Moments pages are spoilers off; beware of unmarked spoilers!
Minecraft Hardcore #1
The team manage to gather the Blaze Rods they need from the Nether, and, despite having to walk across a narrow bridge suspended over lava and PBG accidentally angering a group of Zombie Pigmen, they all make it back alive.
The finale, where Jon and Barry defeat the Ender Dragon in spectacular fashion with Monster Hunter 3 (Tri)'s Quest Complete music playing in the background.
Minecraft Hardcore #3
Jared's valiant defense against a massive case of Gang Up on the Human near the end of Episode 9. He was assaulted by 2 creepers and 3 spiders all at once. He killed the first creeper immediately, then backpedaled, killed a spider, and then tricked the second creeper into blowing up another spider, leaving him intact. He was about to defeat the last spider, but was then killed by a creeper that snuck up from behind.
MineZ Hardcore
The fact that the group managed to avoid death entirely until Episode 11, a first for Hardcore.
In Episode 13, Dean is anticlimactically revealed to have died on the pirate ship. A fan in the comments had this to say, and their story of what happened is is largely considered canon by the fanbase.
TheHockeyGamer: How I imagine Dean died: He looked around after his friends had left him behind at the pirate ship, scared of the growing number of zombies around him yet realizing he still had a chance... That chest at the top of the ship. He snuck around the zombies, found his way to the jump despite his dizziness and took a leap of faith. He made the jump, and freaked out a bit, but regained his focus and started climbing. Zombies started noticing Dean and heading towards him, and when Dean reached the chest he had a small army following him. The chest contained the antidote he needed, as well as an iron sword. He turned towards the zombies following him... "I'm no scrub."
PBG and Mcjones managed to escape the cave despite both being at half a heart of health, and traveled to another town while being infected. Even though Mcjones and PBG later died, the fact that they got as far as they could with minimum health was incredible.
PBG, in particular, soon after Mcjones was killed, held out against an ambush from a zombie pair with half a heart, poison (or, to put it in HC terms, "Zombie AIDs"), preventing regeneration, and a stone axe. He even got hit once and survived!
The Final Battle against the Giant in Episode 16. Jeff dies, but it doesn't deter Ian and Barry. After a short break and a "LastSupper", the two dive into battle, and it. Is. Awesome. Even if it does end in failure.
Terraria Hardcore #2
The group tearing through the Eye of Cthulhu with no casualties at all in Episode 8.
Jeff, McJones and Jon doing the same to the Eater of Worlds in Episode 15, and then doing it again in the same video! Specifically, Jeff absolutely destroying it with the chainsaw.
McJones: If the developers are watching, you guys need to nerf fishing... because that's OP.
McJones almost defeats the Wall of Flesh by himself in the finale. With less than 400 maximum health to boot. Even though he didn't make it, it was a valiant effort.
Minecraft Hardcore #4
The group standing their ground against a horde of enemies in Episode 6 to protect the farm.
McJones:Forward! Dean:Protect the farm! McJones:Forward, men!! Never surrender!
In the Nether, McJones begins to lag out and suddenly finds himself in a corner fending off a horde of pigmen with only three hearts, and with a little bit of help from Dean at the last minute, he manages to survive the ordeal.
The first trip to the Ocean Monument, despite becoming increasingly tense with the group becoming more and more anxious and everybody constantly on the verge of death, ends without a single casualty as everybody surfaces in just enough time to avoid drowning. The fact that they managed to traverse throughout the Ocean Monument and stay alive without Depth Strider enchantments on their armor, which is one of the only ways to make the trip slightly bearable,note Making it so that water doesn't slow your movement speed down nearly as much, which meant the group was stuck at half speed for the entire time they were down there let alone also dispatching the Elder Guardians in short order, is a pretty respectable feat in its own right.
Despite starting with one less player, this season ends up being the first victory since Diablo 2, ending with only two deaths. The sense of achievement throughout the finale as the group finally win after so long, with PBG making it to the end of a season for the first time, is palpable. And Dean is even the last man standing in the ending battle royale, just as most had anticipated after the death of Barry, who is usually the Sole Survivor.
Minecraft Hardcore #5
Despite being trapped in webs and cornered by a cave spider, Barry makes his death a Heroic Sacrifice by destroying the Spider Spawner and preventing anyone else in the group from dying to the trap.
After Jared gets pushed into lava by a spider, in the short few seconds between him getting ambushed and dying, he had the presence of mind to realize what had happened, understand that he was screwed, call out to PBG to get him within throwing range, turn around, crawl as close as he could, and toss his sword JUST before he died.
Jared: TAKE THE SWORD!
ProJared22 tried to swim in lava to escape Spider]
Episode 14:
When the first wave of Zombie Pigmen turn on the group, PBG gets backed into a corner with two hearts left. By corner, we mean "up what is effectively a narrow staircase, with his back pinned against a waterfall of lava, a fall to certain death to his left, a solid wall to his right, and a pair of advancing Pigmen closing in." Somehow, he survives.
