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, tailoring your skills depends on difficulty.
World settings
There are four difficulty levels in the game: Peaceful, Easy, Normal and Hard. These can be set in the settings, as well as by the /difficulty command.
Peaceful
No hostile mobs can spawn naturally, except for evokers [Bedrock Edition only], ghasts [Bedrock Edition only][until BE 1.16.0], vindicators [Bedrock Edition only], shulkers, hoglins [upcoming: BE 1.16.0 & JE 1.16], piglins [upcoming: BE 1.16.0 & JE 1.16][Java Edition only], and the ender dragon, but they cannot deal damage to the player, except for the ender dragon which can. 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. When the difficulty is switched from any other setting to Peaceful, all mobs that are not allowed to spawn on Peaceful are removed from the world. Players regain health rapidly over time. Despite this, 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, chorus fruits, and milk buckets unless the player has switched to Peaceful when their hunger bar was below the maximum in Java Edition. Players can eat normally though the hunger bar never depletes.[Bedrock Edition only] Additionally, if the hunger bar is below the maximum, it quickly regenerates.
It is, for the most part, currently impossible to complete Minecraft while playing on Peaceful, because The End cannot be accessed unless a seed with the End Portal already filled in is used. Blaze rods are required to activate the End Portal, and the only way to obtain blaze rods is directly from a blaze. You cannot complete all the achievements in peaceful difficulty.
Easy
Hostile mobs spawn, but they deal less damage than on Normal difficulty. The hunger bar can deplete, leaving the player with 10![]()
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if it drains completely. Cave spiders and bees cannot poison players on Easy difficulty, and the wither does not cause the Wither effect, although wither skeletons do. Lightning sets only the struck block on fire, not surrounding blocks. Zombies do not break down doors, and do not turn villagers into zombie villagers. Zombies and skeletons will rarely wear full sets of armor because it is a lower difficulty.
Normal
Hostile mobs spawn and deal standard damage. The hunger bar can deplete, leaving the player with 1
if it drains completely. Zombies do not break down doors, but villagers killed by zombies have a 50% chance of turning into zombie villagers.
Hard
Hostile mobs deal greater damage than on Normal difficulty. The hunger bar can deplete, and the player starves to death if it drains completely. Zombies can break through wooden doors and can spawn reinforcements when attacked. Spiders can spawn with a beneficial status effect (speed, strength, regeneration & invisibility) and these effects have an infinite duration in Java Edition. Villagers killed by zombies always turn into zombie villagers.
Hardcore mode
At the world creation screen, selecting Hardcore from among the game mode options causes the player to spawn in Hard difficulty, does not allow it to be changed, and allows the player only one life. In a single player world, if the player dies, the player can choose to respawn in Spectator mode or delete the world. In Multiplayer, the player's gamemode automatically sets to Spectator mode upon the player's death.
The only way to change the difficulty of Hardcore is to use cheats and make it a LAN Server, or use an .NBT editor on the world's .NBT file.
Currently not available in the Realms.
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.
The moon does not actually have to be in the sky for this effect to take place, the moon exists in daytime and across dimensions.
| 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 values shown on the debug screen
Regional difficulty or local difficulty is a value between 0.00 and 6.75 that the game calculates by considering not just the world difficulty setting, but also the inhabited time of a chunk, the total daytime in the world, and the phase of the moon. This value is shown on the debug screen as the first value listed after the heading "Local Difficulty". This value determines several aspects of the difficulty of gameplay (see below).
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.
The total daytime in the world is the value from /time query daytime added to the "Day" on the F3 debug screen converted to ticks, i.e. daytime + (dayNumber * 24,000). This is not the same as the actual playtime in the world (the value from /time query gametime). It affects the regional difficulty after the first 3 in-game days, and has no additional effect after 63 in-game days.
