A fresh Survival game.
Gameplay in most game modes of Minecraft consists mainly of adding and destroying a variety of different blocks in a randomly generated world.
With these blocks, players can manipulate the world around them, building and destroying structures. As gameplay in Minecraft is so open and unguided, players often set their own goals and play the game as they see fit. An example of this is the Minecraft sport, Spleef.
Game modes
Animation summarizing the Creative, Survival and Hardcore game modes
The five game modes in Minecraft are Survival, Creative, Adventure, Spectator and Hardcore.
In the level.dat, Survival mode is gametype=0, Creative is gametype=1, Adventure is gametype=2, and Spectator is gametype=3. Hardcore is Survival with the addition of hardcore=1 (for Survival and Creative,hardcore=0). This knowledge allows hacking to change game modes by editing the world's level.dat. The command "/gamemode" can be used to switch between these. Example: "/gamemode 1" would put you into creative mode.
You can also change the gamemode in minecraft pocket edition by quitting the world and going to edit world tapping creative or survival and returning to game or by using the gamemode cheat of cheats are enabled.
Survival
Main article: SurvivalIn this mode, players have to gather all their materials to build, craft and gain experience points. There is a health, hunger and armor bar, an inventory and, when underwater, an oxygen bar. If you die you go back to your spawn point.
Creative
Main article: CreativeThe player has access to an infinite amount of almost all blocks and items available, and can destroy them instantly. Players are invulnerable and do not have health, armor, or hunger, and can fly. The player has access to items not available in Survival mode, e.g. spawn eggs. The player will not see command blocks if you look through the creative GUI - you need to spawn command blocks with the /give or /setblock commands.
Adventure
Main article: AdventurePlayers can interact with objects such as levers and buttons, and can interact with mobs. However, they can only break blocks with tools with a CanDestroy data tag, and only place blocks if the block they are holding has a CanPlaceOn data tag, making this mode good for adventure maps.
Hardcore
Main article: HardcoreIn this mode, which plays in the same way as Survival mode, the difficulty level is permanently set to "Hard", and when the player dies, the only choice is that the map must be deleted, or the player is sent permanently into spectator mode.
Technically, Hardcore is a game mode modifier rather than a game mode. However, without cheating, it is only possible to get "Hardcore Survival". To obtain "Hardcore Creative" mode, the player must edit the game world with external tools, or opening to LAN, and enabling cheats. There is almost no visible difference between "Hardcore Creative" and "Non-Hardcore Creative", because in Creative mode the only way to die is to fall into the Void or the /kill command. Because of this, "Hardcore" usually refers to "Hardcore Survival". On a server, if someone dies, they will be banned. If everyone on a server gets banned, the world for the server will be deleted. When looking at a hardcore singleplayer world, the gamemode is "Hardcore Mode!" and the color is red.
Hardcore is not technically a game mode and it can not be enabled with the /gamemode command.
Spectator
Main article: SpectatorThis game mode was implemented in 1.8. When in spectator mode, you can clip blocks, see what other entities are seeing by left-clicking on them, and you're invisible to everything and everyone except for other spectators. You can't interact with blocks, entities or your inventory. When in third-person mode, you look like a transparent, floating head with no body. You can use the scroll wheel to adjust the speed at which you are flying, unlike flying in creative mode.
Table of game modes
Below is a brief summary of the different available features in each game mode. This table also includes Classic, which is the older, free version of Minecraft.
Feature
Classic
Survival
Creative
Adventure
Hardcore
Spectator
Premium account
Not required
Required for multiplayer[a]
Required
Required
Required
Required
Available
Partial[b]
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Multiplayer
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Partial[c]
Yes
Crafting
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Smelting
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Brewing
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Enchanting
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Inventory
Partial
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Partial
Health
Survival test only
Yes
Hidden[d]
Yes
Yes
Hidden
Respawn after death
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Partial
Yes
Block placing/breaking
Yes
Yes
Yes
Partial
Yes
No
Mobs
Partial
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Unlimited blocks
Yes
Partial[e]
Yes
Partial[e]
Partial[e]
No
Day-night cycle
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Cheats
No
Changeable
Preset to yes, but changeable
Changeable
No
Changeable
Preset difficulty
N/A
No
No
No
Yes
No
Hunger
No
Partial[f]
No
Partial[f]
Yes
No
Available in Pocket Edition
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Can phase through blocks
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
- ↑ The demo allows gameplay of only the Survival gamemode without a premium account, and only in singleplayer. This does have a time limit though.
- ↑ Classic mode is no longer supported, but it is still accessible from the launcher.
- ↑ Although you can still access hardcore in multiplayer, you cannot find it in the LAN world section, because of a bug.
- ↑ In Creative, health is still there but hidden from GUI, you can show this by falling into the Void.
- ↑ a b c In Survival, there are methods to obtain unlimited amounts of specific renewable resources such as wood, cobblestone, and water. In addition, the vast map area allows one to gather plenty of anything with enough effort. In adventure mode this is also possible, however the player needs to acquire the necessary tools first.
- ↑ a b Hunger mechanics are implemented, but only kill you if the difficulty is set to hard mode and do not affect players on Peaceful.
Video
Singleplayer/video