Mobs in full armor are a common sight in higher difficulty levels.
Difficulty is an option in Minecraft that has a direct impact on the ease of gameplay.
General difficulty[]
There are currently four difficulty settings in the game:
Peaceful: No hostile mobs can spawn naturally, except shulkers and the ender dragon, which do not deal damage. Also, no spiders, cave spiders, zombie pigmen or endermen – neutral rather than hostile mobs – can spawn naturally. When any of these mobs attempt to spawn (whether naturally, through mob spawners, spawn eggs, or commands), they are removed from the game instantaneously. Switching from any other difficulty setting to Peaceful removes existing hostile mobs and the neutral mobs listed above, except for shulkers and the ender dragon, and except for neutral mobs currently hostile to the player such as polar bears, wolves, iron golems. Wolves and polar bears will still remain hostile to the player, though will be unable to inflict damage; llamas can still damage the player. Players regain health over time. Despite regaining health over time, it is still possible to die if damage is received quickly enough. The hunger bar never depletes and players cannot eat anything except golden apples, unless the player has switched to Peaceful when their hunger bar was below the maximum. Additionally, If the hunger bar is below the maximum, it quickly regenerates.
Easy: Hostile mobs spawn, but they deal less damage than on Normal difficulty. The hunger bar can deplete and will leave the player with 10 () if it drains completely. Cave spiders cannot poison players on Easy difficulty, and the Wither won't cause the wither effect, although wither skeletons will. Lightning only sets the struck block on fire, not surrounding blocks.
Normal: Hostile mobs spawn, and will deal standard damage. The hunger bar can deplete and will leave the player with 1 () if it drains completely.
Hard: Hostile mobs spawn, and deal greater damage than on Normal difficulty. The hunger bar can deplete and the player will starve to death if it drains completely. Zombies can break through wooden doors and can spawn reinforcements when attacked. Spiders can spawn with status effects.
Hardcore gamemode[]
Hardcore causes the player to spawn in Hard difficulty and does not allow it to be changed. In single player, if the player dies, the player can choose to respawn in spectator mode or delete the world. In Multiplayer, if a player dies they are automatically banned from the server.
Mob damage[]
The damage mobs deal to players is affected by the difficulty of the game. The below values represent the amount of damage taken per hit.
- This only applies to mobs attacking the player. Mobs attacking other mobs (wolves, iron golems, etc.) always deal the 'Normal' damage listed, regardless of difficulty.
- Values for the creeper and ghast assume the player is directly adjacent to the explosion.
- The damage of slimes and magma cubes depends on their size. Tiny-sized slimes, while hostile, are unable to do damage directly.
- In contrast, the damage for an iron golem just has a large random factor.
- Mobs deal no damage on peaceful, apart from the wolf.
| Mob | Difficulty | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | Medium | Hard | |
| Blaze | 4 ( |
6 ( |
9 ( |
| Blaze's fireball | 5 ( |
5 ( |
5 ( |
| Cave spider | 2 ( |
2 ( |
3 ( |
| Creeper's explosion | 25 ( |
49 ( |
73 ( |
| Charged creeper's explosion | 49 ( |