In pseudocode, the calculation of regional difficulty is:
# DaytimeFactor, ChunkFactor, and RegionalDifficulty are floating-point variables # MoonPhase is as in the table above. if (difficulty is Peaceful) return 0 if (TotalDaytime > 63 in-game days) DaytimeFactor = 0.25 else if (TotalDaytime < 3 in-game days) DaytimeFactor = 0 else DaytimeFactor = (TotalDaytimeInTicks − 72,000) / 5,760,000 if (ChunkInhabitedTime > 50 hours) ChunkFactor = 1 else ChunkFactor = ChunkInhabitedTimeInTicks / 3,600,000 if (difficulty is Normal or Easy) multiply ChunkFactor by 0.75 if (MoonPhase ÷ 4 > DaytimeFactor) add DaytimeFactor to ChunkFactor else add (MoonPhase ÷ 4) to ChunkFactor if (difficulty is Easy) multiply ChunkFactor by 0.5 RegionalDifficulty = 0.75 + DaytimeFactor + ChunkFactor if (difficulty is Normal) multiply RegionalDifficulty by 2 if (difficulty is Hard) multiply RegionalDifficulty by 3 return RegionalDifficulty
The raw regional difficulty therefore is always 0.0 on Peaceful and ranges from 0.75 to 1.5 on Easy, 1.5 to 4.0 on Normal, and 2.25 to 6.75 on Hard.
Clamped regional difficulty
How clamped regional difficulty relates to regional difficulty
The clamped regional difficulty is a value between 0.00 and 1.00 based on regional difficulty. This value is shown on the debug screen as the second value listed after the heading "Local Difficulty". This is yet another value that affects the difficulty of gameplay (see below).
The regional difficulty value is clamped 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, where regional difficulty is never higher than 1.5, the clamped value is always zero.
On Normal, the effects reach the maximum after Lua error in Module:Convert at line 62: attempt to concatenate local 'outputVal' (a nil value). in a fully-inhabited chunk on a full moon; and on Hard after 63 in-game days the effects reach the maximum in chunks inhabited 4 1⁄6 hours during a full moon and remain at maximum in chunks inhabited over 16 2⁄3 hours.[verify]
Effects
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 applies only to mobs attacking the player. Mobs attacking other mobs 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.
- Mobs deal no damage to players on peaceful.
| Mob | Difficulty | Status effect(s)ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ[edit] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | Normal | Hard | ||
| Bee | 2 |
2 |
3 |
Poison for 10 seconds on Normal difficulty and for 18 seconds on Hard difficulty |
| Blaze (melee) | 4 |
6 |
9 |
No |
| Blaze fireball | 9 |
No | ||
| Cave Spider | 2 |
2 |
3 |
Poison for 7 seconds on Normal difficulty and for 15 seconds on Hard difficulty |
| Chicken Jockey | 2.5 |
3 |
4.5 |
No |
| Creeper explosion (normal) | 22.5 |
43 |
64.5 |
When exploding: No
If having a potion effect when exploding, it leaves an effect cloud with the effect, like a lingering potion. |
| Creeper explosion (charged) | 43.5 |
85 |
127.5 | |
| Dolphin | 2.5 |
3 |
4.5 |
No |
| Drowned | No | |||
| Drowned trident (Ranged) | 8 |
No | ||
| Drowned trident (Melee)[BE only] | 5 |
9 |
12 |
No |
| Elder Guardian (Laser) | 5 |
8 |
12 |
Inflicts Mining Fatigue III for 5 minutes on nearby players |
| Elder Guardian (Spikes) | 2 |
3 | ||
| Elder Guardian Ghost (Spikes) | 2 |
3 |
No | |
| Ender Dragon (Melee) | 6 |
10 |
15 |
No |
| Ender Dragon (Wings) | 3 |
5 |
7 |
No |
| Ender Dragon (Breath) | 3 |
