Game modes, hardcore, and game rules

Beginner 151 5 min read

Set the default game mode and difficulty, run a true hardcore server (and know what really happens on death), and bend the rules with /gamerule — all from the Properties page and console.

Three things decide how your server actually plays: the game mode (can players build freely or must they survive?), the difficulty (how dangerous is it?), and the game rules (all the little switches like "keep your items when you die"). You set the first two from the Properties page and adjust everything live from the console. This guide covers all three, plus the truth about hardcore mode that the wiki paragraphs gloss over.

At a glance
You need	A Minecraft Java server with access to its Properties page and Console
Time	Ten minutes
Plan	Any

The four game modes

Mode	What players can do	Use it for
Survival	Gather, craft, take damage, die. The normal game.	The default for most servers.
Creative	Fly, infinite blocks, no damage, instant breaking.	Build servers and creative worlds.
Adventure	Interact and fight, but can't break/place blocks without the right tools.	Adventure maps and minigames where the world is fixed.
Spectator	Fly through blocks, see everything, touch nothing.	Watching, filming, or (as you'll see) being dead in hardcore.

Set the default mode

On the Properties page, the gamemode key is the mode new players start in. Save and restart to apply it. Two companions:

force-gamemode — when true, players are snapped back to the default mode every time they join, even if they were changed to another mode last session. Handy on a strict creative or adventure server.
/gamemode <mode> [player] in the Console or in-game (ops only) — changes one player's mode right now, no restart. /defaultgamemode <mode> changes the server default on the fly.

Set the difficulty

The difficulty key takes peaceful, easy, normal, or hard. /difficulty <level> in the console changes it live. One thing worth knowing: peaceful removes all hostile mobs and continuously regenerates health — it's the "no danger" setting, not just an easy one.

Hardcore mode — and what death really does

Turn hardcore to true on the Properties page for the ultimate-stakes server. It does two things:

Locks difficulty to hard — the difficulty setting is ignored; hardcore is always hard.
One life. When you die, you don't respawn.

Here's the part people get wrong, because single-player and multiplayer differ:

🎯 Good to know: On a server, a player who dies in hardcore isn't kicked or banned — they're switched to spectator mode. They can fly around and watch the world, but can't interact or come back to life on their own. (In single-player, death instead locks the whole world to spectate-or-delete.)

So on your server, death is permanent for that player until an operator intervenes:

Bring someone back — an op runs /gamemode survival <player> to revive them. Whether you ever do this is your server's call; a strict hardcore server never does.
Start over — when the run ends and you want a fresh hardcore world, reset it: stop the server, rename or delete the world folder, start again. Full steps in Manage your worlds.

⚠️ Heads up: Switching hardcore on or off applies to the world going forward; it doesn't retroactively change a world's saved hardcore flag in every version cleanly. Set it before you start a hardcore run, and reset the world if you change your mind partway.

Bend the rules with /gamerule

Game rules are per-world switches you change live with /gamerule <rule> [value] in the console — no restart, and they're saved inside the world (not in server.properties). Type /gamerule alone to list them. The ones people actually use:

Rule	What it does
`keepInventory`	Keep your items and XP when you die (`true`/`false`).
`doDaylightCycle`	Whether time of day advances. `false` freezes it (eternal day/night).
`doWeatherCycle`	Whether weather changes on its own.
`mobGriefing`	Whether mobs can change blocks (creeper holes, endermen, etc.).
`doFireTick`	Whether fire spreads and burns out. `false` stops fire spreading.
`doInsomnia`	Whether phantoms spawn on players who haven't slept.
`doImmediateRespawn`	Skip the death screen and respawn instantly.
`showDeathMessages`	Whether "Player was slain by…" prints in chat.
`playersSleepingPercentage`	What fraction of players must sleep to skip the night (great for big servers).
`randomTickSpeed`	How fast crops grow, fire spreads, ice melts — higher is faster (and heavier).

💡 Tip: keepInventory true is the single most-requested change on friendly survival servers — no more sprinting back to your death pile through the lava.

Verify it works

Change a mode or rule and confirm it in-game: switch gamemode and rejoin to spawn in the new mode; set /gamerule keepInventory true, die on purpose, and check you kept your stuff. For hardcore, the status is simply that a death drops you into spectator — test it on a throwaway world, not one you care about.

Troubleshooting

/gamerule change reverted — game rules save to the world. If you swapped worlds (changed level-name) or reset it, the new world has its own rules; set them again.
Players still respawn in hardcore — the world wasn't created with hardcore on, or hardcore isn't actually true. Set it on the Properties page, restart, and ideally start a fresh world so the flag takes from the beginning.
A revived player died again instantly — they were still standing where they died (lava, void). /gamemode survival then /tp them somewhere safe, or set spawn first.
force-gamemode fighting your creative build sessions — turn it off, or use per-player /gamemode for the builders.

Next steps

Make your server yours — the full Properties page, group by group
Manage your worlds — resetting a world after a hardcore run
Minecraft Java quickstart — if you're still setting the server up
Every game rule, mode, and the exact death behaviour are catalogued on the community reference at minecraft.wiki.

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Game modes, hardcore, and game rules

The four game modes

Set the default mode

Set the difficulty

Hardcore mode — and what death really does

Bend the rules with /gamerule

Verify it works

Troubleshooting

Next steps

Game modes, hardcore, and game rules

The four game modes

Set the default mode

Set the difficulty

Hardcore mode — and what death really does

Bend the rules with /gamerule

Verify it works

Troubleshooting

Next steps