User blog comment:Kogath/Monster Hunter X Discussion/@comment-6050823-20151110110317/@comment-969093-20151112095842

Specials Individuals are commonly referred to as HC Monsters in Frontier because their "true" hardcore versions only spawn when you set the Quest Mode from "normal" to "hardcore". They also appear with the same appearance and moveset in some events, frontiers and dailies but they're not really HC in those quests. On top of that, to fight the real ones you need HC Tickets and capcom drops the word "hardcore" all over the place.

This is not the case in MHX, where they are part of the "Special Permit Quests", which need tickets to post but are not called HC Tickets. A Special Individual is just a variant unless capcom explicitly says they're "Hardcore". Which they did not do at all. They are variants with their own name, own title, own icon and more fleshed out movesets.

It doesn't matter how much they are alike, they are not truly "Hardcore HC" until capcom says they are. And having same kanji annotation on paper as they do in Frontier means nothing because there is no "hardcore mode" involved. Because also in frontier, they would be variants if "hardcore mode" didn't exist. Which is exactly the case in MHX.

So in a nutshell, I am not against the idea of HC in the MHX but they are not as such until capcom says they are in those exact words. Just that.

~ Kappa