From the same fight, Jeff embracing his inner Legolas and landing several perfect arrows in a row. The replay, through his perspective, is even referred to as an "epic replay".
When a Baby Pigman gets into their very cramped bunker, they manage to survive, and despite four people swinging their swords around in close quarters, they didn't kill each other.
Episode 16:
Despite the odds being stacked against them, PBG and Jeff successfully escape the Nether.
Episode 23:
You gotta give credit where credit is due with Jeff's performance as the Sole Survivor, despite him dying. He manages to kill enough Endermen, find the stronghold, and reach the End all on his own, and even holds his own against the Ender Dragon for a little while. His tactics may have left something to be desired in the long run, but for having done little research, his foray was still impressive nonetheless.
Terraria Hardcore #3
Episode 12 opens with a eulogy to ProtonJon and ends with an epic trailer for the next episode, with the group ready to battle the bosses, desperate for a victory.
Episode 13 has the group utterly demolish the Eye of Cthulhu, spawning it a couple more times in the following episode and easily killing it there too.
Episode 15: In spite of losing Jeff early on in the episode, the group successfully manages to slay the Brain of Cthulhu with no casualties despite being slightly ill-equipped, not having McJones in the fight due to him being trapped underground by the boss while trying to return to the group and forced to teleport home, and with very few life upgrades. For good measure they do it two more times in the next couple episodes.
In episode 19 a falling star hits an enemy for over a thousand damage.
Lucahjin saves Luke's life from a very close encounter with drowning by warning him.
After 2 failures in Terraria, Luke, McJones, and Lucah finally beat the Wall of Flesh, and in a fairly quick time too. It's not even particularly close, as the trio was rarely in significant danger over the course of the final fight.
Special points go to Lucah and Luke, as this was their very first season, in a game they had very little overall experience in, and they made history in being two of the few survivors in the entire series to beat Terraria. As for McJones, he proves that his impressive Last Stand way back in Season 2 was no fluke, again turning in an impressive performance when the chips were down.
MineZ Hardcore #2
Episode 9: McJones escaping an almost-insurmountable lava pit in the caves of Camp Azara with his grappling hook, while the rest of the group was helpless to do anything about it.
Episode 10: Barry taking PBG's bet and diving into a shallow pool of water from a high platform, which everyone else on the team considered almost-certain suicide. Even after he succeeded, no one else was willing to try it.
Minecraft Hardcore #6
Episode 10: After obtaining the Totem of Undying in the Jungle, Jared and his group are instantly teleported back to the spawn... in the dead of night, in the middle of a ''horde of mobs'' baying for their blood. The fact that almost all of them survived being swarmed and bombarded from every direction, with Dodger being the only casualty from a surprise Creeper ambush at the home base was nothing short of a miracle.
After 5 seasons of not even getting close to their goal, the team finally gets three Wither Skulls and can prepare to fight the Wither.
In the season finale, despite being reduced to just four members after McJones' early death and PBG and Dodger's (two!) deaths prior to finding the Wither Skulls, the team emerges victorious with only one further casualty. Even Jared, who is ultimately killed during the final battle against the Wither, comes within a hair's breadth of surviving despite drawing the Wither's aggro for nearly the entire fight, dying just five seconds before the Wither does due to a Zombie attacking him from behind as he tanks the full brunt of the Wither's attacks.
After all five of Jared's seasons before this one ended in failure, he finally breaks his unlucky streak in spectacular fashion, even if he came just short of living long enough to see it, by serving as the party's tank during the final battle until seconds before the killing blow was landed. By the rest of the survivors' admission, they likely wouldn't have won without him.
Like Lucah and Luke before him, Chad survived all the way through on his very first Hardcore season.
Starbound
The party has an incredibly strong start to the season, lasting 14 (nearly 15) entire episodes before the first death, blowing past the previous record-best 10 episodes from Terraria #3 and MineZ #1. This happens despite the party being separated in two four-person groups (both of which needed to defeat the Erchius Horror before they allowed themselves to reunite as one, and one team even defeated it twice). They even increase the difficulty after reuniting at the start of Episode 12 just to make things more challenging.
Despite the panic after Luke dies in the middle of the final boss fight, the remaining members realize the final boss's weakness, strategize out loud as a team, and are able to take him down. The epic music adds to the awesome.
The series ends in success, with the team staring into a sunrise and promising to meet again.
Much like Chadtronic in Minecraft #6 and Lucahjin and Yungtown in Terraria #3, Jesse Cox manages to emerge as one of the final survivors in his Hardcore debut. In addition, ProJared also breaks his death streak and survives, marking the first time he has lived through the finale of a Hardcore season.
