Game rule

Game rules are a set of customizable options for a specific in-game world.

Modifying game rules[]

In Java Edition, game rules can be changed using toggle buttons on the "Edit Game Rules" menu built into the "Create World" screen. The game rules are split into categories named "Player", "Mobs", "Spawning", "Drops", "World updates", "Chat", and "Miscellaneous".

In Bedrock Edition, about half of the game rules can be changed using toggles on the "World settings" and "Cheats" sections of the world's Game settings screen. The remainder can be changed only with commands.

When in-game, game rules can be changed using the /gamerule command, using the syntax /gamerule <rule> [<value>], where <rule> is the name of the game rule and <value> is an allowed value, which depends on the type of the game rule. The types are boolean (where the allowed values are either true or false) and integer (where any whole number is able to be entered).

List of game rules[]

This section is missing information about the Bedrock Edition game rule "showBorderEffect".

Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.

The following is a list of game rules available in-game, their allowed values, and their availability in Java Edition and Bedrock Edition.

List of game rules
Rule name	Description	Default value	Type	Availability
Rule name	Description	Default value	Type	Java	Bedrock
`announceAdvancements`	Whether advancements should be announced in chat.	`true`	Bool	Yes	No
`blockExplosionDropDecay`	Whether block loot is dropped by all blocks (`false`) or randomly (`true`) depending on how far the block is from the center of a block explosion (e.g. clicking a bed in dimensions other than the Overworld).	`true`	Bool	Yes	No
`commandBlocksEnabled`	Whether command blocks should be enabled in-game.	`true`	Bool	No	Yes
`commandBlockOutput`	Whether command blocks should notify admins when they perform commands.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`commandModificationBlockLimit`	Controls the maximum number of blocks changed when using `/clone`, `/fill`, or `/fillbiome`.	`32768`	Int	Yes	No
`disableElytraMovementCheck`	Whether the server should skip checking player speed when the player is wearing elytra. Often helps with jittering due to lag in multiplayer.	`false`	Bool	Yes	No
`disableRaids`	Whether raids are disabled.	`false`	Bool	Yes	No
`doDaylightCycle`	Whether the daylight cycle and moon phases progress.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`doEntityDrops`	Whether entities that are not mobs should have drops.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`doFireTick`	Whether fire should spread and naturally extinguish.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`doInsomnia`	Whether phantoms can spawn in the nighttime.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`doImmediateRespawn`	Players respawn immediately without showing the death screen.	`false`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`doLimitedCrafting`	Whether players can craft only those recipes that they have unlocked.	`false`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`doMobLoot`	Whether mobs should drop items and experience orbs.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`doMobSpawning`	Whether mobs should naturally spawn. Does not affect monster spawners.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`doPatrolSpawning`	Whether patrols can spawn.	`true`	Bool	Yes	No
`doTileDrops`	Whether blocks should have drops.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`doTraderSpawning`	Whether wandering traders can spawn.	`true`	Bool	Yes	No
`doVinesSpread`	Whether vines can spread to other blocks. Cave vines, weeping vines, and twisting vines are not affected.	`true`	Bool	Yes	No
`doWeatherCycle`	Whether the weather can change naturally. The `/weather` command can still change weather.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`doWardenSpawning`	Whether wardens can spawn.	`true`	Bool	Yes	No
`drowningDamage`	Whether the player should take damage when drowning.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`enderPearlsVanishOnDeath`	Controls whether thrown ender pearls vanish when the player dies.	`true`	Bool	Yes	No
`fallDamage`	Whether the player should take fall damage.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`fireDamage`	Whether the player should take damage in fire, lava, campfires, or on magma blocks.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`forgiveDeadPlayers`	Makes angered neutral mobs stop being angry when the targeted player dies nearby.	`true`	Bool	Yes	No
`freezeDamage`	Whether the player should take damage when inside powder snow.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`globalSoundEvents`	Whether certain sound events are heard by all players regardless of location.	`true`	Bool	Yes	No
`functionCommandLimit`	The maximum number of commands that can be executed by `/function` at once.	`10000`	Int	No	Yes
`keepInventory`	Whether the player should keep items and experience in their inventory after death.	`false`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`lavaSourceConversion`	Whether new sources of lava are allowed to form.	`false`	Bool	Yes	No
`logAdminCommands`	Whether to log admin commands to server log.	`true`	Bool	Yes	No
