Minecraft Bedrock finally gets Hardcore mode in the latest Preview

Hardcore is the hardest vanilla way to play Minecraft. It separates itself from other difficulties by making death permanent; even a single mistake or accident can result in losing entire worlds. It uses hard as its base difficulty, meaning every mob is at its most deadly and damaging. This difficulty is the latest major parity update to Minecraft Bedrock, having been made experimental in the most recent preview.

This article discusses Hardcore as a whole, as well as some of the other Preview changes that make it even more fatal.

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All about Minecraft Hardcore

Hardcore games require setting up a good foundation on the first few days (Image via Mojang)

As mentioned previously, the two major gimmicks of Minecraft Hardcore are that death is permanent and the difficulty is locked to hard. This means starvation is an immediate, deadly threat, so setting up some kind of food farm early on is essential. However, the mode has a few more quirks that potential players should know about.

The first is that bonus chests and cheats are locked off when playing Hardcore. Additionally, hearts have been updated to feature a new texture that appears to be eyes glaring, another hint at the more dangerous world that surrounds players.

Java Edition players can exploit the open-LAN option to activate Minecraft's useful console commands to circumvent death. It's not known currently if Bedrock will have any similar exploits.

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Other Preview changes

Trial chambers are much deadlier with this Preview applied (Image via Mojang)

Hardcore is not the only addition in this latest snapshot to increase the game's difficulty. The upcoming trial chambers have also had more interesting and difficult optional ominous variants added.

Ominous trials spawn armored mobs much more frequently, are activated by the newly revamped bad omen effect, and are required to get the materials needed to make Minecraft's new super-powered mace weapon, along with its enchantments.

The fact that mobs tend to be deadlier in ominous trials and that spawners on cooldown will reactivate makes ominous events the perfect high-risk, high-reward structure to visit while hardcore is still in experimental.

Additionally, bad omen received an overhaul in this preview. Players can now control when the effect is applied through the use of an item, called an ominous bottle. These bottles will be dropped by raid captains and vault blocks within trial chambers. Being able to control the effect is good, as it's required to activate the new ominous trial chambers. The effect also received a new status effect symbol.