Area effect cloud of Instant Damage | ||
| Ender Dragon Dragon Fireball | 6 | |||
| Enderman | 4.5 |
7 |
10.5 |
No |
| Endermite | 2 |
3 |
No | |
| Evoker fangs | 6 |
No | ||
| Ghast fireball (Impact) | 6 |
No | ||
| Ghast fireball (Explosion) | 7 |
12 |
22.5 |
No |
| Giant | 26 |
50 |
75 |
No |
| Goat | 1 |
2 |
3 |
No |
| Guardian (Laser) | 4 |
6 |
9 |
No |
| Guardian (Spikes) | 2 |
3 |
No | |
| Hoglin[JE only] | 2.5 |
3 |
4.5 |
No |
| Hoglin (baby)[JE only] | 0.5 |
0.75 |
No | |
| Hoglin[BE only] | 3 |
6 |
9 |
No |
| Husk | 2.5 |
3 |
4.5 |
Hunger when attacking any mob for 7 × floor of RD seconds |
| Illusioner arrow | 2 |
3 |
Throws Blindness spells on the player, if regional difficulty is 2 or greater | |
| Iron Golem | 4.75 |
7.5 |
11.25 |
No |
| The Killer Bunny | 5 |
8 |
12 |
No |
| Llama spit | 1 |
No | ||
| Magma Cube (big) | 4 |
6 |
9 |
No |
| Magma Cube (medium) | 3 |
4 |
6 |
No |
| Magma Cube (small) | 2.5 |
3 |
4.5 |
No |
| Panda | 4 |
6 |
9 |
No |
| Phantom[JE only] | 2 |
3 |
No | |
| Phantom[BE only] | 4 |
6 |
9 |
No |
| Piglin arrow[JE only] | 3 |
4 |
No | |
| Piglin arrow[BE only] | 1 |
No | ||
| Piglin (Melee with Sword)[JE only] | 5 |
8 |
12 |
No |
| Piglin (Melee without Sword)[JE only] | 3.5 |
5 |
7.5 |
No |
| Piglin[BE only] | 5 |
9 |
13 |
No |
| Piglin Brute | 7.5 |
13 |
19.5 |
No |
| Pillager arrow | 3 |
4 |
No | |
| Polar Bear | 4 |
6 |
9 |
No |
| Pufferfish | 2 |
3 |
Poison for 5 seconds | |
| Ravager (Melee) | 7 |
12 |
18 |
No |
| Ravager (Roar) | 4 |
6 |
9 |
No |
| Shulker bullet | 4 |
Levitation for 10 seconds | ||
| Silverfish | 1 |
No | ||
| Skeleton arrow[JE only] | 2 |
3 |
4 |
No |
| Skeleton arrow[BE only] | 1 |
1 |
No | |
| Skeleton (melee) | 2 |
3 |
No | |
| Skeleton Horseman arrow[JE only] | Varies with skeleton bow enchantment | No | ||
| Skeleton Horseman arrow[BE only] | Varies with skeleton bow enchantment | No | ||
| Slime (big) | 3 |
4 |
6 |
No |
| Slime (medium) | 2 |
3 |
No | |
| Slime (small) | 0 |
No | ||
| Spider | 2 |
3 |
No, but can spawn with effects | |
| Spider Jockey (spider) | 2 |
3 |
No, but can spawn with effects | |
| Spider Jockey arrow[JE only] | 3 |
No | ||
| Spider Jockey arrow[BE only] | Damage varies with proximity | No | ||
| Stray arrow[JE only] | 3 |
Slowness for 30 seconds when their tipped arrow hits any mob (including another stray) | ||
| Stray arrow[BE only] | Damage varies with proximity | |||
| Stray (melee) | 2 |
3 |
No | |
| Trader Llama spit | 1 |
No | ||
| Vex | 5.5 |
9 |
13.5 |
No |
| Vindicator | 7.5 |
13 |
19.5 |
No |
| Warden (Melee) | 16 |
30 |
45 |
No |
| Warden (Ranged) | 6 |
10 |
15 |
No |
| Witch | Deals damage by throwing potions | Throws splash potions of Poison, Instant Damage, Slowness, and Weakness | ||
| Wither Skeleton | 5 |
8 |
12 |
Wither for 10 seconds |
| Wither (birth explosion) | 35.5 |
69 |
103.5 |
No |
| Wither Skull | 8 |
8 |
Wither II for 10 seconds on Normal difficulty and 40 seconds on Hard difficulty | |
| Wither (dash attack) [BE only] |
15 |
No | ||
| Wolf (hostile) | 3 |
4 |
6 |
No |
| Wolf (tamed) | 4 |
No | ||
| Zoglin | 2.5 |
3 |
4.5 |
No |
| Zoglin (baby) | 0.5 |
0.75 |
No | |
| Zombie | 2.5 |
3 |
4.5 |
No |
| Zombified Piglin | 5 |
8 |
12 |
No |
| Zombie Villager | 2.5 |
3 |
4.5 |
No |
Other effects
| Attribute | Notes | Condition | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World difficulty | Regional difficulty (RD) | Clamped regional difficulty (CRD) | Moon phase only | ||
