La dificultad se puede configurar en el menú de opciones de Minecraft. Cambiar la dificultad supone un notable impacto sobre la jugabilidad.
Actualmente existen cuatro niveles de dificultad.
| Dificultad | Descripción | Zombi (daño) | Esqueleto (daño con flecha) | Araña (daño) | Creeper (daño directo de explosión) | Hombrecerdo zombi (daño) | Enderman (daño) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pacífico
0 |
Las criaturas hostiles no aparecen naturalmente. Cuando son creadas por generadores, se remueven del juego instantáneamente. Los jugadores recuperan salud con el paso del tiempo. A pesar de recuperar salud con el tiempo, aún es posible morir si se recibe daño lo suficientemente rápido. Cambiar desde cualquier otra dificultad a Pacífico ocasiona que cualquier criatura hostil existente, excepto por los lobos hostiles, sea removida del mundo. El hambre nunca decae y los jugadores no pueden comer nada excepto Manzana dorada, a menos que el jugador haya cambiado a Pacífico mientras la barra de alimento estuviera por debajo del máximo. | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Fácil
1 |
Aparecen criaturas hostiles. Los enemigos producen menos daño que en la dificultad normal. Los Creepers cancelarán sus explosiones si te alejas un poco de ellos. La barra de alimento se consume y puede dejar al jugador con Plantilla:Healthbar si se acaba completamente. Las Arañas de cueva no podrán envenenar a los jugadores y el Wither no podrá causar el efecto Wither, al contrario de los esqueletos Wither. | 3 
|
2
|
2
|
~25 × 12.5
|
5
|
4
|
| Normal
2 |
Aparecen criaturas hostiles. Los enemigos producen un daño estándar. La barra de alimento se consume y puede dejar al jugador con Plantilla:Healthbar si se acaba completamente. | 4
|
3 - 4
|
2
|
49 × 24.5
|
9
|
7
|
| Difícil
3 |
Aparecen criaturas hostiles. Los enemigos producen más daño que en la dificultad normal. La barra de alimento se consume y, si se acaba, mata al jugador lentamente. Los Creepers no cancelarán su ataque a menos que haya una gran distancia entre ellos y el jugador, por lo que la explosión mucho más difícil de evitar. Los Zombies romperán las puertas de madera. Los zombis pueden generar armaduras. Las arañas pueden generar con efectos de pociones. | 6
|
4 - 6
|
3
|
~65 × 32.5
|
13 × 6.5
|
10
|
Otros efectos
- Mobs are more likely to spawn with armor in higher difficulties.
- Villagers killed by a zombie have a greater chance of becoming zombies in higher difficulties.
- Explosion damage to entities changes depending on difficulty.
- Zombie Pigmen spawn from Nether Portals in the Overworld more often on higher difficulties.
Dificultad extrema
- Artículo principal: Modo Extremo
El modo extremo hace que el jugador no pueda cambiar la dificultad. Si el jugador muere, el mundo se elimina. Para jugar este modo debes cambiar el modo de juego cuando creas el mundo.
Consejos
If you are having trouble getting started or exploring caverns, the best thing to do is change the difficulty to "Peaceful". You will be able to explore caves or build a base/HQ much more easily. However, this does not give you the full experience, and you will have to turn the difficulty up if you want to get all the items and tools, such as the bones to make bone meal. In all versions since the 1.8 beta Adventure Update, you may also find cobwebs, that, when destroyed with a sword, give you String. A good recommendation is to turn on Peaceful during the day, and then turn the difficulty back up at night IF you are prepared. This way, you can get the benefits of both ways to play.
Another idea is to change to peaceful whenever you venture into a cave, then turn it back up whenever you leave and go outside or to your house. That way you encounter the enemies above ground at night, but you don't have to worry about a creeper suddenly exploding or a skeleton shooting at you from dark corners when you go into a cave or dying from hunger while mining (many actions performed while mining will make you very hungry, going into a cave without enough food on hard difficulty can easily end in death).
It can be difficult to get your feet wet if you are constantly attacked when first entering The Nether (particularly since some computers can freeze when switching between the two areas), so changing the difficulty to Peaceful will stop the Ghasts attacking you. Alternatively, standing inside the portal will protect you from being seen by mobs or hit by other players while the lag stops. This also works on servers where altering the difficulty is impossible.
In the Nether, difficulty does not affect hostile mob spawning in any way, with the exception of hostile mobs not spawning at all in Peaceful.
On servers 0 difficulty is Peaceful, 1 is Easy, 2 is Normal, and 3 is Hard. Doing "/difficulty 1" sets it to Easy.
Strategy for hardcore mode: food is of the utmost importance, a sword is next, shelter (most importantly a bed) is third and armor is next.
Curiosidades
Notch made a tweet[1] on October 22nd 2010, stating that he's "changing difficulty to realism. Lowest setting = creative. Highest setting = starve". This was never implemented, however "hardcore" mode was added along with a creative gamemode. Creative mode makes the player an invulnerable non-target, peaceful remains unchanged, easy and normal allow damage from hunger but not full starvation, hard allows one to starve to death, and hardcore mode adds permanent death.