`maxCommandChainLength`	The maximum length of a chain of commands that can be executed during one tick. Applies to command blocks and functions.	`65536`	Int	Yes	Yes
`maxCommandForkCount`	?	`65536`	Int	Yes	No
`maxEntityCramming`	The maximum number of pushable entities a mob or player can push, before taking 6 entity cramming damage per half-second. Setting to 0 or lower disables the rule. Damage affects Survival-mode or Adventure-mode players, and all mobs but bats. Pushable entities include non-Spectator-mode players, any mob except bats, as well as boats and minecarts.	`24`	Int	Yes	No
`minecartMaxSpeed`‌^{[upcoming: JE 1.21.2]}	The maximum speed in which minecarts can go.	`8`	Int	Yes	No
`mobExplosionDropDecay`	Whether block loot is dropped by all blocks (`false`) or randomly (`true`) depending on how far the block is from the center of a mob explosion (e.g. Creeper explosion).	`true`	Bool	Yes	No
`mobGriefing`	Whether creepers, zombies, endermen, ghasts, withers, ender dragons, rabbits, sheep, villagers, silverfish, snow golems, and end crystals‌^{[BE only]} should be able to change blocks, and whether mobs can pick up items. When mobGriefing is disabled, piglins do not pick up gold ingots, but a player can still barter with them by using the item on the mob. Similarly, villagers do not pick up food items but can still breed until they run out of any food already in their inventory. This also affects the capability of zombie-like creatures like zombified piglins and drowned to pathfind to turtle eggs.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`naturalRegeneration`	Whether the player can regenerate health naturally if their hunger is full enough (doesn't affect external healing, such as golden apples, the Regeneration effect, etc.).	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`playersNetherPortalCreativeDelay`	Control how many ticks the player in Creative has to wait in order to travel through dimensions through the nether portal.	`1`	Int	Yes	No
`playersNetherPortalDefaultDelay`	Control how many ticks the player in Survival or Adventure mode has to wait in order to travel through dimensions through the nether portal.	`80`	Int	Yes	No
`playersSleepingPercentage`	What percentage of players in the Overworld must sleep to skip the night. A percentage value of 0 or less will allow the night to be skipped by just 1 player, and a percentage value more than 100 will prevent players from ever skipping the night.	`100`	Int	Yes	Yes
`projectilesCanBreakBlocks`	Control whenever do projectiles can break blocks (like trident breaks pointed dripstone).	`true`	Bool	Yes	No
`pvp`	Whether the player can fight with other players.	`true`	Bool	No	Yes
`randomTickSpeed`	How often a random block tick occurs (such as plant growth, leaf decay, etc.) per chunk section per game tick. 0 and negative values disables random ticks, higher numbers increase random ticks. Setting to a high integer results in high speeds of decay and growth. Numbers over 4096 make plant growth or leaf decay instantaneous.	`3`‌^{[JE only]} `1`‌^{[BE only]}	Int	Yes	Yes
`recipesUnlock`	Controls whether the player needs to collect items to unlock recipes in the recipe book.	`true`	Bool	No	Yes
`reducedDebugInfo`	Whether the debug screen shows all or reduced information; and whether the effects of `F3` + `B` (entity hitboxes) and `F3` + `G` (chunk boundaries) are shown.	`false`	Bool	Yes	No
`respawnBlocksExplode`	Prevents beds/respawn anchors from exploding in other dimensions.	`true`	Bool	No	Yes
`sendCommandFeedback`	Whether the feedback from commands executed by a player should show up in chat. Also affects the default behavior of whether command blocks store their output text.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`showBorderEffect`	Whether border blocks effects are shown.	`true`	Bool	No	Yes
`showCoordinates`	Whether the player's coordinates are displayed.	`true`	Bool	No	Yes
`showDeathMessages`	Whether death messages are put into chat when a player dies. Also affects whether a message is sent to the pet's owner when the pet dies.	`true`	Bool	Yes	Yes
`showTags`	Hides the "Can place on" and "Can destroy" block lists from item lore, as well as item lock indicators.	`true`	Bool	No	Yes
`snowAccumulationHeight`	The maximum number of snow layers that can be accumulated on each block.	`1`	Int	Yes	No
`spawnChunkRadius`	Control the radius of the spawn chunk.	`2`	Int	Yes	No
`spawnRadius`	The number of blocks outward from the world spawn coordinates that a player spawns in when first joining a server or when dying without a personal spawnpoint. Has no effect on servers where the default game mode is Adventure.	`10`	Int	Yes	Yes
`spectatorsGenerateChunks`	Whether players in Spectator mode can generate chunks.	`true`	Bool	Yes	No
`tntExplodes`	Whether TNT explodes after activation.	`true`	Bool	No	Yes
`tntExplosionDropDecay`	Whether block loot is dropped by all blocks (`false`) or randomly (`true`) depending on how far the block is from the center of a TNT explosion.	`false`	Bool	Yes	No
`universalAnger`	Makes angered neutral mobs attack any nearby player, not just the player that angered them. Works best if `forgiveDeadPlayers` is disabled.	`false`	Bool	Yes	No
`waterSourceConversion`	Whether new sources of water are allowed to form.	`true`	Bool	Yes	No

