Minecraft:Difficulty

Mobs in full armor are a common sight in higher difficulty levels.

File:Ore UI - Get Started - Game Mode - Survival Difficulty Screen Menu (Bedrock) (cropped).png

A popup Template:In describing how each difficulty works.

Difficulty is an Minecraft:option in Minecraft:Minecraft that has a direct impact on the ease of Minecraft:gameplay, allowing the game's challenges to be tailored to the Minecraft:player's skill level.

World settings

File:DifficultyButton.gif

The difficulty button Template:In.

File:Difficulty.png

The options menu available in the pause menu Template:In, with the difficulty button highlighted.

There are four difficulty levels in the game: Peaceful, Easy, Normal, and Hard. These can be changed when creating a world, in the Minecraft:world options, as well as with the Template:Cmd command.

While the difficulty settings modify the challenge in Minecraft:Survival mode, they also affect hostile mobs in Minecraft:Creative mode the same as in Survival; for example:

Most hostile mobs cannot spawn naturally in Creative Peaceful.
Minecraft:Zombies have the same difficulty-dependent chances as in Survival to convert villagers into Minecraft:zombie villagers (0% in Creative Easy, 50% in Creative Normal, 100% in Creative Hard).
Hostile mobs killed by mob grinders in farms drop higher-value items in Creative Hard.

Minecraft:Survival mode is affected by difficulty as described in the sections below.

Peaceful

No Minecraft:hostile mobs can spawn naturally, except for Minecraft:shulkers, Minecraft:hoglins, and the Minecraft:ender dragon, all of whom no longer deal any damage. No Minecraft:spiders, Minecraft:cave spiders, Minecraft:zombified piglins, Minecraft:endermen, Minecraft:drowned, Minecraft:skeleton horses, Minecraft:zombie horses, Minecraft:camel husks, or Minecraft:sulfur cubes Template:Upcoming – neutral/passive rather than hostile mobs – can spawn naturally. Template:IN, Minecraft:piglins and Minecraft:hoglins can only naturally spawn inside of Minecraft:bastion remnants, and their other spawning conditions are disabledTemplate:Until; the same goes for Minecraft:zombie nautiluses, only spawning inside of Minecraft:ocean ruins.

When any of these mobs attempt to spawn (whether naturally, through Minecraft:monster spawners, Minecraft:spawn eggs, or Minecraft:commands), they despawn instantaneously, with no visible spawning.

All mobs that can spawn (such as shulkers, piglins, zombie nautiluses, Minecraft:polar bears, or Minecraft:wolves) are completely peaceful and unable to harm the player, with the exception of the ender dragon, which still targets players and deals knockback. Additionally, Minecraft:sculk shriekers do not give the Minecraft:Darkness effect because they can't spawn the Minecraft:warden.

When the difficulty is switched from any other setting to Peaceful, all mobs that are not allowed to spawn on Peaceful despawn. Players regain Minecraft:health rapidly over time. Despite this, it is still possible to Minecraft:die if damage is received quickly enough. Minecraft:TNT deals no direct damage to the player, but it does give knockback still, meaning a player can be indirectly killed by it via fall damage if it launches them too far upward.

Template:IN, due to a bug, ocelots can't spawn naturally on Peaceful,Template:Until as they occupy the monster Minecraft:mob cap.<ref name="hostile kitty">Template:Bug</ref>

The Minecraft:hunger bar never depletes; Template:In, players therefore cannot eat anything except Minecraft:golden apples, Minecraft:chorus fruits, Minecraft:milk buckets, Minecraft:honey bottles, and Minecraft:suspicious stew, unless the player switched to Peaceful when their hunger bar was below the maximum. Players can eat normally Template:In. Additionally, if the hunger bar is below the maximum, it regenerates quickly.

Mob	Despawns in Peaceful difficulty?	Spawns naturally in Peaceful difficulty?
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Template:EntityLink Template:EntityLink	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntityLink	Template:Tc	Template:Tc<ref>Template:Bug</ref>
Template:EntityLink Template:EntityLink	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
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The Minecraft:monsters that spawn naturally, which are Minecraft:ender dragons, Minecraft:hoglins, Minecraft:piglins, Minecraft:shulkers and Minecraft:zombie nautiluses, become harmless on Peaceful. Minecraft:Killer bunnies Template:Only become passive as well.

If a player is in a village with Minecraft:Raid Omen and the effect ends, the Minecraft:raid is not triggered as raiders cannot spawn in peaceful difficulty.

