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This article is about general gameplay in Minecraft. For instructional material, see Tutorials.
Beta

Minecraft Beta

Gameplay in Minecraft consists mainly of adding and destroying blocks in a randomly generated world. There are several different types of blocks, some of which perform special functions like spreading or falling down because of gravity.

With these blocks, players create large constructions such as castles, roads, buildings and skywalks, along with forms of artwork. A chessboard or giant picture rarely goes amiss on a server. Not only have users designed buildings, Pixel Art, and caves, but also mini-sports. Using the current in-game features, users have put them to clever use. An example of a Minecraft sport is Spleef.

Notch has added a Survival and Creative modes, and is planning on adding Adventure mode and other modes to give Minecraft more gameplay. Minecraft is currently considered purely a sandbox construction game. Users who have bought the game have access to the full version of the game. This version is as bug-free as possible, and the user can still get updates. Crafting, Farming, new blocks, and a more configurable map generator are all included in this version. This game used to be in Beta, Alpha, Indev, and Infdev, until the 18th of November.

Game Modes

Gamemodes

Animation showing the different game modes

There are multiple modes in the game and these are survival, creative, and hardcore. In the level.dat, survival mode is gametype=0, and creative is gametype=1. Hardcore is survival with the addition of hardcore=1 (for survival and creative, hardcore=0). This knowledge allows hacking to change game modes by editing your world's level.dat.

Survival

Main article: Survival (Game Mode)

In this mode, players have to gather all their materials to build things, craft things and gain experience points. There is a health bar, a hunger bar, an armor bar, an inventory and, when underwater, an oxygen bar.

Creative

Main article: Creative

The player will have access to an infinite amount of all blocks and items available. Players are invulnerable and do not have health, armor, hunger or experience, and can fly. There are mobs in the world, as opposed to the original classic version.

In the creative mode, the only way for the player to die, is to fall into the void.

Adventure[1]

This section contains content on features that will be included in a future update. 
These features are confirmed, but not yet added to the game
Main article: Adventure

Not much is known about this mode except that there will be a health bar and an inventory, speculation is that blocks cannot be destroyed or placed. Only items can be used.

Hardcore

Main article: Hardcore

In this mode, which plays in the same way as Survival mode, the difficulty level is permanently set to "Hard" and the map must be deleted upon the player's death. Hardcore was introduced as part of the beta 1.9 pre-release and is playable in the full version of Minecraft.

Technically, hardcore is a game mode modifier rather than a mode. However without cheating you can get only "Hardcore Survival". To get "Hardcore Creative" mode, you need to editing your world with external tools. There is almost no visible difference between "Hardcore Creative" and "Non-hardcore Creative", because in Creative mode the only way to die is to fall into the Void. Because of this, "Hardcore" usually refers to "Hardcore Survival".

Here is a Hardcore Mode Tutorial.

Table of game modes

Below is a brief summary of the different available features in each game mode. This table also includes Minecraft Classic, which is the older, but free version of Minecraft.

Feature Classic Survival Creative Adventure Hardcore
Premium account Not required Required Required Required Required
Available Yes Yes Yes Planned Yes
Multiplayer Yes Yes Yes Unknown No
Crafting No Yes Partial[a] Unknown Yes
Smelting No Yes Yes Unknown Yes
Brewing No Yes Yes Unknown Yes
Enchanting No Yes Yes Unknown Yes
Inventory No Yes Partial[b] Yes Yes
Health No Yes No Yes Yes
Permadeath N/A No No Unknown Yes
Block Placing/Breaking Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes
Mobs No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Unlimited Blocks Yes Partial[c] Yes No Partial[c]
  1. Crafting can only be done from the Crafting Table.
  2. The player may pick up items for storage separate from the item selection screen, but that storage can only be indirectly accessed from Crafting Tables, Furnaces, Chests, Dispensers and other blocks that display GUI. Armor and crafting slots are not available.
  3. a b In survival, there are methods to obtain unlimited amounts of specific Renewable Resources such as wood, cobblestone, and water. In addition, the nearly infinite map area allows one to gather plenty of anything with enough effort.

References

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