i feel like dying is kind of already a big penalty on time, both for corpse recovery, the election to grind for backup equipment to wear when attempting corpse recovery, and the time-value of the skill loss. never really thought of this game as one which needed to be more "hardcore." the vanilla death stakes seem good to me.

if i want to challenge myself i usually just try alternate armors and weapons. like see how long far you can get in the game just wearing troll armor. or use weapons you wouldnt typically main with, like sledge hammer.