Hardcore is a Java Edition exclusive variant of Survival. In this mode, the world is locked to Hard difficulty and the player cannot respawn after being killed.
In Creative Mode you can use cheats, so make sure that they are activated in the game settings. This applies to Minecraft Java Edition, Bedrock, and Pocket Edition. When your cheats are activated, you can teleport to any coordinates by following this procedure: Press 'T' to open the console.
The key feature of Hardcore mode is that the player is not given the option to respawn upon death as they would in other game modes. Instead, there are two buttons on the death screen: 'Spectate world' and 'Title screen.' 'Spectate world' sets the player to Spectator mode and respawns the player at the world's spawn point, making them able to view and explore the world only in that mode. The 'Title screen' button simply leads the player to the main menu screen; re-opening the world simply returns the player back to the same death screen as before.
In addition, Hardcore mode worlds are restricted to hard difficulty.
When creating a Hardcore mode world, the Enable Cheats and Bonus Chest world options are locked to OFF. On the world selection menu, hardcore mode worlds display dark red text reading 'Hardcore Mode!'
While in Hardcore mode, the hearts representing the player's health look different, as they include dark red marks inside the icon.
Hardcore mode is specific to worlds, not players; the variable determining whether the world is in Hardcore mode is saved in level.dat. Thus, the player can use /gamemode creative (if cheats are enabled) to set themselves to Creative mode. Players in Creative mode while on a Hardcore mode world still see Hardcore mode's death screen upon death.
It is normally impossible to toggle Hardcore mode once the world has been created, though it is possible to use external programs such as NBTExplorer to change it by setting the hardcore tag to either 1 (hardcore) or 0 (normal).
However, it is possible to enable cheats through the Open to LAN feature in the pause menu. From here, the player can, while spectating the world after death, type /gamemode survival to bring themselves back to Survival mode, being able to play again by cheating death.
Hardcore mode is an option for multiplayer, and its functions are similar to those in singleplayer. All players have hardcore mode enabled — it is impossible to have some players in hardcore and some not.
Upon death, the player has the option to choose whether set to Spectator mode or go back to the main menu.
Server operators can use the /gamemode command to change the game mode of themselves or another player.
| Java Edition Beta | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 22, 2010 | The idea of Hardcore mode came to Notch from a Minecraft gameplay blog on the PC Gamer site.[1] | ||||
| Java Edition | |||||
| September 23, 2011 | Notch tweeted an image of a button that enables Hardcore mode. | ||||
| September 28, 2011 | Notch tweeted an image of the Hardcore mode death screen. | ||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2 | Hardcore mode added. | |||
| 1.3.1 | 12w17a | The 'Bonus Chest' and 'Enable Cheats' world options cannot be enabled in Hardcore mode (server operators' commands are not affected by Hardcore mode). | |||
| 12w18a | Hardcore mode can now be used in multiplayer. | ||||
| 1.9 | 15w37a | Rather than deleting the world upon death, the player now has the option to be put into Spectator mode. | |||
| 1.15 | 19w35a | 'Delete world' on the hardcore death screen has been replaced by 'Title screen.' | |||
Issues relating to 'Hardcore' are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.