97 ( |
145 ( |
| Elder guardian | 5 ( |
8 ( |
12 ( |
| Ender dragon | 6 ( |
10 ( |
15 ( |
| Enderman | 4 ( |
7 ( |
10 ( |
| Endermite | 2 ( |
2 ( |
2 ( |
| Evoker's fangs | 6 ( |
6 ( |
6 ( |
| Ghast's fireball impact | 6 ( |
6 ( |
6 ( |
| Ghast's fireball explosion | 9 ( |
17 ( |
25 ( |
| Giant (unused) | 26 ( |
50 ( |
75 ( |
| Guardian | 4 ( |
6 ( |
9 ( |
| Iron golem | 4 ( |
7 ( |
10 ( |
| The Killer Bunny | 5 ( |
8 ( |
12 ( |
| Llama's spit | 1 ( |
1 ( |
1 ( |
| Magma cube (big) | 4 ( |
6 ( |
9 ( |
| Magma cube (small) | 3 ( |
4 ( |
6 ( |
| Magma cube (tiny) | 2 ( |
3 ( |
4 ( |
| Polar bear | 4 ( |
6 ( |
9 ( |
| Shulker's bullet | 4 ( |
4 ( |
4 ( |
| Silverfish | 1 ( |
1 ( |
1 ( |
| Skeleton's arrow | 1 ( |
1 ( |
1 ( |
| Slime (big) | 3 ( |
4 ( |
6 ( |
| Slime (small) | 2 ( |
2 ( |
3 ( |
| Slime (tiny) | 0 ( |
0 ( |
0 ( |
| Spider | 2 ( |
2 ( |
3 ( |
| Vex | 5 ( |
9 ( |
13 ( |
| Vindicator | 7 ( |
13 ( |
19 ( |
| Wither skeleton | 4 ( |
7 ( |
10 ( |
| Wither skull | 5 ( |
8 ( |
12 ( |
| Wolf (tamed) | 3 ( |
4 ( |
6 ( |
| Wolf (hostile) | 2 ( |
2 ( |
3 ( |
| Zombie | 2 ( |
3 ( |
4 ( |
| Zombie pigman | 5 ( |
9 ( |
13 ( |
Moon phase[]
The phase of the moon has effects on the spawning of slimes in swamp biomes, and contributes to the calculation of regional difficulty. The fuller the moon is, the greater the effect. Note that the moon does not actually have to be out for this effect to take place—the effect of the moon's phase exists even at daytime.
| Moon phase | Value | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Full | 1.0 | 100% |
| Gibbous | 0.75 | 75% |
| Quarter | 0.5 | 50% |
| Crescent | 0.25 | 25% |
| New | 0.0 | 0% |
Regional difficulty[]
Regional difficulty is a variation in difficulty calculated based on several factors, including the “inhabited time" of the current chunk, the total play time in the world, the phase of the moon, and the current difficulty setting. The current regional difficulty is shown on the Debug screen as “Local Difficulty".
The “inhabited time" of a chunk increases for each tick a player spends with the chunk loaded. This is a cumulative measure of time—if 50 players spend a single hour in a chunk, it counts the same as if one player spent 50 hours there. The effect of inhabited time on regional difficulty is capped at 50 hours.
Total play time in the world also contributes to regional difficulty. This effect doesn't begin until after the first hour of play time and is capped at 21 hours.
In pseudocode, the calculation of regional difficulty is:
TotalTimeFactor, ChunkFactor, and RegionalDifficulty are floating-point variables
MoonPhase is as in the table above.
if ( TotalPlayTime > 21 hours )
TotalTimeFactor = 0.25
else if ( TotalPlayTime < 1 hour )
TotalTimeFactor = 0
else
TotalTimeFactor = ( TotalPlayTimeInTicks - 72,000 ) / 5,760,000
if ( ChunkInhabitedTime > 50 hours )
ChunkFactor = 1
else
ChunkFactor = ChunkInhabitedTimeInTicks / 3,600,000
if (difficulty is not Hard)
multiply ChunkFactor by 3/4
if ( MoonPhase / 4 > TotalTimeFactor )
add TotalTimeFactor to ChunkFactor
else
add MoonPhase / 4 to ChunkFactor
if ( difficulty is Easy )
divide ChunkFactor by 2
RegionalDifficulty = 0.75 + TotalTimeFactor + ChunkFactor
if (difficulty is Normal)
multiply RegionalDifficulty by 2
if (difficulty is Hard)
multiply RegionalDifficulty by 3
return RegionalDifficulty
The regional difficulty ranges from 0.75–1.5 on easy, 1.5–4.0 on normal, and 2.25–6.75 on hard.