Additional behavior[]

This section needs expansion.

You can help by expanding it.

This section explains more complex behaviors of certain gamerules.

disableRaids
- When true, the Bad Omen effect is not removed from a player when entering a village.
- Stops a raid if set to true while a raid is in progress, but the existing raid mobs do not despawn.
doEntityDrops
- When false, items cannot be removed from item frames.^{[needs testing]}
doMobLoot
- Does not affect drops not related to a mob's death, such as chicken laying eggs, or sheep dropping wool when sheared.
- Does not affect the dropping of wither roses when mobs are killed by the wither.^[1]^[2]
doMobSpawning
- Affects only natural mob spawning. Mobs from structures,‌^{[Java Edition only]} monster spawners, and events still spawn when set to false.
doTileDrops
- When false, containers still drop their contents, but not themselves.
  - Shulker boxes do not drop anything, causing the items in them to be lost.
- When false, destroying an armor stand does not drop it nor any armor it had equipped.
- When false, item frames still drop themselves and their items.
- When false, infested blocks do not spawn silverfish when broken.
drowningDamage
- When false, the player still loses air, but does not take damage when the air is depleted.
fireDamage
- When false, the player may still be set on fire, but does not take damage when on fire.
forgiveDeadPlayers
- Every neutral mob that can be aggravated remain aggravated even after the offending player dies, with the exception of piglins when a player does not wear golden armor and iron golems when it is created from a village where the player is unpopular.
keepInventory
- When true, players also retain their experience upon death.
- When true, health and hunger are still reset as normal upon death.
- When true, all effects are still removed upon death.^[3]
- When true, items enchanted with Curse of Vanishing do not disappear upon death.^[4]
mobGriefing
- When false, prevents all mobs from modifying the environment in any way. This includes trampling crops and turtle eggs, picking up items, destroying blocks, or moving blocks. Specifically, it prevents:
  - Allays from picking up dropped items.
  - Blazes from creating fire or lighting campfires.
  - Creepers from destroying blocks when they explode, although they still damage entities.
  - End crystals from destroying blocks when they explode, although they still damage entities.
  - The ender dragon from destroying blocks, causing it to just fly through them instead.
  - Endermen from picking up or placing blocks.
  - Evoker from turning blue sheep red.
  - Foxes from picking sweet berries from a sweet berry bush.
  - Ghast fireballs from exploding blocks and creating fire. They still damage entities.
  - Piglins from attempting to barter by picking up dropped items; using the item on them still works.
  - Rabbits from eating carrot crops.
  - Ravagers from destroying crops and leaves.
  - Sheep from turning grass blocks into dirt, but does not prevent the regrowth of wool. They still act as if they are eating the grass and regrow their wool upon doing so, but the grass remains and the grass breaking sound does not play.
  - Silverfish from hiding in infested blocks and destroying those blocks when hatching.
  - Snow golems from creating snow trails.
  - Villagers from farming and picking up items. However, they can still open doors and throw items.
  - The wither and its heads from destroying blocks with their explosions. Entities are still damaged, and a wither rose drops as an item.
  - Zombies from breaking doors and attacking turtle eggs.
- Has no effect on the player.
playersSleepingPercentage
- When set to 0, at least one player is still required to sleep to skip the night.
- When set to a number greater than 100, night is not skipped no matter how many players are sleeping.
randomTickSpeed
- Does not affect:
  - Cauldrons filling with water or powder snow while raining or snowing.^[5]
    - Still affects filling of water and lava in cauldrons below pointed dripstone.
  - Death of coral blocks, coral, and coral fan.
  - Hatching of frogspawn^[6] and sniffer eggs^[7].
snowAccumulationHeight
- When set to 0, snow layers do not form at all.
- When set to 8 or higher, snow forms up to the level of a full block, but no greater than that.
universalAnger
- Every neutral mob that can be aggravated targets all nearby players whenever they are aggravated.
- Bees attack all nearby players when their beehive is broken, regardless of the setting of this gamerule.^[8]
  - Bees becoming angry when attacked works as expected.