Because of the gameplay changes and the absence of many mob types, many blocks and items are unavailable to the player. A list can be found at Minecraft:Non-renewable resource#Peaceful difficulty. In addition, the player is unable to get many Minecraft:advancements and Minecraft:achievements.

Minecraft:Dispensers are unable to place Minecraft:wither skeleton skulls even if the required blocks for summoning a Minecraft:wither are available.

One major effect of the lack of certain resources is that Minecraft:End portals cannot be activated by the player in Peaceful difficulty, because it is impossible to acquire the Minecraft:eyes of ender necessary to activate an end portal.<ref group="note"> An eye of ender requires Minecraft:blaze powder to craft, which can be crafted only from Minecraft:blaze rods; but a blaze rod can be obtained only as a drop from a Minecraft:blaze, which is a hostile mob that cannot spawn in Peaceful.</ref> However, it is possible to switch to a non-Peaceful difficulty, let blazes spawn, kill enough for crafting eyes of ender, and switch back to Peaceful. It is also possible for an end portal to be activated by naturally generating with an eye of ender already embedded within all 12 end portal frames. For any given end portal, there is a 1 in a trillion chance of this happening.<ref group=note>Since each end portal frame has a Template:Fraction chance of being filled, there is a (Template:Fraction)¹² = Template:Fraction chance of all 12 end portal frames being filled.</ref> However, because of the huge number of possible seeds, over 8 million seeds are known to generate such end portals.<ref>https://github.com/hube12/SSGOutput/releases/tag/1.1</ref>

Easy

Hostile Minecraft:mobs spawn, but they deal Template:Frac of the damage they would on Normal difficulty plus Template:Hp or the same damage they would on Normal difficulty, whichever is lower. The hunger bar can deplete, damaging the player until Template:Hp remain if it drains completely. Minecraft:Cave spiders and Minecraft:bees cannot poison players on Easy difficulty, and the Minecraft:wither does not cause the Wither effect, although Minecraft:wither skeletons do. Minecraft:Lightning sets only the struck block on fire, not surrounding blocks. Minecraft:Zombies do not break down doors, and do not turn Minecraft:villagers into Minecraft:zombie villagers. Minecraft:Zombies and Minecraft:skeletons do not wear full sets of armor. Hostile Minecraft:mobs like zombies, skeletons, Minecraft:spiders, Minecraft:husks, and Minecraft:strays deal about Template:Hp or Template:Hp damage.

If a player is in a village with Minecraft:Raid Omen and the effect ends, it triggers a raid that consists of 3 waves (4 waves if a player with a Raid Omen effect that is higher than one level enters a village.)

Normal

Hostile Minecraft:mobs spawn and deal standard damage. The hunger bar can deplete, damaging the player until Template:Hp remains if it drains completely. Zombies do not break down doors, but villagers killed by zombies have a 50% chance of turning into Minecraft:zombie villagers. Zombies and skeletons rarely wear sets of enchanted armor. Minecraft:Vindicators can break doors.

If a player is in a village with Minecraft:Raid Omen and the effect ends, it triggers a raid that consists of 5 waves (6 waves if a player with a Raid Omen effect that is higher than one level enters a village.)

Hard

Template:Redirect Hostile Minecraft:mobs deal approximately 1Template:Frac times the damage they would deal on Normal difficulty, and in some cases drop higher-value items when killed. The hunger bar can deplete, not only damaging but also killing the player if it drains completely. Minecraft:Zombies and Minecraft:zombified piglins Template:Only can break through wooden and copper Minecraft:doors and can spawn reinforcements when attacked. Template:IN, Minecraft:spiders can spawn with a beneficial status effect (Minecraft:Speed, Minecraft:Strength, Minecraft:Regeneration, or Minecraft:Invisibility), with these effects having an infinite duration. Villagers killed by zombies always turn into zombie villagers. Template:IN, if the world type isn't infinite, Minecraft:pillagers deal Template:Hp damage, instead of Template:Hp.

If a player is in a village with Minecraft:Raid Omen and the effect ends, it triggers a raid that consists of 7 waves (8 waves if a player with a Raid Omen effect that is higher than one level enters a village.)

Hardcore mode

Icon for Hardcore mode.

Icon for Hardcore mode.

Template:Main

While in the world creation screen, selecting Hardcore from among the Minecraft: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, a player who dies can choose to respawn in Minecraft:Spectator mode or return to the title screen. In multiplayer, upon death, the player's game mode is automatically set to Spectator mode.

Template:IN, the only way to change the difficulty of Hardcore is to use the Open to LAN feature in the pause menu to enable commands, or to use an .NBT editor on the world's .NBT file.