When actually used in the game, this raw number is usually converted to a value in the range 0.0–1.0 as follows:
if ( RegionalDifficulty < 2.0 ) {
value = 0.0;
} else if ( RegionalDifficulty > 4.0 ) {
value = 1.0;
} else {
value = ( RegionalDifficulty - 2.0 ) / 2.0;
}
Thus, on easy, regional difficulty will have no effect; on normal the effects will reach the maximum after 21 hours of play time in a fully-inhabited chunk on a full moon; and on hard after 21 hours of play time the effects will reach the maximum in chunks inhabited only 4 1⁄6 hours during a full moon and will remain at maximum in chunks inhabited over 16 2⁄3 hours.
Attributes affected by difficulty conditions[]
| Attribute | Probability value | Condition | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Higher difficulty setting | Regional difficulty | Moon phase | ||
| Mobs are more likely to spawn with armor. | 0–15% | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobs that spawn with weapons are more likely to have enchantments. | 0–25% | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobs that spawn with armor are more likely to have enchantments. | 0–50% | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobs that spawn with enchanted equipment will have higher levels of enchantments. | Level 5–22 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Skeletons and zombies are more likely to have the ability to pick up dropped items. | 0–55% | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zombies are more likely to have the ability to break wooden doors. | 0-10% | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zombies are more likely to have a greater follow distance. | Multiplier of 1–1.5 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zombies are more likely to be “Leader zombies" (gaining a bonus to max HP, a bonus to the chance to spawn reinforcements, and the ability to break doors). | 0-5% | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Slimes are more likely to be big. | 33–50% for Big, 33–16% for Tiny |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Spiders are more likely to have status effects. | 0–10% | Hard Only | Yes | Yes |
| Lightning strikes are more likely to spawn a skeleton trap horse | 3.75–7.5% on Easy 7.5–20% on Normal 11.25–33.75% on Hard |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zombies are more likely to spawn with weapons. | 1% on Easy and Normal, 5% on Hard |
Yes | No | No |
| Mobs that spawn with armor are more likely to have more armor. | Easy & Normal: 75%/56%/42% of having 2/3/4 pieces; Hard: 90%/81%/73% of having 2/3/4 pieces |
Yes | No | No |
| Villagers killed by a zombie have a greater chance of becoming zombies. | 0% on Easy, 50% on Normal, 100% on Hard |
Yes | No | No |
| Explosion damage to players is higher. | Damage is 50% on Easy, 150% on Hard | Yes | No | No |
| Zombie Pigmen spawn from Nether Portals in the Overworld more often. | 1⁄2000 on Easy, 2⁄2000 on Normal, 3⁄2000 on Hard |
Yes | No | No |
| Mobs are more willing to take fall damage when pursuing a target.[note 1] | Easy: 33% + 8 ( Normal: 33% + 4 ( Hard: 33% |
Yes | No | No |
| Burning zombies are more likely to set their target on fire, and the burn duration is longer. | Easy: 30% chance for 2 seconds Normal: 60% chance for 4 seconds Hard: 90% chance for 6 seconds |
Yes | No | No |
| Withers will spawn 3–4 wither skeletons when brought below half health.[Pocket edition only] | Normal difficulty and above | Yes | No | No |
| Slimes are more likely to spawn in swamp biomes. | See above | No | No | Yes |
- ↑ Mobs will accept fall damage as long as it won't bring their health below 33% of their maximum health (rounded up to the nearest 1 (
)), plus a constant reserve based on difficulty. This even applies to ground-based mobs immune to fall damage.
Video[]
History[]
| Alpha | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 22, 2010 | Notch made a tweet on October 22, 2010, stating that he's “changing difficulty to realism. Lowest setting = creative. Highest setting = starve". This was never implemented, however a “hardcore" mode was added along with a creative gamemode. | |||
| Official release | ||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9-pre2 | Hardcore mode added. | ||
Issues[]
Issues relating to “Difficulty” are maintained on the issue tracker. Report issues there.
See also[]