| Easy: 1⁄2 of Normal damage, rounded down, +1 Hard: 1 1⁄2 times Normal damage, rounded down |
Yes | No | No | No | |
| Guardians (both types) have higher laser damage. | Easy/Normal: 1 Hard: 3 |
Yes | No | No | No |
| Explosion damage to players is higher. | Easy: 1⁄2 of Normal damage, rounded down, +1 Hard: 1 1⁄2 times Normal damage, rounded down |
Yes | No | No | No |
| Starvation more harshly affects health. | Easy/Normal/Hard: starvation brings health down to 10/1/0 HP | Yes | No | 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 | No |
| Zombies are more likely to spawn with weapons. | 1% on Easy and Normal, 5% on Hard |
Yes | No | No | No |
| Zombies are able to spawn reinforcements. | Hard only | Yes | No | No | No |
| Zombies are more likely to be able to break wooden doors. | A zombie having the ability to break a door: (10×CRD)% The door actually breaking: Hard only |
Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Villagers killed by zombies have a greater chance of becoming zombie villagers. | 0% on Easy, 50% on Normal, 100% on Hard |
Yes | No | No | No |
| Zombie pigmen spawn from Nether portals in the Overworld more often. | 1⁄2000 per block tick on Easy, 2⁄2000 on Normal, 3⁄2000 on Hard |
Yes | No | No | No |
| A skeleton or stray does not wait as long between bow & arrow attacks. | Easy/Normal: 2s cooldown Hard: 1s |
Yes | No | No | No |
| A skeleton or stray is more accurate in ranged attacks with its bow. | Easy/Normal/Hard "inaccuracy" value is 10/6/2 | Yes | No | No | No |
| Damage from arrows slightly increases. | Easy/Normal/Hard damage bonus = +0.11 / +0.22 / +0.33 | Yes | No | No | No |
| Phantoms spawn more frequently. | A spawn attempt succeeds if the local difficulty is greater than a random value between 0.0 and 3.0. | No | Yes | No | No |
| Phantoms spawn in larger groups. | Easy: 1-2 Normal: 1-3 Hard: 1-4 |
Yes | No | No | No |
| Spiders can naturally spawn with status effects. | Normal and Hard (10×CRD)% |
Yes | No | Yes | No |
| The Poison effect given by a cave spider lasts longer. | Normal/Hard: 7s/15s | Yes | No | No | No |
| The Poison effect given by a bee lasts longer. | Normal/Hard: 10s/18s | Yes | No | No | No |
| The Wither effect given by a wither skull lasts longer. | Normal/Hard: 10s/40s | Yes | No | No | No |
| A wither shoots wither skulls when idle. | Normal/Hard only | Yes | No | No | No |
| A wither spawns 3–4 wither skeletons when brought below half health.[Bedrock Edition only] | Normal/Hard only | Yes | No | No | No |
| Lightning can cause fires in the surrounding blocks, not just the block struck. | Normal/Hard only | Yes | No | No | No |
| Fire lingers for a bit longer. | The raw encouragement value of blocks surrounding fire gets a bonus of (Easy/Normal/Hard) +47 / +54 / +61, before being adjusted for fire age, humidity and rain. | Yes | No | 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 | No |
| Lightning strikes are more likely to spawn a skeleton trap horse. | Chance = (RD)% (0.75–1.5% on Easy, 1.5–4% on Normal, 2.25–6.75% on Hard) |
No | Yes | No | No |
| Burning zombies are more likely to set their target on fire, and the burn duration is longer. | Chance = (30×RD)% Burn time = 2 × RD seconds |
No | Yes | No | No |
| The Hunger effect caught from being attacked by a husk lasts longer. | Effect time = 7 × RD seconds | No | Yes | No | No |