Moon phase

The phase of the Minecraft:moon affects the spawning of Minecraft:slimes in Minecraft:swamp biomes, and also contributes to the calculation of regional difficulty. Fuller moon phases have a larger effect.

The moon does not actually have to be visible in the sky for this effect to apply, since the moon phase exists during daytime and across Minecraft:dimensions.

	Moon phase	Value	Percentage
Template:EnvSprite	Full	1.0	100%
Template:EnvSprite Template:EnvSprite	Gibbous	0.75	75%
Template:EnvSprite Template:EnvSprite	Quarter	0.5	50%
Template:EnvSprite Template:EnvSprite	Crescent	0.25	25%
Template:EnvSprite	New	0.0	0%

For regional difficulty, the moon phase contribution is capped by the daytime contribution. In other words, the moon contributes min(MoonPhase × 0.25, DaytimeFactor),<ref>Template:Jcp, the source code uses clamp function from 0.0 minimum, but both values are guaranteed to be >= 0.0.</ref> so before Template:Convert even a full moon does not yet give its full bonus.

Regional difficulty

File:Local Difficulty Debug.png

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 the world difficulty setting, the inhabited time of a Minecraft:chunk, the total daytime in the world, and the phase of the Minecraft:moon. This value is shown on the Minecraft: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 Template:Cmd 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 Template:Cmd). 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, MoonFactor, 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

MoonFactor = min(MoonPhase × 0.25, DaytimeFactor)
ChunkFactor += MoonFactor

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

File:Regional difficulty to Clamped regional difficulty.png

How clamped regional difficulty relates to regional difficulty

The clamped regional difficulty (also known as special multiplier) is a value between 0.00 and 1.00 based on regional difficulty. This value is shown on the Minecraft: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, where regional difficulty is between 1.5 and 4.0, the clamped value can be anywhere from 0.0 to 1.0. On Hard, where the regional difficulty is never lower than 2.25, the clamped value is always at least 0.125.

On Normal, the clamped regional difficulty reaches its maximum value of 1.0 only after Template:Convert, in a fully inhabited chunk, during a full moon. On Hard, after 63 in-game days, the clamped regional difficulty reaches 1.0 in chunks inhabited for Template:Frac hours during a full moon; on lower moon phases it reaches 1.0 later, and once a chunk has been inhabited for more than Template:Frac hours it remains at 1.0 regardless of moon phase.