History[]

Java Edition
1.4.2	12w32a	Added `/gamerule`.
	12w32a	Added the following gamerules: `doFireTick` `mobGriefing` `keepInventory` `doMobSpawning` `doMobLoot` `doTileDrops`
	12w38a	Added game rule `commandBlockOutput`.
1.6.1	13w23a	Added game rule `naturalRegeneration`.
1.6.1	13w24a	Added game rule `doDaylightCycle`.
1.8	14w03a	Added game rule `logAdminCommands`.
	14w10a	Added game rule `showDeathMessages`.
	14w17a	Added game rule `randomTickSpeed`.
	14w26a	Added game rule `sendCommandFeedback`.
	14w29a	Added game rule `reducedDebugInfo`.
	14w29a	Added the ability to create dummy game rules.
1.8.1	pre1	Added game rule `doEntityDrops`.
1.8.1	pre1	Game rule `doTileDrops` no longer affects entities.
1.9	15w37a	Added game rule `spectatorsGenerateChunks`.
	15w51a	Added game rule `spawnRadius`.
	16w07a	Added game rule `disableElytraMovementCheck`.
1.11	16w38a	Added game rule `doWeatherCycle`.
1.11	16w38a	Added game rule `maxEntityCramming`.
1.12	17w13a	Added game rule `doLimitedCrafting`.
	17w16b	Added game rule `maxCommandChainLength`.
	17w18a	Added game rule `announceAdvancements`.
	pre1	Added game rule `gameLoopFunction`.
1.13	17w45a	Removed the ability to create custom game rules.
1.13	17w49b	Removed game rule `gameLoopFunction`.
1.14.3	pre3	Added game rule `disableRaids`.
1.15	19w36a	Added game rule `doInsomnia`.
		Added game rule `doImmediateRespawn`.
		Added game rule `drowningDamage`.
		Added game rule `fallDamage`.
		Added game rule `fireDamage`.
1.15.2	pre1	Added game rule `doPatrolSpawning`.
1.15.2	pre1	Added game rule `doTraderSpawning`.
1.16	20w17a	Game rules can now be changed upon world creation.
	pre1	Added game rule `universalAnger`.
	pre1	Added game rule `forgiveDeadPlayers`.
1.17	20w48a	Added game rule `freezeDamage`.
1.17	20w51a	Added game rule `playersSleepingPercentage`.
1.19	22w16a	Added game rule `doWardenSpawning`.
1.19.3	22w44a	Added the following game rules: `blockExplosionDropDecay` `mobExplosionDropDecay` `tntExplosionDropDecay` `snowAccumulationHeight` `waterSourceConversion` `lavaSourceConversion` `globalSoundEvents`
1.19.4	23w03a	Added game rule `commandModificationBlockLimit`.
1.19.4	23w06a	Added game rule `doVinesSpread`.
1.20.2	23w31a	The `randomTickSpeed` game rule now affects the formation of snow and ice.^[9]
1.20.2	pre1	Added game rule `enderPearlsVanishOnDeath`.
Pocket Edition
1.0.5	alpha 1.0.5.0	Added `/gamerule`.
		Added game rule `drowningDamage`.
		Added game rule `fallDamage`.
		Added game rule `fireDamage`.
		Added game rule `pvp`.
1.1.0	alpha 1.1.0.0	Added game rule `doDaylightCycle`.
		Added game rule `doEntityDrops`.
		Added game rule `doFireTick`.
		Added game rule `doMobSpawning`.
		Added game rule `doMobLoot`.
		Added game rule `doTileDrops`.
		Added game rule `doWeatherCycle`.
		Added game rule `keepInventory`.
		Added game rule `mobGriefing`.
Bedrock Edition
1.6.0	beta 1.6.0.6	Added game rule `doInsomnia`.
1.7.0	beta 1.7.0.2	Added game rule `commandBlocksEnabled`.
1.8.0	beta 1.8.0.8	Added game rule `randomTickSpeed`.
1.9.0	beta 1.9.0.0	Added game rule `showDeathMessages`.
		Added game rule `immediateRespawn`.
		Added game rule `functioncommandlimit`.
1.12.0	beta 1.12.0.2	Added game rule `spawnRadius`.
1.12.0	beta 1.12.0.2	Added game rule `sendCommandBlockFeedback`.
?		Added game rule `commandBlockOutput`.
		Added game rule `maxCommandChainLength`.
		Added game rule `naturalRegeneration`.
		Added game rule `sendCommandFeedback`.^[verify]
		Added game rule `showCoordinates`.
		Added game rule `tntExplodes`.
1.14.0		Added game rule `showTags`.
?		Removed the ability to create dummy gamerules.
1.16.210	beta 1.16.210.53	Added game rule `freezeDamage`.
1.17.30	beta 1.17.20.20	Added game rule `respawnBlocksExplode`.
?		Added game rule `showBorderEffect`.
1.20.30	beta 1.20.20.21	Added game rule `playersSleepingPercentage`.
	beta 1.20.20.21	Added game rule `recipesUnlock`.
	beta 1.20.30.20	Added game rule `doLimitedCrafting`.
	beta 1.20.30.22	The `recipesUnlock` game rule is now set to `true` by default.
Upcoming Bedrock Edition
1.20.40	beta 1.20.40.22	The `spawnRadius` game rule is now set to `10` by default to match Java Edition.