| Illusioners can cast blindness. | If RD > 2. | No | Yes | No | No |
| Skeletons can shoot flaming arrows. | If RD > 3. | No | Yes | No | No |
| Skeletons and zombies are more likely to have the ability to pick up dropped items. | Having the ability: (55×CRD)% | No | No | Yes | No |
| Zombies are more likely to have a greater follow distance. | if (random # in range 0–1.5) × CRD is greater than 1, that becomes a bonus multiplier on the follow distance. | No | No | Yes | No |
| 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). | Any given zombie being a "leader": (5×CRD)% | No | No | Yes | No |
| Mobs are more likely to spawn with armor. | Chance of getting any armor at all: (15×CRD)% | No | No | Yes | No |
| Mobs that spawn with weapons are more likely to have enchantments. | Chance for the main hand item = (25×CRD)% | No | No | Yes | No |
| Mobs that spawn with armor are more likely to have enchantments. | Chance per armor item = (50×CRD)% | No | No | Yes | No |
| Mobs that spawn with enchanted equipment have higher levels of enchantments. | Level = 5 + 18×CRD | No | No | Yes | No |
| Slimes are more likely to be bigger. | Small: (33×(1-CRD)/2)% Medium: 33% Big: (33×(1+CRD)/2)% in other words: Small/Medium/Big: 17%–33% / 33% / 33%–50% |
No | No | Yes | No |
| Slimes are more likely to spawn in swamp biomes. | See above | No | No | No | Yes |
| Raid has more waves | Easy: 3 waves Normal: 5 waves |
Yes | No | No | No |
| Illager patrol can spawn vindicator[Bedrock Edition only] | Easy and Normal: 100% pillager Hard : 80% pillager, 20% vindicator |
Yes | No | No | No |
| Illager patrol can spawn on any light level[Bedrock Edition only] | Easy: Light level 0-7 Normal and Hard: Any light level |
Yes | No | No | No |
| Vindicator and Pillager spawn from raids having higher chance to drop special loot.[Bedrock Edition only] | Normal: 65% chance Hard: 80% chance |
Yes | No | No | No |
| Vindicator are able to break down Wooden Door | Peaceful and Easy: unable to break door Normal and Hard: can break door |
Yes | No | No | No |
- ↑ Mobs accept fall damage if their health would not be reduced 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
| classic | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 14, 2009 | Notch discussed how his vision for Survival mode would incorporate the concept of difficulty: "When generating a new level or loading a creative mode level, you also select a difficulty. Difficulty levels will probably vary from 'challenging' to 'impossible', since I want the game to be difficult. If it's not fun to always be challenged, I'll add easier difficulties." | ||||
| indev | |||||
| 0.31 | February 5, 2010 | Added the option to change difficulty to Peaceful, Easy, Normal, or Hard. | |||
| alpha | |||||
| October 22, 2010 | Notch tweets stating that he is "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. | ||||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2 | Hardcore mode added. | |||
| Upcoming Java Edition | |||||
| 1.16 | 20w17a | Difficulty can now be chosen on world creation. | |||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.4.0 | Added peaceful difficulty. | ||||
| 0.12.1 | Added easy and hard difficulties. | ||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Difficulty" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
See also