Effects

Mob damage

Damage/Mobs

Other effects

Attribute	Notes	Condition
Attribute	Notes	World difficulty	Regional difficulty (RD)	Clamped regional difficulty (CRD)	Moon phase only
Template:Hp Mobs and explosions do higher damage to players.	Peaceful: No damage Easy: Template:Frac of Normal damage + 1 (never higher than Normal damage) Hard: Template:Frac times Normal damage	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite Guardians (both types) have higher laser magic damage.	Hard: + Template:Hp, added before calculating the difficulty-scaled mob damage	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EffectSprite Starvation more harshly affects health.	Easy/Normal/Hard: starvation brings health down to 10/1/0 HP	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:ItemSprite 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	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:ItemSprite Zombies are more likely to spawn with weapons.	1% on Easy and Normal, 5% on Hard	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:ItemSprite Zombies are able to spawn reinforcements.	Hard only	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:ItemSprite Zombies are more likely to be able to break wooden doors.	A zombie having the ability to break a door: (10×Template:Tooltip)% The door actually breaking: Hard only	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite Villagers killed by zombies have a greater chance of becoming zombie villagers.	0% on Easy, 50% on Normal, 100% on Hard	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite Zombified piglins spawn from nether portals in the Overworld more often.	Template:Frac per block tick on Easy, Template:Frac on Normal, Template:Frac on Hard	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:ItemSprite A skeleton or stray's cooldown between attacks is shortened	Easy/Normal: 2s cooldown Hard: 1s	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:ItemSprite A bogged or parched's cooldown between attacks is shortened	Easy/Normal: 3.5s cooldown Hard: 2.5s	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:ItemSprite A skeleton or stray is more accurate in ranged attacks with its bow.	Easy/Normal/Hard "inaccuracy" value is 10/6/2	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:ItemSprite Damage from arrows slightly increases.	Easy/Normal/Hard damage bonus = +0.11 / +0.22 / +0.33	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite Minecraft:Phantoms spawn more frequently.	A spawn attempt succeeds if the local difficulty is greater than a random value between 0.0 and 3.0.	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite Minecraft:Phantoms spawn in larger groups.	Easy: 1-2 Normal: 1-3 Hard: 1-4	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite Spiders can naturally spawn with Minecraft:status effects.	Hard (10×Template:Tooltip)%	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite The Minecraft:Poison effect given by a Minecraft:cave spider lasts longer.	Normal/Hard: 7s/15s	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite The Minecraft:Poison effect given by a Minecraft:bee lasts longer.	Normal/Hard: 10s/18s	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EffectSprite The Wither effect given by a wither skull lasts longer.	Normal/Hard: 10s/40s	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite A wither shoots wither skulls when idle.	Normal/Hard only	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite A wither spawns 3 wither skeletons when brought below half health.Template:Only	Normal/Hard only	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite Lightning can cause fires in the surrounding blocks, not just the block struck.	Normal/Hard only	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:BlockSprite 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.	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:ItemSprite Mobs are more willing to take fall damage when pursuing a target.<ref group="note">Mobs accept fall damage if their health would not be reduced below 33% of their maximum health (rounded up to the nearest Template:Hp), plus a constant reserve based on difficulty. This even applies to ground-based mobs immune to fall damage.</ref>	Easy: 33% + Template:Hp Normal: 33% + Template:Hp Hard: 33%	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite Minecraft:Lightning strikes are more likely to spawn a skeleton trap horse.	Chance = (Template:Tooltip)% (0.75–1.5% on Easy, 1.5–4% on Normal, 2.25–6.75% on Hard)	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:BlockSprite Burning zombies are more likely to set their target on fire, and the burn duration is longer.	Chance = (30×Template:Tooltip)% Burn time = 2 × Template:Tooltip seconds	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite The Hunger effect caught from being attacked by a Minecraft:husk lasts longer.	Effect time = 7 × Template:Tooltip seconds	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntityLinks can cast Minecraft:blindness.	If Template:Tooltip > 2.	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EnvSprite Skeletons and zombies are more likely to have the ability to pick up dropped items.	Having the ability: (55×Template:Tooltip)%	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EnvSprite Zombies are more likely to have a greater follow distance.	If (random # in range 0–1.5) × Template:Tooltip is greater than 1, that becomes a bonus multiplier on the follow distance. Therefore, this is impossible when the Template:Tooltip is less than 0.67<ref group="note">This value is actuallyTemplate:Frac.</ref>; when the Template:Tooltip is 1.0, there is only a Template:Frac chance of it happening.	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:ItemSprite 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×Template:Tooltip)%	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:ItemSprite Mobs are more likely to spawn with armor.	Chance of getting any armor at all: (15×Template:Tooltip)%	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:ItemSprite Mobs that spawn with weapons are more likely to have enchantments.	Chance for the main hand item = (25×Template:Tooltip)%	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:ItemSprite Mobs that spawn with armor are more likely to have enchantments.	Chance per armor item = (50×Template:Tooltip)%	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:BlockSprite Mobs that spawn with enchanted equipment have higher levels of enchantments.	Level = 5 + randInt(0,18)×Template:Tooltip where randInt(0,18) is a random integer between 0 and 17. So, the level is 5 when Template:Tooltip is 0.0, and it can be as high as 22 when Template:Tooltip is 1.0.	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite Minecraft:Slimes are more likely to be bigger.	Small: ((33×(1-Template:Tooltip)/2)+16.5)% Medium: 34% Big: ((33×(1+Template:Tooltip)/2)+16.5)% in other words: Small/Medium/Big: 16.5%–33% / 34% / 33%–49.5%	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:BiomeSprite Slimes are more likely to spawn in swamp biomes.	See above	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntitySprite Minecraft:Raid has more waves	Easy: 3 waves Normal: 5 waves Hard: 7 waves	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:InvSprite Minecraft:Illager patrol size	Template:Tooltip + 1 illagers (rounded up)	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:InvSprite Illager patrol can spawn vindicatorTemplate:Only	Easy and Normal: 100% pillager Hard: 80% pillager, 20% vindicator	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:InvSprite Illager patrol can spawn on any light levelTemplate:Only	Easy: Light level 0-7 Normal and Hard: Any light level	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntityLink and Template:EntityLink spawn from raids having higher chance to drop special loot.Template:Only	Normal: 65% chance Hard: 80% chance	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
Template:EntityLink are able to break down Template:ItemSprite Minecraft:Wooden Door	Peaceful and Easy: unable to break door Normal and Hard: can break door	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc	Template:Tc