Gallery[]

All the gamerules in 1.17.

References[]

↑ MC-154922
↑ MCPE-73842
↑ MC-67352 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
↑ MC-108353 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
↑ MC-93820 — Rain filling cauldrons is not affected by randomTickSpeed
↑ MC-249308
↑ MC-261250 — resolved as "Invalid".
↑ "Revamped anger management for neutral mobs in minecraft. Now angered neutral mobs won't attack innocent bystanders, won't forget you just cuz you log out & log in, and won't keep killing you after you die & respawn. Etc. Find anything wonky? Report at bugs.mojang.com" – @henrikkniberg on X, June 5, 2020
↑ MC-93320 — "Water freezes even if randomTickSpeed is 0" — resolved as "Fixed".

Gameplay

[1] MC-154922

[2] MCPE-73842

[3] MC-67352 — resolved as "Works As Intended".

[4] MC-108353 — resolved as "Works As Intended".

[5] MC-93820 — Rain filling cauldrons is not affected by randomTickSpeed

[6] MC-249308

[7] MC-261250 — resolved as "Invalid".

[8] "Revamped anger management for neutral mobs in minecraft. Now angered neutral mobs won't attack innocent bystanders, won't forget you just cuz you log out & log in, and won't keep killing you after you die & respawn. Etc. Find anything wonky? Report at bugs.mojang.com" – @henrikkniberg on X, June 5, 2020

[MC-93320-9] MC-93320 — "Water freezes even if randomTickSpeed is 0" — resolved as "Fixed".

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