At the start of the game, players are put in a random location in the game world. They can
begin breaking blocks to collect resources, such as wood and dirt, which can be used later in
the game. Players can use resources to make new tools, such as pickaxes, which let the player
gather stones in the caves that they find. Different resources require different tools to collect
them. For example, diamonds can only be collected with an iron pickaxe, or one of a better quality.
The game world is mostly infinite. As players explore it, the game makes new sections of the
world using procedural generation. The game generates different kinds of terrain in biomes.
Different biomes have different blocks in them. For example, a taiga biome will have lots of
spruce trees and snow, whereas a plains biome will have lots of grass. The player can also
find different structures in the world, like mountains and villages.
The game has non-player characters called "mobs' ' (short for mobile entity). There are many
mobs in Minecraft. Some are real-life animals, like cows, pigs, and sheep. Some are based on
monsters, such as zombies or skeletons. There are also some which do not exist in the real
world in any way, and are unique to Minecraft, such as Creepers, zombie Piglins, and
Endermen. Each mob has different things it can do. For example, players can kill cows to
get leather, which can make items, and beef, which can be cooked to make food. The Creeper,
a hostile mob (meaning it tries to attack the player), will move close to the player and then
explode, which usually causes so much damage that will kill the player. From it's name it
slowly approaches you and explodes giving you instant death if it gets too close.
Minecraft has very few goals. Players can choose how they want to play. They can choose to
fight bosses, such as the Wither and the Ender Dragon, or choose to explore the world and
build. If the player defeats the Ender Dragon, they can see the credits of the game.
Minecraft also has lots of Achievements called "advancements". These can range from simple
things like sleeping in a bed for the first time, to complex things like discovering every biome
in the game. Both boss fights and advancements are optional.
In addition to the default dimension the player starts in (called the "Overworld"), there
are also two other dimensions in Minecraft - the Nether and the End. Both of these can be
accessed with special portals. The player can make Nether portals using obsidian and flint
and steel, but End portals have to be found in strongholds. While it is not necessary to go to
these dimensions, they have lots of different items and enemies which can not be found in
the Overworld. The Ender Dragon can only be fought in the End. After that, the player has
a choice of going back to the overworld or to go to the end islands to find an end city and get
an Elytra.
Game modes
Survival mode
In survival mode, players can gather resources found in the world to make lots of different
items. Some of the items players can make include new blocks, tools, and armor. For
example, players can turn wood into planks at the start of the game, which lets them make
lots of things, like crafting tables and tools. Players can also place down these planks to
build things, like houses.
Players have a health bar and a hunger bar in this mode. The health bar is shown as 10
hearts and the hunger bar is shown as 10 steaks. Each heart and steak is worth two health
points and two hunger points, respectively. The health bar depletes when players get
attacked by monsters, lose all of their air underwater, walk into lava or cacti, fall from a
high place, fall into the void, or if their hunger bar is depleted completely. Players can heal
by staying still, drinking healing potions, and/or if they have a full hunger bar. Players will
lose hunger by walking, sprinting and jumping too much. If they are low on hunger, they will
not be able to sprint. They can fill their hunger bar by eating food.
During the night, monsters come out to fight the player, but players can build a house to
protect themselves from these monsters. If a player sleeps in a bed, they can skip the night
, and go directly to the next day. However, they are unable to sleep if there are monsters near
the bed.
Players can only carry a certain number of items at any time, by holding them in their
inventory. If the player dies, they drop their items, unless they have turned on Keep Inventory. Players can get their items back if they can find them before they disappear. They can then respawn, which sends them back to their spawn point, or the place they started the game at. Players can change their spawn point using items like beds. For example, a player can put a bed in their house to respawn there, and in the Nether players can use a unique block called a respawn anchor to respawn there.
Players can play Survival Mode in four levels of difficulty: Peaceful, Easy, Normal and Hard. As the difficulty increases, the more damage monsters deal. In addition, certain mobs will gain certain abilities at higher difficulty levels. When a player creates a new world, the difficulty is set to normal by default. On peaceful difficulty, no monsters spawn, and the only way players can die is by deaths that aren't from mobs, such as falling from a high place, being in fire or lava, drowning, suffocating inside a block, or falling into the void.
Hardcore mode
Hardcore mode is like survival mode, but the game is set to the hardest difficulty, which
cannot be changed. The player also cannot enable cheats when they create the world and
can only do so if they use the "Open to LAN" option in the game menu while they are playing.
If a player dies in hardcore mode, they can not respawn, and can only play the world in
Spectator Mode. If cheats are enabled, it is possible for the player to play in survival mode
again by using commands to change the game mode. This game mode is only available in
Java Edition.
Players can also play a special version of hardcore mode known as Ultra Hardcore Mode,
which is basically the same as hardcore mode except players do not naturally regenerate
health. This mode can be accessed by creating a world in Hardcore mode, enabling cheats
using the "Open to LAN" option in the game menu, and using commands to turn off natural
health regeneration. The only way the player can regenerate health in this game mode is by
using potions, golden apples, suspicious stews, and beacons.
Creative mode
In creative mode, players have infinite items. This is so they can build whatever they want,
instead of having to look for resources. They cannot die and do not have a health bar or
hunger bar. However, you can kill a person in creative mode (if you have cheats on) with
the /kill command in the Java edition of Minecraft. Players in creative mode can also die
if they manage to fall into the void. Players can also optionally fly to reach places they
normally couldn't.
Spectator mode
In spectator mode, players become a "spectator". Spectators can look at the world, but not
interact with it, meaning they can't place blocks or use items. They are invisible to other
players.
Spectators can fly around the world freely, or they can look at it from the perspective of
other players and mobs, meaning they can see what the player or mob sees, as if they were
looking through their eyes.
Adventure mode
Adventure mode is designed for community maps. The player can not place or break blocks
or do anything by default.
Multiplayer
Players can play on the same Minecraft world together by using the multiplayer mode.
They can connect to an online server by typing in the server's address (usually an IP address)
, or by making a game on the local area network (LAN). If the player makes a LAN game, only
players on the same network can play. Much like the rest of Minecraft, players can choose
what they want to do. For example, they can choose to fight each other, or work together
and survive. All game modes can be played in multiplayer.