Difficulty

Difficulty can be toggled via the Options menu in Minecraft. Changing this option has a direct impact in the gameplay itself. No setting impacts the quantity of hostile mobs that spawn, including peaceful. There are currently four difficulties in the game.

Difficulty	Description	Zombie damage	Skeleton arrow damage	Spider damage	Point-blank creeper explosion damage	Zombie Pigman damage	Enderman damage
Peaceful	Player regains health over time. Hostile mobs do spawn, but are removed from the game instantaneously. Switching from any other difficulty setting to Peaceful results in existing hostile mobs, except for wolves (only when attacked) and tiny slimes (which are hostile but cannot harm you - unless they push you into something that can), being removed from the world. Despite regaining health over time, it is still possible to die with fast enough damage. The Hunger bar cannot deplete and you cannot eat in this difficulty.	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Easy	Hostile mobs spawn. Enemies deal less damage than on normal difficulty. Creepers will cancel their explosions after moving only a short distance away. The Hunger bar can deplete and will leave you with 5 hearts if it drains completely.	(1)	(1)	(.5)	(5.5)	(1)	(1)
Normal	Hostile mobs spawn. Enemies deal standard damage and have standard health. The Hunger bar can deplete and will leave you with a half heart if it drains completely.	(2.5)	(2)	(1)	(10)	(2.5)	(2.5)
Hard	Hostile mobs spawn. Enemies deal greater damage than in Normal Mode, and Creepers will not cancel their attack unless a big distance is between them and the player, making the explosion much harder to avoid. The Hunger bar can deplete and will kill you if it drains completely.	(3.5)	(3)	(1.5)	(10.5)	(3.5)	(3.5)

Future difficulties

Hardcore difficulty

Main article: Hardcore Mode

Tips

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 bow, or bones to make bone meal. With the recent 1.8 update, you may also find cobweb that, when destroyed with shears or a sword, give you a 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 in the darkness right in front of you or a skeleton shooting at you from someplace you can't see when you go into a cave or dying from hunger by mining and jumping.

It can be difficult to get your feet if you are constantly attacked when first entering The Nether (particularly since some computers can lag when switching between the two areas), so changing the difficulty to Peaceful will stop the Ghasts attacking you.

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.

Going to the nether and bringing back netherack to put around your house and setting it on fire will keep out enemies. Note: If your house is made from wood it will burn.

Trivia

• Notch made a tweet on October 22^nd 2010, stating that he's changing "difficulty" to "realism". Lowest setting = creative. Highest setting = starve.
• As of Beta 1.3, fewer passive mobs spawn on harder modes.