Getting Started - The Ultimate Player's Guide to Minecraft - page 12

to burn up. Then it's a brand new day. Death in this mode is only temporary. You'll
respawn within 20 blocks of your original spawn point and live to fight another
day.
Hardcore —After you've cut your teeth in the regular Survival mode and presum-
ably made it all the way through, you may want to revisit the game in this mode.
The difficulty level is set to Hard (described in the next bulleted list), and you get
only one life: no respawning. It's quite a challenge, if you're up for it.
Creative —I love creative mode. This is where Minecraft really shines after you
get through the core challenge of Survival mode. Think of it as flying, not dying.
At least, that's the way my 9-year-old describes it. It's also a great way to build ab-
solutely enormous structures, intricate redstone circuits, and fantastic rail systems.
Adventure —While surviving Survival is something of an adventure in itself,
Minecraft's Adventure mode adds some specific challenges by limiting the de-
struction of blocks to specific tools. For example, you can use an axe to harvest
only wood-based items, and a pickaxe to harvest only ores. Adventure mode is
used most often on multiplayer servers but can be accessed from a singleplayer
game by using the cheat command /gamemode adventure . It's also often turned
on for you in downloadable Adventure maps that provide their own plot lines and
challenges.
Survivalmodeoffersfourlevelsofdifficulty,andyoucanswitchbetweenthematanytime
through the in-game Options window:
Peaceful —All hostile mobs disappear instantly and permanently until the diffi-
culty setting is switched to any of the other three mentioned below. Your hunger
bar also remains at maximum, or the level it was when you switched to peaceful.
You can still die, and therefore respawn, so be wary of long falls, lava pits, trapped
temples, and other threats, but it is, eponymously, a peaceful existence.
Easy —You see hostiles, but they deliver less damage than normal. Your hunger
bar does deplete, but it still leaves you with 10 health points at a minimum, or 5
hearts in the HUD. Some other mob effects, such as poison, are minimized.
Normal —As the name suggests, this is the default mode. Hostile mobs deliver
normal damage (which without armor can quickly kill you), and running out of
food reduces your health to just half a point, making you particularly vulnerable.
Hard —Hostile mobs cause more damage, and running out of food kills
you...eventually.