Minecraft Tests Hardcore Mode Where Death Is Permanent

One of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition players' longtime wishes have been granted with the game's latest 1.21.0.20 Preview, which allows them to test the game's newest mode – Hardcore. The difficulty has been part of Minecraft: Java for over a decade now with consistent updates to the mode since its addition, so naturally Bedrock Edition players are fairly excited to test it out.

Hardcore mode is a sub-category of survival mode, taken to a new level by the addition of a permanent death feature and locked difficulty. This means if you don't want to lose valuable progress in your hardcore worlds you'll need to be vigilant – and that you might want to wait until the feature is out of testing before creating anything you're too attached to.

What Is Hardcore Mode and How Do I Use It?

The official post (below) from the Minecraft X described hardcore mode briefly with the announcement, saying "...in this mode death is permanent, and you can't respawn –  which is why we'll keep this mode in testing until we're confident the experience is smooth for both players and creators."

The post also features an image that further explains:

Welcome to Hardcore mode
Here's what you need to know about Hardcore mode:
1. When you die, you will not respawn – game over!
2. You can't turn off Hardcore mode after creating this world. 
3. After you die, you can see but not interact with this world.

To test hardcore mode in the preview, you'll need to navigate to the Create New World section and enable the hardcore toggle that appears below the difficulty options in general settings. From there, create your world and you'll see that your hearts look different. If you die, you respawn in spectator mode.

Hardcore worlds are marked as such with a red tag in the Worlds section, and it's important to note that you cannot turn off hardcore mode after you've created the world with the locked difficulty feature. 

A timeline wasn't revealed for how long the feature will be in testing, but when permanent death comes into play it's vital that bugs that can lead to frustrating, accidental deaths are addressed before it's fully implemented into the game. While hardcore mode is in testing for Bedrock you may not want to get too attached to any creations, as the possibility of a death-causing bug would have much more consequences.

As previously mentioned, hardcore mode has been a feature in Minecraft: Java for a while now, Java being the original version of the game that was released in 2009 while Bedrock didn't release fully until 2016. Both versions of the game have been updated over the years since release and, clearly, each game offers features the other doesn't – a list that grows smaller as hardcore enters testing in Bedrock.

Players testing out hardcore mode are encouraged to send feedback through the official website here, but we'd also love to know what you think! Will you be trying out hardcore mode in Bedrock? Let us know in the comments or on X!