getting hardlocked in the Gym in Snowpoint City in the Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shinning Pearl games. If you do the Gym puzzle wrong, you could get stuck in between the snowballs.

Funny enough, that issue could be considered a softlock or a hardlock, depending on your situation. If you saved before that point, you could quickly go back to a previous point. But if you have autosave turned on and the game saved when you're stuck, you're pretty much hardlocked.

What Are the Main Differences Between Softlock and Hardlock?

As we mentioned before, a softlock is more of a mildly infuriating inconvenience, whereas a hardlock can possibly break your save file.

Depending on the game you're playing, you usually get out of a softlock, either by returning to a previous save state, exiting a level, or completely resetting your console. The same would happen if you were playing a game in an emulator.

With a hardlock, however, even if you reset your console, there are no guarantees that’ll fix the problem. You might need to delete your save file and start from the beginning because the issue might be completely game-breaking.

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Another big difference is that softlocks can happen because of a glitch or bad game design and lack of thorough game testing. A hardlock, on the other hand, will mostly happen because o a glitch. It's also possible the player finds and exploit that hardlocks their games when they try to use it.

Hardlocks are usually less common than softlocks, and they’re usually more deadly. So the bottom line is, even if you get a softlock in a game, it surely beats being hardlocked.

Now You Know What Hardlock and Softlock Means

Whether you're a hardcore or a casual gamer, you need to be careful with both softlocks and hardlocks. Even though softlocks are more manageable, they can be pretty annoying. Just make sure to keep your save files handy in case something happens. Maybe you'll want to consider backing up your game saves.