5 best tips for playing Hardcore in Minecraft Bedrock

Minecraft hardcore is the hardest difficulty option available to vanilla players. This difficulty must be set on world creation, as not even Minecraft's powerful console commands can change to this game mode after the fact. Hardcore uses hard as its base difficulty, but, additionally, death is permanent, with no respawns allowed. This is what truly sets hardcore apart from the rest of the difficulties.

The latest 1.21 previews for Bedrock have finally brought this difficulty to this version of the game as one of the most recent and major parity updates. Detailed below are five of the best tips for starting out with this advanced difficulty.

NOTE: This article is subjective and reflects the views of the writer.

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Five Minecraft Hardcore tips and tricks

1) Stay fully geared at all times

Totems of undying are as required as shields in hardcore. (Image via Mojang)

In a regular survival world, there's a decent argument to be made for not using the best gear at all times. Accidents can happen, and death at the wrong time can mean losing everything to lava, for example. Or, in a regular world, players might not want to use a totem of undying when they die at home, so storing them makes sense.

However, these rules do not apply to hardcore worlds. Death means losing every unused item anyway, so there's genuinely no reason not to constantly be using the best Minecraft enchantments, armor, and weapons to stay safe. There's also no reason not to carry around literally every totem of undying possible, as they are the only real protection hardcore worlds get from death.

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2) The first iron goes to a shield

Shields can also be customized, which is not useful but it is cool. (Image via Mojang)

In a normal survival world where a player might want to eventually build up a beautiful mega base, the first few bits of iron will probably go to a pickaxe to make getting diamonds quicker. However, hardcore requires a slightly different progression path.

Players should instead spend that first valuable iron ingot to make a shield. These are, primarily, offhand items that convert what would be heart damage into durability damage. This is invaluable, as many of Minecraft's most dangerous mobs are fully capable of one-shotting players otherwise.

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3) Farm some crops

Getting a starter farm set up should be an early priority. (Image via Mojang)

Since hardcore uses hard as its baseline difficulty, starving to death is a very real threat. This means that the earlier a player sets up a source of food, the safer they will be. And while players can do things to keep the hunger bar from going down in Minecraft, the best way to avoid starvation is to have a renewable source of food.

Even planting a few random wheat seeds along the side of a nearby river is enough for the very early game; just keep in mind that the sooner the seeds are planted, the sooner food is produced. Worry about building one of the most aesthetic farms after the threat of starvation is dealt with.

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4) Only kill sheep and pigs early on

It's better to save passive mobs for farming if possible. (Image via Mojang)

Passive mobs are incredibly important to farm in the early game. Automatic chicken cookers will provide plentiful food, as well as feathers for arrows, while cow crushers will provide the leather needed to set up a maximum-power Minecraft enchanting area.

Given how important these two passive mobs are, avoid killing them if possible. In fact, go ahead and trap them to keep them safe for later. Sheep, while useful for getting wool colored with Minecraft's different dyes, are an unfortunate necessity to kill early on. Getting a bed to skip through dangerous nights is just too useful for hardcore. Pigs can also be killed for food early on, as they aren't super useful.

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5) Night one shelter

Don't worry about making a cool day one base, just get something to stay safe in made. (Image via Mojang)

There are a lot of different hostile mobs in the game, most of which are found in the Overworld. This means that making some sort of night one shelter is essential to not having a run cut short due to a group of skeletons or an unexpected creeper blast.

This means that getting some sort of shelter set up before the first sunset is vital. It doesn't have to be fancy. While setting up one of the best Minecraft starter bases on the first day would be great, even getting a small dirt hut or cliff-side hovel dug out is enough to stay safe from the terrors of the night.